Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal

To preface this review, I must say I'm an avid Brand fan and adore his first memoir: "My Booky Wook." He's a visionary comedian with an energy that's unmatched by most. Amazingly, Brand is able to convey this frenetic pace in words, too. This is my second time reading "My Booky Wook 2." That's a lot of twos...In this second memoir, Brand reprises his writing voice to catch up readers on his latest adventures. And like his first, he does it with a powerful wit and captivating energy. But this edition seems to be eager to impress. He seems pressed to diversify, and use the wealth of his growing diction. For some reason, it seems even more exaggerated in this second edition, and now appears more out of place.There's an interesting irony contained within the book. It focuses on all the events that led to Brand's marriage to ex-wife Katy Perry, but gives a cursory glance at his current girlfriend, Jemima Khan. They seemed to run into a charity party and now they're seeing each other.As his life has become less sexualized, his language, at times, appears to be filled with sexual digressions and fantasies. It’s here, that we seem to see the mind of Russell Brand, when unhinged. It’s both fun and fanciful."...this spindly liquorice man, this sex crazed linguistic bolt of tricks and tics and kohl-eyed winks."Followers of Brand may notice that his recent standup is similar to "My Booky Wook 2." Especially during the chapter about filming Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I found it to be a direct copy of his routines. Enjoyable, but perhaps a bit repetitive.This is a nearly perfect sequel to a great life. Brand is a terrific writer, and I would look forward to reading whatever comes next.

Russell Brand has been in the news quite a bit lately with his new documentary that came out. Several years ago I read his first book, My Booky Wook, and was fascinated by the life Russell Brand had led, all that he had endured in his childhood with his mother's battle with cancer, and his descent into a world of excess of heavy drug use. He described very vividly what it is like to be an addict, how it made him a truly horrible person to his family and friends, and how he finally was able to fight his way through his addiction to become drug free and abstain from all drugs and alcohol. He is extremely intelligent and I wanted to read the second part of his life, what happened once he got clean and how he rose to stardom. He still could be a bit horrible at times, but underneath seems to have a good grasp on the inequality his stardom brings. I'm anxious to read his third book, Revolution, about his ideas on how to create a better form of government. He states very clearly that he knows he is one of the privileged and the system is put into place to keep the privileged at the top and keep a divide between the classes. He discusses his struggle with the part he plays in that, how although he fought so hard for stardom he now realizes it isn't what he thought it would be, and actually goes against his new sense of enlightenment. It's a good read. There are times I didn't like him very much, but other times I admired his insight and his willingness and desire to help other who suffer from addiction.

Fair warning: I'm a fan of Russell Brand's. That being said I'm not as completely blown away by My Booky Wook 2 as I was by its prequel.If you enjoy biographies or Russell Brand's humour and wit, you will definitely enjoy My Booky Wook 2, which picks up where My Booky Wook 1 left off (if you have not read the first, do!). It is extremely well-written, witty, and intelligent and well worth the time and money. It revolves around Brand's lust for and climb towards fame, and this is what makes his second autobiography less spectacular than his first. It is a story about a driven and talented who achieves fame and fortune, but finds it hollow and superficial (mind you, it is written by the young and talented man, so it may be biased).Among other things, the book covers his job as hosting the VMA, after which he received death-threats, and the infamous Sachsgate incident. It does offer insight into his personal feelings about these events, but the jokes will be known to people who have seen his stand-up show Scandalous (still well funny, though).There is a wonderfully personal and hilarious story about the filming of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which literally had me in tears.The language is exciting and engaging, even if parts of the story is familiar, and I cannot wait to read My Booky Wook 3 (so on the off-chance that Mr Brand is reading this: please start typing!)

To start with, you must be a fan of Russell Brand's standup to appreciate this book. If you do not like that type of humor, you will not like this book. Period. Fortunately, I LOVE Russell Brand's standup, and found the book a breezy, intriguing read. The beginning had a couple of draggy bits, but by chapter two it was just a rollercoaster of hilarity, followed by one chapter of draggy bits, and then the final chapter of complete and utter touching sweetness that was so unexpected I had to give it the extra star. (Though, I will admit, I have not yet read the first installment, and that may have put me out of order.)I feel after reading this book two things: 1.) Russell Brand (if you can believe his sexploitations portrayed in this tome) seems to have replaced his drug and alcohol addiction with a sexual one. 2.) He seems to see women either as sex objects or mother figures, and wishes for whomever his wife is to be both for him, to take care of him and pull him from his constant precipice of madness.The thing that has always struck me about him is that though he is hyper, raunchy and a bit... well, all over the place at times... is that clearly he comes from a place of intelligence and deep thinking despite his persona. He appreciates those who are well spoken, as he is himself, and also for them to have a good sense of humor, because life is too short to take anything-- especially yourself!-- too seriously.

The second autobiographical instalment (I read the first one a long time ago but recall enjoying it), this is a verbose (but pleasantly so, I think), egotistical romp with a bit of musing and soul-searching thrown in. If you dislike Russell Brand this book will not change your mind and is not worth your time, unless you want a bit of misguided fuel for your death threats. If you like him and you're aware of/accommodating of the kind of antics you'll expect to read about then go for it, you'll probably enjoy it. It did manage to make me cringe a bit in places but I did enjoy the book overall.

Book 1 was very amusing, as we saw a young Brand prepared to take risks. (Indeed, risks were an inevitability, considering his life was a train wreck at the time) This time, our Russ has developed into a palm-pressing member of the Hollywood pack, and care is taken to name drop whilst exercising caution and acknowledge how Pink and sundry other stars are 'Great fun and really nice'. There's also a bit of a guilty back-story/guilt-therapy exercise, where I think what he's trying to say is that he didn't support his best friend in a time of crisis, lest it compromise Brand's all consuming rise to a stereotypical 'proper' star.He is a shallow man is our Russ (funny how stars start reading and spouting on about philosophy when they're desperate to appear all deep & stuff isn't it) - the quite horrible description of his 'Do you want to have sex? No? Go away then. Next!' approach to - let's not call it chatting up - asking women for sex raised an eyebrow, but as he is fond of reminding us, he's not doing anyone any real harm, in the 'Well, at least he's not murdering/mugging people' sense, and the above does not detract from the fact, he is a funny man in his stand up work, even if his life is now a bit beige.

My Booky Wook was a masterpiece - hugely funny, shocking and bare-bones honest. I can't help but feel that Russell has really censored himself in this one. It's just not as interesting as before. We all know that he's slept with loads of women and that becomes a bit boring after a while - as boring as he comes to find it before he meets Katie Perry, which is mainly the subject of this book. I partly bought this book because I practice Transcendental Meditation and I was hoping that he'd go into that, but he only mentions it in one sentence so hopefully that will be mentioned later on in another book. I still love you Russell but it didn't thrill me like the first one did!

Mostly amusing autobiography of Brand's rise to fame. Very quick and clever guy. Comes out fighting re: "Sachsgate", which I always wished he'd done from the very beginning. Of course, he sometimes comes across as an arrogant so-and-so, but then that's because he almost certainly is. Fortunately a very amusing one though. Only minus is for the rather soppy bits where he goes on about Katie Perry. Took it on holiday and it was perfect for reading while drinking on the beach as it can be picked up and put down very easily.

Nothing wrong with most things in it.If you keep an open mind.Otherwise it's the gloating of a junkie.