This book had me laughing out LOUD on the tube and giggling to myself. It was very funny but also had serious undertones with a clear point to make about the nature of workplace discrimination and how a black man or woman might navigate it...(or not! in some cases).

I think satire is a great way to approach topics like this as its a less in your face way to raise awareness to racism, or even things you may not have thought before.
Ive never read a book like it :)

This was a laugh out loud book that tackled important issues but in a relatable way. For me the first half of the book carried the most weight, relevance and had me in stitches. The second half didn't grasp my attention quite as much. I thought it was really well pitched and as an audiobook was really easy listening.

This is my first Netgalley audiobook and I was really worried that I would have to DNF it. About 15 minutes in, I was riled. I really did not need some weird bloke throwing the n-word and mother-f***er and similar words at me every couple of sentences. I can - if I choose - absolutely ignore bad or racist language on the written page. I can just let my eyes skip over the words and not sink in but with an Audiobook, it's not easy to shut your ears.

The book starts very slowly and I was pretty bored as well as quite offended. The preamble rolls on for an age before the mock 'guide' to how to think like a white man actually starts. Presented as a self-help book, it targets black men trying to make it in the corporate world. Not black women, not white women, not even Indian, Chinese, Filipino or Muslim, Jewish or Amish. It's for black me. And I'm not a black man.

I was determined to stick with it. I really didn't want my first Netgalley audiobook to be a failure. And the funny thing was, that the longer I listened, the more I recognised the issues. As a woman trying to make it in the corporate world three decades ago, my old self would have absolutely recognised a lot of the issues. White women are not a minority - heck, women are just short of 50% of the world's population (if you ignore those bits of the world where baby girls 'disappear') - but 30 years ago if you didn't want to be taking the minutes and pouring the coffees, you needed a lot of the advice in this book. Don't make a fuss. Don't stick your head up, Don't let anybody in a senior position think they are getting to you.

So my take on the book was definitely NOT what the authors intended but it pushed some memory buttons for me. It even made me realise quite how far things have changed - mostly for the better - but also how far things still have to go.

I found that the book didn't really evolve very quickly. Most of the chapters were quite similar and a lot of the 'jokes' were quite repetitive, but I was oddly lulled into sort of enjoying it. I didn't laugh out loud. I didn't roll on the floor laughing. I did often find myself thinking "Is this supposed to be funny?" and sometimes I wondered if it was really necessary to have quite so many tips at the end of each chapter. But, when I finally got to the end, I felt I'd achieved something by getting there and, even though I wouldn't want to do it again, I can honestly say it felt 'educational'.