Cover Image: Look Mom I'm a Poet (and So Is My Cat)

Look Mom I'm a Poet (and So Is My Cat)

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Member Reviews

I enjoyed this poetry collection. Thanks for the review copy. The poems are playful and hilarious. I know others will love them.

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I love this little unsuspecting book of poetry. I would have never guessed how profound some of the poems are. They have emotion that drips off the page and feels like it can be inhaled.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

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Lightweight but hilarious, especially the "sponsored poems" sending up the commercialization of everything. I loved the home depot poem and the poems that started out a Instagram-style straightforward "life advice with line breaks: but took funny, dark detours. I'm not sure how well these poems will hold up over the decades, but they made me happy right now.

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*I received an ARC via Netgallex in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free poetry collection.*

Let me be honest here. I wanted to read an ARC of this because I absolutely adore the cover. It is a true banger. The poems are pretty good too, very funny sometimes, but other are just really really really random. The collection is pretty short, so if you're in for a laugh and for a book with a cool cover, pick this up!

4 stars

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Look Mom I’m a Poet (And So is my Cat) by Andrew Shaffer
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Do you enjoy reading poetry?
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I struggle with poetry. I feel like half of the time I don’t get it. But when I saw this book of poetry on Netgalley I wanted to give it a try because it looked fun.
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This book was hilarious. I loved it. I read it on my phone in one evening and screenshotted several poems because they made me laugh out loud. I love when people don’t take themselves to seriously and can joke around.
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5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Also, I really want to know if the author has a possum for a pet now. 😂

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A big thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for giving me a copy of this book for an unbiased review.

2/5 - It was fine.

Did some of the poems make me laugh and interrupt my boyfriend so that I could force him to listen to me read them out loud? Yes. But I do that with memes and this felt just like reading a book filled with memes. Some were very funny, but most were just ones you read and went: "Oh. Okay."

It took me less than 30 minutes to read it so sure, why not. But I can't say it changed my life or will linger in my mind - it was all just kind of fun but nothing more.

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This was a very strange book, not really sure what I read, maybe it was supposed to be this way and I just didn't get it,

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I wanted to love this collection, I really did, but it felt a little lackluster in places and altogether too long. Having said that the book did deliver a few belly laughs.

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These poems are stupid and they made me laugh. I have a bunch of books by this author on my TBR and will be bumping them up ASAP.

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This book was like a warm beverage for the soul. I was sucked in and could not put it down! The concept was so unique, I loved this book.

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This book is very hit and miss. Sometimes I really enjoyed it and other times I was rolling my eyes. You need a specific taste for comedy to enjoy it, which isn't a bad thing! Overall, it was an okay book that I wouldn't read again.

Two out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a free copy to read in exchange of an honest review.

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The cat on the cover made me get this book. I knew when I saw that handsome fellow with his unusual looking Human on the cover I had to read it. Great marketing ploy. Thanks both to NetGalley and author Andrew Shaffer for the opportunity to read it and provide my personal opinion. I also have a copy on Kindle Unlimited which is a service that knows its quality literature.

Look Mom, I'm A Poet (and so is my Cat) was needed in our society. It is a book that can do a Mom proud that her child has found some sustainable work through poetry. There are 60 poems that cover all of the big questions of contemporary life from our personal relationships, our self worth and how to solve our biggest problems. Some will make you laugh, others will make you look closely at your life, might make you run screaming to your safe room while some will touch down to
the lowest depths of your soul. You may not think you need a cleansing of your soul but these poems will make you undersstand otherwise. This is what poetry is meant to do No matter the shape it forms on the page. It is difficult to figure out if the human or the cat or both so draw your own conclusions as you will.

For those who cannot read there are some lovely photos to look at that might bring about your own self realization and self worth. Unfortunately, they are in black and white so if you lack the imagination to see color in them, this book may not be for you.

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Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I tried to read it, I did. I read to the half way mark and quit. I just didn't get it. Not for me and didn't enjoy the writing at all. Some people may like this type of writing, but sadly I do not.

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If the cover and title don’t give Andrew Shaffer away, the first poem will give you cause to consider if you will be the same person after reading 𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑴𝒐𝒎 𝑰'𝒎 𝒂 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒕 (𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒐 𝑰𝒔 𝑴𝒚 𝑪𝒂𝒕).

There are five dozen new and selected poems within Shaffer’s latest book. Once you’ve reached the end of the collection and been introduced to Himalayan, the author’s cat, who also writes poetry, you will acknowledge there may be an element of truth to Shaffer being a jester, a trickster, a prankster.

Most of the short pieces in 𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑴𝒐𝒎 𝑰'𝒎 𝒂 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒕 (𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒐 𝑰𝒔 𝑴𝒚 𝑪𝒂𝒕) are bold, brash, funny and accessible. The zany wisecracker’s writing is probably not to everyone’s taste. He likes to use the word ‘f*ck’ (an aside to those genteel people who may feel vexed by such effrontery). I wouldn’t give it to my grandmother for Christmas, although after several glasses of sherry …

The Associated Press has described Shaffer as “a pro at parodies”, while the author himself relates how, as a kid, his mother once told him, “You’re a poet and don’t know it”. “I guess I believed her,” he says.

Shaffer, no doubt, is a fan of the greatest goofball of all, Tom Robbins. This book is for anyone who needs more boisterous entertainment in their life.

A huge thank you to @NetGalley, 8th Circle Entertainment, Dime House and @Andrew_Shaffer for an ARC of 𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑴𝒐𝒎 𝑰'𝒎 𝒂 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒕 (𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒐 𝑰𝒔 𝑴𝒚 𝑪𝒂𝒕) by Andrew Shaffer.

Andrew Shaffer is a New York Times bestselling humorist and screenwriter whose books include 𝑯𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑫𝒊𝒆𝒔: 𝑨𝒏 𝑶𝒃𝒂𝒎𝒂 𝑩𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝑴𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚, the parody 𝑭𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒚 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑬𝒂𝒓𝒍 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒚 and the humorous survival guide 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒂𝒅𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑶𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝑼𝒏𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔. His new book, the horror-comedy 𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕 𝑺𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂, is available now from Quirk Books and Blackstone Audio.

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I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Look, full disclaimer, but the only reason I picked up this poetry collection was for the catchy title and that beautiful cover. I bet most people did. I mean that title sounds fun. And that cover, juxtaposing the kind of enlightenment era seriousness Thoreau would unironically approve of with the farcical addition of the “cat”, is the kind of absurdist humor that I love! It unintentionally raised my expectations. Ones that were pretty much crushed from the get go.

I cannot tell you the sheer, utter disappointment that is this “poetry” collection. I use the term “poetry” loosely as this is more a selection of jokes mimicking minimalist verses. I’m clearly not the target audience for these jokes as they seem to be more catered towards a) 12 year old kids going through puberty or b) dude bros who’s idea of humor is basically just fart jokes. There’s nothing wrong with a good fart joke or two but damn, these were pretty damn bad.

Reading this, rather than any kind of amusement, I just felt thoroughly annoyed. Almost all the jokes were set up so the punchline could somehow subvert expectations and really, I just never had that “gotcha” moment. The penis jokes just made me feel so much secondhand embarrassment, kind of like watching your dad try to use millennial humor to try and be one of the cool kids. I cringed my way through somehow.

Overall, this was just all kinds of terrible. I’m enraged on behalf of Himalayan, the cat, who is the bestest boy and was grossly misused for publicity’s sake in the title and cover page and never even got his poems in. Poor boy. I’m still waiting on his collection. 1 star.

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While short, this was a cute collection of funny poems that spoke to many areas of my life. I thought it was a solid collection with a good amount of unexpected, funny endings. I would recommend this book!

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These aren't poems. But what they are isn't half bad. 'Advice For The Young Poet' is charming. #Sponsoredpost is you know, witty, ish. Goodnight Moon is social commentary I understand. I Have My Limits is relatable. The Hotel Florida is good because I'm biased and love anything Hemingway related. Haters Gonna Hate is probably the only one that made me smile. It's fine. I can certainly imagine people who would have liked this. I didn't really.

Thank you to NetGalley and 8th Circle Entertainment for the opportunity to read this and provide my honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4129495716?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

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In this hilarious poetry collection, parody and nonfiction author, Andrew Shaffer, surprises with short and sweet, always funny poems that run the gamut from take downs of pop culture, to #SponsoredPosts for the capitalist machine, and witty observations about society. Serious poetry readers need not apply, this poetry collection is perfect for anyone, even if you're not a fan of verse.

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Witty, slightly jaw-dropping at times, and certainly funny, the work reads like a dark SNL skit.

The dark humor does its work nicely with the storytelling and the insanely specific titles of each work. Shaffer's work is a much-appreciated break from other contemporary poets who take themselves a bit too seriously.

A good short read that you might want to revisit for a laugh in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC copy of this work in exchange for this review.

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I'm not a good judge of poetry, but the fact that a few of these poems about killed me (the book should come with a warning about drinking anything while reading) means it deserves at least 4/5 stars… right?

Also, Home Depot would never use his advertisement he wrote for them, but it is the best.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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