Diary of a Jackwagon by Tim Hawkins and John Driver, 2015

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He s a comedian. He s a YouTube sensation. And now he becomes an author. Best known for his song parodies and riffs on yoga pants and homeschooling, Tim Hawkins now shares his perspective on life in the 21st century in his long-awaited debut book.Tim's topics are as wide-ranging as his stand-up comedy including marital communications ( Marriage needs a challenge flag, like in pro football ), worship music( Pick the right key, because I m not Barry White and I m not a Bee Gee ), and food( Eating a Krispy Kreme donut is like eating a baby angel ). Diary of a Jackwagon reveals a witty and relatable voice reminding readers that for life's many difficulties, laughter is always the best medicine when there aren't any pills left.

(224 pages)

I feel like my dad would like this book a lot more than I did.

Not that Tim Hawkins isn't funny - he is, of course. He's one of the funniest Christian comedians out there! But a lot of his jokes revolve around things I really can't relate to. I mean, I can relate to a Taylor Swift song by using my imagination. I can relate to husband-wife jokes by thinking about my parents. But I'm-a-forty-year-old-man jokes? And I-love McDonald's-food-jokes? And I-have-road-rage jokes? Yeah, I'm not using my imagination with those.

Because I'm not a forty-year-old guy, and discussions of Tim Hawkins' copious wiry back hair really doesn't appeal to me. It's actually really gross. And I hate McDonald's food, my family doesn't drink soft drinks, and we only get donuts when people who like donuts have a birthday (so, like, twice a year). And I'm a sixteen-year-old girl with a learner's permit, learning to drive in Maryland where just about everyone needs some serious road-rage counseling (like, for real - this one guy almost drove me into a ditch once, my third time out. And this mom in a minivan gave me the finger while illegally passing me because I was - *gasp* - actually going the speed limit). So jokes about all three of these categories kind of . . . miss me. Go past me. Over me. Under me. Whatever, It's too bad, because that's what a lot of the book is made up of.

But then there are the homeschooling jokes and the church jabs, and I am so totally there. He's a Christian homeschool dad pointing out some of the biggest misconceptions about homeschoolers (and some of the biggest idiosyncrasies in Christian culture), and I was a Christian homeschooled girl lapping it up. My absolute favorite part of the book was Hawkins' chart depicting all the different forms of arm-waving during worship songs (with labels such as "my fish was this big," "Rocky," and "touchdown"), which made me laugh so hard my sides ached. It felt good to laugh like that.

So yeah. Marriage, food, aging, homeschooling, and church - these are the topics of the bulk of Hawkins' book. Is he as funny in writing as he is in person (or, er, in YouTube)? No. It's impossible to get the comedic timing and inflection that he puts into his live acts. Diary of a Jackwagon is still pretty funny, though, and even though I didn't like it as much as I hoped I would, I'm still glad I got the chance to read it - and now I've passed it on to my parents, who I think will probably find it funnier than I did.

[Edit: I finished writing this post a week ago. Since then both of my parents have read it, and I think they actually disliked it.]

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review.