I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by amy sedaris

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I was listening to this on cd, and I just couldn't get through it. Perhaps it's not fair to judge a book without "reading" (or listening to it) all the way through: still, I feel qualified.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. Actually, I thought that the whole thing was meant as a satire, and my impression is that it is not. My impression (and I may be way off) is that Sedaris genuinely likes to entertain and has valuable advice to give to people who want it.

I guess I didn't really want it -- I feel like it's one of those books you aren't meant to read in one sitting, in the order it's written in or even all the way through. Still, I found it bossy and annoying. Then again, I really hated "Strangers with Candy." Maybe Amy Sedaris - although obviously very talented - doesn't necessarily have universal appeal.

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syaowee

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Okay, if you want to buy a present for me, get this. I love it! It's weird that I got it from the library since half of it is really just a cookbook and it is not something you read straight through (even though I did...) but I'm glad I did! Because now I really want it. Partially because I want to try out the recipes to see if they're any good and also because I really want it as like a coffee table book or something to show people or just something to read when I'm bored.
I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is bored and wants to just to flip to a page and read something funny.
However, I didn't expect the book to be this kind of humor... to be honest I thought it was gonna be a little more like Strangers with Candy. But that would have been just a weird book if it was that way because Strangers with Candy and food would not mix. But this was fine :) My fave part was when she talked about her 12 year relationship with her imaginary boyfriend and cooking alone.

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beyondpixels24

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

This started out funny, but then parts of it were just plain wierd. I'm glad that it is over.

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popcornfantasy

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

If we had 1/2 stars I probably would have given this a 3 1/2 and not a total 4. She's as crazy and creative as her brother!!! This book is filled with hospitality advice (when guests come over fill your medicine cabinet with marbles, so you'll know who's going through your personal things), recipes (she likes cheese and there are plenty of cheese ball recipes) & crafts (for instance, there's a whole section on making fake cakes & pies. Pretty interesting actually). There is a whole section devoted to pantyhose. How to wear them, how to make eye burrito's, bath sachets, etc. Very informative. She really had me laughing a time or two. She is rather irreverent, so it's not a hospitality book for everyone. Choose wisely. Some of my favorites: "I've always said that when I die, I want to be displayed in an open casket with googly eyes replacing my own." "I don't usually associate with businessmen on a personal level. I've never held a white-collar job. Apparently, most white-collar jobs require some sort of schooling and to me, the only thing more dull than a white-collar job is schooling." "Think twice before you serve a tomato soup with a tomato salad followed by spaghetti marinara, and Bloody Marys for cocktails. That's a lot of acid to drop in one night." :)

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NixNyx

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I wasn't sure what to expect when checking this book out. But, this really is a book about being a good hostess with lots of examples of the glamour "do's" and " don't s " of entertaining written in a tongue and cheek manner. I must admit that I skimmed through most of, stopping to those sections that might have pertained to me. I would never put a mini garage sale in my foyer with a 25 cent sign and a coffee cup as a the payment reciprocal, but a college student might. So kudos to her for really covering ALLThe bases. I really did learn some new things. I would recommend this book to pursue for anybody who may throw a dinner party in the future. It taught me how to be both a better guest as well as a better hostess with a few laughs too!

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SLIMESLATTSLATT

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

This is Amy Sedaris’ amusing guide to entertaining. She offers all sorts of helpful hints on how to prepare for and entertain various types of guests, throw a variety of parties, and behavior and etiquette guidelines for dinner/party attendees. She also throws in a chapter on proper rabbit care and maintenance – because she has a pet rabbit and it is the center of her world. You’ll also find recipes and suggestions for getting out various kinds of stains. If you get the audio edition of this book, you’ll get to hear Amy say, “Sidebar!” and “Stain box!” in a breathy voice, too.

I didn’t think that I was going to care for this. Amy is funny, but I’m tired of the cheap and easy references to getting people high, providing “party enhancements,” and the like. I can, however, totally get behind bringing the hostess “butter,” or “carrot tops” for her rabbit. I’d be thrilled if anyone brought me things I could actually use… which they might if I actually entertained. At any rate, after Amy mentioned that she has a rabbit, I was pretty sure that she’d have more to say about said rabbit. I was not wrong. If you couldn’t give a hoot about entertaining (and this is sort of tongue and cheek, anyway), you should listen to this if you dote on your pet rabbit (and use it to get money out of your guests!). Amy Sedaris is a complete goofball, but I bet her parties are fun!

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ernirocks

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I recently saw a tweet about the racism featured prominently in (at least) one of the recipes. I had a real "WTF" moment and tried Googling to find confirmation that the images are from this book. When I read this 12 years ago, it was a library rental. I am surprised that I could be so oblivious because wow, the illustrations are blatantly racist. Was I so desensitized that I didn't mind hipster ironic racism or did I simply skip over the recipes because of the whole being vegan (vegetarian at the time) thing? It's possible I only looked at the crafts because that's all I vaguely recall. Then again, there was a time when I thought Tucker Max was funny so I won't pretend that I haven't been different variations of horrible throughout my lifetime. 2008 is pre-University me. Dark times.

I couldn't find confirmation so if you have a copy lying around and wanna find the "Korean Korner" recipe to confirm, I'd appreciate it. I even skimmed the one-star reviews, but no one mentions racism. They just don't like tampons jokes. It's not that I have any particular reason to doubt the tweet, but re-posting information online without fact-checking is far too common so I'm just trying not to do the same. There's no Amy Sedaris Snopes article though so it's probably true that this book is trash.

I am removing my 3-star rating (not exactly a glowing 5 star rating to begin with) for the time being because there's a global pandemic so I'm not visiting the library or a bookstore to confirm. I have a suspicion that my initial impressions don't hold up over time. That's probably true of a lot of my reviews, but this one was brought to my attention so here I am.

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Sx21

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I generally enjoy Amy Sedaris’s sense of humor. The off-the-wall “guest favors” brought to mind the many art projects of my youth. I too, was once obsessed with plastic wiggly eyes and popsicle sticks. Thankfully for us, Sedaris hasn’t outgrown her devotion to making bizarre and useless knickknacks. She also has a knack for icing highly unusual greetings atop cakes.

I can’t imagine ever hosting a dinner party, so I guess you won’t have to worry about me trying any of the tips or recipes offered in this book. That’s probably a good thing.

I Like You yet again reminded me how far off I am from the Standard American Diet. If you want a clue about the contents of the dinner recipes inside, just take a look at the roast turkey on the cover. Meat, meat, and more meat. I in, fact, got rather sick of looking at all of the meat dishes throughout the book. Sedaris writes a touching story about adopting and caring for rabbits, then dives headlong into more meat recipes. Unfortunately, few readers will see the irony in this.

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I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

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