Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood

People saying "LOL" is often misleading: are they really laughing out loud? But I can honestly say that I couldn't help laughing and had to try and stifle my laughs on my train commute as I read this book. A series of short stories of Magary's adventures in being a father of three children, this book will be instantly familiar to any parent. He doesn't shy away from the honest truth about parenthood: it's wonderful, but those kids can drive you crazy too. Magary manages to give a voice to all of those little thoughts every parent has but do their best to shove back down into the subconscious. He also discusses his relationship with his wife, which like any modern parenting relationship consists of both teamwork and combat: who can fake sleeping long enough so the other has to get up and feed the crying baby?

The stories are the perfect balance between the hilarity of parenting and the touching moments that any parent will recognize. Magary is able to discuss his feelings without venturing into the trite or overly corny cliches that other parenting books often fall into to. If you are a parent that misses the days of childless freedom but still cherish your children, you'll love this book. He perfectly captures the range of emotions, some that you didn't even know existed, that any parent moves through.

One note of warning, however: if you are looking for innocent portrayals of parenthood, this isn't the book for you: Magary often invokes profanity and "off-color" topics to tell his tales. Of course, in my opinion, this is true to actual parenthood. He doesn't go overboard, but he doesn't restrain himself either.

The hilarity is bookended by an incredibly moving portrayal of Magary dealing with his youngest son being in the NICU after he is born prematurely. Magary is a skillful writer than can handle both the hilarity, the love, and the tragedy involved in parenting. As he sums it up near the beginning of the book, "When you start a family, you're signing up for drama. You're signing up for worry. You're signing up for life-and-death. You're signing up for a life that means something more, even if it isn't as fun a life as when toy were single and drinking shots of Fire Water in the Giants Stadium parking lot."

My one quibble is that the book seemed a bit overpriced for being so short. The book reads almost like a series of blog posts. Although I enjoyed every one, I felt like the publisher was asking for a bit more than this book was worth.

I would highly recommend this as a Father's Day present for any younger dad. Also, although it's written from a dad's perspective, I think mom's would also enjoy it, if for no other reason than to see inside the mind of a dad!

Not funny at all. Within 20 pages I found myself skipping around, and before I knew it I had just closed the book and put it on the goback shelf. Certainly some people enjoy this, I didn't. Make sure you get a chance to actually read an excerpt before shelling out your money.

Not funny. The writing was so bad that I couldn't even finish it. Like another reviewer said "Lame portrayal of family life from a selfish man's perspective."

The perfect book about being a Dad for anyone who would never, ever want a book about being a Dad.

this book sucks, along with the rest of this idiots piece of crap work.

Love this author! Great read.

someone could get hurt....by reading this book. Borrow from the library. Not that impressive.

My husband reads Deadspin all the time, so he was interested in reading the book even though we were not even sure we wanted kids. I on the other hand was a bit skeptical as to the point of reading a memoir about parenting, until he would read out loud some of the anecdotes. We are now expecting our first child and I have since read the book. It had me nearly in tears with laughter at the funny parts and then literally in tears at the more heartfelt moments. I've recommended this book to friends at work and to my sisters who both have kids. If you don't like cursing or more "raw" humor, then this book is not for you. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this honest look at parenting. It's refreshing to read these accounts because while I understand that my life is about to change for the better, I am very skeptical about people who tell me everything is just rainbows and sunshine, never a cloudy day, never a doubt in the world about becoming a parent.

From the first sentence to the very last, Drew Magary is a masterful storyteller. I initially purchased this book under the guise of buying it for my husband, (when I knew I would totally read it before he could get his hands on it-hey! I take in the mail) and when it arrived I thought, 'Well, I'll just scan the first chapter...' The rest of my day was shot. I ended up reading the entire book in the next five hours or so. I laughed until tears came out of my eyes and I cried until, well, you get the point. This is easily the best 'humor' book to come out this year, (at least for me), but it surprised me with how much heart was packed in between the lines. I can't wait for my husband to read it now, and I will be sure to pass on the praises for 'Someone Could Get Hurt,' for many years to come. Well done, Drew!

This was a really cure memoir of parenting young children that had me laughing out loud at nearly every story. I was not at all familiar with Drew Margary before picking up the book, but after reading it, I think this is the the type of parenting book dads would enjoy. This is a short book, that only took me a few hours to read.

I received an advanced read copy of this book through a First Reads giveaway on Goodreads.com