Lets Be Less Stupid, Patricia Marx
Lets Be Less Stupid, Patricia Marx
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Let's Be Less Stupid
An Attempt to Maintain My Mental Faculties

Author: Patricia Marx

Narrator: Patricia Marx

Unabridged: 2 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 07/14/2015

Categories: Nonfiction, Humor

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

Former SNL writer and The New Yorker staffer Patty Marx employs the weapon she wields best--not that weapon; Patty believes in gun control. Instead, she uses her sharp-edged humor to tackle the most difficult facet of aging: the mind's decline. From forgetting her brother-in-law's name while he was wearing a nametag to hanging up the phone to look for her phone, Marx confesses to her failures, and not only to make you feel better about yourself.

In Let's Be Less Stupid Patty addresses troubling conundrums, such as: If there are more neural connections in your brain than stars in the Milky Way, why did you put the butter dish in your nightstand drawer? Patty's quest to get smarter includes just about everything: learning Cherokee, popping pills (not the good kind), and listening to--who's the guy who didn't write dum de de dum but the other one?

About Patricia Marx

Patricia Marx is a former writer for Saturday Night Live whose nonfiction and humor essays have appeared in several publications. The first woman to write for the Harvard Lampoon, she is also the author of several humor books. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sue on October 13, 2015

Patty Marx writes very funny stuff for The New Yorker, and Let’s Be Less Stupid feels like a magazine article that just grew too long. Marx has such a clever mind that I hate to give this book a lukewarm review; I just think the short magazine version (which I read) was sufficient. On the other hand......more

Goodreads review by Kirsti on December 06, 2015

"If grown men can have bar mitzvahs, grandmothers can give birth, and Mick Jagger can sing 'Time Is on My Side,' then can't I have the mental prowess of someone who looks young enough to be carded?" This is really a padded magazine article rather than a book. Slight but entertaining.......more

Goodreads review by Ellen on July 19, 2015

This is a cute book to read if you've never thought about your brain or your IQ. I have, so this book was only mildly humorous.......more

Goodreads review by Liz on August 17, 2015

Let's be more funny.......more

Goodreads review by Robert on August 16, 2015

This short book touches on some memory issues, and one’s general ability to learn or understand stuff (I.Q.), in a soft and light mirth style; although she often includes some contemporary, if not avant-garde, neuroscientific theories and discoveries (briskly), most of the book deals with her forget......more

Quotes

"Patty Marx's unending wit, comedy, insight, and panic are here on display in her new, exciting, book."—Steve Martin

"This book is hilarious. In gleefully mocking her own feeble brain, Patty Marx reveals herself to be downright brilliant. Predictably, her humor is packed with merriment, fizzy wit and belly laughs, but here's the surprise: she brings truckloads of knowledge to her complex subject and even the occasional flash of wisdom."—John Lithgow

"Patty Marx has plenty of advice to help you keep your mind young- while acknowledging how hopeless the dream of maintaining a young brain really is. So, don't think about it; let your mind go blank; look at the pictures, and laugh out loud."—Bill Nye

"Patty Marx's new book on the mind and its slippages is one more welcome Marxian performance: fascinating truths, offered with wit, and wonderful wit, with truth inside it."—Adam Gopnik

"Does laughing out loud make you smarter? Scientists need to study the brains of people right after they've read anything by Patricia Marx."—Andy Borowitz

"Patty Marx is one of the funniest, smartest people I know. I am pretty sure I have gotten smarter, or at least less stupid, since reading this book. You will too!"—Roz Chast

"In this juggernaut trek through various scientific labyrinths, Ms. Marx proves that it takes a huge and powerful brain to find out how stupid you are. Of course, she fails -- in fact seems to lose interest in that dismal quest about halfway through -- but so what; her purpose is to squeeze laughs out of anything and everything she does, or finds out, or screws up. What a brain, and

thus what a book."—Bruce McCall

"I've long had a nagging suspicion that I'm getting stupider by the day. But not until giving myself over to the program put forth in this book--call it "Patty Marx's Bootcamp for the Brain"TM--did I fully grasp the extent of my cognitive decline. I can't remember most of what's in it, but I can say that it's the feel-good read of the season. Especially for people who don't know what season it is."—Meghan Daum

"If you had a conversation with your funniest, smartest friend about your secret fear of losing your mind, this is what it would sound like. Marx's book is hilarious, engaging, and jammed with wonderfully oddball science, delivered with her inimitable wit. A must-read for anyone who has a brain."—Susan Orlean

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