Carry This Book by Abbi Jacobson

Carry This Book Reviews

• 
  Idarah

  
  
  "I have always been intrigued by what people carry around with them. It can tell you everything. I like how people organize their things, their wallets, their cars, their bags, etc. We are curating our worlds almost constantly with the items we choose to bring with us." –Abbi Jacobson
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed this picture book for adults! I too am curious about what people prize, and decided to follow Jacobson's advice: Open yourself up to looking through people's fake bags and be a voyeur into my colorful land of fake "schtuff."
• 
  emma

  i love abbi jacobson, and i love to be nosy. this book is my dream.
• 
  Cyndi

  A fun book full of imagination. What would Oprah carry in her purse? What about Benjamin Franklin? Nice art and thought provoking in an entertaining way. BTW my bag always has at least one book and my kindle in it.
• 
  Sarah

  I'm happy to share an obsession with what people carry around with them with Abbi. The love and patience that went into this book is so incredible; can you imagine using all those markers?
  I'm particularly fond of the Leslie Knope and Ilana Wexler pages. Tori, thank you so much for this book, I loved it.
• 
  Emma Sea

  I picked this as a "Librarian Recommendation" for my 2017 reading challenge. I went in blind, knowing literally nothing. Given that, my one star does not indicate it is not a good book . . . for someone else. The humor is not my kind of humor and wow, I really didn't enjoy it at all. :(
  
• 
  Ashley Velasquez

  Poured a glass of red wine, played the Broad City OST on Spotify and lounged in bed as I perused this clever book with wonderfully simple drawings by one of my favorite comedians/role models, Abbi Jacobson. Most relaxing and amusing time spent. Will keep this book by my bed for when/if I'm ever feeling down.
• 
  Emilia P

  Sometimes cool girls from great TV shows get book deals (I'm looking at you LENA) and they are pretty good but if they were not on a TV show, they would NOT have gotten that book deal and they wouldn't have earned it. That said, it's absolutely fine and totally enjoyable that they did get that book deal, and I hope and expect them to improve upon it. This doesn't suck, but it's not phenomenal either. But Broad City is pretty phenomenal in many ways. I do celebrate the cool actively not conventionally attractive girls who wear whatever the fuck they want revolution, very quietly, but I am ON it. Keep working on it Abbi, you are pretty great
• 
  Emily

  This was just added to my Amazon wish list! What a cute, fun, insightful book of art. I already love Abbi (from Broad City of course) and I love seeing her combine art and comedy! If you're looking for a book to buy that funny pop culture junky in your life - this is it.
• 
  Ari Santillanes

  Fun concept! I especially liked looking at everyone's key rings. Would be a fun art project to do to get to know kids at the beginning of the school year. "You are what you carry. Draw what's in the bag(s) you carry every day." Would rather do it on the first day of school when bags are cleaner. Or project for a literary character. Or way to introduce myself to class. Or way to encourage inferencing skills.
• 
  Gail

  What a delightful book! I thoroughly looked at and enjoyed every single page. I feel like Abbi and I would be friends IRL. I love her details; I envy her style; I dig her humor. The amount of overlap between the items in our toiletry bags is startling. I legit learned important things while reading this book.
  
  This was a (requested) birthday gift (last year) from my sister.
• 
  Jamie

  This fabulous book is on my mental shelf with Maira Kalman's brilliant books. The marker art was something I don't see often and I liked it, but didn't *love* it, but that is a personal preference--she did a great job with it!
  
  
• 
  Kim

  This would be a dope coffee table book! It's silly and fun and delightful in all the ways Broad City is.
• 
  Kricket

  Fun read. I found myself wishing she had left all of the featured names off the drawings so that we'd be able to guess and check our answers at the end.
• 
  Charlee Remitz

  This is the first picture book I’ve reviewed, so I’m not really sure what criteria I should be mentioning, looking for, etc. Decided to just stick with what I did and didn’t like.
  
  This is the type of book you put on your coffee table to keep your guests busy while you do such and such, whatever. It’s definitely not for children. They would probably enjoy the graphics, but everything else will go straight over their heads.
  
  Carry This Book has a great concept. The author, Abbi Jacobson, is essentially poking fun at and analyzing celebrities, famous characters, and people of history by imagining what they would carry around with them in their bags.
  
  I know, pause for reaction. It’s a great fucking idea.
  
  I actually didn’t know anything about the book before picking it up and going through it a couple days ago, and after finding out what it was actually about, I was really excited.
  
  I laughed a couple times, not as many times as I’m sure she would’ve liked, but I enjoyed the book no less.
  
  I will say the biggest downside to this book is that it’s likely there are going to be ten pages you don’t really understand because you may have heard about this person, but you don’t know enough about them to understand why she put the items she did in their fake bag. Even she mentions in her introduction that there are some things she’d drawn up that she doubted people would understand unless they’d done massive research.
  
  My favorite pages were:
  
  Leslie Knope
  Martha Stewart
  Kanye West
  
  Kanye’s in particular seemed wildly realistic. I could totally see him going everywhere with a USB in his pocket with all his most important documents so should he die and the USB is on his person, the world won’t have to ever be without his many precious gifts.
  
  LOL.
  
  The illustrations were beautiful. She shows the things she used to create the book in the back, and it’s cool because you can see the overlapping marker when she fills things in, and you can see places where she almost fucked up and had to change a letter, and overall, I thought it was a really fun and unique way to express herself.
  
  As a book, it will definitely keep your guests busy.
• 
  Tayla

  This is a charming illustrated "what if" peek inside the pockets and purses of the famous- real and fictional. Makes for a delightful coffee table topper or fun gift for a friend who carries much themselves.
• 
  Beth Knight

  I love knowing what other people have in their purses/bags. One of my favorite types of videos on YouTube are the "what's in my purse/bag" ones. When I saw this book I just had to read it. The book wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It was actually kind of boring.
• 
  Emmanuel

  took my mind off things for an hour on a sunny sunday. what more do you need from a coffee table book?
• 
  Suzze Tiernan

  Imagine what famous folks (Michelle Obama, Martha Stewart, etc.) carry in their purses or pockets. A picture book for adults.
• 
  Amanda [Novel Addiction]

  This was really cool. I enjoyed going through all the different hand-drawn images, though my favorite part was the commentary Abbi left.
• 
  Shayna Ross

  I wasn't totally overwhelmed or thrilled by this, but her drawings are certainly cute!
• 
  Jamie Bernard

  Super cute and funny. Fans of Broad City will enjoy this. The Donald Trump spread was pretty great. Not really a graphic novel but not sure where else to shelve it.
• 
  Kitty

  So much fun! Made me giggle on the bus a lot.
• 
  lol

  1) i love abbi
  2) i love seeing what’s inside people’s bags
• 
  Madhusree

  This was lovely, quirky and full of strange characters, even when well known, a sketch of the things they carry and which in turn define them.
• 
  Alison

  I felt this book was absolutely the delightful book Abbi from Broad City would have written, so of course I loved it.
• 
  Paige :)

  I’ve been in a creative spark and this was just the little quirky read (of illustrations) I needed to help put myself out there more (creatively).
  Would 10000% get for my future home’s coffee table …whenever I get a home I can really call my own🥲
• 
  Ann Millett-Gallant

  I recently read and very much enjoyed Abbi Jacobson’s uproarious Carry This Book (New York: Viking Press, 2016). Jacobson is a trained commercial artist, and, in my opinion, comic mastermind, for she is one of the writers and actors on one of my favorite shows, “Broad City.” “Broad City” parodies the relationships of well-known female buddies such as Lucy and Ethel, Laverne and Shirley, Thelma and Louise, and Oprah and Gail. Abbi and her bestie, Ilana’s, side-splitting chemistry is like that of Max and Caroline on another one of my favorite shows, “Two Broke Girls,” but their language and activities are more R-, or even, at times, X-rated. Abbi and Ilana have mad-cap, marijuana-enhanced adventures wherever they go, which Jacobson’s book reflects. It is a volume of tribute collages to “great” men and women: artists, writers, actors, fictional characters, reality TV “stars,” and people who are well known in pop culture, especially ones who have been laughed at like Willy Wonka, Sigmund Freud, and Bernie Madoff. Each image collages objects Jacobson associates with, or imagines one could find, in the purses, murses, backpacks, suitcases, totes, etc. of such people. Many of the compositions feature satirical lists, as well as remnants of Abbi’s and Ilana’s favorite pastimes.
  
  My favorites are her collage tributes to Frida Kahlo (p. 94) and to Michelle Obama (p. 47). The Kahlo collage features drawings of paintbrushes, one of which has “Frida” printed on it, a cigarette, a set of tweezers (with text pointing to them that reads: “JUST CAUSE YOU CARRY IT, DOESN’T MEAN YOU GOTTA USE IT,” which is a comical jab at Frida’s characteristic unibrow. The background of the collage looks like it was composed with strokes of blue paint or markers, and red, orange, and pink swirly flowers dominate the frame, capturing, for me, Frida’s artistic tenacity and overall fabulousness. I especially appreciate Jacobson’s use of primary and complimentary colors – colors that appear opposite on the color wheel and, when paired, intensify one another – I often use such color pairings, drawn from my training in studio art courses.
  
  Her Michelle Obama collage also drew my attention, because I had just completed my own collage in tribute to Michelle (that will be the subject of a one of my future blog posts). Abbi’s includes objects she, and I, for that matter, imagine would be in Michelle’s designer purse or tote bag: snacks, such as a Larabar, a Kind Bar, Werther’s candy, and a Kit Kat Bar, all of which have arrows pointing to them from the written text: “YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED.” There is also a note that looks like a fortune cookie fortune stating “Tomorrow is an important day for you.” A place setting with “Michelle Obama” in script is also in the composition, with a note beside and pointing to it that reads “I’M GUESING IT’S TABLE ONE.” And on the right side of the collage is a cell phone with earbuds attached that lists podcasts such as “Dear Sugar, “WTF with Marc Maron,” and “freshair,” a feature of NPR. Like the Frida Kahlo background, this one appears like strokes of marker or watercolor in green, complimenting the red Kit Kat Bar, the maroon of Kind Bar, and red and orange of the “L’A’RABAR.” This book, in addition to Jacobsen’s performances on “Broad City,” proves that Abbi is GENIUS.
  
  Jacobson’s book of collages, and especially their lists, remind me of some of my own work. I remember my art therapist, Ilene, suggested a few times that I establish a ritual of making a collage or an image every day, perhaps like Carl Jung’s ritual mandala images, which I discuss in my memoir. I always resisted these suggestions, because, at the time, I already felt overwhelmed by my daily tasks and never-ending to do lists. But over time, I have put art-making on my lists and made collages from my lists. Some can be viewed at annmg.com.
  
• 
  Allen Adams

  
  http://www.themaineedge.com/buzz/the-...
  
  Abbi Jacobson is one of the funniest women on television; she’s one of the creators and stars of Comedy Central’s acclaimed series “Broad City.”
  
  Now, she’s brought her comedic sensibility – along with her prowess in the visual arts – to the literary world.
  
  Her new book is “Carry This Book” (Viking, $25). It’s a difficult-to-define work – call it a comedic coffee table book or a picture book for grown-ups or…well, whatever you like. It’s the sort of project that is uniquely its own, bringing together Jacobson’s comic edginess and a well-developed sense of whimsy into something unlike anything we’ve seen before.
  
  Basically, “Carry This Book” is a look at what people carry. It’s a peek inside the bags/purses/wallets/what have you of famous folk both real and fictional. Jacobson basically imagines what these various people might consider important enough to tote around with them, then draws what she sees in her mind’s eye as she considers these possibilities; she includes a fair amount of commentary as well, which only serves to enrich things even further.
  
  So yeah – this book is basically one person’s idea of what other people’s stuff looks like. But in a broader sense, it’s an opportunity to look at the world through the eyes of Abbi Jacobson and check things out from her skewed perspective.
  
  Ever wonder what Susan B. Anthony or Benjamin Franklin might carry with them in the course of making history? What about Sherlock Holmes or Indiana Jones? Elvis or Beyonce? Prince or Bowie? Homer Simpson is here, so too are Santa Claus and Batman and Mario. Perhaps you’re intrigued by considering the contents of Einstein’s wallet or Maya Angelou’s purse. Banksy is a really good one; so is RuPaul’s.
  
  Ever spend time thinking about what sorts of stuff God might carry around? So has Abbi Jacobson.
  
  Look, “Carry This Book” is absurd. It’s weird for the sake of being weird, throwing all kinds of bizarre stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. Honestly, that’s what’s so great about it. And while you’re borne along by the weirdness, there’s no disputing the fact that there’s a sharpness here as well, a finely honed wit that makes this book just as funny and smart as it is weird and offbeat.
  
  Jacobson’s illustrations are on the simplistic side, but no less effective because of that. The representative nature of the drawings allows for a sense of flexibility that accommodates the absurd ideas being represented. There are plenty of broad strokes and easy jokes here, but it’s also a book that rewards closer examination. The level of detail is surprising – if you just breeze through it, you’re going to miss some pretty hilarious stuff.
  
  One could view this project as a metaphor for the baggage that we all carry and the notion that no matter how grand a life might appear, there’s always…stuff. Some of it may be good, some of it may be bad, but it’s always there. That seems to be Jacobson’s big takeaway – and it’s a valuable one.
  
  “Carry This Book” is a weird little book, filled with goofy pictures and silly jokes. It’s not some grand literary work – and that’s OK. If you want to be entertained by the strange musings of a wildly talented, wildly funny woman, you’d be well-advised to start carrying “Carry This Book.”
• 
  Peter Parker

  This book was really fun, each page or page spread shows the illustrated contents of a celebrity, public figure, or fictional character’s bag. From Batman to Gandhi, each illustration is part reality, part joking extrapolation, part illustrated fun fact about what these people may carry in their bags. My only criticism is that I would have liked the imagined bag contents to be a little more based in fact. My favorite items included were ones based on real facts I hadn’t known (like Einstein carrying a pair of socks to shut people up since he never wore them irl) and I would have loved a little more of that!
  
  Abbi’s art is fun to fall into and spend an hour flipping through. My favorite sections ended up being her own advice on what to carry and what she does carry and her especially charming opening & closing that we’re mini motivating boosts in themselves.
  
  Abbi asks if this book is a coffee table book and I’m here to say definitely, this is the quintessential coffee table book, not a whole lot to read but definitely a whole lot to look at and keep your interest. So if you like art and comedy check it out! If you’re looking for more actual reading, I’d skip this one and check out her Essays!