Science...For Her!

by Megan Amram

Overview

“One of the funniest—and most subversive—books of the year” (Esquire): Megan Amram, a writer for Parks and Recreation, delivers a politically, scientifically, and anatomically incorrect “textbook” that will have women screaming with laughter, and men dying to know what the noise is about.

“Laugh-out-loud funny…an exuberantly scathing takedown of the sexism lurking within the fun, flirty pages of women’s magazines” (The Boston Globe), Science…for Her! showcases Megan Amram’s fiendish wit with a pitch-perfect attack on everything from those insanely perky tips for self-improvement to our bizarre shopaholic dating culture to the socially mandated pursuit of mind-blowing sex to the cringe-worthy secret codes of food and body issues.

Part incisive farce, part biting commentary on gender, this “hilarious feminist manifesto for the modern era” (Salon) blends Cosmo and science to highlight absurdities with a machine-gun of laugh-inducing lines that leave nothing and no one unscathed. Subjects include: this Spring’s ten most glamorous ways to die; tips for hosting your own big bang; what religion is right for your body type; and the most pressing issue facing women today: kale!!!

This “giddily demented” (The Washington Post) satirical gem is “comedy-as-borderline-art” (Flavorwire). “Science…for Her! is a triumph that anybody with a sense of humor will appreciate” (People).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476757902
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	11/04/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Megan Amram is a writer for the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. A 2002 Harvard graduate, she has amassed nearly 400,000 Twitter followers who enjoy her hilarious brand of off-beat humor. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Vulture, and The Awl, among others. Her viral video “Birth Control on the Bottom” prompted Jezebel to call her a “national treasure.” She lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

Humorist Megan Amram spends some of her time writing for Parks and Recreation and upholding her reputation as one of Rolling Stone's "25 Funniest People on Twitter," but she's also concerned about how her best girl pals know less and less about science. To remedy that problem, she's devised a guide to earth science, botany, biology, and other impossible to remember subjects which is tons more interesting than your ex-boyfriend's Instagram account. Sample sections include "How Mother Earth Is Like My Mother," "Fashion Staples for Each Step of Global Warming," "Tips for Hosting Your Own Big Bang," and "Cute Pictures of Guinea Pigs." Only aliens won't find this book funny. Editor's recommendation.

"Ingenious."

The A.V. Club

"Exceptional, and exceptionally funny."

The Stranger

"Brilliant satire."

Interrobang

"One of the funniest—and most subversive—books of the year."

Esquire

"An exuberantly scathing takedown of the sexism lurking within the fun, flirty pages of women’s magazines...laugh-out-loud funny."

Boston Globe

"Hilarious yet cuttingly insightful."

Time Out New York

"Surreally witty."

Refinery 29

"Giddily demented."

Washington Post

"[Megan Amram] navigates many voices: deadpan, ditzy, unhinged, stone-cold tone deaf, cuttingly lucid."

New York Magazine

"Why can’t women drive? Which religion is right for your body type? And what’s the deal with kale? Parks and Recreation writer Amram answers these and other very scientific questions in this satirical textbook-cum-women’s magazine. While it’s “tailored to you, ladies,” Science is a triumph that anybody with a sense of humor will appreciate."

People

"Causes combustive laughter."

Vanity Fair

"[Amram's] fake textbook rocks."

GQ

"Will make you laugh out loud. [Amram] also delivers a legitimate critique of sexism—with frequent detours into the absurd.

Wired

"A hilarious feminist manifesto for the modern era."

Salon

"The world's most-funny and least-helpful educational book...Demented, hilarious faux-science."

Bust

It’s perfect, dada-as-hell, comedy-as-borderline art. True story: reading this book on the subway, I cackled and chuckled and laughed so hard that people gave me looks. There is also a two-page centerfold that reads KALE!!!!! in gorgeous lettering.

Flavorwire

If there’s one thing more important than science,technology, engineering, and math, it’s laughing!

Gloria Steinem

This book was fun AND informative, and just the right size for my tiny lady hands! Most books cause my hands to bruise and chafe!”—Ellen Page

Ellen Page

I may be but a man, but Dr. Amram’s book has cottoned me to numerous new scientific hypotheses that are both fun and flirty.

Nick Offerman

Science…for Her! taught me so much. I learned fun ways to freeze my eggs. I learned the best religion for my body type. I learned the whole world is going straight to hell.

Amy Poehler

2014-09-09
This parody of a science textbook for women, recast in Cosmo style, has a funny concept and cover, but the text itself is so padded that more will skim it than read it. Parks and Recreation writer Amram satirizes the idea that women are incapable of understanding science by dumbing it down, drenching it in sex and lightening the textual load with a lot of graphics. The author describes herself (often) as "a fun, flirty young woman" who remains obsessed with her ex-boyfriend and details how she has wreaked her revenge on him, sexual and otherwise. "Science is hard for most people, let alone women," writes the author. "It has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history: female brains aren't biologically constructed to understand scientific concepts, and tiny female hands aren't constructed to turn most textbooks' large, heavy covers." In addition to the features blurbed on the cover—"Tips for Hosting Your Own Big Bang," "Hot Reproductive Sex Tips," "Orgasms vs. Organisms"—it offers the "fun, flirty" quiz to discover "Do You Have Cancer?" and "The Period! Ick! Table." The author strays far from anything even tangentially related to science—e.g., "America: A Review," as if the country were a long-running TV series ("My rating: 50 stars out of a hundred"), and the objectivist advice column, "Dear Ayn Randers." Amram may have plenty of ideas for funny bits, but the follow-through often falls short of the inspiration—and the opening 10-page "Dedication" practically dares readers to make it word for word through the end. Later, she explains, "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm just trying to use as many words as I, Megan Amram, possibly know so that I, Megan Amram, the author of this book, can kill (i.e., murder, assassinate) as many trees as possible." Despite some laughs, this book will try the patience of even its targeted readership.

Kirkus Reviews