Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living [Nick Offerman][2013][epub]

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Dutton Adult (October 1, 2013)
Language: English

Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman shares his humorous fulminations on life, manliness, meat, and much more in his first book.

Growing a perfect moustache, grilling red meat, wooing a woman—who better to deliver this tutelage than the always charming, always manly Nick Offerman, best known as Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson? Combining his trademark comic voice and very real expertise in woodworking—he runs his own woodshop—Paddle Your Own Canoe features tales from Offerman’s childhood in small-town Minooka, Illinois—“I grew up literally in the middle of a cornfield”—to his theater days in Chicago, beginnings as a carpenter/actor and the hilarious and magnificent seduction of his now-wife Megan Mullally. It also offers hard-bitten battle strategies in the arenas of manliness, love, style, religion, woodworking, and outdoor recreation, among many other savory entrees.

A mix of amusing anecdotes, opinionated lessons and rants, sprinkled with offbeat gaiety, Paddle Your Own Canoe will not only tickle readers pink but may also rouse them to put down their smart phones, study a few sycamore leaves, and maybe even hand craft (and paddle) their own canoes.

From Publishers Weekly
In his first book, Offerman—best known for his popular character Ron Swanson on NBC&'s Parks and Recreation—opens up about his life and the values that he says have brought him prosperity and success. Each chapter of the memoir is accompanied with an essay outlining a relevant principle Offerman claims may lead the reader to a better life. The veracity of some of his statements may be called into question—vegans will bristle at his position on meat (eating red meat gives one character) and Millennials will not appreciate his dismissive attitude towards GPS devices and smartphones—but Offerman openly admits on the first page that what works for him may not be everyone&'s glass of scotch. Whether or not the reader considers his advice worth following, it is thought-provoking, profane, and frequently hilarious, although the book sometimes detours into recommendations of well-known movies and plays; Parks and Rec fans may be disappointed at the small amount of material about the show, but getting to know Offerman through his stumbling courtship with Megan Mullally and Kabuki theater training is well worth the price of admission. (Oct.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Offerman