It's All Relative

I love Jacobs' book “The Puzzler” and I really wanted to dive into his other books. Whatever topic he writes about (the Constitution, the Bible, fitness, knowledge, puzzles), he dives into it with so much fearless commitment, it often ends up being interesting, educational, ridiculous, and hilarious. “It's All Relative” is all of the above, even more so than “The Puzzler.” Jacobs dives into genealogy head first by embracing the fact that we are all family and we are all cousins, no matter how distant. He even attempts to host the world's largest family reunion. I won't spoil what happens with that, but this book is engaging, insightful, and funny that I can't put it down. He approaches this topic with such an open and creative mind and he also shares much of his own family roots and history. If you don't know much about genealogy already, you'll learn a lot from this book. I also appreciate the many resources on how the reader can personally dive into their own family's roots. This book is an absolute blast and I cannot wait to read his other topical observations and ridiculous challenges he sets for himself. With all the hate, racism, and division in this world, “It's All Relative” certainly proves that we're all more similar than you think, and asks the fair question: can we all just get along, at least a little...?

Goofy, fun and readable book. The standard liberal potshots are already not aging well. BTW, AJ is my former step-step-brother-in-law.

I find the “stand-up comic” voice annoying, but the subject matter–an event exploring universal family connections and, more generally, genealogy–was somewhat interesting, if short on substance.

I have loved everything A. J. Jacobs has written so far, and I'm happy to say that I loved his new book, It's All Relative, too. Jacobs takes on huge personal projects in his writing. This time, he takes on genealogy. He does all the DNA tests, and researches his family members from the past, and decides to put on a huge family reunion. Everything he does makes me laugh, and laugh out loud, and it takes something good to have me laughing out loud. It's All Relative is something good.