Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm

Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm

3.31 of 5 stars 3.31  ·  rating details  ·  308 ratings  ·  82 reviews
BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND TELEVISION STAR ROSEANNE BARR IS BACK—WITH A VENGEANCE—AND THE RESULT IS ROSEANNEARCHY. Roseanne Barr is a force of nature. Whether taking the sitcom world by storm, challenging accepted social norms, or battling the wild pigs inhabiting her nut farm in Hawaii, she is not to be trifled with. In this return to the printed page, Roseanne unleashes her...more
ebook, 304 pages
Published January 4th 2011 by Gallery Books (first published December 21st 2010)
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Hafidha
Roseanne is a human tornado - powerful and messy! This book is a bit overlong, but the first third - chapters on her childhood - are almost breathtaking in terms of storytelling, and the pieces, "Left of Center in Denver," (about the long hard road of leftist community activist) is kind of a must-read if you've ever been involved in a subculture that struggles to reconcile the dream (Everyone Will Be Like Us One Day!) with reality (Striving Together is Really Fucking Hard). I also enjoyed "Flatt...more
Jennifer
Roseanne is basically a badass, which compelled me to read this. There's a lot of things about the book that bug me, such as her willingness to use hateful language to describe fat people or folks with mental illness; her political inconsistency (one minute she's gender-essentialist, one minute she's rattling off radical feminist theory) got under my skin, too. Naturally, it's her right to do that stuff, just as it's my right to be irritated by it.

All of this inconsistency and brassiness are par...more
john boyack
Roseanne Barr is my biological mother, and I can prove this because she hates cats.

Barr picks up a ton of steam once you hit chapter 10, "Left Of Center In Denver". She provides recipes for garlic bread, peace of mind, raising grandchildren post-menopausal, humor, lokshn (noodles), et al.

The best thing I learned about her life was her experience guest-editing the first (and only) women's issue of The New Yorker, which featured Amy Sedaris, among others. She signed Judd Apatow and Joss Whedon to...more
Ciara
probably more like two & a half stars. when jared saw the cover, he said, "wasn't there some scandal some years back about roseanne shooting off assault rifles?" i replied, "i think you may be making a mistake i make all the time, & confusing roseanne with my mom."

reading this book was A LOT like stumbling across my mom's blog or getting a crazy e-mail from her (before i blocked her e-mail address). the difference is that my mom is not jewish, & roseanne is & talks about it const...more
Angie Holtz
This book made me laugh, cry, think and pee my pants. ;) Really it was full of insight not just in her own life, but in the world. She warns you not to take it too seriously and you can sometimes glean when she is making a joke.

I have a new-found respect for this woman because she takes responsibility for a lot of mistakes she made in life, not just the horrible version of the national anthem she sang, but her marriages, saying horrible things about her parents and even having children. She cons...more
Ocean
i mostly got this from the library because i read ciara's review of it & she mentions that roseanne was a 70'd feminist who worked at a womyn's bookstore?! whoa! i was surprised & intrigued. i enjoyed it, so much so that i found it impossible not to read paragraphs to my boyfriend, who laughed, but after a while asked, "um, does this book have any narrative structure?" no! it doesn't. but i was still entertained by it and it mostly made me really happy. it's really nice seeing ANYONE who...more
Sarah
i loved this book. i picked it up after being amusing and befuddled by some of her twitter posts. she is a prolific twitterer for sure. has a lot to say about politics and generally strikes me as an extremely intellient, well read woman who likely has ADHD in addition to the many psychiatric diagnoses she labels herself with. she has a hyperbolic humour style which i find hysterically funny. it reminds me most of john waters, just completely over the top. she's obviously a talented comic and i a...more
Christopher
This is certainly a book written by Roseanne Barr. If that is what you want when you pick up this book, that is exactly what you will get for almost 300 pages. No ghost writing here. No "as told to". I don't really know what to say about this book other than it was 100% what I expected it to be...except for maybe the chapter about her experiences as a young militant feminist. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about that part of Roseanne. I'm glad she's still writing books - she has a demograph...more
Jeremy Preacher
This was much more readable than her first book - the lack of terrible poetry was a huge relief. I find Roseanne as a character fascinating in a trainwreck sort of way, and I have to keep reminding myself as I read that she's a comedian, she's totally writing this stuff for effect, but I still flinch at a lot of the ethnic stereotyping.

I don't know that I'd recommend this book particularly, but it was entertaining enough. I think the vast majority of it would work much better as standup comedy,...more
Kate Woods Walker
I like this broad. I like what she has to say. And I like the way she says it.

My S.O. commented several times, as I laughed my way through Roseanne's latest, that he hadn't seen me enjoy a book so much as this one. Not only is it devastatingly funny, this series of essays and reminiscences is wise, challenging and has just the right amount of devilishness.

Although Roseanne is right about almost everything, I can't agree with her disdain for perfumes and smellums. (I'm woman on a quest to re-crea...more
laaaaames
As soon as I read Barr's truly magnificent New York Magazine article, I knew I had to read this book.

Sadly, one thing is not like the other.

Barr has been a huge influence on me as a writer and a feminist, so it's frustrating that reading this book was like getting locked in a small room with a friend's crazy mom who is determined to tell you everything she finds relevant about life before you can go, even if she repeats herself, goes off on confusing tangents, and contradicts the shit out of eve...more
Martin
I wish I could have given this book a three-and-a-half star rating but there was no way I was going to give it four, no matter how much I loved parts of it. Roseanne's previous autobiography, "My Lives" (1994) has an average rating of 3.49 and "Roseannearchy" only has a 3.29 but I think this is a much better (or less crazy & bridge-burning) look at herself. She certainly has done a lot of work on herself since her previous book, as evidenced by the foreword by first husband Bill Pentland, wh...more
Daniel
"Roseannearchy is my attempt to weave my own revolutionary code into the mind of the reader."

Roseanne is my hero: a fat crazy Jewish mystic radical socialist feminist self-proclaimed fierce working-class domestic goddess. I was in the middle of reading this book when Roseanne came out in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, dressed New Left guerilla-chic, proposing that everyone in a higher income bracket face the guillotine or put in a reeducation camp. This is when I fell in love!

I fini...more
Pat Buzby
After numerous attempts, I finally got picked to be in the audience of the Oprah show. Until we were walking in the studio we still did not know what the show topic of the day would be. It was Roseanne and when we left we got a free copy of the book. When I sat in my seat, at first I groanned, because I was angry with Roseanne for leaving the stage of the Wizard of Oz in Madison Square Garden a dozen years ago and then was on a talk show the next morning looking well. I had spent a lot of money...more
Kdooley
I really like Roseanne Barr. I think she's entertaining and witty. I enjoy her twitter feed, and I don't think all of her ideas are totally out there. That said, this book is terrible. You can only read it in chunks or else your mind starts to revolt from the lack of decent editing (both self-editing from Barr and professional editing). It kind of reads as though you're having a conversation with someone who is utterly stoned. I am going to just pretend I didn't read this book.
Tasheena Christensen
Roseanne was my tv mom, I loved her and the show immensely and I was excited to read this book. I was sad to find it read like an old lady rambling away. There were some parts that were funny or interesting, but she lost me on a lot of it (like the religious talk and her rants about politics). She's a complete lefty, and even thought I agreed overall with what she said, it just took her too long to get to the point. A real disappointment for me.
Freda mans
Years ago I read My Life As A Woman, and I laughed out loud all the way through it, so naturally I wanted to read this one as soon as I saw it.
This one let me down a bit though. It was more just her way of telling her opinion on certain subjects that most don't want to touch, like religion. There were moments of funny, obviously, but I felt it was more complaining or even whining going on.
Not going to deter me from watching her new tv show, Roseanne's Nuts. Now that is funny!
Lisa
Because I'm up at weird hours of the night/morning feeding my daughter, I've started watching some new shows. One that I'm really enjoying is Roseanne's new reality show, Roseanne's Nuts. It hilarious! I thought that since I am enjoying it so much that I should read her latest book that she wrote. It's her third autobiography (haven't read the others) and I just didn't find it all that interested or funny. Plus she talked a lot about Mormons and gave very false information about the religion, an...more
Kathryn
I loved Roseanne's sitcom, and I enjoy re-watching it because the themes remain relevant after nearly twenty years - it aged well. I had gone into this book expecting a more observational collection of political and industry musings, but half the book is memoir. Not that Roseanne didn't lead an interesting youth, but I had hoped the book would be more like her Twitter feed.
Elizabeth
I have mixed feelings about this book. While I couldn't stop reading it, I still thought Rosanne rambled quite a bit about nothing. The book was all over the place and wasn't very focused. I found parts of it very honest and heartfelt, while at the same time parts seemed to be written to set the score straight. If you have any interest in Rosanne, this book does open a door to her personality somewhat. Unfortunately, I didn't find it very funny, but having read the book, she's changed quite a bi...more
Sarah
3.5 Stars

From a very young age, I watched Roseanne. My dad used to call me Darlene. I've also watched Roseanne's more recent tv show, Roseanne's Nuts. I adore this loud-mouthed broad. She goes where most people aren't willing to go. I didn't realize she had more than one book, so I will probably go back and find the other two. This is her third book. I wouldn't really call it a memoir or an autobiography or even a tell-all.

Roseannearchy is a good collection of random rantings and writings of Ros...more
Erin
Kindle for iPhone

I am a huge fan of "Roseanne" and not as much of an admirer of Roseanne, and this book reinforces that distinction. However, I must confess that I became interested in the book after seeing Roseanne on Oprah, and she seemed so together and witty, I thought she must have mellowed with age (she describes herself, both on Oprah and in the book, as an old lady, which is quite surprising, considering that she's only in her fifties, I presume), but, alas, she's still filled with her o...more
Amatullah Richard
Most of the book is classic and wonderful Roseanne using humor to point out injustices and slam the people who deserve to be slammed. She provides an interesting reminiscences of her childhood growing up Jewish in Salt Lake City. She also offers some hard earned insight. However, there is one bizarre chapter where she has lunch with Satan.
Lisa
Sep 19, 2012 Lisa added it
Every woman, feminist, fan of comedy HAS to be a fan of Roseanne! She paved the way for real life in comedy shows, and I cannot think of another comedy that depicts the modern day family in such an honest way.
This book is a collection of Barr's musings, from life on her farm in Hawaii to her new thought on Tom Arnold (well, new since her last book where she loved him to death and now - well - you know where she stands) this is an awesome read which will get you thinking, laughing and fills in t...more
Lesa Parnham
Okay, a guilty secret--I love Rosanne. I have no excuses, my daughters and I watch late night reruns, kind of like a cult following (we can recite all the words in the "Drunkin Heinz" episode.)

This book is kind of too new-age for my tastes, it does show that Rosanne Barr is a smart cookie, don't let the show fool you.
Lisa
Roseann cracks me up sometimes and makes me squirm uncomfortably the rest of the time. This book was the same way. Some of it was funny but most of it was a big old mess. It is in desperate need of editing but the parts that made me laugh out loud were good enough to give it 3 stars.
Jason LeRoy
I've been referring to Roseanne as "my spiritual mother" for years, so I guess I shouldn't gripe too much that she's written a collection of essays focusing far more on spiritual/philosophical riffs than anything particularly funny. The troubling thing is that the essays devolve so frequently into the kind of lunatic rambling usually reserved for raving hobos. While I do wish the book had been funnier, embracing Roseanne has always meant taking both the good and the bad from her cosmically overs...more
Colleen
I really, really admire Roseanne and this book was a really good read. Again, another good behind-the-scenes look at tv and the way women are treated in that world. Roseanne is really open about her life and her struggles and it makes for a very personal, intimate read.
Jodi
Well I did read this in about three days, granted I had lots of travel time, so I must've enjoyed it. But after I finished it I sorta thought "Hmm, what was that about?" I'd say it's a lot of her rambling on and on. Parts were entertaining and funny. I think you have to really like memoirs and autobiographies to enjoy it...which I do.
Charlie
I was hoping to like this a little more than I did. I've always appreciated Roseanne's humor, but this just seemed scattered and forced. I understand where she's coming from with some of her worldly ideas, but she's missing something...I'm not sure what it is.
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Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm (Hardcover)
Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm (Kindle Edition)
Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm (Kindle Edition)
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Roseanne Cherrie Barr is an Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actress and writer. At times in her career she has also been known as "Roseanne Arnold" and "Roseanne Thomas". On the opening credits of one final-season episode of her TV show Roseanne, she was credited as "Roseanne Barr Pentland Arnold Thomas". For several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, she was known simply as Roseanne,...more
More about Roseanne Barr...
Roseanne: My Life As A Woman Untitled It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs My Lives

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