Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea/ Chelsea Handler

Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler mayhem, sexcapades, humor, alcohol/drug use, adult 272 pages

After reading Handler's breakout hit "My Horizontal Life," I had expected the next Chelsea Handler book to be more of the same. I enjoyed her no-nonsense partying stories and her unique outlook on the world around her. Honestly, though, I did not enjoy this book as much as the first (although I do have to give Handler credit, the title is AWESOME).

My biggest problem with Handler's book is a problem that occurs to anyone who professionally specializes in mayhem such as Handler or her male counterpart Tucker Max--- Their fame catches up to them. Once when they were just ordinary people, they found themselves in such hilarious and crazy situations that you knew they weren't made up because even the sickest person couldn't dream up some of their debacles. Once you become famous by writing a best-selling book on your exploits (and get your own TV show in Handler's case), such ridiculousness becomes more Hollywood. The guys Chelsea sleep with at this point know her through the business and know who she is and what she's famous for. She balances embarrassing herself and her roommate on a cruise ship with chatting up her agent about a TV gig. It all seems a little sold-out to me. This inevitably happens to people like Handler, but she should've taken a page out of Tucker Max's book and saved some of her pre-fame stories for a possible follow-up novel.

I will say that there is one story in the book that meets the expectations of the first book and even rockets past them. This story involves Handler's first and only DUI one week after her 21st birthday and a subsequent trip to a women's prison. I don't want to reveal any more than that, but it is one story that will leave you laughing so hard that you're crying a little.

Quality of her stories aside, Handler is an excellent storyteller, and I believe her storytelling style is what makes the books so good. She could have a story about a phonebook and make it interesting (probably by lying, but still). Handler does have a third book "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang," and while I am hoping that it is as good as the first, my gut tells me it'll be more like the second...either way, Handler's good enough that I owe it to myself to give it a try.