“A Guide to Midwestern Conversation” Book Review

I recently read a love letter to the Midwest, titled “A Guide to Midwestern Conversation” by Taylor Kay Phillips. Below is my “A Guide to Midwestern Conversation” book review.

In this easy-to-consume book, Phillips embarks on an engaging exploration of the Midwestern dialect. She offers readers a delightful deep dive into the nuances of communication in America’s heartland. The book features unique characteristics of each individual Midwestern state, common vernacular, and shared behavior of us proud, but always polite Midwestern folk.

After consuming the first couple of chapters, I didn’t get it. I didn’t find the content particularly funny or insightful. To me, it simply read like an obvious description of typical conversations that everyone has. But eventually, I realized it was only uber-familiar because I am a Midwesterner. It was a bit of an epiphany to me that not EVERYONE talks this way. Doesn’t everyone use Opes and You Betcha’s and apologize for pretty much any scenario that could potentially burden others in an insignificant way? Apparently not, according to Taylor Kay Phillips.

Phillips was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but she currently lives in New York. I don’t personally consider Missouri to be especially “Midwestern”, but I suppose it’s close enough by my non-scientific and arbitrary standards. (I definitely don’t consider New York to be in the Midwest.) She works as a writer for John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight”. So while her credentials as a Midwesterner are iffy, her credentials as a humor writer are not. She’s been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Atlantic, Reductress, SELF.com among other publications.

You can read more about Taylor Kay Phillips at her website.

“A Guide to Midwestern Conversations” would be a great book to read while waiting in the dentist’s office, doctor’s office, podiatrist’s office, and many other medical professionals’ offices. It comes in hard-cover, e-book and audio book.

Just so you know – I could get an affiliate commission if you link from my site and buy a product. Hopefully I’ll accumulate enough affiliate commission to buy myself a coffee someday! Not Starbucks or anything like that. But maybe a plain small coffee from a gas station on the outskirts of town.

Here are my scores applied to “A Guide To Midwestern Conversation” book review:

My innovative system for rating humor books is explained here

Wholesomeness Score: 4/5 Pretty darn wholesome. Unless you are offended by the thought of Midwesterners commonly having a beer fridge in the garage. References to F-bombs, without directly spelling out the F-bomb.

Hilarity Score: 4.5/5 After I realized not everyone speaks like a Midwesterner, I found the book hilarious.

Overall Book Awesomeness Score: 4.5/5 This is one of those books I would read again. I might just buy that hard-cover and set it on my coffee table. I also need to purchase a coffee table.

Related Midwest Humor: T-shirt

If you are looking for more Midwest Humor fun, you might like this funny Minnesota-influenced T-shirt:

Funny Midwestern Follow: Charlie Berens

Charlie Berens is gosh-darned funny Midwesterner. A Green Bay Packer fan, but I don’t hold that against him. If you haven’t seen any of his work, you can start with the video below.

https://www.charlieberens.com

What are your favorite Midwestern funnies? Books, movies, video clips, personalities, etc. I’ll take anything! Shoot me a message or leave a comment!