Rating: 
Summary: Not the One I Wanted
Review: I'm a big fan of Margaret Cho, and even saw her recent movie from which this book is based. The movie is a touching, revealing, and very funny look at her struggles with weight, drugs, and trying to star in a failing TV show. Unfortunately, her new book is not.What the movie had that the book did not was the real, human persona of Cho. Most of what she writes comes across as bitter and occasionally mean-spirited. She seems to have written this book as a vendetta against people in her past that have wronged her. Celebrities who use their fame to exact revenge through writing a book never seem to pull it off well. One story of a camping experience with her friends pulls us on her side, until we read about her treatment of those who wronged her, exposing a bitterness I didn't like. Cho has so much talent, and hopefully, after venting in this book, she can now rise above and shine as bright as I know she can. In the mean time, I suggest holding off on buying this book, and looking for the movie instead.
Rating: 
Summary: good biography
Review: I've liked Margaret Cho for a while now so it was interesting to read about her life and how she got to where she is now. It deals with her childhood where she was an outcase and had a father who in and out. It deals with the difficulties of her getting recognition made coumpounded by ancestory and the blow she took from her show all-american girl, a show that seemed to have gotten criticism from many sources, the network, critics, the asian american community.... Finally she book deals with how margaret cho has come to terms with who she is as a person.
Rating:
Summary: Little Margaret, Happy At Last.
Review: If you are coming to this book with the idea that it is an extension of Margaret Cho's life as a stand-up comedian, you will be disappointed.While she does talk about her life on the comedy club circuit, the comments are filled with bitterness, loneliness, and drunkenness. "I'm the One That I Want" tells the story of a girl reviled by her peers, ignored by her parents, and generally put upon by a world that couldn't force her into a mold of conformity. Cho's autobiography goes beyond frankness into scatological vulgarity. In this book, she details the abuses and ignominies heaped upon herself and those that she heaped upon others. Cho's battles with racism, sexism, and weightism are all explored so meticulously that the reader is at first horrified, second discomforted, and finally numbed by it all. It wasn't until I had read the last twelve pages of the book that I felt Cho had reached solid ground and might actually escape the quicksand her life had become. It has been said that it better not to know the author of the art you enjoy because they are so much less than the art. If you enjoy Margaret Cho's comedy then take a pass on this book.
Rating: 
Summary: An angry young woman speaks out
Review: If you like your women (especially your Asian-American women) modest, soft-spoken, and all-forgiving, this book may startle, sicken, or even frighten you, as well it should. Margaret Cho is very frank here about both her strengths and weaknesses, and where they come from. From the schoolgirl sadists who made her childhood a living hell and the incompetent parents who turned their backs on her as an adolescent, leaving her to make her own way through a morass of drugs, bad sex and self-hatred, you can see exactly how this beautiful, gifted creature gained both a determination to make audiences love her and an abysmal need to obliterate the monsters in her brain by any means necessary. The readers who will get the most out of Cho's tale are the women like her, the young Ophelias in desperate need of revival, and the older ones who somehow managed to crawl out of the drink and survive the perils of a world where "ruined" girls, or those who aren't quite nice or pretty or well-behaved enough, are all too often thrown away, when all they need to be good as gold is the guidance, shelter and love that they are owed by us.
Rating:
Summary: Reading This Book Made Me Funnier
Review: It didn't just make me laugh, which it did. It made me funnier. After reading it, I blurted out what I thought. Apparently this comes off as funny to others. What I am trying to say is that is that this book, her writing, her thoughts are honest as heck. I really don't care if I would want to be her friend (probably not) or the s--t she's been through, what I love love love is that she's frigging honest in what she says to people. It's not a lesson-in-life-autobiography type thing, it's just funny and refreshing to read someone saying EXACTLY what they think. Jail or stardom, that's where that can get you. Luckilly, apparently, it led to the latter outcome with her. I don't know her stand-up, but I can say the book is something to have for that proverbial rainy day.
Rating:
Summary: Brutally honest
Review: It's a shockingly honest book that made me stay up till 3am to finish. I was expecting something like her standup routine, but I found her confiding secrets that most people would pay to hide. It made me relate, laugh, and cry, because it was so real and truthful. It's not Shakespeare, but it's compelling. She brings the reader through her journey and achievement of self love.
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Summary: Comedian, TV Star, Icon, Fag Hag...................
Review: Margaret (Moran) may be known as a lot of things; comedian, TV Star, Icon, Fag Hag, but what she really is a warm, passionate, and wise woman. I expected this book to be a very funny autobiography, but was surprised at how serious this book turned out to be. Margaret has certainly experienced many low points in her life along with a few highs. I think Margaret Cho deserves a lot of credit for exposing to the world the many problems she has had dealing with drugs, alcohol, and a failing TV sitcom, plus the fact she's an Asian-American and the prejudice that she has experienced because of this. I think that's why she has always been so supportive and accepting of other minorities and has established a large gay following. She has a unique perspective on personal identity and acceptance. This gives her comedy an edge, and the courage to say what she really feels about human nature and the world we live in. I had a hard time putting this book down. As I said, there are some funny parts, but most of this is a serious reflection on her life up to now. It gave me an honest look into the real "Margaret Cho." Yes, she does sound spiteful and a little revengeful in some parts of the book, but who wouldn't be with the hatred, and prejudice she has experienced in her life. However, I think she has become a better person for it. She hasn't lost her sense of humor, and still deeply cares about others, especially outsiders. I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.
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Summary: If you haven't seen the live show, get that in video instead
Review: Margaret Cho is at her best when she does stand up comedy. And a very good part of this book is the same, word for word, as her stand up show of the same name. It is a lot funnier to see and hear her relate her experiences in person. It is available on video and it costs about the same as the book. But if you are going to be stuck in an airplane for 5 hours like I was when I read this book, it will help make the experience a lot more passable. As someone who lives in San Francisco, I enjoyed her stories about growing up in the city, which are not covered in depth in the show. Her recounting of all her old relationships started getting a little old after a while, though.
Rating: 
Summary: A candid look at sexism in Hollywood
Review: Margaret Cho's "I'm the One That I Want" is the opposite of pre-packaged, phony interviews that you see everytime you turn on TV. While actresses go on TV and claim to just LOVE their co-stars, and to be "naturally" thin, Cho tells it like it is. She triumphed where many others failed -- her years as a traveling standup paid off when she got a TV deal,. Unfortuntately, misogony and racism in Hollywood turned her dream into a nightmare. Cho details the callous treatment that she, the star of her own show, received when things went wrong on the show. Her weight became the central focus to some execs, and some Asians groups turned on her when the show was received as stereotypical and backward. What should have been the pinnacle of her career turned into a time she would rather forget. Alcoholism and dead-end relationshops ensued.
This book is basically a cathardic (we presume) rant by Cho. It is an outrageous story, particularly in the same industry that routinely makes TV stars of rotund male standup comics (everyone from Kevin James to Chris Farley). The double standards are made all the worse when you consider that Cho wasn't fat. She was victimized by the Hollywood white male power structure, and women and minorities who internalize that message and turn on each other.
Although I appreciate the manifesto-style quality of this book, some of Cho's solutions seem a bit naive. It is going to take a lot more than women liking themselves to see attitudes in Hollywood change. Sexism and racism are institutionalized, and every high grossing movie starring an emaciated babe is contributing to that tradition continuing. It will take dismantling those institutions, or working from within, to see that change. Show biz is way behind the curve when it comes to gender equality, but it is also dangerously influential. Cho, and others like her, could spearhead a grassroots campaign to get big audiences for movies that show positive messages of women. Take it from the evangelicals and "Passion of the Christ"... money talks.
Rating:
Summary: No joke!
Review: More than you ever wanted to know about Margaret's misguided escapades into drugs, booze, food, and sex. This book is a more brutal account of her life than she portrays in her stand-up routines; I don't think her intention is to make you laugh. Moreover, I found it annoying that she "name-drops" Madonna in a few places (one doesn't know if she's ever met or talked with the over-rated Material Girl, but for some reason she likes to mention her name!). Alas, one can see why Margaret would have such a liking for the notorious Boy Toy. Margaret reveals much in her book and gives many of life's lessons through all the mistakes she's made in her turbulent life. But then again, what comedian hasn't had a turbulent life?
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