Rating: 
Summary: WOOF! WOOF WOOF WOOF!
Review: (Trust me, when you read the book, you'll get it....)I have to admit to being biased, because I was one of the people the author had reading this book chapter by chapter as he wrote it and giving him feedback. I love the story; it's funny in places, touching in others and overall a delightful satire of the whole "Bear Thing."
Rating: 
Summary: Totally Dumb
Review: I bought this book this weekend for a (hopefully) hilarious read. What I got instead was ridiculously stupid. Knowing many bears (and being one), AND knowing many writers, I found none of this clearly plot-driven twaddle believable. I did not laugh, but I did cry to think of how much money I paid for this book. Give it a pass.
Rating: 
Summary: A Cross-over Hit?
Review: I found this book so appealing, I lent it to a friend of mine who has had an extensive history with the Bear community in Chicago. He not only enjoyed it, he commented on how accurately it captures the "family atmosphere" he enjoyed among the Bears while living in Chicago. Since Mr.Cohen lays out the "ground rules" of the Bear lifestyle from an outsider's perspective, I lent it to a Strate friend of mine to see if she'd like it. While the book may have given her more details than she had bargained for (Not that the book is wall-to-wall with sex scenes), she did say she enjoyed the book. Who knows, with enough promotion, "Bear With Me" my become a cross-over hit with the general public! Spread the word, Bears!
Rating:
Summary: A Cross-over Hit?
Review: I found this book so appealing, I lent it to a friend of mine who has had an extensive history with the Bear community in Chicago. He not only enjoyed it, he commented on how accurately it captures the "family atmosphere" he enjoyed among the Bears while living in Chicago. Since Mr.Cohen lays out the "ground rules" of the Bear lifestyle from an outsider's perspective, I lent it to a Strate friend of mine to see if she'd like it. While the book may have given her more details than she had bargained for (Not that the book is wall-to-wall with sex scenes), she did say she enjoyed the book. Who knows, with enough promotion, "Bear With Me" my become a cross-over hit with the general public! Spread the word, Bears!
Rating:
Summary: What a Bear!
Review: My son and I adore this book, sharp, witty and hilarious by turns. I believe that it should appeal to a far wider audience than just the Bear community.
Rating:
Summary: What a Bear!
Review: My son and I adore this book, sharp, witty and hilarious by turns. I believe that it should appeal to a far wider audience than just the Bear community.
Rating:
Summary: Not a bear to get through
Review: Peter is not your typical gay man -- he has an upscale life with a fancy job working for a stylish magazine and everything is going his way, until the day he's fired, and in the always increasing competitive job market of gay culture, can't find a job. He has a friend Mac who convinces him to write about a subculture, one often overlooked but growing, and that is the bear culture. Peter undergoes a transformation to being a bear, changing his clothes, his diet, his attitude and expectations along the way. This isn't simply a drag culture, but is one where the people live in a bearish fashion. Peter's partner Danny doesn't always quite know how to take this, and part of the tension of the story is the relationship with Peter and Danny. Another part is Peter's continuing struggle to come to terms with his past and his future. Cohen writes in an interesting manner, and I was able to finish the novel in just a few days, because it was hard to put down. The characters were interesting, and the plot kept my attention.
Rating:
Summary: Ludicrous and disappointing
Review: There have been several books about and for the bear community of gay men, including Ron Suresha's "Bears on Bears" and Ray Kampf's "The Bear Handbook". Now we have "Bear Like Me" by Jonathan Cohen, which is about Peter who is fired from his job at "Phag" magazine. At a friend's suggestion, Peter decides to go undercover in the bear community to get material to write a book. So he sheds his stereotypical gay image for the stereotypical bear image, and eventually breaks up with his twink boyfriend. He plots revenge on "Phag" magazine and its staff, and navigates the bear dating world. He finds love, but will this new guy love Peter for who he is when it's revealed he once was not a bear? What sounds like a madcap adventure quickly becomes a tedious, inane, and self-conscious story that fails to entertain. The bear community deserves better.
Rating:
Summary: Different Glasses
Review: Well, I bought the book because I'm an aquantance of Mr. Cohen. I was looking forward to seeing his quirky and hilarious personality on paper, not to mention his brilliance. I was definatly not let down. Let me go ahead and say, I'm a straight guy, and I loved every bit of this book. I still laugh to myself about some of the great lines. All my female friends keep trying to steal this book from me, especially while I was reading it.... I feel very privalaged to have thanked the auther himself for writing the book, because it was truly a treat, and a nice repreave from the more serious stuff I normally get into and write myself.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Entertaining (and not just for Bears)
Review: Well... I laughed out loud, I cried (yes really), and I even went 'awwwwww' a number of times, (awwwwwww Ben). This book is certainly unlike anything I've ever read and I learned a lot about myself reading it and in a way I learned little things about the bear community that I never knew, and how to laugh at myself -which I thought I was pretty good at before. Every time things managed to tumble and fall apart for Peter I had to keep reading, I had to know what he was up to, and if he'd manage to right the wrongs that just kept falling in his lap. The characters that Peter runs into are just a riot, funny to laugh at and with, without being too cliche.
I give it 5 out of 5 stars because 1) I have no other story to compare it with and 2) because this story opened a lot of personal emotions for me for where I am at in my life, it really touched a nerve in me.
The book isn't very big and you'll probably think it's an easy read but I found it so quirky and fun that reading it was a blast and the size didn't matter.
I recommened it to anyone looking for some good laughs and a good(very touching) romance between bears. Enjoy
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