It's All Relative

Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree

By: A. J. Jacobs

Narrated by: A. J. Jacobs

#1 New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs undergoes a hilarious, poignant quest to understand what constitutes family—where it begins and how far it goes—in It’s All Relative, a “thought-provoking…delightful, easy-to-read, informative book” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

A.J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: “You don’t know me, but I’m your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database.”

That’s enough family members to fill Madison Square Garden four times over. Who are these people, A.J. wondered, and how do I find them? So began Jacobs’s three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history. In It’s All Relative, he “muses on the nature of family and the interconnectedness of humanity in this entertaining introduction to the world of genealogy” (Publishers Weekly).

Jacobs’s journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a US president, sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels. After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family.

“Whether he’s posing as a celebrity, outsourcing his chores, or adhering strictly to the Bible, we love reading about the wacky lifestyle experiments of author A.J. Jacobs” (Entertainment Weekly). Now Jacobs upends, in ways both meaningful and hilarious, our understanding of genetics and genealogy, tradition and tribalism, identity and connection. “Whimsical but also full of solid journalism and eye-opening revelations about the history of humanity, It’s All Relative is a real treat” (Booklist, starred review).

Doomed from the start

I can only fall back on the old chestnut: I wanted to like the book. But at its core is a flaw that the author himself recognizes and expresses numerous times in the book. Namely, that the enterprise is simultaneously naive, pointless and paradoxical. Naive in that racism can't be eradicated by biology. Deep down, we can see it's primarily cultural, despite the genetic rhetoric. Pointless in that, predictably, factions arise with their own agendas, religious, political, commercial, etc. rendering any altruistic motivation moot. And paradoxical since a family of all humanity renders the idea of family meaningless. Or worse, hypocritical, as the author can attest, as new structures of other-ness appear, replacing the word "family" in a neat semantic sleight of hand.

Not the best of A.J.

Although have some funny parts, the overall book is not as good another previous stories from the very entertaining A.J. Jacobs.
interesting passages about how humanity is link but unfortunately my expectations were higher than the reality of this book.

Hilarious, Honest, and Heartfelt

As if being able to listen to this book wasn’t great enough, having the author read it gave that extra feeling that I was on this journey with him and his family. Incredibly relatable for anyone that has a passion for genealogy and their own family history. I found myself laughing while thinking I have felt many of those thoughts throughout my research as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if this book became the gateway of many others acquiring a new found love for genealogy. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that has any level of interest in genealogy but it is also far reaching in appeal past that.

Fun Genealogy Read!

Loved this book, which I downloaded after reading a review in my Sunday newspaper. A.J. is quirky and most entertaining. So thankful he and his brain are around to encourage us to think about the big picture (who are we? what are we evolving into?) while sharing his insights into the small details of life. His concept that we are all related, and that we'll get along once we let that sink in, was just what I needed to read after the election of the divisive, negative government in 2016. Thanks, AJ!

Fun book

I enjoyed seeing genealogy through his eyes. Listening to this book was a lot of fun.