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It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree
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Published:
Simon & Schuster 2017
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Checked Out
Description
#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).
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
11/07/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781476734514
ASIN:
B06ZZBDK39
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

A. J. Jacobs. (2017). It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. Simon & Schuster.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

A. J. Jacobs. 2017. It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. Simon & Schuster.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

A. J. Jacobs, It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. Simon & Schuster, 2017.

MLA Citation (style guide)

A. J. Jacobs. It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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      • bioText: A.J. Jacobs is the author of Thanks a Thousand, It's All Relative, Drop Dead Healthy, and the New York Times bestsellers The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, and My Life as an Experiment. He is a contributor to NPR, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly. He lives in New York City with his wife and kids. Visit him at AJJacobs.com and follow him on Twitter @ajjacobs.
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#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...
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fullDescription
#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).
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      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        September 25, 2017
        Esquire contributing editor Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically) muses on the nature of family and the interconnectedness of humanity in this entertaining introduction to the world of genealogy. The book follows along as Jacobs, inspired by the World Family Tree project—an effort by a group of historians, genealogists, and scientists to create a family tree of all humankind—attempts to orchestrate the largest family reunion ever, the Global Family Reunion. Along the way, he charts his efforts to contact celebrities, politicians, criminals, and his other distant relatives. He looks at unconventional notions of family, attending a polyamory family support group and “nonpaternity events” for people who learn from DNA testing that they are not directly related to their fathers. With short, lively chapters and an easygoing voice, Jacobs keeps the story flowing as the Global Family Reunion approaches. While Jacobs’s event, which was held in New York City on June 6, 2015, didn’t set the record for the largest family reunion ever, a total of 3,800 people showed up to the simultaneous reunions held in 44 locations around the world. He infuses humor throughout the book but relies too heavily on the same gimmick of his unexpected relations (he’s 14 steps removed from Joseph Stalin, and George H.W. Bush is his second cousin’s husband’s eighth cousin three times removed). The result is a somewhat amusing and educational account of the science and culture of families.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        October 15, 2017

        Journalist Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically) is best known for the projects he turns into books, such as attempting to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and to obey the Bible as literally as possible for a full year. In this volume, the author becomes fascinated with genealogy and the idea that if you go back far enough, everyone is related to everyone else. In his multiyear effort to plan and carry out the largest family reunion of all time (which he hopes will break the Guinness World Record), Jacobs learns all he can about genealogy from a biological, sociocultural, and historical perspective. He explores what it means to be the "black sheep" of a family, the relatively common practice of cousin marriage, and why the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints is so invested in their family trees. Written with Jacobs's signature humor and warmth, this is a fun, if slightly scattershot, adventure that will interest many. VERDICT Fans of Jacobs's previous work, as well as anyone interested in a nonacademic look into the world of genealogy and family trees, will find this account engrossing, funny, and optimistic.--Jennifer Stout, Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Lib., Richmond

        Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

subtitle
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popularity
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publisher
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