A Guide to Midwestern Conversation - by Taylor Kay Phillips (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Written by proud Missourian Taylor Kay Phillips, A Guide to Midwestern Conversation is the definitive handbook on Midwestern mannerisms. Phillips' tongue-in-cheek prose provides a humorous and humanizing look at the culture she calls home. Each section is illustrated with simple-yet-striking graphics by Jovaney Hollingsworth. Together, they provide an engaging, entertaining look at the idiosyncrasies of the Midwest, covering everything from dialect to yard signs, relationship-building to tornado-watching. A Guide to Midwestern Conversation leaves you with all the tools necessary to effectively (and more importantly, politely) navigate your way through any and all interactions you might have in middle America. Phillips is sure to teach you not only how to speak "Midwestern," but what it means to be from our nation's heartlands"--

Book Synopsis

Learn (and love) the language of the landlocked in this bitingly funny illustrated guide to the common phrases and sentiments of the American Heartland, from the author of the McSweeney's series "A Guide to Midwestern Conversation."

If you end an evening by slapping your thighs and saying, "Welp, I'll go ahead and get outta your hair," then you don't need this guide, but you sure as heck might like it. Full of common Midwestern phrases (and what they really mean behind the friendly facade), A Guide to Midwestern Conversation is an affectionate, self-deprecating look at the language of a people long defined by their kindness and reduced to their voting patterns. Written by born-and-bred Midwesterner Taylor Kay Phillips, it's a wink, a hug, and a firm handshake (with eye contact) to the millions of Americans who say soda and pop interchangeably and grew up doing tornado drills in school.

Discover Midwestern conversational staples like:

• How to announce that you hate something beyond comprehension ("I didn't really care for it")

• What counts as "a short drive" (less than eight hours)

• Sports talk (starts early, doesn't end till we're six feet under)

• Describing the ultimate dream home ("It's got a finished basement")

• An ode to the Garage Fridge

Including an array of guides, tips, and profiles of all the states included, A Guide to Midwestern Conversation is guaranteed to make Midwesterners (and their friends) laugh out loud, nod their heads, and ask if "anyone needs anything real quick while I'm up."

Review Quotes

"Taylor is as funny as she is Midwestern. And she is thunderously Midwestern. You will enjoy this book!"--John Oliver, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

" . . . a wildly entertaining, precisely critical, and lovingly mocking taxonomy of the people of 'flyover country.'"--Vulture

"It's perfect. It's wonderful. If you are from the Midwest, or know someone who is, go check this out, peruse it a little bit, buy it as a gift. . . . Phillips does such an excellent job of parsing, with familiar and understandable exactitude, the very fine distinctions in what seem to be interchangeable expressions. . . . It was both revelatory and delightful and somewhat reaffirming. Really fun pop anthropology that's smarter than it seems, and more fun than it has any right to be."--BookRiot

About the Author

Taylor Kay Phillips is an Emmy-Award winning writer and comedian originally from Kansas City, Missouri. She currently works for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and Reductress among others. She lives in Harlem with her husband and three coffee makers.

Jovaney Hollingsworth grew up in the Bahamas but often visited his grandparents in Michigan, where he loved the iconic nostalgia of the Midwest. Eventually moving to Minnesota, Jovaney combined this American iconography with the bright Caribbean color palette and turned it into a successful career as a graphic designer and illustrator.