Whose Kids Are These Anyway?: True Confessions of a Family Man

Raising children can be both extremely exhilarating and mind-numbingly frustrating, and Swarner neatly sums up both emotions in this compendium of entertaining anecdotes and plentiful one-liners. The book showcases Swarner's easy style and comic timing, as he deals with everything from listening patiently to his kids' knock-knock jokes to participating in the family hike from hell. Indeed, Swarner writes, his experiences might serve as an""effective birth control program"" for today's teens. Without an occasional serious moment or poignant reflection to vary the pacing, the jokes do sometimes come at readers like gunfire. But the author's unreserved honesty in the face of adversity (""I haven't had a good night's sleep since 1990"") should ultimately win them over. Swarner honed his observational skills while writing his syndicated column, The Family Man, and it shows: he has a knack for finding humor in any parental situation.