Written from the heart, The ME Generation...By ME is Ken Levine's frequently funny, often poignant, and always engrossing account of growing up in Southern California during the 1960s. Although my childhood was separated from Ken's by 3,000 miles and 11 years, I could easily relate to a number of his experiences, from those awkward first crushes to navigating the fun/not-so-fun high school daze to enduring "on-the-job" lessons that could be either hilarious or mortifying - sometimes both at the same time.

There are plenty of laughs, but this isn't a collection of one-liners. There's depth and heart on every page. Many of the significant events of the decade are woven throughout the book, providing an interesting contrast to what was going on culturally and in people's personal lives - as I imagine was true for just about everyone, some events remained as blips on the radar, while others hit with considerably more impact. I also loved getting a first-hand account of what Los Angeles was like at that time - there's plenty of local flavor provided by places and people - including the author's encounters with some easily recognizable names.

This is an honest, heartfelt, bittersweet at times, and memorable window into a particular time and place - and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

All the earlier reviews of Ken Levine's THE ME GENERATION...BY ME were written by males. Interesting....I found this book to be every bit as funny and poignant (yes) as they did-and I grew up on the east coast where it wasn't much different. Although we didn't have Zsa Zsa. I laughed out loud at least once during each chapter. Thinking back to the late 60's (high school and early college years) I could easily relate to the parents (although mine were not quite as hip), grandparents, friends and acquaintances. Now I finally understand it....what all those BOYS (who finally became MEN) were going through. If I knew then what I know now (after reading THE ME GENERATION) I would have been alot more popular (even though I hate folkdancing).

It's no surprise that after "surviving" his teen years Ken went onto greater things. (I bet those naysayers and girls who blew him off are sorry now.)

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is about 60+ now...you'll be in for great read that will surely put a smile on your face.

Ken Levine's "ME Generation" is a highly personal coming of age memoir set in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley during the 1960's.

He came of age a few miles west and a few years earlier than I did so it's hard for me to separate the cultural and literary value of his memoir from my own personal curiosity and nostalgia.

Maybe I don't have to separate the personal from the historical. I can safely say that his book captures what it was like for nerdy white middle-class Jewish boys to break with their tribe of origin and join the broader youth culture tribe of the times. Ken's fascination with records and radio paved his path from a quiet suburban upbringing to the wild and tumultuous times outside. Vietnam, LBJ, Nixon, student protests, the Sunset Strip Riots, Sergeant Pepper and the big boss beat of L.A. radio created a chaotic, swirling soundtrack for coming of age in the late sixties. Ken keeps his story personal while bringing all these elements into focus.

I read this book because of my interest in L.A. during the sixties. I only later learned about Ken and his significant contributions as a television and film writer and as a sports broadcaster. The fact that he was both shaped by sixties pop culture and helped to shape the culture that followed makes his story more interesting and relevant. The writing is breezy, humorous, enjoyable and often poignant.

I enjoyed revisiting this world that I passed through a few years after Ken did.

I found out about this book when the author appeared on Stu's Show, an internet radio program primarily dedicated to classic television. Ken made me laugh out loud several times, so I thought I'd give his book a shot. I'm very glad I did!

Ken came of age during the turbulent 1960s. In retrospect it was one of the most monumental decades of the 20th Century, with major assassinations, war in Vietnam, and triumphs in space, but for Ken it was primarily about living as a somewhat maladjusted suburban teenager trying to survive high school and college. The secret to his story's appeal is that we were all maladjusted teenagers in some respects, just maybe not during such a colorful era. We can all identify with his comic adventures, crushes and (at the time) inexpressible feelings, as well as appreciate his comic take on the music and pop culture of the time. Much of the humor in this book comes from his blunt candor about everything from politics to the desirability of certain babes in sitcoms. He's also not afraid to name names (even if some are changed, as the narrator on Dragnet might say, to protect the innocent). Surprise cameos from people ranging from Ann Jillian and Jan Smithers of WKRP in Cincinnatti to Zsa Zsa Gabor and Moe Howard of the Three Stooges make this even more fun to read.

The only minor drawbacks are perhaps a dozen or so instances of odd punctuation, particularly comma placement (which was a bit surprising in a book from a well-regarded writer), and a few minor spellcheck errors, like the name Ernest Borgnine rendered as Earnest Borgnine, but these are very few and far between. Most readers would probably breeze right by them, but I'm a teacher and reserve the right to pick a few nits. Don't mind me. Buy the book anyway. It's really terrific! Like his history teacher, I'd give him an A.

Not only did I buy the Kindle version, but I also bought it on audio for $1.99 extra to hear Ken reading it. Now I'm enjoying it all over again while I drive. VERY highly recommended. I hope he writes a sequel and takes us through his 1970s.

Cleverly set against the historical context of the times (the JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King assassinations, the Summer of Love, the escalation of the Vietnam War, the draft lottery, an so on...), Levine uses his edgy wit to take us on a personal, and hilarious, journey through the awkward and discovery-filled years of junior high, high school and college during the 1960s. While serving as a kind of scrapbook for those of us who grew up with Ken in the entertainment capitol of the world (and, like me, went to junior high and high school with Ken, but didn't know him) and shared so many of the same L.A. experiences, the book also abounds with universal themes and recollections for baby boomers everywhere, regardless of where you spent that magical, confusing, turbulent decade. You'll love it!

Growing up in the '60s. Forging a solid sense of humor on life…

Nice reading.

There are plenty of books about the 60's - those half dark, half blindingly colorful years of psychedelia, protests, drugs, free love, the far-out subculture, an awareness of an emerging new world paradigm which...

Oh, brother. Let's get real. As Ken Levine points out, most of us who grew up in the 60's still couldn't get to third base or as far as mom would drive us. We had to navigate our way through malls, hormones, bad driving, bad clothes, bad jobs, bad neighborhoods, TV dance parties and of course - cricket invasions. Even though he grew up in Surf City, USA, Ken now peels back the scab to show us what it was REALLY like to be a teenager in Los Angeles through that overly-romanticized/reviled decade. It was pretty cool, and he did it all without a surfboard or a guitar.

Ken's pre-adult life was remarkably normal, if you don't count little differences like:

- Classmates such as Ann Jillian and Jan Smithers...and Rachel

- Two and a half appearances on The Dating Game

- Going to a radio station-sponsored Love-In

- Kicking Neil Young out of a record store

- Seeing a part of Goldie Hawn before Kurt Russell did

- Kissing rubber chickens at steakhouses

- A fear of Ringo

- Having the wrong epiphany in Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love

- Getting dating advice from Zsa Zsa Gabor and Stooge Moe Howard

- Being among the first seven or eight people to discover Sonny and Cher

- A mom and dad who were much hipper than he was

- Plus about four dozen more hilarious and heartbreaking episodes

One of the great joys of "The ME Generation...by ME" is how Ken uses the events of each year as touchstones to what was going on in his life - as we all do. We may not have been part of those big stories, but we sure remember what we were doing as they happened...and wondered how we could parlay that into getting girls.

From dealing with his love for television (um, quite literally) to the moment he realized he could write comedy and ultimately reaching a very bittersweet end to Ken's Big Decade, it's an age of discovery that Ken is proud to have you laugh at and identify with. You'll be right by his side, reliving a `60s you never knew, wishing you could have been there instead of wherever you really were. I can't think of many books about the `60s that accomplish that.

Get it. Immerse yourself in it. Enjoy.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable memoir by truly funny writer.

Ken Levine is an Emmy-winning screenwriter (MASH, Cheers, Frazier and several others), so when sits down and writes a memoir about a self-described tall, geeky, eyeglass-wearing, upper middle class Jewish kid from the San Fernando Valley stumbling his way through high school and college during the 60s, his take on that time -- and the trials of growing up -- is simply funny.

This isn't heavy reading or an in-depth look at tumult of the 60s, but to his credit, Levine deals with those topics honestly (at least as much as they affected him), using events in his own life as touchstones for what has happening to the world around him.

Levine writes a deftly funny sentence and yet his feet remain solidly on the ground, and I never got the sense he was engaging in even a little chest beating.

What remains is amusing yet heartfelt and relateable. It's not a history of the 60s, but a history of one funny guy's journey through it and his contact with some of its icons (he was on The Dating Game, went to school with Ann Jillian and Jan Smithers, took dating advice from Zsa Zsa Gabor, etc).

Great summer reading, especially if you lived through the 60s.

Thought that this book gave a real insight to the 60s - Great.