What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding

Newman has been a television writer for such well-known shows as That 70's Show, How I Met Your Mother, and Chuck and brings her comic skills to this witty tell-all about her own romantic exploits—cleverly tagged "vacationships"—during the frequent trips she took abroad in her 20s and 30s. Terrified of romantic commitment after the slow dissolution of her parents' marriage, Newman filled the emotional void while traveling by assuming an alter ego she named "Kristin-Adjacent," a "slower, softer, and yes, sluttier" version of who she was at home in Los Angeles. Several months out of the year Newman charged into a dizzying variety of short-term international adventures, mingling with such colorful characters as Rodrigo the Brazilian surfer, Diego the Spanish instructor in Patagonia, Aleg the Russian bartender, and, most important, "Father Juan," an Argentine ex-seminary student with whom Newman had her most lasting and emotionally compelling affair. Newman herself narrates this audio edition with mixed success; the anecdotes are by degrees exhilarating, unbridled, and often quite embarrassing, so the courageous candor of the material lends an air of intimate charm, as if Newman was sharing her stories with a best girlfriend over a shared bottle of wine. However, her delivery is also a bit shrill and grating in places, underlining an essential immaturity and superficiality in the tone of the narrative.