The best way to start this review is with a disclaimer: If you have a strong distaste of the far left, stop now and look for something else. This book is not for you. You will hate it.How to Be a Person: The Stranger's Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos, and Life Itself is a practical guide to life for recent high school graduates, with some emphasis those bound for college. That isn't to say that adults won't also enjoy the how-to's, anecdotes, life-lessons, and advice the book provides. For those of us who are older, it facilitates reflection, understanding, and perhaps allows a filling-in of holes in our lives. For the parent, even (especially) the conservative one, "How to Be a Person" can shed some light on some of the obstacles, down-sides, and moments of judgement that your aging teen will probably encounter in the coming years. Or, if there are some subjects you're just uncomfortable discussing with them, this book will do it.In "How to Be a Person"'s chapter "How to Write Good," contributor Christopher Frizzelle says, "Don't use clichés." I'm gonna use one. You can't judge a book by its cover. Despite looking like a tongue-and-cheek guide filled with satire and misinformation, at its core, there is warmth, deepness, encouragement, and all around sound facts and advice. Yes, there is a liberal sort of "live free" tone expressed by the authors, but many red flag moments that a young adult may encounter are handled appropriately. Do not smoke crack/meth, shoot heroin, snort coke, how to practice safe sex, how to prevent and look out for rape. They even provide advice on who to talk to as well as the number of a hot-line to call if you are feeling severely depressed and/or suicidal. There is heart and it is all wrapped in an up-front and sometimes vulgar way.The great feat this book accomplishes is that it is an effective educational and preparatory tool. "How to Be a Person"'s vast collection of subjects are lessons in life skills a young adult needs: laundry, manners, cooking (with some starter recipes), grammar, financial responsibility, how to talk to people (without being creepy), how to date someone (without being creepy), relationship advice, and guidance on who, how, and when to decide to sleep with someone and do it safely. All this information is presented in a lighthearted way, almost like it is from a peer. The end result: necessary teaching from a "friend."Other chapters of this book are purely satirical, and provide great humor in something that would otherwise only be lessons. Most of the subjects are largely stereotypical like what you need to know about each college major, a guide to America's geography and cultures, "How to Sleep with your Professor," what books, music and art say about a person, a guide to politics, "How to Use a Computer," and a profile of the people that you will meet in life (ranging from "People Who Don't Watch T.V." to "Wizards").On the more aesthetic side, this book can be a quick read, even though it is 250+ pages. It is largely entertaining. Roughly 50 of those pages are "Savage Love, College Edition." For those of us familiar with Dan Savage's "Savage Love" column, there aren't any surprises here. They are reprints, so you may have already read them. However, in one of the reprinted articles Savage answers a question he's answered before, but answers it again because the kid writing was 12 the first time the question was answered. Likewise, most of these articles will be new for 18-19 year-olds, even if those of us who are older are a bit let down by almost 25% of the page-count being "Savage Love." Also, a lot of the satire is quite slanted, but the authors are pretty up-front about it. All in all, it is funny. Don't believe me? Don't thumb through it. Just look at the index.Yes, this is a long review, but there are a lot of layers to this book, and it should have a spot on every young adult's bookshelf (and yes, they should have a bookshelf). Unless you sit as far left as possible, you will probably disagree with some of the content. If you are far right you'll probably give this book a bad review, which is short-sighted (and shame on you), because these are the experiences your college-aged child will deal with. Might as well make sure they're prepared.