Michael Ian Black masters dark humor when looking back on his life in “You’re Not Doing It Right.”

In a series of humorous essays, Black tackles his obsession with Fat Kevin Federline photos, the reason why he hates Alan Alda and a look back on his first fight.

He writes about meeting his wife, Martha, how they were both dating other people for a while until they finally decided to get together and the various ups and downs of their relationship, including their honeymoon to Amsterdam and his experience with some “special” brownies there, and their trips to therapy and his realization that there is no studio audience laughing at his hijinks and snarky comments to his wife. (But when he does pick up after himself, there may be someone cheering him on.)

He also writes about his first kiss and being the nerdy theater guy, his mother buying him an Easy-Bake oven in an attempt to make him “New Seventies Man” and how important it was to tell his mom exactly what he wanted for Christmas. He also writes about his deceased father and dealing with that at a young age and the only time he remembers telling his dad he loves him and how his experience about that incident changed now that he is an adult with kids.

He writes very funny sections about his and his wife’s decision to have a baby – how he broke down and cried at hearing the song, “Arms Wide Open,” how he met fatherhood with fear and trepidation and the awful, awful torture of having not one, but two colicky babies and the immense joy at finally having the colic go away and them sleep through the night.

He also writes about his first “adult” health scare – experiencing vertigo and how he accepted the fact that he IS the demographic for a BMW, despite his hatred of his former neighbor that had one. There is also a story about his son’s first pet and Black’s own experiences with the dog he and his wife bought.

Frankly, writing about the topics he covers, one would expect the book to be serious and a bit of a downer when, in fact, the opposite is true. The subject matter might be serious and even dark at times, but Black tackles it with dry wit and humor that makes his subjects funny and ultimately, very relatable. He says what people think but rarely vocalize.

This is a book that I stayed up all night reading and you will, too!