“Abbi is a visionary. She is fiercely creative, and her voracious imagination is palpable on these pages. Her illustration is a world I want to literally jump into and live in, and I’m closer to it than ever before with Carry This Book. It’s interactive and voyeuristic, and the most delicious part is seeing inside Abbi’s curious, romantic mind.”
—Ilana Glazer
“Using a comedic, ingenious blurring of reality and fantasy, Abbi has created a wondrous peek into secret worlds. Her work captures something essential about her subjects, allowing us to revel and delight in an imagined space. Carry This Book is visually enchanting and a joy to read.”
—Carrie Brownstein
“Abbi is very smart. And she can write. And she can draw. She conquers all. Abbisolutely.”
—Maira Kalman
“We’ve been asked what’s in our wallets. We’ve been told what’s in a name. Now Abbi looks at what’s in the bags and suitcases of real and fictional people. Homer Simpson? Check. Michael Jordan? Check. Anna Wintour? Check. Looking at these illustrations and trying to guess who they belong to is like an inside-out game of Where’s Waldo? You know what’s amazing? After I was done reading, I emptied out my own Kipling bag, and this book was in it.”
—Questlove
“The hilarious and lovely Abbi Jacobson is in book form. Fantastic!”
—Aziz Ansari
“Jacobson’s art is warm, textured, and carefully composed, a little bit Maira Kalman and a little bit Roz Chast. It’s also genuinely funny, and funny in a specifically visual way. Carry This Book has a conceit with just the right amount of quirk, and illustrations that have just the right amount of stylization.”
—Vox
“The hilariously random illustration book every ‘Broad City’ fan needs . . . Her simple yet detailed style is reminiscent of a visual diary, as hilariously arbitrary as Lincoln’s Al Dente Dentist blog, and just as heartening.”
—The Huffington Post
“A sweet, satirical glimpse into the bags (and minds) of noteworthy figures . . . sweetly intimate . . . Jacobson is a clever and quirky illustrator who’s equally disposed to feminist commentary and . . . humor.”
—Rolling Stone
“This is the next best thing to being BFFs with Abbi Jacobson.”
—Refinery29
“Jacobson, who studied fine arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art, renders each parcel with exquisite detail, making this a great addition to any queen’s coffee table.”
—Real Simple
“What comes through in Carry This Book is that [Jacobson] had a lot of fun.”
—Vanity Fair
“Clinton is just one of the many powerful women’s bags—ahem, Beyonce—that Jacobson illustrates in this colorful and oftentimes hilarious look at the imagined world of some of our favorite personalities.”
—ET Online
“Carry This Book replicates that feeling of watching Jacobson’s TV show that you already know her and are best friends. Throughout the book, Jacobson peppers in handbag-related advice both literal and figurative, including . . . that we all carry anger, love, regrets, hopes, etc. And even in short, funny captions, she expresses nuanced opinions. Considering her two-page spread gently ribbing self-help and guide books, Jacobson has presented one in the gentlest way possible. . . . You can schlep around your own insecurities, as long as you also take what you need.”
—Jewcy
“Carry This Book expresses Jacobson’s talents as a comedian and artist, in equal measure.”
—Fast Company
“Easy Sunday afternoon page turning.”
—Topshop
“[Hilarious] . . . playful and colorful . . . Looking inside the bags of real and even fictional people, such as Batman and Willy Wonka, via her illustrations is so visually entertaining, it’s no wonder it’s [a] best seller.”
—The Jewish Week
“Carry This Book is chock-full of adorable, full-color marker and pencil drawings. . . . Jacobson says she searched the internet for real information about each person (did you know that Albert Einstein never wore socks?), which adds a wily touch to the book. What’s real and what’s made up? It’s all part of the fun.”
—KQED Arts
“Jacobson isn’t just a comedy genius, she’s also a talented illustrator. This book takes readers on an anthropological journey . . . Jacobson labels and annotates the detritus of her subjects with wry commentary on the secret worlds that are exposed by the things we carry around.”
—BookPage
