Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living

Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman shares his humorous musings on life, manliness, meat, and much more in his first book.

Growing a perfect moustache, grilling red meat, wooing a woman—who better to learn from than the always charming, always manly Nick Offerman, best known as Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson? Combining his trademark comic voice and very real expertise in woodworking—he runs his own woodshop—Paddle Your Own Canoe features sage advice in the categories of love, etiquette, time management, diet, grooming, and self-confidence.

Filled with “laughter, wood shavings, and kisses,” Paddle Your Own Canoe includes stories from Offerman’s childhood in small-town Minooka, Illinois—“I grew up literally in the middle of a cornfield”—to his beginnings as a carpenter/actor and to the hilarious seduction of his now-wife Megan Mullally. And if that wasn’t enough, Offerman also shares a haiku. About bratwurst.

A mix of amusing anecdotes, opinionated rants, and offbeat gaiety, Paddle Your Own Canoe will not only delight readers but may also rouse them to put down their smartphones, study sycamore leaves, and maybe even hand carve (and paddle) their own canoes.

"It is thought-provoking, profane, and frequently hilarious." - Publishers Weekly