Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America

The book is great. lots of pictures & illustrations. My favourite is Swanson Pyramid of Greatness and the DIY couples massage at SPawnee Treatment Center. Also the illustrations and murals are sick.
A great book with none-stop laughs; makes me wanna move to a great city like Pawnee

Where do I begin...this book went above expectations. I bought it for my cousin for her birthday, but of course I had to read it firsr. What started as a quick skim quickly turned into my reading it cover to cover. The detail and information was incredible. Any true fan of Parks and Recreation will be happy to own this! The Leslie Knope commentary and personal writing is hilarious and true to character. I felt like I was on a personal tour of Pawnee with Leslie!

If you have watched any of the episodes of Parks & Rec, you can actually hear Leslie Knope's voice as you read this book. You get lost in the reading as you take a trip to Pawnee, Indiana and visit all the "hot spots" and get Leslie's take on it all. If you are missing the old gang, this is a great book to get you laughing and remembering all the good times.

A very funny, off beat collection of facts about a fictional town. I'm not a loyal watcher of the show but could substitute the name of my home town and wish it were this bizarre amusing. The perfect bathroom read.

Really great book. I was worried it would just be a re-hash of previously told jokes, but it's not. It's 99% fresh material and COMPLETELY in line with the show. Which is to say, a quality, hilarious product.

Wonderful book! Wish the author would sign it for me, but she seems a little busy running Pawnee. I asked if Ron Swanson could sign it instead, and I was told he said "No". But other than that, it helped me learn about the greatest city in America, and that's all I could ask for.

Enough of this "Gotcha" journalism! So what if the author wasn't born in Pawnee? I've always felt that it's where you're from that counts, not where you were born. Sure, Ms. Knope may have been born in that awful Eagleton, but she's definitely from Pawnee.

That bejeweled Lake trout known as Leslie knope has knocked it out of the park!! This is one of the best bits of merchandising I have ever come across. Ever.

It takes a long time to read this, as every bit of everything is important and will give you the warm fuzzies remembering everything that makes Pawnee so great. The addendum, foreword, foot notes, all of it is gold and shouldn't be overlooked!

From the biggest mini horse, kernstens rubber nipples and JJ's diner, to Ron Swanson, Andy Dwyer and Ann Perkins, this book has everything you love about the great city of Pawnee.

My one complaint would be that this book isn't longer! You don't want this book to end as you learn and reminisce over everything that makes Pawnee and its residents so special. I found myself reading slower and slower the further I got because I didn't want it to be over.

I cannot recommend this enough to anyone who is a fan of the city first in friendship and 4th in obesity.

While this book is delightful and what I was looking for, the low rating is in regards to the poor quality in which it was received. In the description of which I ordered it did not say it was used, however a used book is what a received. Very disappointing.

Full Disclosure: I love PARKS AND REC and have since the beginning. I find it fresh and fun and so reminiscent of one of my favorite shows of all time, NEWHART. I like the heft and weight of the town and the imagination of the writers in creating this mid-western city, which is "First in Friendship, Fourth in Obesity." This very detailed, very funny tie-in, written by Leslie Knope, is a guide to the city, with all the characters contributing essays and opinions (my favorite is April's guide to "hip Pawnee." Her advice: go to the airport and leave town.) The Sweetums' conglomerate and the city's raccoon infestation are frequent mentions. Seems that Pawnee has a special hotline for when you are attacked by raccoons, which Leslie notes are not scared of "humans or cars." The town murals are examined and in the appendix, to my delight, is Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness, as seen in Season 3. After a while the footnotes got more tedious than amusing, but still, for fans of the show this is an excellent addition, like Laura Palmer's Diary. If you're not a fan of the show then that's your problem (mother).

Knope's description of Pawnee, Indiana is so realistic that I had to stop and inquire as to if there really was such a town - unfortunately, there isn't. On the other hand, this geographical fiction allows Knope free rein to display her non-stop creative humor. Readers learn the town's history, where the best restaurant is (on Howell Drive - unfortunately, there are multiple Howell Drives), the town's 5 hottest bars - along with their 'GIB' scores, why the town library is a place to be avoided at all costs, and why Sweetums has become every bit as vital to the town's economic health as it is detrimental to residents' actual health. Etc., etc.

I am especially appreciative of 'Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America' because I had it with when 'imprisoned' by local physicians for showing up in their E.R. with diarrhea. Ms. Knope's comedy provided great relief from constant assaults by a cardiologist, gastroenterologist, internist, intensivist, surgeon, hematologist, and 'walletologist.' (The latter is a new medical specialty that deals with finding and recovering assets and insurance coverage.) Then there were those terrifying 24-hour/day needle-wielding nurses and lab-techs. For awhile things looked quite grim - repeated MRIs, lab tests, and an IBM computer continually found new potential maladies and financial resources meriting/funding additional blood draws, infusions, and analyses. I was running out of blood, drowning in IV fluids, developing an MRSA-resistant cold, and in danger of missing the week's installment of 'Parks and Recreation.' Fortunately, just as I was reaching the end of my rope and Ms. Knope's Pawnee book, my insurance coverage ran out and I was cured/discharged within record time - 0.03 nanoseconds!

Thanks Leslie!

What an awesome book. I never would have guessed that this actually exists but IT DOES! It is the actual book that Leslie Knope wrote. It has everything from information and a map for JJ's Diner to advertisement for local Pawnee establishments. You can see the murals that have been created in the government building. It is a great book full of surprises and I am excited to read it from cover to cover.

Getting this amazing book was one of the best decisions I made. I love the Parks and Recreation TV show and reading this book made me feel like I was part of Pawnee.

Photos and comments by familiar faces from Pawnee adorn the book. If you are as much a fan of the show as I am then this book is for you.