Books are cheaper than heroin, but they DO add up....
Amy, Carrie, Chanin and Sarah buy (and read and review) their own stuff. They've been known to shop around from dealer to dealer looking for the best price. If you're interested in slipping them something to try out, just contact us.
One of my younger colleagues posted about getting grey hair the other day.
As an official Old (TM), I felt justified to warn her that finding grey in the hair on your head was actually one of the least rude places she was gonna get grey hair.
I mean, I have them in my eyebrows! I'm a brunette; there is no way to hide that without make-up or tweezing. So rude.
The depressing part? Of all the rude places grey hair can show up, eyebrows are actually the least rude.
Aging is not for the weak, and no one can make you laugh about this the way that Samantha Irby can.
So, yes, when I pondered on this very blog what book to read next at the end of April? Yeah, I went with wow, no thank you.
It was a good choice.
Samantha is funny.
She's 40-ish, and she catalogs the many ways her body continually betrays her (autoimmune disease, heart condition, seborrheic dermatitis, creaky knees, etc.). She also has an amazing perspective on how her formative years did NOT prepare her for adult things like home maintenance, tax forms, and making friends when you move to a new city.
She's not scared of talking about the topics that make many of us stammer like unreliable bowels and bad credit.
wow, no thank you is a collection of essays, so it's a great read for those time when you might need to read in chunks. I think Hello, 911? and A Simple Guide to Home Repair were my favorites--possibly because I could relate so well.
If you like to read semi-autobiographical humor essays, you're not squeamish about topics like Crohn's Disease, and you comfortable with the salty language, treat yourself to wow, no thank you.
Remember when Amy said they're moving? Yeah, so am I. My darling husband has already left and in approximately 14 days there will be people here to pack up our house. And do you know what I've been doing? Crying. Crying because my daughter is done with pre-school. And while I'm all for feeling our emotions when they happen and understanding that the small things in life are usually the big things in life, etc ad nauseum, I don't have time for that. I should be preparing for (hopefully) the World's Greatest Garage Sale, taking things off the wall, packing the personal items we will need while our household goods are in transit, and all sorts of other random things one must do to leave a place properly. Which also means I don't have time to write a proper review of this good book. So just know: this is a good book; you should read it if you're not offended by alternate interpretations of Christ's life; you should forgive short-timed bloggers because that's what Jesus would do. Hmmm....that last part would make a good t-shirt/bracelet/bumper sticker.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, is funny. It's also touching, sad, and endearing. You may notice that this is the second novel by Mr. Moore that I have read and reviewed in about a month. That's because he's got a wicked sense of humor and an easy writing style. What he doesn't have is the ability to take things too seriously. I, personally, like that. However, I know there are some people who will not appreciate that when put together with the subject at hand; Christ's formative years. Levi, who is called Biff, is Jesus Christ's, Joshua, best friend. He has been resurrected to write his gospel for the world, and so we come to know all manners of things the more popular gospel writers omitted. Like the fact that Mary was a bit of a knockout, at least that's how Biff saw her. Or that Jesus started to realize he might be The One when he and his brother played a game involving resurrecting lizards. Maybe you didn't know that Jesus was often frustrated with the lack of communication on his Father's part. These are all things Biff was privy to as he was with Joshua all the time.
When Joshua felt he needed to explore what being the Son of God really meant and how he was to go about doing whatever it was that it meant, Biff followed him to the mountains of Afghanistan and the shores of India (where Joshua became quite the yogi and befriended the last yeti). Which is good, because Joshua is the world's nicest guy, can't tell a lie, and is therefore a walking target for people of lesser morals. Biff has the street smarts while Joshua has the ability to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, cast out demons, and resurrect the dead. What could go wrong? There is no surprise ending. Ultimately, Joshua is crucified. Biff loses it and goes after Judas. Well........and then some other stuff happens but I don't want to give that away because I felt it was one of the better parts of the story. I really, really liked this book. It made me appreciate the challenges Joshua had to face, whether accurately depicted here or not - there had to be more than a few issues in asserting oneself as The Savior, here on Earth. I was not offended by the story or the language used. I might not recommend it to my mother-in-law and I'm not sure it would be my mother's favorite either. BUT, if you want a different take on a life that has been well-discussed, then this is your book.
This post should have been up yesterday but I was having issues with Blogger. And I couldn't turn to my partners in crime because Carrie was pounding tequila and Amy was dealing with (coincidentally) a sleepwalker. Therefore, I gave Blogger my angry eyes look and begged off til this morning. Turns out I just needed to install some updates on my computer, so now I'm no longer angry at the nice people who make Blogger possible. Now I just need to get Carrie and Amy some help with their problems. OK, fine. Carrie doesn't really have a drinking problem. And "pounding tequila" may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but she was around alcohol and Amy was totally dealing with a sleepwalker.
Sleepwalk With Me is Mr. Birbiglia's account of his adventures with sleepwalking (hey! what a surprise!), and other stories from his youth and his career in stand-up comedy. Bonus: I can count this as a non-fiction read. It is funny. It is sometimes sweet. It is short. It's the perfect book to have on an airplane; engaging enough that you want to continue reading, but not too complicated that you can't put it down to get your in-flight complimentary beverage and your pretzels.
The thing I liked most about this book, and honestly the comedy I have subsequently watched, is that Mr. Birbiglia is funny in a self-aware, self-deprecating manner without being mean to everyone else he has ever come in contact with. That's not easy to do. Many comedians are hilarious but at the expense of others. This is not the case with Mr. Birbiglia. Not that he doesn't point out some of the absurdities of, well, life in general, but for the most part he doesn't make himself out to be above all that absurdity. It was nice to laugh but not feel guilty about it.
Two of my favorites chapters/stories:
Delusional - in which he discusses his childhood aspirations to be a rapper, a comedian, a poet, a professional basketball player, a country singer, a break-dancer, or the owner of a pizza restaurant (where third graders could hang out). That's a lot of aspiring.
Please Stop the Ride - the telling of his attempts at romance and eventually hanging out with his first real girlfriend......and her real boyfriend. Nothing says "first love" like meeting your girlfriend's other boyfriend's parents.
Sleepwalk with Me was also an off-Broadway show (presented by Nathan Lane!) and a motion picture (accepted into Sundance!). The title is not metaphoric; he does have a serious issue with sleepwalking that required medical attention. Those stories are also very funny, but sometimes in the "This is only funny because you're writing about it now and I know you're fine, so we can chuckle about this now." kind of way. During my YouTube search for Mr. Birbiglia's stand-up act, I came upon a series of videos featuring him and some random people who had purchased his book. He would video chat with these, I'm assuming, strangers to thank them for buying his book. Now that's an awesome idea. And we be thrilled to let him comment/video chat/personalize a song for our little book blog if he feels so inclined after Google alerts makes him aware of us. I thought about putting one of those thank-you videos here, but then I found this one and it made me snort. Happy Friday!
