Books Blog : reviews, humor

Recent Chick Lit Reads

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:33:00 GMT

In the past few weeks since my last blog post, I have been on a chick-lit rampage. I have been speed-reading through recent releases like I don't have a hundred other things to do. Laundry piled up, kitchen didn't get cleaned, and packing for my move didn't happen. These three books are part of the reason that I have been slacking.

Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn takes place in Brooklyn's prosperous Park Slope neighborhood. The lives of four women intersect as they deal with husbands, children, and playground politics. Not earth-shattering reading, but worth a chance if you have the time.

Mercury in Retrograde by Paula Froelich has a cover strikingly similar to Prospect Park West. Froelich's novel takes place across the bridge in Manhattan where three women who are down on their luck join forces to get their lives back in order. The ending is pretty predictable, but it is an enjoyable read.

Going across the pond to England, Sophie Kinsella's latest book, Twenties Girl, introduces us to Sadie, a wild flapper from the 1920s and her great-niece, Lara, living in present-day London. Sadie has passed away alone in a retirement home, but her spirit remains on Earth pushing Lara to find who stole Sadie's prized possession. True to Kinsella form, this book is laugh out loud funny and highly recommended.

Happy Reading!

Who Is Mark Twain? by Mark Twain

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:59:00 GMT

When he died in 1910, Samuel Langhorne Clemens - better known by the nom de plume Mark Twain - left behind the largest trove of literary papers of any nineteenth-century American author. Included were letters diaries, travelogues, a huge autobiography, notebooks, literary manuscripts, "easily half a million pages."

Drawn from this cornucopia of material, Who Is Mark Twain? is a new collection of 24 previously unpublished pieces. It contains some materials which end without resolution, and others which give the appearance (in reading) of being early drafts. Nevertheless, the collection on the whole is vintage Twain: funny, irreverent, caustic, and acerbic. Acerbic, that is, to the point where Twain believed that they could not be published while he himself lived. Take, as an example, extended excerpts from the first paragraph of the chapter entitled "The Privilege of the Grave:"

"Its occupant has one privilege which is not exercised by any living person: free speech. The living man is not really without this privilege - strictly speaking - but as he possesses it merely as an empty formality, and knows better than to make use of it, it cannot be seriously regarded as an actual possession. As an active privilege, it ranks with the privilege of committing murder: we may exercise it if we are willing to take the consequences. Murder is forbidden both in form and in fact; free speech is granted in form but forbidden in fact... Murder is sometimes punished, free speech always - when committed. Which is seldom... An unpopular opinion concerning politics or religion lies concealed in the *** of every man... There is not one individual - including the reader and myself - who is not the possessor of dear and cherished unpopular convictions which common wisdom forbids him to utter."

Anyone who has read "Letters From the Earth" (also published posthumously) will recognize the same writer in the chapter "Conversations With Satan," and "The Missionary in World Politics." Those who know that Twain was a newspaperman at one time in his life (writing for a Keokuk, Iowa newspaper under the name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass) will enjoy the irony of "The Force of 'Suggestion.'" There is something here for everyone, always entertaining, very well written, and backed by forceful (if not always endearing) thought.

I loved it!

Other books by Mark Twain in the EVPL collections

Purchase this book at Amazon.com benefitting the Friends of EVPL

Remarkable Story of an Owl and His Girl

wag.mado@evpl — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:13:00 GMT

Yes, that's the subtitle of the book I just finished. Wesley the Owl is a must for anyone who has ever been in love with an animal. The story is written by Stacey O'Brien, who was a lab assistant at Cal Tech when she adopted a 4-day-old barn owl after he suffered permanent nerve damage and could not survive in the wild.

The story, which spans close to 20 years, is filled with fascinating anecdotes of the relationship that developed between these two sentient beings. O'Brien's education as a biologist helps the reader understand many interesting facts about barn owls, but that does not keep her from falling deeply in love with Wesley. The story has a deeper meaning which is about unconditional love and commitment and is referred to many times in the book as "the way of the owl."

I found this memoir humorous, heartwarming, educational, compassionate, and I had a hard time putting it down. I'll never think of barn owls the same again.

A day after finishing the book, I tuned in to Oprah where she featured a man whose best friend is a Grizzly Bear. That segment was followed by a friendship between an elephant and a dog at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald Tennessee -- the same place where Evansville's beloved "Bunny" lived out her last few years. Must have been my week for animal relationship stories!

Thurber Prize for American Humor

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:43:00 GMT

The 2008 Thurber Prize for American humor has been awarded to Larry Doyle for his first novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper. Runners up for the prize were Patricia Marx for Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him and Simon Rich for Ant Farm: and other desperate situations.

So if you are in the mood for some well-written, humorous fiction, these would be some good titles to try.

I Love You, Beth Cooper will soon be a movie directed by Chris Columbus (currently planned for March 2009 release). The story is about a nerdy high school senior who proclaims his love for the most beautiful, popular girl in school in his valedictorian speech. Then she shows up at his door wanting to show him the best night of his life. Doyle has written for Beavis and Butt-Head and The Simpsons, and his first novel "both celebrates and mercilessly satirizes all things teen with razor-sharp humor" according to Publishers Weekly (PW) in their review of his book.

Simon Rich, author of Ant Farm, is a contributor to Mad magazine and former president of the Harvard Lampoon. Ant Farm is a collection of short, humorous pieces, half of which formerly appeared in the Harvard Lampoon. Most of the 57 pieces are only two pages long, and each with a different topic. The PW review says, "The tone remains constant throughout, but the topic changes every page with the abruptness of an iPod shuffle." True, these fragments are fun, and some are so abrupt they could have been iPhoned in."

I enjoyed the start of Claudia Deane's review of Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him in The Washington Post: "There are college boyfriends. There are caddishly bad college boyfriends. And there are caddishly bad college boyfriends you somehow can't quit. And now, thanks to Patricia Marx's Him Her Him Again the End of Him, there's Eugene.

Encountered while her 21-year-old narrator is studying abroad at Cambridge University, Eugene is a budding philosopher, fresh out of Princeton and AmeriCorps with a copy of the Magna Carta in his pocket."

Author Patricia Marx is a former Saturday Night Live writer and a New Yorker contributor.

"TheEducationofHymanKaplan" by Leonard Ross

MediaPhile@evpl — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:22:00 GMT

This was an Oaklyn book discussion selection this month, so there are plenty of copies, even though it was originally published in 1937. The group member who had suggested it brought in a hardcover copy printed during WWII that still had the price sticker on it - $1.37.

Leonard Ross is a pseudonym. The author's real name is Leo Rosten. He immigrated from Poland as a two-year-old child and grew up on the south side of Chicago, eventually getting his PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago. While working on his degree, he taught English as a second language in night school and ran into an immigrant who was the inspiration for the character Hyman Kaplan.

Rosten starting writing short stories about this Yiddish immigrant with an indominable spirit, who plunged right into the English language with lots of creativity but outrageously incorrect spelling and grammar. He submitted them to the "New Yorker" magazine using a pseudonym because he was fearful that his professors would disdain such pedestrian efforts. However, the stories were a resounding success, and when he revealed himself as the author, he actually went up a notch in their estimation. The stories were eventually collected in two volumes, with this the first.

Interesting Leo Rosten trivia:

* One of his classmates at U of Chicago was Milton Friedman and he studied under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics
* During WWII he was deputy director of war information
* Most of his novels were adapted to movies, including 1963's CAPTAIN NEWMAN, MD which starred Gregory Peck, Angie Dickinson, Eddie Albert, Tony Curtis, Bobby Darin, and Robert Duvall -- what a lineup -- has anyone seen it? -- we don't own it and it's not available on Midwest Tape but it's a classic!
* He is the person who actually said about W. C. Fields, "Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad" - a quotation routinely attributed to Fields himself.
* English comic author Evelyn Waugh thought Hyman Kaplan a character "worthy of Dickens."

I read this in the staff room in breaks and at lunch and actually giggled my way through it. By the way, the stars are in the title because Hyman Kaplan always spelled out his name in crayon using different colors and stars between each letter.

A great book...or THE GREATEST book of all time???

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:01:00 GMT

Last weekend I finished reading Stephen Colbert's epic tome I Am America (and So Can You!). If you have not done yourself the favor of reading this New York Times Bestseller (previously #1 on the hardcover nonfiction list), DO IT NOW! The fate of the free world rests in your hands.

Being a fan of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Stephen's spin-off, The Colbert Report, I can attest that I Am America lives up to the wit and humor of the television shows. As always, Colbert pulls no punches as he speaks his mind, the one-and-only absolute truth. The only other way to absorb this much of his truthiness is to beam the contents of his brain directly into yours; look for the "Stephen Colbert's Brain Downloading Kit" coming soon to stores, but unlike his book it won't be available for free at the library.

Without this book, I would not have known the truth about the evil, liberal media; the evil, liberal Hollywood; Catholicism being the one true religion; the unfair advantages seniors get in our country (lookin' at you, Social Security!!!); and, of course, the cold-blooded killers that bears are. I will not ruin the surprise by going on further about the book's content, but it should be considered sacred doctrine. In fact, each copy comes with a sticker alerting firemen how many copies of the book are in your house to rescue, in case it's ever on fire.

In short, read this book now. As I went through withdrawals during the writers' strike, it helped me get my Colbert fix. If you're still not convinced, know that it was recently awarded with "The Stephen T. Colbert Award For The Literary Excellence".