Review: THEFT BY FINDING, by David Sedaris

Theft by Finding, by David Sedaris. Published 2017 by Little, Brown. Nonfiction. Memoir. Humor. Audiobook.

Oh how I love David Sedaris's memoirs. Way back when I remember splurging on a hardcover edition of Holidays on Ice, because I just had a feeling it would speak to me. And it did.

Anyway after reading his books steadily for the past 18-odd years I've decided the best way to enjoy him is on audio- he is a great narrator of his own work and really adds a whole new dimension with his expressions and voice. Thus even though I did run out and buy a hardcover of Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 as soon as it came out, I also jumped on a free audio version that Libro.fm offered to booksellers. What a treat.

At the very beginning Sedaris informs, or warns, us that this book is a very selective and incomplete edition of his diaries, which are far more voluminous than even this weighty tome would suggest. But what remains is vastly entertaining, bittersweet at times, at times obscene, crazy, or just plain silly and weird. It's also mundane, tender, jumpy, and intimate, and all these contradictory things at once. The narrative feels disconnected at times, since there is no real narrative, just a selection of events over time that give the reader some insight into Sedaris's priorities when it comes to observation, as well as his creative process and eye for detail. Some characters stand out; his relationship with his siblings always sits front and center, as well as his parents and his partner Hugh, who comes on to the scene about midway through this volume. Sedaris is cagey and economical about what he includes about the relationship; they meet, meet again, and the next we hear they are moving in together. It's not a lot but the particulars he chooses are enough to give a sense. I don't know why I'm particularly fascinated with this aspect of his life, but there you go.

Sedaris's voice joined me for a couple of weeks of bus rides and walks and he is a great companion. He says in the introduction that he doesn't expect readers to listen all at once, but "dip in and out" and this is just about what I did, listening for a few minutes here and there as I did errands, traveled around the city or relaxed at home or worked on crafts. I listened to quite a bit of it in the car, as my husband and I drove to and from Washington, D.C., two weekends ago. But for the most part I consumed the book in stolen moments.

And this approach worked well for a diary, written as it is in fits and spurts and crystallizing individual moments in time. Readers will travel with Sedaris all over the United States, to England, France and elsewhere, and from his early days of housecleaning and fruit picking through to his success as a writer. You'll get to know his family, especially his sisters and parents, and of course Hugh. You'll listen to experience his first successes and occasional struggles, like learning French or losing his cat Neil. Poor Neil.

Theft by Finding isn't laugh-out-loud funny like his polished memoir writing but it's so very enjoyable in a more low-key way. I could listen to him all day.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary audio copy from Libro.fm.

Review: FELINES OF NEW YORK, by Jim Tews

Felines of New York: A Glimpse Into the Lives of New York's Feline Inhabitants, by Jim Tews. Published 2015 by Simon & Schuster. Cats. Humor.

Kind of does what it says on the label, this parody of the much-lauded Humans of New York. You get pictures of cats with names and what neighborhood they live in, along with a line or two about their lives.

I think if you live in New York you get enough humans in your life to last you awhile and there is no real need to disturb the peace of your apartment by bringing them in to it, since the whole reason you have your quiet apartment is to get away from them. So this book is perfect for New Yorkers who feel like they have a little too much in the way of other New Yorkers in their life sometimes, and maybe not enough cats.

I have two cats who immigrated with me and and we enjoy learning the perspective of New Yorker cats. Sam the cat from Williamsburg says "I used to be an indoor cat but the kid left the door open and I got out. I was just waiting for the right moment. That kid was kind of a jerk, a real whisker-puller." If my cats were in this book, they would say something like, "We moved here from a big house and I think I like having less space. I have more control over my environment. It's noisier though." Or maybe "New Yorkers are either really nice or crazy. We haven't met any though. We don't go outside." Tews imagines vivid interior lives for his feline subjects and conjures up their moods and personalities in quick quips. As a reader you get to both look at cute pictures of cats and share in the fantasy of their imagined lives.  It's kind of irresistible.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: How Not to Read, by Dan Wilbur

How Not to Read, by Dan Wilbur. Published 2012 by Penguin. Humor.

Full disclosure: Dan Wilbur is a friend of a friend, and I hope someday to be able to call him my friend as well. He sent me the book to review, and Penguin asked me to blurb it, which I did. The book is based on his blog, Better Book Titles, in which he and others come up with creative and descriptive titles for books like White People Ruin Everything, also known as The People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn, and Epic References! which you may know as The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. He's even retitled his own book I'll Probably Stop Blogging Now That My Book's Been Published.

The book is hilarious. Although it does include a nice sampling of his re-written book titles, most of it is a comedic tour of the book industry, reading and literary studies. It's the kind of book that's fun to dip in and out of when you have a spare moment and need a chuckle. The basic thesis of the book is that reading is a waste of your time. Obviously there is a heavy component of irony in writing about how it's dumb to read. Wilbur is a comedian and a bookseller when he's not blogging and he puts his knowledge of the book world and his well-honed comedic turns of phrase to good use.

Chapter headings include

• Books: What Are They, and What Are They Good For?
• How To Read
• How To Talk to Others About Books
• and the introduction, Ughhh! Books Are the Worst!

Each section addresses its respective topic with insight and thoughtfulness, with the genuine wish to help the "reader" sort through the morass of the literary world. The first chapter, Books: What Are They... talks about what exactly a book is, where you might have heard of books, and the various evils for which books are responsible. Later on Wilbur treats us to a guide to the various sections of a bookstore or library, like "Nonfiction, Or the 'I Feel Smarter Just For Buying This' Section".  Etc.

How Not to Read would make a great gift for the book-lover in your life, or a gag gift for someone who doesn't like to read. It's not really kid-friendly though so I would hesitate to recommend it for reluctant younger readers, even though it is very funny.

Click here for my very serious interview with Dan Wilbur.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review and was asked to blurb it.

REVIEW: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, by David Sedaris

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, by David Sedaris. Published 2010 by Little, Brown.

I first experienced David Sedaris's new collection of short stories, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, via audiobook, which is somewhat unusual for me. I listen to very few audiobooks but I was offered this one by a friend and figured, why not. Later I read the print version and while I enjoyed both, I think this is one book that was practically made to be read aloud.

If you know Sedaris's work, you know the subtitle, A Modest Bestiary, is ironic at best. Sedaris writes both fiction and nonfiction but this collection is purely fictional, animal tales of his own creation about cats, dogs, birds, insects and other creatures great and small, but for the most part, not really wise or wonderful. Sedaris's animal world, like the world he portrays in his other fiction, is cruel, heartless and often undignified. A hippo has a problem with his rectal residents; a crow works to hoodwink a lamb out of something precious; a narcissistic bear learns what it really means to be pitied, and so forth.

I enjoyed this book very much but I think you either have to be a die-hard Sedaris fan or have a really twisted sense of humor to enjoy it, too. It's definitely not going to be for everybody; there's not a lot of lightness or sweetness to Sedaris's animal tales- they're raunchy, ribald and heartless, just like his other fiction. In the past I've always preferred his memoir to his fiction for this very reason; his fiction has always struck me as formulaic and filled with cruel characters lacking self-awareness who behave with utter selfishness towards their fellow human beings. And this book is no different but when these behaviors are placed among animals they lose much of their sting. Nature is cruel; animals are heartless; they do lack empathy in a way that would be psychotic if we were talking about humans. So it doesn't bother me that that's the way Sedaris portrays them.

And like I said, this was made to be an audiobook. Narrators like Elaine Stritch and Sedaris himself make the biting dialogue and occasionally shocking plot twists come to dark, sinister, hilarious life. Reading these stories on the page paled to hearing them read aloud. If you're not an audiobook person but you're interested in this collection I would really urge you to at least check the audio version out of the library and give it a try alongside the print version, which I would urge you to buy in any case. (The audio version also has a bonus story unavailable in the print version and downloads of Ian Falconer's equally twisted illustrations.) At least, that is, if you have that aforementioned twisted sense of humor.

Rating: BUY


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FTC Disclosure: I did not receive either the print or audio version of this book from anyone for review.

REVIEW: Lost in Austen, by Emma Campbell Webster

Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure, by Emma Campbell Webster. Published 2007 by Riverhead Books. Fiction. Humor.

Lost in Austen is not a chick lit novel, nor is it a Jane Austen primer, and nor is it coming to a theater near you anytime soon. What it is, is a hoot.

Lost in Austen is a mix of choose-your-own-adventure and role-play style book, in which you the reader take on the persona of Elizabeth Bennett, heroine of Jane Austen's famous Pride and Prejudice. You are tasked with finding a husband, but not just any husband. At every turn in the story you are given options from which to choose and must follow the right path to marry and marry successfully. And this isn't as easy as it might seem.

Although set primarily in the world of Pride and Prejudice, the story interweaves characters and situations from most if not all of Austen's novels, including Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park and others, so some glancing familiarity with them will help you on your journey. For example, it helps to know, for example, that Mr. Elton is a cad to be avoided- but all you really need to know is that you're supposed to marry Mr. Darcy and no one else.

Along the way you will also gain and lose points in a variety of categories- fortune, confidence, and intelligence- which will eventually influence the success or failure of your journey, so keep a piece of paper and a pencil handy as you read. And don't take the very snarky tone of the narrator too personally. For example, at one point you may be asked to play a little music, but you demur owing to your lack of skill. The narrator has this to say: "You're not just being modest; you really do play the piano remarkably ill." And if you fail in your mission to marry successfully, you may be faced with something like the following:

That didn't take you long, did it? You have failed to complete your mission. You didn't even get NEAR completing it, in fact. You deserve to be disfigured. Be ashamed.

Not everyone will be comfortable with this level of brutal sarcasm, so just keep that in mind if you decide to enter the world of Lost in Austen!

I had a lot of fun playing/reading this book. I enjoyed the dark humor and the way all my favorite (and not-so-favorite) characters from other Austen novels make their appearance, all very true to character. The gothic-manga style illustrations give a modern twist and a breath of fresh air to Austen's world. Campbell Watson does a nice job reproducing Austen's tone and style and adapting the story to the choose-your-own-adventure format; it's a very original use of the Austen stories and it's just a really fun way to while away a little time. Sometimes I laughed, sometimes I got frustrated, and sometimes I just kept track of points and pages. And when I failed to marry my Mr. Darcy- and I did fail, many times- I could always just flip back to the beginning and start over.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris

When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris. Published 2008 by Hachette Book Group. Nonfiction. Humor.

Like a lot of people, I'm a big fan of David Sedaris. As a matter of fact, until When You Are Engulfed in Flames came out, I had no idea how many people were big fans of David Sedaris. The first Sedaris book I read was Holidays on Ice, and I bought it on impulse one early morning having coffee in Borders in downtown Boston, when coffee out was a luxury and new hardcover books were an extravagance. But it just looked so funny, and so me. And it was, and for years I thought I was the only one in on the joke- nobody else I knew read him. I mean, I curl up with "The SantaLand Diaries" every Christmastime the way more normal people read A Christmas Carol or "The Night Before Christmas." It's my little tradition.

Since then I've become positively addicted to Sedaris's unique witty sarcasm and bitter irony. I rolled around on the floor laughing to Me Talk Pretty One Day; bystanders who thought I was having some kind of fit, offered to call me an ambulance as I fell over to Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. When I read The New Yorker magazine at the gym, I had to put it aside when one of his essays appeared for fear I would fall off the crosstrainer.

Alas, no one thought I was having a medical emergency as I read his latest collection of essays, When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

I rushed right out to buy his latest as soon as it hit the shelves- I was in such a hurry to get to my favorite bookstore to get it, I didn't even know Sedaris himself was reading from the book at another bookstore not a mile from my house. I found the book disappointing. Oh yes, it's full of pithy little essays on being an expatriate in France, and being a writer, and family stories and character sketches of eccentric neighbors and friends. But it's missing something. I don't know if his sense of humor has dulled, or if mine has, but the stories, almost all of them, struck me as a little duller and a little more domesticated than I'm used to. Reined in. Or something. Oh sure, I laughed now and then, but they were quiet laughs- chuckles- when what I expect from David Sedaris are belly laughs and the kind of fits and squeals that make people question my health and/or sanity.

The last essay, "The Smoking Section", an almost-novella about Sedaris's trip to Japan to quit smoking, comes close to the old David though, and mostly because it reminds me of some essays in Me Talk Pretty One Day when he first goes to France with his partner Hugh. The culture shock, the language lessons, the awkwardness fitting into a new environment, the tortured English of the locals- it's all rendered with characteristic humor and bite, and it's by far the best part of the book.

Overall I'd suggest When You Are Engulfed in Flames for die-hard Sedaris fans, but also for anybody who'd like to while away a little time with some mildly humorous essays about life and love. The first essay, "Keeping Up," is actually a very tender little love letter to Hugh- sweet and touching, and very different from the Sedaris I'm used to. But then the whole book is different from the Sedaris I'm used to, so maybe it all makes sense.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclsoure: I did not receive this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster

Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster. Published 2006 by Penguin. Nonfiction. Memoir. Humor.

Okay, so something published in 2006, to which there have already been two sequels, is not exactly hot off the presses. But then again, like little black dresses and Jen Lancaster's brand of sarcastic self-depreciating humor, some things never go out of style.

Bitter is the New Black is Lancaster's first book, the beginning of her very successful series of memoirs; I reviewed the second, called Bright Lights, Big Ass, and her most recent book, Such A Pretty Fat : One Narcissist's Guide to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie is Not the Answer, just came out. What makes her books so much fun is that she makes a big deal about how unlikable she is, or was- how frivolous, insensitive, self-centered, etc.- and then subverts that premise at every turn with her wit and candor. Nowadays Lancaster is a successful blogger turned writer, but Bitter takes us back to the days before her fame, when she lost her lucrative, challenging job in the corporate world, and had to not just find a new job, but find herself in the process. Out of work for much longer than she expects, she struggles with self-doubt and shame, with moving from stylish digs in a nice Chicago neighborhood to ever more and more squalid surroundings, finally being evicted from a place she thought she'd never even end up in.

The book is about what she learns through these transitions and how she bounces back. In the mean time though she makes you believe in the real humiliation and shame of losing everything, being unable to find work despite her considerable strengths, and having to face up to how her own behavior landed her in the hole in which she finds herself. But she does it with grace and a light touch and a sense of humor. When she agonizes over selling her purses on eBay to come up with rent money, or bemoans the mani-pedi-less state of her hands and feet, she reminds me a little, in a very silly way, of St. Augustine- "Lord, give me chastity," (or in her case, fiscal responsibility and healthy priorities) "but not yet." I think we can all feel her pain.

Anyway her books are fun reading for the beach or for a little spare time here and there. When I was unemployed for a pathetically long time after finishing my master's degree, I had some pretty bad bouts of self-loathing and self-doubt; I could so relate to her experiences. And I could smile at and with her pratfalls and struggles. She made me laugh, and she made me think. Not bad.

And you can find her blog here.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress : A Girl's Guide to the Dungeons & Dragons Game, by Shelly Mazzanoble

Released: September 2007. Click on the cover to buy.
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Are you a woman (or do you know one) who's never played Dungeons & Dragons but has always been curious about it? Do you have a friend/husband/boyfriend who plays, but you were intimidated by the stereotypes about nerds and geeks, or thought it would to be too hard, or have too many rules, or take too much time? Well if so, Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress is the book for you.

Author Shelly Mazzanoble writes from the point of view of an extremely (even hyper-) girly-girl young woman who loves to shop, watch soaps and get mani-pedis- and who also loves participating in the ongoing campaigns of Astrid the elf and her band of adventurers. She wants to convince women that D&D isn't all about smelly geeks in a basement casting arcane spells and speaking with cheesy British accents while dressed in chainmaille and Ren Faire outfits. Her thesis is that it's just about groups of friends coming together on a regular basis for a fun, wholesome activity that fires the imagination, fosters social skills and helps participants gain confidence.

Okay.

Let me just say up front that I am exactly the sort of person towards whom this book is aimed. My husband is an avid D&D player, as have been many of my male friends throughout my life. I always thought it was a boy thing- a little seedy, a little smelly, and just a little weird. I was in college before I knew any women who played, and they weren't, uhm, people I could relate to. So I just thought, this isn't for me, and put it aside. So when this book came along I thought, okay, let's see if this woman can sell me on D&D. Cause if she can sell me, she can sell anyone.

Most of the book consists of a girly primer on the basics of D&D. She writes about spells, points, character sheets and dice; she includes cute illustrations and quizzes, and even some recipes of suggested appetizers to serve at your own D&D party. The tone is light and breezy, and peppered with pop-culture and fashion references, and the dominant color is pink. It's cute. It's informative. I enjoyed reading the story of how she came to play; she seems like someone I can relate to. Even though the stereotypes aren't the whole story, there is still a lot of truth to them and they do put people like me off the game. I mean, most of the reason I've rejected the idea of playing is that I think I just wouldn't fit in in most groups. But maybe I'm wrong.

As far as actual game-play, the rules and regs don't seem that intimidating or difficult. And I like the idea that it's not competitive. I like Mazzanoble's tone and style, and I think the information is presented in a way that's easy to understand. Her "I'm an outsider who became an insider" approach helps. And there's lots of humor and silliness. I love the little features like "Top Ten Spells Every Woman Should Know", quizzes, cute recipes and the appendix with a sample character sheet. All in all a fun little read. But did she sell me on playing D&D? Well, let's just say I'm not as hostile to the idea as I used to be. And every once in a while I catch myself checking out dice...