The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore – Book Review

May 252011

The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore
Published by Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Hachette

Ginny and William Owens have been enjoying their quiet house, but they are thrilled when their daughter Lillian brings her young children for a visit. Even so, things don’t seem quite right, with no sign of Lillian’s husband Tom who, Lillian is hiding from everyone, recently cheated on her. Not that there is much chance to dwell, when their son Stephen and his pregnant wife Jane show up unexpectedly and are forced to stay when Jane is ordered to bed rest. As if the house isn’t crowded enough with five adults and two children, the Owens’s youngest child Rachel shows up, her life similarly in tatters.

The Arrivals could have easily been one long pity party, in some ways it was one tragedy piled on top of another. Money problems, infidelity, high-risk pregnancies, all happening to a single family in a single summer. And yet, the love of the family and the way they interacted, together with Meg Mitchell Moore’s gorgeous prose combine to create a cohesive and moving novel.

Certain passages of The Arrivals are just so beautiful and true that they beg to be read, reread, shared:

Thinking about it, her throat caught. She felt embarrassed for herself the way you feel embarrassed for a child who falls down while she’s running toward a playground. So much optimism, dashed. -p. 25

What is particularly admirable about The Arrivals is how so many periods of life were represented so realistically: there is the young family, the expectant family, the empty nesters, the young person unsure where to turn. The characters have some poignant things to say about the bittersweet nature of of parenthood as well:

“But parents these days, it is different, I know it is. There’s a certain level of…dissatisfaction that wasn’t there when I was first a mother. Nobody worried about living up to some absurd ideal. There was no idea. But no, I don’t know. It just seems like you’re all laboring under this belief that you can have it all. I know that sounds like a cliche, but really that’s what it is.” -p. 159

After she hung up, Ginny told Lillian that it took every ounce of whatever she had – willpower, fortitude – not to disobey him. She could not stop thinking, she told Lillian, of how he looked on his first day of first grade, waiting at the bus stop with his back curving under his navy blue backpack and his eyes big and scared beneath his baseball cap. Only twice in all of Stephen’s life, said Ginny, had she felt such a need to protect him – that day, and today. -p. 287

The Arrivals is beautifully written, a must read for people in all stages of life, for anyone to whom family is important. Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Author’s agent.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen – Book Review

May 022011

Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen
Published by Orbit, an imprint of Hachette
Series: Living with the Dead, book 1

Sarah is about ready to kill her husband David. There is basically nothing he does anymore that doesn’t completely annoy her and, it seems, the reverse is true for David of Sarah. They are in couples’ counseling, but it doesn’t really seem to be taking and, in all honesty, they are about one bad cd away from divorce. Until their counseling appointment on August 10th, that is. The first thing that seems off is the traffic, or lack thereof. It is 4:30 in the afternoon in Seattle, after all. Even that, though, it not as strange as walking into your marriage counselor’s office and seeing her eating the couple with the appointment before yours.

It isn’t until they’ve had to kill their therapist and a few other people that Sarah and David start to realize what is going on. As Seattle quickly becomes overrun, they decide it is time to strike out for a place that is less infested with the undead – assuming they can make it out alive.

Funniest. Zombie book. Ever.

Petersen, through her character Sarah, has a fantastic acerbic wit, that made want to just keep turning the pages. Really, what fun is the end of the world if you can’t be sarcastic about it? Well, you know, other than the other obvious benefits:

I should have known that having “end of the world” sex wouldn’t solve our problems. Though, it was pretty great and I highly recommend it. It’s one of the big benefits of an apocalypse that no one tells you about. It just makes everything…better, because you know it might be the last time every time. -p. 64

Perhaps the best part of Married with Zombies, is that Petersen was completely went with the fact that her characters needed major help in the relationship department. Each chapter would begin with a piece of advice straight out of a typical relationship self-help book. Well, straight out with a bit of a zombie apocalypse spin:

Find creative ways to have fun together. Looting is really underrated. -p. 142

This was an incredibly fun and well-done book. If you like to laugh out loud at your zombie apocalypses, this is definitely for you. I’m already planning to read the sequel, and I can’t wait for the third book in the series to come out. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound.

Source: personal copy.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

13 rue Therese by Elena Mauli Shapiro – Book Review

Feb 022011

13 rue Therese by Elena Mauli Shapiro
Published by Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Hachette

Josianne has a box, the contents of which can induce fevers. Since she received the box, she has gifted it to a variety of men, scholars, but the box always makes its way home to Josianne. Her latest find is Trevor Stratton, an American translator of French who has come to work for her university. She hides the box in a file cabinet in his office, letting him believe he has discovered a hidden gem. And, indeed, the box has a fabulous cache of historical material, surrounding Louise Bruent, a French woman living at 13, rue Therese between World War I and World War II. As Trevor dives deeper into the artifacts in the box, he finds himself increasingly pulled into Lousie’s world.

I cannot decide whether the writing or the illustrations of 13, rue Therese are more striking. The author, Elena Mauli Shapiro, actually lived in an apartment below the real Louise Brunet in Paris and was left with a box of her possessions when the older woman died, many of the contents of which are reproduced in color right in the pages of the book, in line with the text. For example, from page 77:

5407764197 b5cd826a04 picture

Despite his horrid spelling and his atrocious punctuation, you can see Camille is clever: he has punned. If you look very closely at the front side of the card, you can just make out that he has rubbed off the manufactured greeting that was previously there and written in his own hand, “Thoughts of the absent.” The French word for “thought” (pensée) is also the French word for “pansy,” which is the flower pictured therein. So, he is giving her flower/thoughts, on paper.

All of the illustrations from the book can actually be found on the book’s website, along with their accompanying text, and even a clip of the audio book.

Shapiro has written an incredibly creative book. Not only has she reimagined and recreated in vivid detail the life of a real woman, illustrating it with real artifacts, but she has also given us a novel that plays with the constraints of time in amazing ways. Trevor becomes obsessed with the Louise and the contents of the box to the extent where he – and the reader – is unsure of where or when he is at time. History and the present collide in a puzzling, but ultimately fascinating way.

You must be ready to think and be immersed when you pick up 13 rue Therese, but for the reader who is prepared for this, it is well worth the read. Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells |Indiebound | Amazon*

Check out the 13, rue Therese website, very interactive and cool.

Source: publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore – Book Review

Dec 152010

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore
Published by Twelve Books, an imprint of Hachette

One of the youngest Sherlock Holmes-enthusiasts ever to be inducted into the Baker Street Irregulars, Harold White is very much looking forward to his first gathering of Sherlockian societies, not least because there is a rumor that one of the most illustrious of Sherlockians has actually discovered Arthur Conan Doyle’s missing diary. Let me tell you, these people are SERIOUS about their Sherlock, so this is somewhere on par with confirmation of the existence of life on other planets, or a huge inheritance from a distant relative. Everything is going swimmingly, until said Sherlockian with the huge news is found dead in his hotel room, apparently murdered. Suddenly Harold is certain that he can solve the crime, using the methods of his oh-so-famous hero: Sherlock Holmes.

In alternating chapters, we are taken back in time approximately one century, to Arthur Conan Doyle’s life in the time after he killed off Sherlock Holmes. These days, Conan Doyle is nearly as hated as his character was beloved. Feeling that Holmes has begun to outweigh him in importance, Conan Doyle is trying to prove that he is still relevant as an author and a human being – and not just so he can sign some of his stories as Sherlock Holmes. When a letter bomb explodes in his home, Conan Doyle is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, one he is convinced is connected to the death of a young woman found murdered in a bathtub, a wedding dress on the chair next to her. Along with his less-successful friend Bram Sroker, who had not yet published “Dracula,” Arthur begins an investigation such as would have been undertaken by Holmes himself. Surely the creator is at least equal to the creation?

Oftentimes in a book which alternates storylines, particularly one with dual time periods, one of the stories is much stronger than the other. I can think of numerous books I think would have been better served by cutting out one of the storylines altogether. Such is not the case with “The Sherlockian.” Both stories were engaging and well-plotted, the measure of this is that I was disappointed at the end of each chapter that I would have to postpone following the current storyline, but my disappointment never lasted even half a page, as I was immediately thrust back into the other story. As ridiculous as this may sound, I also loved the chapter length. Each chapter was short enough to maintain suspense and great pacing, but not so short that nothing happened and I became annoyed. Nor did Moore engage in the manipulative technique of manufactured cliffhangers at the end of each chapter, which occasionally happens in suspenseful books with multiple storylines.

Not only was this an exciting, suspenseful, well-plotted story, it was also based loosely on real events. There was really an illustrious Sherlockian found dead by suspicious means, and Arthur Conan Doyle truly did work on cases after initially killing Holmes off – not to mention the fact that he really did feel almost oppressed by the character he created. Moore’s Author’s Note at the end of the book provides a great guide to what was true and what wasn’t. I got a better handle on the fervor of Sherlockian societies and particularly on Conan Doyle’s life, and his attitudes towards Holmes and his reception.

I thoroughly enjoyed Graham Moore’s “The Sherlockian” and have, in fact, already recommended it highly to a number of people, one of whom seems to be crediting it with releasing her from her reading slump. Highly recommended.

Nicole and I spoke with Graham as part of our What’s Old is New podcast on Sherlock Holmes, give it a listen!

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

Disclosure: I am writing this on Monday morning. Around noon, Graham and I will be having lunch together, because I was not able to make it to his book signing last week. I will not alter the content of this review after meeting Graham in person, and knowledge that I would have lunch with him did not alter the content of this review (and, really, I would never have suggested lunch had I not thoroughly enjoyed the book, because that would just be awkward). I do reserve the right to correct typos though.

Source: Publisher at BEA.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent – Book Review

Nov 082010

The Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent
Published by Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Hachette

This prequel to Kathleen Kent’s debut “The Heretic’s Daughter” follows the story of incredibly strong-willed Martha Allen during the years when she has essentially become an old maid, a woman uncourted and beginning to be a bit of an embarrassment to members of her extended family. They are not, however, above having her come and stay with a cousin having a difficult pregnancy whose husband is often away. Martha can be helpful in a case like this because she is not only a strong, good worker, but also accomplished as a midwife. It is at this cousin’s house that Martha is introduced to two men working her cousin’s land in order that they might be given parcels of land themselves the following year. One of them, Thomas Carrier, a man twice her age, begins to catch Martha’s interest after he saves her from a pair of wolves.

An incredibly tall man, Thomas Carrier may not be what he seems. Gossip around Billerica, Massachusetts suggests that Thomas Carrier might actually be Thomas Morgan, the Welshman who, on the orders of Oliver Cromwell, executed King Charles I during the English Civil War. Now that King Charles II has returned to the throne, he is determined to find those whose deeds took the life of his father the anointed King. The Puritans in the colonies are said to be hiding these men and Charles particularly wants the head of the man who struck off his father’s, preferably brought back in one piece so that Charles I’s executioner can be made a public example of. To this end a very shady character sends five men from England to the colonies to hunt down Thomas Morgan and bring him back in what ever form he might take.

Unlike “The Heretic’s Daughter,” it took me quite awhile to get into “The Wolves of Andover,” I was perhaps halfway through the book before I felt compelled to pick it back up again after putting it down. It seemed to lack some of the focus of “The Heretic’s Daughter,” which was given focus and structure just by virtue of the premise of the book. The reader knew what “The Heretic’s Daughter” was building towards from the beginning, but it was more difficult to find that same drive in “The Wolves of Andover” early on.

This may sound contradictory to what I just wrote, but I also wish the stories of the men hunting Thomas down had not begun quite so early in the story. It was perhaps meant to provide some of the direction I was lamenting, but instead it meant I took longer to get to know Martha as a character and figure out what was going on so again contributed to it taking longer to get into the story in general.

I do not want to give the impression that I did not enjoy “The Wolves of Andover,” I simply think the beginning could have been constructed in a way that would have pulled me in more quickly, instead of the relatively slow start it got in comparison with Kent’s first book. I also wish suspense had been built a bit more and a stronger sense of danger created later on in the book. All that being said, delving into the heart of Thomas Carrier’s story was absolutely fascinating. I loved the perspective he was able to share on the English Civil War and the rules of King Charles I and Oliver Cromwell.

Ultimately I can recommend “The Wolves of Andover” to those with an interest in this historical period, but I do not believe it is as strongly plotted as “The Heretic’s Daughter.”

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

Source: review copy from Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

C Street by Jeff Sharlet – Audiobook Review

Nov 032010

C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy by Jeff Sharlet, narrated by Jeremy Guskin
Published by Hachette Audio/Little, Brown and Company, both imprints of Hachette

Synopsis:

If you think the religious fundamentalists who most threaten American values live in the Middle East, Jeff Sharlet has some news for you: there is an elite religious-political organization who is a much greater threat to the essence of America than any foreign fundamentalists wielding bombs and aircraft. Perhaps you assume that Sharlet is referring to the Tea Party movement, Sarah Palin and her ilk, but no. Instead, Sharlet is writing about an organization thoroughly entrenched in establishment power called The Family, about whom he has previously written a book (titled, appropriately enough, “The Family”). The same organization that began the National Prayer Breakfast, which most politicians in Washington fail to attend at their own peril. The Family takes much of its mission from Acts 9:15:

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. (NIV)

Which it strangely interprets to mean that it ONLY needs to minister to and attempt to convert ‘the kings,’ which in the United States evidently means governors, senators, presidents, and congressmen. So, they do their best to convert and ‘help’ those in power, with the idea that someone is in power not because of any of his or her own deeds but solely because God put him or her there. This, of course, means that the ends justify the means in any situation and power should be gained and maintained at all costs, since clearly God ordained this power structure. It probably gives you a good enough idea of their mindset to tell you that they idolize Hitler and Lenin for the power that those men had, although they of course say they want to use this power for Jesus.

In addition to a description of the The Family itself, Sharlet also discusses their religious-political progeny in Uganda who are trying to enact legislation to criminalize homosexuality to the point where ‘aggravated’ homosexuality (repeat offense) will be punishable by death and ‘promotion’ of homosexuality will be punishable by imprisonment. The section on fundamentalism in the military – it is particularly well entrenched in the Airforce – was also particularly frightening for the degree to which it is part of the establishment and people of other religions are harassed.

Thoughts on the story:

I listened to this about a week before Halloween and boy, I cannot imagine anything scarier. You want to give me nightmares? Skip the zombies and vampires, give me men in the highest ranks of power in this country, and influencing those in the highest ranks of power in this country who emulate the power of Hitler and Lenin. That being said, I thought that Sharlet communicated this threat in a very clear manner, both in terms of organization and language. The one thing I thought odd was his re-imagining – twice – of speeches which Mark Sanford might have given, had his lies and infidelities not been discovered. In the midst of such a factual and well-researched book, these suppositions seemed out of place and perhaps even inappropriate. Other than that, though, it was all very well done, as well as compelling (and absolutely terrifying). I should note, that even as a Christian myself I was absolutely horrified by the confluence of political power and religion here.

Thoughts on the audio production:

I wasn’t entirely sure about Jeremy Guskin at the beginning of “C Street,” but I grew accustomed to his style after about 5 minutes and actually really appreciated his narration. He did include vocal variations for emotion and expression, but primarily kept his voice steady, without becoming monotone. I thought it served Sharlet’s journalistic background and style very well.

Overall:

I definitely recommend this book if you are interested in the intersection of power and religion in America. Whether the audio or print is preferable probably depends on how in-depth you wish to go into Sharlet’s account. I was happy just letting everything wash over me – I was horrified enough as it was – but other have said they would have preferred this in print so they could take time with the details. Your call.

Buy this book from:
Audible
Powells: Audio/Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Print*
Amazon: Audio/Print*

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Feed by Mira Grant – Audiobook Review

Jul 142010

Feed by Mira Grant, narrated by Paula Christensen and Jesse Bernstein

Synopsis:

Please don’t stop reading this review when I tell you there are zombies.

Georgia and Shaun Mason live in the same world we do, just about 30 years in the future. Twenty-five years after science goes amuck, curing the common cold, but inadvertantly infecting every human being on the planet with a virus that turns them into zombies when they die. At least nobody gets colds anymore. Brother and sister, Georgia and Shaun are licensed bloggers, looking to jump to their own site. Georgia is a newsie, and Shaun is an irwin – the term for the highly adventerous who like to poke zombies with sticks (I can only assume it is a reference to the late Steve Irwin). When Georgia and Shaun learn that they have landed the gig of official bloggers for the presidential campaign of Senator Ryman – a smart, affable man – they figure they have arrived, everything seems to be going right by any standards. Until everything on the campaign starts going wrong, starting with a zombie attack on the Senator’s compound that can only be sabatogue.

Thoughts on the story:

I know, the whole cure colds and create zombies thing sounds a little bizarre when I type it here, but Grant made it seem ever-so-reasonable. Really, A+ for world building. In a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel (I think this definitely leans more towards post-apocalyptic), I have this intense need to understand how exactly the world got the way it has become, I think it has to do with having been a history major. Grant totally came through for me on that. Georgia imparted to me everything I needed or wanted to know about the zombie-filled United States of 30 years from now, but it was done in a way that avoided simply being an information dump. Everything told was relevant to something happening in the story, or would have legitimately been written on her blog.

I completely loved Georgia. She was a really strong female protagonist who managed to seemlessly meld a no-nonsense business attitude with a deep love for her brother and friends and a deep passion for the truth. She also kept the story interesting with her dry humor and her quick (but not too quick) ability to work out what was going on.

Thoughts on the audio production:

Paula Christensen was the perfect choice to narrate Georgia, she absolutely became the character for me. “Feed” was well-suited for audio to begin with, since the entire story is told in first person, but Christensen totally nailed it. I did initially think it odd to have Jesse Bernstein around for what seemed like only narrating his blog posts at the beginning of chapters, but I understand now why that was done and am okay with it, even if it was slightly disconcerting while I was listening.

Overall:

Honestly, “Feed” was everything I had hoped that “The Passage” would be but it wasn’t.

I seriously loved both this story and the audio production. There was just so much energy to it, and the story was so interesting. The zombies were really more of a device to fuel the story about politics and new v. old media and, perhaps partially because I’m already very interested in those things, it totally worked for me. Loved it, can’t wait fo the second book in the trilogy, recommend it highly.

Buy this book from:
Audible: Audio download
Powells: Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Print*
Amazon: Print*

This review was done with a audio download sent to me for review.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Day for Night by Frederick Reiken – Book Review

Jul 072010

Day for Night by Frederick Reiken
Published by Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company

The are novels, there are short stories, and there are novels in stories, which follow the same characters through different periods of their lives in a short story format. And then there is “Day for Night” by Frederick Reiken.

“Day for Night” is unlike any other book I’ve read, in that it is essentially a series of short stories that are somewhat but not entirely interconnected. And yet it was also a sort of novel. Instead of giving the depth of its story as experienced by a few characters like most novels, it instead gave the breadth of the story by focusing on a different set of characters whose lives interacted with one another in each of ten stories.

If you’re not quite sure what Reiken is doing here, it can be a little scary, because you’re wondering when these characters are going to reappear, how he’s going to pull everything together. But, if you’re reading carefully, he tells you exactly what it is that he is doing:

I recognize that we are all magicians in some way. We are complicit in all we see and comprehend that what we see will never coincide with absolute reality.

As a result, the human brain must make a narrative. This I can say with certainty, and yet each narrative we choose will reach a point at which it no longer suffices. One narrative must inevitably be abandoned for another. In this way, any narrative sequence defers meaning, even beyond the point at which it appears to end.

P. 133

When I read that passage, I felt comforted, I was able to let go and accept that everything might not really wrap up with a neat little bow (and it didn’t) and that was okay. I still don’t think I would like to read this sort of book on a regular basis, but Reiken’s strong sense of where he wanted to go with the story and his gorgeous writing made me really enjoy “Day for Night” and helped me be okay with not having everything come together.

Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

So Cold The River by Michael Kortya – Audiobook Review

Jun 222010

So Cold the River by Michael Kortya, narrated by Robert Petkoff

If you posted an audiobook review today, Tuesday June 22nd, please leave your link in the Mr. Linky before midnight Central time (US) and you will be eligible to win a prize.

Synopsis:

After his attempt to be a famous Hollywood filmmaker fizzles out, Eric Shaw finds himself in Chicago, making films – essentially slide shows – for events like weddings and funerals. Based on his work for one funeral – in which he includes a seemingly-insignificant picture that turns out to have been extremely significant for the deceased – he is approached by a woman who wants him to do a documentary about the early life of her husband’s dying grandfather.

Eric travels to French Lick, Indiana, home of the newly restored resort hotel, carrying with him a bottle of the region’s famous Pluto water. Strange things begin happening, however, and what seemed to be a simple documentary is now a mystery that Eric must unravel for his own safety.

Thoughts on the story:

This was my first Michael Kortya, but I doubt it will be my last. Eric’s character was complex and relate-able and truly human. The story built slowly enough that events seemed to happen naturally, but not so slowly that I was every bored. I love the pitch that he built to, and I was rapt by the story that Kortya created; he balanced the supernatural aspects perfectly as well.

Thoughts on the audio production:

Let’s add Robert Petkoff to my list of narrators on whom I have an audio crush. He has an amazing voice that makes you just want to melt, for one thing. For another, he does a fabulous job differentiating between the voices of different characters without making it sound unnatural, as if he is trying to hard. I don’t always appreciate sound effects other than the narrator’s voice in my audiobooks, but there are a couple of scenes where Eric hears wind or a violin, and Hachette Audio did a fabulous job weaving those sounds into Petkoff’s narration so that as the listener I felt I was in Eric’s head, hearing the things that he was hearing.

Overall:

“So Cold The River” was sort of a suspense-y, mystery, not-quite-thriller sort of book. Those don’t always make for my favorite reads, but this one was both beautifully and artfully written and expertly narrated, and I definitely recommend it.

Buy this book from:
Audible.com: Audio
Powells: Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Print*
Amazon: Print*

This review was done with a book received as an audio download from Hachette.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris – Audiobook Review

May 312010

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

“Holidays on Ice” is not really summary-able, since it is a collection of humorous stories in the vein of most of David Sedaris’ work. As you might guess, this one focused primarily on holiday-related stories. Most, but not all, were Christmas-centric, including Sedaris’ hilarious recitation of his time working as an elf for a department store Santa.

Any time you want to read David Sedaris, I will always suggest that you listen to the audio. Sedaris reading his own work is quite entertaining, but Sedaris on paper seems to lose something for me. Being able to hear his interpretation is simply invaluable.

All of that said, “Holidays on Ice” was not my favorite Sedaris. He was on form, and his stories about his own life were hilarious as always, but there was an additional component to this work I haven’t seen in some of his other books. In addition to humorous memoir, there were also some pieces that were simply written as darkly humorous bits. These sections dragged. Sedaris’ work is funny because it is about him. These additional pieces – a faux Christmas letter written by a woman having a terrible year and a ‘sermon’ by a television producer wanting to create a mini-series based on a small town’s Christmas miracle – felt like they were trying too hard. Perhaps those pieces actually would have worked better as the written word, since I like to hear Sedaris relate his own story.

Sedaris’s pieces were quite funny, but not my favorite of his work. Always opt for audio with him!

Buy this book from:
Powells: paperback/audio*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: paperback/audio*
Amazon: paperback/audio*

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

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Devourer of Books

The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore – Book Review

Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen – Book Review

13 rue Therese by Elena Mauli Shapiro – Book Review

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore – Book Review

The Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent – Book Review

C Street by Jeff Sharlet – Audiobook Review

Day for Night by Frederick Reiken – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

So Cold The River by Michael Kortya – Audiobook Review

This review was done with a book received as an audio download from Hachette.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris – Audiobook Review

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

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This review was done with a audio download sent to me for review. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received as an audio download from Hachette. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

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* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book received as an audio download from Hachette.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.