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i am charlotte simmons
tom wolfe
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Another tome from the man in white - Tom Wolfe. I used to see him at the Time Warner building near where I worked in New York always decked out in his signature white suits - three piece suits even in the summer. What a nut!
This new book expounds on the trials and tribulations of one Miss Charlotte Simmons, fresh out of the hoky, backwoods NC mountains, as she attends the prestigious Dupont College. She meshes with the frat boys, the jocks, the nerds and the debs as she weaves her way through freshman year. Really made me reminisce about my freshman year - all the funny, happy and painful moments.
I have to wonder if Tom even writes this stuff himself anymore...anyway, a lovely book to add to your summer reading list (if you've started making a list). |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
March 2005 [link] |
recommend
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i feel bad about my neck
nora ephron
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Most of the essays in this collection are Ephron's witty take on getting older, especially on becoming a woman of a certain age and the steps woman take (or don't take) to combat age. Also included is a fabulous essay about reading a really great book, which Ephron likens to rapture and she lists several of her very favorite books including "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" and "The Woman in White". She also writes a great essay about real estate and love, part of which was printed in The New Yorker a while back. It's good.
I actually had the chance to listen to this on CD (read by Ephron) and it's a very delightful road trip companion. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
May 2007 [link] |
recommend
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i love you, beth cooper
larry doyle
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| This is such a guy's book, but I still found it totally hysterical. Doyle is a former Simpson's writer and now writes for The New Yorker. This book has all the elements of a geek movie - unpopular valedictorian Denis Cooverman takes his chance at commencement to profess his love for head-cheerleader Beth Cooper. Surprise surprise, Beth Cooper and her two friends ("The Trinity" to Denis and his friend, Rich) stop over at Denis' later that night and become embroiled in a turf war with Beth's meathead boyfriend that culminates into a Humvee being driven into the front of a mansion, Denis getting the crapped kicked out of him repeatedly and a heavenly make-out session with Beth, which, for Denis, has made up for all the bullying he got throughout school. Painfully funny if only because it's chockfull of great high school moments, who hasn't loved a Beth Cooper or a Denis Cooverman? |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
September 2007 [link] |
recommend
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i thought my father was god
paul auster
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(Paul Auster (Introduction), Nelly Reifler (Editor), National Story Project)
I can’t figure out what to list in the author field for this – I keep thinking that I should go with the common music one “Various Artists”. This book, from a practical point of view, is the perfect bedside table book because it’s made up of short stories – the longest ones running 4 pages. Perfect for our attention deficit disorder society.
Enough silliness, this is a wonderful collection of stories compiled by Nelly Reifler and the National Story Project and organized by subject matter (animals, dreams, death, etc). Uplifting, sad, disturbing, funny – the contrast can sometimes be a bit much, but still a great collection of a great collection of musings that can be read all at once or here and there.
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reviewed by: rich |
August 2002 [link] |
recommend 3 thumbs up
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i was a really good mom before i had kids: reinventing modern motherhood
trisha ashworth
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| This book was also authored by Amy Nobile and basically, the two mothers talked to 100 other moms to get an idea of what modern motherhood is REALLY like. Not the "Oh-it's-so-great-I-want-ten-more-kids" playground talk but real life things like "Once while I sauteeing onions, my baby ate 6 crayons before I noticed". Not filled with anything ground-breaking, the authors advise parents to reevaluate expectations, not worry about what the "other" parents are doing and to basically, chill out. There are lots of funny quotes from interviewees such as the women who said "A boner in the back is not foreplay" (I seriously laughed for three days) and the women who said her husband will say "Why don't you go take a shower, hon. You deserve it" and she responds by saying "Taking a crap is not a luxury, it's a neccessity!". |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
January 2008 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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i was told there'd be cake
sloane crosley
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| These days, writing a book chock full of hilarious essays will not doubt get you compared to David Sedaris (which isn't a bad thing at all), but Sloane Crosley takes it to a whole new level in this collection of essays. She writes about everything from her days at summer camp (where they'd make torches out of a stick and a flaming maxi pad) to her work as an admin assistant to a book editor, a relationship that quickly goes sour (maybe it's because she made a cookie in the likeness of said editor). Her tale of moving between apartments and getting locked out not once, but twice in one day pretty much sums up both the convenience and inconvenience of living in the big city - all in all, an amusing and highly entertaining book. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2008 [link] |
recommend
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if looks could kill and a body to die for
kate white
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| Continuing my super summer fluff reading extravaganzaI present the best of the beach/porch/backyard/park reading. Both these books are by Cosmopolitan's editor-in-chief and are book one and book two of what I imagine to be a long running series of Bailey Weggins mysteries. (On a side note: What's up with the name "Bailey"? Is it a boy's name? Is it a girl's name? Is it all because of "Party of Five"?) Bailey is a twirty-something true-crime writer for Gloss magazine - and in the spirit of Jessica Fletcher and Murder, She Wrote, Bailey stumbles into dead bodies where ever she goes resulting in her snooping around to solve the case. I liked the books because I didn't figure out the ending right away and Bailey's exploits with the male species are funny and familiar. Viva Cosmo! |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2003 [link] |
recommend
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if you really want to hear about it: writers on j.d. salinger and his work
catherine crawford (editor)
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Since I harbor a long-time obsession with J.D. Salinger's writing and a long-time fascination with J.D. Salinger as a writer, this book was a natural fit for me. The twenty-nine pieces in this book offer writers' critical views, personal views and personal experiences of Salinger and it is just swell. Individually, the essays are lively and funny and interesting; together, the essays make-up a mini-biography of a brilliant, wonderful and crazy man.
I loved Sarah Morrill's "A Brief Biography of J.D. Salinger" who has taken bits and pieces of Salinger info and made them into a question/answer piece that is provocative and informative. In it she points out that "those who have made contact with Salinger appear to be among the most stupid people on Earth" and I couldn't agree more. Especially when you read the Salinger "interview" Betty Eppes wrote in 1981 for the Paris Review (she's a Tab drinker, for chrissakes). There's an excerpt from Joyce Maynard's telling memoir "At Home in the World" (I cringe at this inclusion because I didn't like the book and also, it gives me too much creepy information about Salinger that I just don't want to know) and an excerpt from Salinger's daughter's memoir who claims that Salinger has all his unpublished work organized and ready to be published after his death. While I don't plan on celebrating the man's death, I can't help but hope his death will mean a published Salinger story for this decade.
JB recommended this book to me and his wife, Joanna Smith Rakoff, has the best essay in the whole collection because it has the truest connection to Salinger as Smith Rakoff spent a year in 1996 as an assistant to Salinger's agent (and she's one of the few smart people that gets to meet him). One of her responsibilities was to read and respond to the letters written to Salinger that were sent in care of the his agent. Of course, she was supposed to respond with a form letter but her heart gets the best of her and one reason I loved this essay so much was that it reminded me of my favorite Salinger story, "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period", from "Nine Stories".
The writings included in this book span five decades and I loved reading the critiques of Salinger's work when it first came out as well as recent thoughts of his work and life. Salinger is a great and famous writer but being a recluse has heightened that fame so much so that we really DO want to hear about it. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2006 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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in persuasion nation
george saunders
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| I adore George Saunders – I gobble up everything he writes, both fiction and non-fiction. In this collection of stories, some of which appeared in various publications, he's at his strange and wonderful best. My favorite piece is a "Letter To The Editor" where the author not only supports laws against same-sex marriage, but also supports laws against "samish-sex marriage". In his mind, men who are remotely feminine should not be allowed to marry women who are remotely masculine – and he goes on to detail a long and complex system in how to determine these matches. It's hilariously funny. Many of his stories exist in crazy alternate worlds – like the one about various characters and products from commercial ads that wage war on one another. How can you not laugh at a "members of the Orange/Grammy/man-briefly-involved-with-a-Ding-Dong/piles of mush/penisless man coalition versus the members of the Ding-Dong/Doritos/Timmy/grandparents-who-love-Doritos/Kevin/Slap-of-Wack coalition"? One of the clueless reviewers on Amazon.com said "this book is in outer space" and yes, it is and fans of Saunders like it like that. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
May 2008 [link] |
recommend
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in the woods
tana french
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| In 1984, three children disappear into rural woods outside Dublin. Only one is found, his memory wiped clean of what happened, his shirt ripped and shoes filled with blood. The whereabouts of the two others is unknown. The boy changes his name and becomes a detective and twenty years after the incident winds up investigating the murder of a young girl in those same woods. He and his friend and partner, Cassie, work the case brilliantly but the detective is mentally and emotionally affected. Can he finally figure out what happened to him and his friends in the woods that night? A slightly disappointing ending (it is classified as a mystery book and it stays a mystery to the end) doesn't mar the crystal prose, great characters and witty dialogue. On a related note, all the characters in the book call the forest "the wood" as in "What happened that night in the wood, anyway?" yet the title seems to have been Americanized to "woods". Who knows what that's all about. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
April 2009 [link] |
recommend
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interpreter of maladies
jhumpa lahiri
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I had read a few stories by Lahiri in The New Yorker and just thought them dazzling. her stories are bold and alive and I love reading about India and Indian culture. It came as no surprise that this collection of short stories was just as dazzling and wonderful. Complex characters and sad little lives make them not happy-ending stories but content all the same. One story tells of a couple having marital problems that is plunged into darkness for a few nights due to electrical work on their street and the dark hours allow them to be honest and tender with one another with brutal results. Another great story is about an Indian couple that moves into a new house and proceeds to find Christian relics hidden all over the place which disgusts the husband and charms the wife.
I could easily buy this book and re-read the stories from time to time. Lahiri just shines. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
August 2006 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
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