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early bird
rodney rothman
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Ever wonder what it would be like to retire early? And by early I mean 30 or 40 years early? Rothman does just that when, at the age of 28, he loses his job in NYC and decides to head South to retirement headquarters - namely in the form of Century Village, one of the largest retirement communities in the country. He moves in with an elderly woman looking for a roommates and begins his retirement - complete with shuffleboard, lounging by the pool and early bird special dinners. What he finds is that being old is not about waiting to die - it's about having fun, staying active and gossiping until the cows come home.
Rothman is a former writer for the David Letterman Show and he's very funny. He quips that if the "Tuesdays with Morrie" guy had to spend more than just Tuesday with Morrie, the book wouldn't have been quite as inspirational. Early Bird especially appealed to me because Craig's granny and grampy live in Century Village. When I told her about this book she and her husband immediately yelled "NO ONE UNDER 55 IS ALLOWED TO LIVE IN CENTURY VILLAGE!". I had to tell them that this author snuck in or something. Jeez. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
September 2005 [link] |
recommend
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eating my words
mimi sheraton
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| I finished this food memoir folllowing the heels of the Ruth Riechl book "Garlic and Sapphires". Mimi Sheraton was also the NY Times restaurant critic years before Riechl - Sheraton's reign was the 70's and early 80's. This memoir answered questions like "Are there any junk foods you like?" and "Do you ever want to own a restaurant?" and other questions a restaurant critic endures. Sheraton lacks the engaging storytelling abilities of Riechl and one couldn't help noticing all the name dropping in the memoir - there were whole chapter where Sheraton was just recounting articles she wrote for Time magazine, Conde Nast Traveler and the New Yorker. I found Sheraton to be a little annoying, a bit of a braggart and although Sheraton is now in her late 60's and has certainly earned some bragging rights, I was very glad I got this book used for only $3. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
July 2005 [link] |
recommend
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elements of style
wendy wasserstein
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| In addition to being a very pretty book, Wasserstein's "Elements of Style" (a nod to the Strunk & White writing guide) is also full of Wasserstein's wit and sarcasm and opinions of New York society. It follows a crowd of well-to-do socialites and their families with each chapter being devoted to an individual character. These are the Prada wearing moms who snack on four soybeans and one chocolate chip ("for fun") and who give each other luncheons to celebrate their haughtiness and their luck at marrying into money or being born into it (or both). In the end, we learn the classic adage of money not meaning everything as each person's happiness in life and love is called into question. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2006 [link] |
recommend
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empire falls
richard russo
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| I missed the hoopla over this book on its first go around in 2002 but my sis-in-law recently recommended it and i'm so glad she did because I totally devoured the story. Set in Empire Falls, Maine (is that a real place?) - a classic small town struggling to get by as big businesses close and people move away. Most of the town is owned by a mysterious and crazy old lady who seems to be connected to everyone that remains in town. Most of the story revolves around Max Roby and his family. The characters are rich, complex and endearing and there's enough twists and turns to keep you thinking long after the last page has been read. |
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reviewed by: lisa may |
December 2004 [link] |
recommend
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encyclopedia of an ordinary life
amy krouse rosenthal
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The cover of this creative biography quips "I have not survived against all odds. I have not lived to tell. I have not witnessed the extraordinary. This is my story." Don't think you'll be "reading" this book in the traditional sense as Rosenthal, a former Might magazine contributer, has set-up her book in encyclopedia format starting at A and ending at Z. Each letter contains paragraphs about her life, her views, her humor and observations on the world. So funny and touching and real with entries like "Wabi-Sabi" where she finds the perfect Japanese word for being happy and sad at the same time, "Letter" where she comments that "the letters a, e, g and s seem nice; k, v and x seem mean", and "Gas Tank" where she says "Every. Single. Solitary. Time I go to get gas I have to lean out the window and see which side the tank is on." On one of the pages she talks about her favorite perfume and gave out samples to the first hundred people that requested them on her Web site (sadly, I as not one of them).
Her site also contains lots of little tidbits including a project where she left 150 copies of her book around Chicago and invited people to write in about where they found them. There's also a little video to watch.
Please please please read a few excerpts from her book - I think everyone should write a biography just like this for themselves. What a wonderful celebration of life. (I feel like I should end this review with a big 'ole L'Chaim!)
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reviewed by: lisa may |
October 2005 [link] |
recommend
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even cowgirls get the blues
tom robbins
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| Mike and Kent gave me this book in my senior year of college when I had just broken up with Chuck and been dumped by Kent and didn't know I'd be infatuated with Jay in two weeks. They thought this book would be just the tonic for me. I had always wondered about Tom Robbins and liked his covers. I don't know if I've reviewed him before, but I hate Tom Robbins. I think he is most self indulgent. I frequently skipped over entire passages of his ramblings. This book would be great for smarmy or free-spirited rambling want-to-be's. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
May 2000 [link] |
recommend
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extremely loud and incredibly close
jonathan safran foer
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It must suck to have to follow up a critically acclaimed, award-winning, instantly-classic novel, when you are in your mid-20s. Poor Jonathan Safran Foer. There is not a review of his new novel that doesn't reference his debut, "Everything Is Illuminated" in its headline, or at least in the first two sentences.
"Everything Is Illuminated" was a great novel, so it makes sense that people would be waiting to see what Foer had up his sleeve to follow it up with. In most people's opinion (including John Updike's review in the NY Times Book Review and Steve Almond's review in the Boston Globe), "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" has too many bells and whistles, and those bells and whistles don't really add anything to the narrative, but rather distract the reader. In the novel, Foer uses typography, photographs, colored text, even blank pages, or single sentences on pages, to add a multi-media sort of experience to the story. To be honest, I agree with Almond and Updike in most cases. However, I am not a purist like Updike, and I have a job and kids and dozens of daily distractions, so a few bells and whistles in my nightly reading are actually kind of refreshing.
For those of you unaware of the plot of "ELAIC", it is narrated by a 9 year old Holden Caulfield-esque kid (named Oskar, like The Tin Drum) whose father has died in the World Trade Center attack. This kid, like Foer, is too clever for his own good. He goes on a quest to find the door that belongs to a key that his father left behind, hidden in an envelope. Interspersed within this narrative are letters written by Oskar's grandparents, which allude to Dresden, another atrocity which Foer draws comparisons to. The book, although offering no answers or groundbreaking literary truths about 9/11, is at turns heartwrenching and laugh-out-loud funny.
The novel, like "Everything Is Illuminated", is full of virtuisic passages, and delightful dialogue, and all the great things that literature can do if it is done well. Is it full of improbable situations and dialogue, overly precious characters, and gimmicks? Maybe. But this reader didn't mind them any more than a kid minds exaggerations and too-tall tales when the yarn-spinner is as talented and as fascinating as Foer. |
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reviewed by: ericS |
April 2005 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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eye in the sky
phillip k. dick
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OK ever since I was walking to stoop sales back in Brooklyn, NY and Chris
and Kristina were so rabid to find books by some "cool science fiction
writer whose books are mostly out of print". I promptly checked out "Do
Androids Dream when they sleep" (see archives). Ahhhhhhh I loved the
ambience of a cynical world taken over by numbnuts. This "Eye in the Sky"
is my second K. Dick book. It was utterly fascinating in it's attempt at
letting you see inside people's actual minds...like seeing and feeling and
being influenced just as they are (similar to a Vulcan mind meld no doubt).
I also enjoyed the futuristic stuff and the tone. The only problems were
that the book sort of tapered into "huh?". Perhaps the ending was a joke.
This would be an excellent book to read in the Winter when you have loads of
time to read. |
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reviewed by: kristen |
October 2000 [link] |
recommend
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