Book Review: Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls

It took me awhile to obtain this book.  David Sedaris is a popular author (and one of my favorites), so the wait list from the library was pretty long.  Once again, Mr. Sedaris doesn’t fail to keep me amused with his latest book.  I’m not 100% sure where the book title comes from (I get the owls part, but the diabetes?), but nevertheless, it’s a funny book.  The subtititle “essays, etc.” comes from Mr. Sedaris adding in “extra” bits that he says is for school kids to debate on in school.  That’s a new feature for his books, but the “etc.” part is funny.  I share many of his views and found myself cheering on his opinions in many of his essays, where he magnifies issues by over-exaggerating them to make a point.

This book wasn’t quite as laugh-out-loud funny as many of Mr. Sedaris’s other works, but it was a great read.

Book Review: Attempting Normal by Marc Maron

Like many people, I stumbled upon Marc Maron’s podcast and have listened to quite a few of his very interesting interviews.  He mentioned that he had recently written a book on the podcast, but I wasn’t interested in reading it until the David Sedaris interview.  David Sedaris is one of my ALL-TIME favorite authors.  You MUST read his books (you will be laughing out loud to yourself, I promise).  So, when I heard David Sedaris quoting passages of Attempting Normal to Marc and laughing over them, I had to check it out.

Attempting Normal is quite funny in many places and has some great one-liners in it.  Then again, I guess you’d expect that from a stand-up comic like Marc Maron.  But, it almost seems like Marc wrote this book as if he were just talking to you, and doesn’t realize what he just said is so ridiculously funny.  Considering I don’t want my site banned from wherever you may be reading this, I can’t quote some of my favorite passages here (NSFW), but most of the funnier bits are centered around various things being done to body parts.  Let your imagination go with that pronouncement.  However, there were a few times during reading the book that the narrative seemed to drag along and was a bit boring to read.

However, I’d give Marc’s book 4 stars.  I’m glad I read it – it did make me laugh and was an enjoyable read.

New Addition to Site: Book Reviews

I LOVE to read.  And I just found out yesterday that the library can’t supply me with a list of books that I have checked out over the years.  So, to share my love of the books I’ve read (and also to try to make sure that I don’t re-read anything), I’m going to start posting mini book reviews here.  I plan to rate them using the system below:

5 stars: This is a GREAT book.  I would love to own this book and re-read it.

4 stars: This was a good book.  I’m glad I read it.

3 stars: This was an ok book to read, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

2 stars: This book was disappointing.  It wasn’t that great.

1 stars: This book was terrible.  I couldn’t even finish reading it.

Considering I am a huge library user and really don’t like owning books (they take up a lot of space in my storage-challenged home and I don’t like e-readers), saying that I’d like to own a book is a huge comment for me to make.  Also, I really don’t like reading books more than once (I also don’t like watching most movies or TV shows more than once either).  So, not many books are going to get a 5 star rating.

In case you are wondering, I am not a skimmer.  I really read every word of a book.  That’s the only way that I feel like I’m taking it all in.  That also means I can be kind of a slower reader; sometimes I have to renew my library books because 3 weeks isn’t always enough time for me.