Let Them Eat Pancakes, by Craig Carlson (Amazon) In his first memoir, the delightful Pancakes in Paris, Californian Craig Carlson details his life-changing journey of opening "my diner in a foreign country, with a foreign language, which also happened to be the culinary capital of the world." It made for an entertaining, sarcastic but heartwarming... Continue Reading →
Comedian Alicia Tobin’s Gentle, Hilarious Essays Help on the Baddest Days
So You're a Little Sad, So What?: Nice Things to Say to Yourself on Bad Days and Other Essays, by Alicia Tobin (Amazon / Book Depository) Alicia Tobin is a comedian and podcaster based in Vancouver. In her first but decidedly polished essay collection, she writes about self-esteem, bad boyfriends, working in retail and as... Continue Reading →
The First Book from The Last Podcast on the Left
The Last Book on the Left: Stories of Murder and Mayhem from History's Most Notorious Serial Killers (Amazon / Book Depository) Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, and Ben Kissel of The Last Podcast on the Left, the long-running, make-you-laugh-til-you-cry comedy podcast covering stories of crime, the macabre and supernatural, conspiracy theories, alien abductions, high strangeness and general... Continue Reading →
A Meditative Travelogue Across Russia In Napoleon’s Footsteps
Book review: Berezina, by Sylvain Tesson (Amazon / Book Depository) It's during a previous journey that the idea of a future one comes to mind. Imagination carries the traveler far from the trap where he's gotten stuck. While in the Negev desert, he'll dream of a Scottish glen; in a monsoon, of the Hoggar Mountains;... Continue Reading →
Lindy West’s Irreverent Take on Politics, Pop Culture, and Patriarchy
Book review: The Witches Are Coming, by Lindy West (Amazon / Book Depository) If there is magic in Trump's ability to conjure reality out of hot air and spittle, there is an equally powerful magic in the opposite: in speaking the truth, unvarnished, about what we see, what we remember, what has been done to... Continue Reading →
More Funny Tales From the Quirky Life of John Hodgman
Book review: Medallion Status, by John Hodgman (Amazon / Book Depository) Comedian, author and podcaster John Hodgman's second memoir-in-essay collection, Medallion Status, is ostensibly built around his obsession with the loyalty program of the airline he calls "Beloved Airlines," and the travels, specifically for acting jobs, he's had in connection with earning those miles. It's... Continue Reading →
A Tragicomic Memoir of a Dysfunctional Family
Book review: The Splendid Things We Planned, by Blake Bailey (Amazon / Book Depository) Award-winning biographer Blake Bailey took on a different kind of challenging biographical subject in The Splendid Things We Planned -- his own dysfunctional family. The central point of his memoir, around which everything in this story revolves, is his older brother, Scott. Scott... Continue Reading →
A Warts-And-All Take On Female Anatomy and Beauty Issues
Book review: Gross Anatomy: A Field Guide to Loving Your Body, Warts and All, by Mara Altman (Amazon / Book Depository) Mara Altman's Gross Anatomy, a loose memoir told through investigation of myths, practices, and biases around the female body, is a book I ignored on its original publication last August. It seemed guidebook-y or goofy, or... Continue Reading →
The Wild, Wonderful World of Couchsurfing in Russia
Book review: Behind Putin's Curtain, by Stephan Orth (Amazon / Book Depository) Hamburg-based journalist Stephan Orth has written several books about his global couchsurfing adventures in unconventional locales. Orth brings a certain cheerful openness and humorous curiosity to his adventuring, and of the touristic method of couchsurfing, he mentions that it offers "the mutual gift... Continue Reading →
Investigating the Extreme of Psychopathy
Book review: The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson (Amazon / Book Depository) Journalist Jon Ronson's "journey through the madness industry" begins with a stressful situation in parallel with a mystery dropped in his lap: First, he's tapped to use his journalistic prowess to trace a book that's been sent to prominent academics around the world... Continue Reading →
English with Style and Humor: Random House’s Chief Copy Editor on Lessons Learned
Book review: Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer (Amazon / Book Depository) Never thought you were the type to stay up late reading a grammar and style guide, dissolving in laughter every few pages? I thought I wasn't either. Allow this book to prove you wrong like it... Continue Reading →
Warm, Funny Kitchen Stories from the Heart
Book review: More Home Cooking, by Laurie Colwin (Amazon / Book Depository) Despite falling in love with Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen last year, I forced myself to wait before reading its followup volume, More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen. I wanted to save the joy for a time when I knew I'd need... Continue Reading →