THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU

Don't worry (or rejoice) I am not actually leaving anywhere. I am simply writing about a wonderful book I am reading. I found out about it in the books section of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. EW, in addition to having all my movie and TV news, has a surprisingly good book section. You just can't beat SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL for finding books for teens, but when I do read the occasional adult book (and make no mistake, this is an adult book!) I usually hear about it in EW.

Jonathan Tropper wrote the hilarious HOW TO TALK TO A WIDOWER and he reminds me a lot of Tom Perrotta, my other favorite non-dead white male writer. I really seem to read more books by women, but if Haven Kimmel, Augustin Burroughs and Jane Greene* are willing to write jacket blurb for this guy, you can trust that he will be good.

This is not a book that kids will probably enjoy. It is very talky and full of complaints about getting older. But to parents and adult chidren of, well, humans, it is a real treat.


* for some reason I got Jane Greene, of whose books I am not overly fond, confused with Jennifer Weiner, who writes tremendously funny chick lit. But then I read Jane Greene's blog and it was very entertaining - so maybe I will give her a second chance...
The story is about a very disfunctional family (the kids are in their 20s and 30s) who are sitting shiva for their recently deceased father. The narrator is Judd, whose wife has just left him for his boss and to add insult to injury, informed him that she is pregnanty. Needless to say, his pain is epic. And in this book it is patently hilarious.

Briscoe Blogs!

Ms Woznick, the librarian at Briscoe, has started a blog of her own. You can find it here. I look forward to reading it! And someday I will begin keeping up with this blog! If I could only remember to just post what I have recently read. And yet, I don't. Let's see...

I am nearly done with Ten Cents a Dance, by Christine Fletcher. It is a book about a teenage girl working as a taxi dancer at the start of world war two . Taxi dancers worked in dance halls and would dance with anyone who would provide a 10 cent ticket. In the strict Roman Catholic neighborhood where Ruby, the protagonist, lives this is about a half a step up from being a prostitute. It is a teriffic book, but pretty consistantly sad. Fascinating though.

I just finished I'll Have What She's Having by Daniel M. Kimmel, a book about romantic comedy films. It had the stories behind When Harry Met Sally, Love Actually, It Happened One Night and other films I love. The writing is a little stiff, but the background stories are really interesting. I plan to be watching rom-coms all weekend in a frenzy inspired by the book. First up: Trouble in Paradise - which I had not heard of before.

Next up book-wise are North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley and My Most Excellent Year, by Steve Kluger who wrote Last Days of Summer which I adored! They are both sitting on my dining room table looking nearly irresistable. Must go stop resisting now...