Hand Me My Glasses

★★★★★ I'm a fan of David Sedaris. I've seen him twice in performance and have all of his books, all in audio as his deadpan delivery doubles the enjoyment. The only time I have been disappointed by one of his books was last year's Theft by Finding so I approached this book with some trepidation, hoping that one of my favorites had not gone permanently off the rails. Fear not, fellow fans. Sedaris is back with the fully developed, self-reflective essays many of us have come to love. There is, though, a difference between Calypso  and his earlier works.  Now in his sixties, unquestionably at the top of his genre and in a stable relationship (Don't call it marriage!), for over thirty years, Sedaris seems comfortable enough to examine his familial relationships, his childhood and his losses at a depth never seen before. The death of his sister Tiffany is visited multiple times throughout the book and he describes in unflinching detail his misjudgment of her con...

★★★ Somewhere in my blog's general description I wrote that I review most genres. What I don't review is romance. I can't stomach the codependent swamp that romance characters swim in and the choices they make to throw away life, limb, freedom and belongings all to pursue someone who I find questionable. It's worse when one of the characters (often the male) stalks and harasses the object of their affection and the object finds it endearing. Partway through, I throw the book down and stomp around my house in a sour mood for a day or two. "This is not love!" I shout in my head. So I don't review romance because I would trash all of them and that isn't fair to them or helpful to you. For the same reason, I exercise caution in taking on young adult titles. They often employ the same formula as romance and I find it unforgivable to feed drivel to the next generation. I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway and am so pleased to tell ...

★ Since I am new to blogging and book review, I am acquiring some of my books from giveaways. I won this particular book from Goodreads where they request an honest review from winners. They may regret that. Mr. Konrath has a good imagination. He has dreamed up a circumstance that could have been the seed of a terrific science fiction novel. However, instead of drawing us into deeper and deeper levels of curiosity and suspense, he discloses the secret around page fifty. Worse, as this stunningly unbelievable twist is disclosed to the main character, he accepts it as truth after a few sentences of dubious explanation.  That brings us to my main problem with this book. Virtually nothing about this book is plausible. I don't mean plausible in the sense of science fiction. That always requires suspension of disbelief. I mean the actions of the characters are so unreliable as to be ridiculous. Potential murder victims run back toward a maniacal killer to retrieve coll...

★★★★★ I can't recall where I first heard buzz about this book but all of a sudden it was talked about often and glowingly. Published early this year in England, it was not yet being offered in the United States. Thank goodness for world commerce on the internet. It has been a long time since I read a novel as immersive  as this. Gowar uses rich visuals in describing scenes and attire, olfactory cues both pleasant and less so, and most deliciously language appropriate to the period. Keep your smart phone handy for a quick google of things like "frumenty." (It is a dish not entirely unlike Cream of Wheat.) Best of all are the layers upon layers of narrative. There is the surface story of a merchant of moderate means and the infamous prostitute with whom he is besotted. There is the underlying examination of the station of women in the late eighteenth century; of the cheapness of life and the possibility of being nudged into prostitution. There is even, to m...