Calypso is the latest of David Sedaris’ collections of essays that I listened to on audiobook. As always, I liked it, but some of these essay collections are becoming a bit repetitive? I don’t know if it’s because I’ve heard so many of Sedaris’ stories before or if it’s because they’re really repeating, but I felt like I knew several of these pretty well already, including ‘Now We Are Five,’ which Sedaris wrote after his youngest sister, Tiffany, committed suicide.
Anyway, in spite of the fact that I felt like I had heard some of these stories before, this is an excellent collection of stories. Sedaris’ observation of the world around us and his wit in interpreting them and sharing them, are not fading as he ages. And this book is very much about middle age and the stark reality that most of his future is now behind him.
Anyway, Calypso did not disappoint. I very much loved listening to Sedaris’ tell us about getting a stomach bug while on a book tour and his realization that his body will eventually betray him. It was a darkly funny book that offered belly laughs.
Category Archives: memoir
Calypso
Food: A Love Story
This isn’t my first of Jim Gaffigan’s books so I knew what I was getting into when I signed up. Sure enough, it is Jim Gaffigan talking about food he enjoys.
This book is enjoyable, I enjoy Gaffigan’s self-deprecating sense of humor and his admiration of his wife. I also appreciate his love of food and his rather dark sense of humor on appetites in the United States:
If aliens studied Earth, they would come to the conclusion that the United States is somehow consuming food on behalf of other countries.
The problem I ran into with this book wasn’t the book itself but the audiobook narration. I love Gaffigan’s standup routines, but Gaffigan talks a little too fast for his audiobooks in my opinion. He’s funny, don’t get me wrong, I just wish he’d slow down a bit. It does give off the stream of consciousness impression rather than the “I’m reading a book” impression, I just don’t always love it.
That said, the text is very funny and Gaffigan did make me laugh quite a bit, so even if the audiobook narration wasn’t my favorite, it didn’t ruin the experience.
Scrappy Little Nobody
I cannot remember why Anna Kendrick’s memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody, was the first book I chose to read/listen to in 2020, but it was. I think I might have liked the title, honestly. And it was great to find out Anna was basically playing different versions of herself in her films, because she is such a dork, and I relate.
I always like celebrities who seem like they could be me. Anna’s stories in the book are both funny and endearing. I liked her recollections of her (very) early career and her views on child acting. I enjoyed the fact that it felt like she didn’t believe her life either, that she was just as shocked as the rest of us that she was a famous actress, and that she felt like she had imposter syndrome.
Her book wasn’t very long, about 250ish pages, and I was amused all they way through. It’s a fun, light hearted read that is perfect for a couple of days at the beach.
I will also say it’s a great book for a car ride – Anna Kendrick did her own audiobook reading, and that was a great move. Anna was great at it. I’ve heard some actors/actresses reading their own work and not being so great at it, but she did a great job. I really appreciated her phrasing and tone.
Short, fun book. If you like Anna Kendrick, go for Scrappy Little Nobody.
Carrie Fisher’s Shockaholic & Wishful Drinking
Shockaholic and Wishful Drinking are separate books by Carrie Fisher. I listened to The Princess Diarist not long after Fisher died, and as much as I enjoyed it, I ended up putting off reading these other two books. There are certain celebrity deaths that I am affected by, and Carrie Fisher is one of those (the other that immediately comes to mind is Robin Williams). But in 2019 I finally read both, back to back.
Wishful Drinking is the older book, a short book based on Fisher’s one woman show, and it was very funny. Fisher’s books are sort of dysfunctional memoirs. Fisher loves to highlight not only how wild her outside life was, but also how wild her inner life was, as she had bipolar disorder as well as struggling with substance abuse. Shockaholic continues on these themes, and Fisher goes into detail regarding her time using electroshock therapy. She credits it with greatly improving her mental illness/depression.
Some of Fisher’s stories are completely absurd, but she is consistently funny in both books. Her wordplay is witty and sharp, and some of her funniest moments are her tangents. Some criticisms I’ve seen include that Fisher is a product of Hollywood and it shows, but she *is* a product of Hollywood, so wouldn’t in show? She does seem rather self-aware. Certain critics – usually male – also seem put off by her frank descriptions of her experience with mental illness, which I will never criticize anyone for, because it’s different for everyone.
These books are short and funny and very honest. Any Carrie Fisher fan should definitely read them. They’re great airplane material, especially if you want to upset a complete stranger next to you, giggling through your flight.
The Lost City of the Monkey God
The Lost City of the Monkey God is a 2017 non-fiction book by Douglas Preston (who also wrote The Monster of Florence, which I didn’t realize until recently) about the efforts to discover La Ciudad Blanca in Honduras.
Legends of La Ciudad Blanca go back centuries, with stories circulating as far back as the era of the conquistadors of Spain. Naturally, La Ciudad Blanca is supposedly a civilization of legendary wealth, and people have been exploring the Honduras and Nicaragua jungles for decades, looking for the ancient ruins of the city (and probably hoping to find lots of gold). Archeologists, anthropologists and the other ‘ists’ who study these things now believe that while it’s likely such a settlement did exist, it was probably a larger civilization over a larger area that just one specific city.
Preston’s book takes on one such effort to locate what’s left of the civilization. The book debunks claims to have found such a city in the 1930s (when these exploration expeditions were quite common). Those 1930s expeditions are where the book gets its name from, though.
Preston ends up joining a joint Honduran & American expedition to a previously unsearched area, where lidar technology indicates extensive archaeological sites hidden by the rainforest. The site ends up being a large pre-Hispanic settlement – with plazas, terracing, canals, roads, etc… The site indicated that in this area once was an extensive, fairly advanced civilization. It was also determined to be abandoned approximately 500 years ago. While this city was an invaluable find, the existence of La Ciudad Blanca remains uncertain. The city Preston’s expedition found is modernly called ‘City of the Jaguar.’
Preston’s book was quite interesting and I learned a lot from it (I don’t know that much about South America, so it’s not surprising I learned a lot). In addition to the discovery of the abandoned settlement, Preston recounts the history and geography of the area, mostly remote tropical rainforest, as well as the trials and tribulations of the expedition – dehydration, mud, parasites, poisonous snakes. So, you know, all everyone’s favorite things.
The book was interesting and I learned a lot. Would recommend.
2018: The Year of Bill Bryson
There were a couple of authors I hit heavily in 2018, the first of which being Bill Bryson.
I read/listened to:
The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain
In A Sunburned Country
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Journeys in English
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
Neither Here Nor There
and, last but not least, I’m A Stranger Here Myself.
Bryson writes about history and travel, and I enjoy his wit, knowledge and humor on these subjects.
His travel books in this bunch were The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain (Bryson in Britain), In A Sunburned Country (Bryson in Australia), A Walk in the Woods (Bryson on the Appalachian Trail), and I’m A Stranger Here Myself (Bryson in America after living abroad for 20 years with his British wife).
A Walk in the Woods is probably Bryson’s most famous travel book, and it was adapted into a film starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte in 2015. Bryson and a friend of his from high school, who he calls Stephen Katz, set off to hike the entire Appalachian Trail together. For those who don’t know, the Appalachian Trail is a marked 2,200 mile hiking trail that runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine and, IIRC, is the longest hiking only trail in the world. Bryson and Katz do not end up hiking the whole trail, but they do hike a good portion of it, and A Walk in the Woods is, by far, one of the funniest travel books I have ever read. The frenemy-like relationship between Bryson and Katz only adds to the hysterics, and when they accidentally pick up Maryellen as a traveling companion, the results are downright hilarious.
While all of Bryson’s books are, at points, laugh out loud funny, his travel books are uniquely humorous. The culture clashes (particularly in foreign countries and regions in the USA outside of his own), his desire to do things in a frugal manner, and his gift for capturing the characters of people he meets combine into relatable, funny experiences that anyone who has ever felt like a fish out of water can appreciate.
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid was a memoir, and while funny and insightful and quite interesting, Bryson’s nostalgia for 50s and 60s America made me cringe a little. I don’t think I’m nostalgic by nature, and the 50s and 60s were a hard time for a lot of people. I just have no desire to return to the era. However, I do get Bryson’s desire for people to return to being politer and quieter.
The other books by Bryson on my list were history books. Most had a central theme, although how closely he stuck to the theme varies. At Home: A Short History of Private Life was about the history of home life and actual rooms in houses, though it branched out quite a bit. A Short History of Nearly Everything is probably Bryson’s most famous history book on my list, and it was quite interesting. It was complex but understandable, with Bryson explaining points of chemistry, geology, biology, and physics in terms the average reader can understand. It was also the only book of Bryson’s he didn’t read for his own audiobook, which was disappointing. I loved listening to Bryson read his audiobooks.
But my favorite of his history books was, of course, Shakespeare: The World as Stage. I don’t know if my love of Shakespeare has been mentioned here. I haven’t read a play on its own in quite some time – since before I started keeping this blog, I think. I read a ton of his plays growing up, for school and for fun, at least two a year for all the summers I went to Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. I haven’t been there in a while. But I love Shakespeare because of HVSF, and am fascinated by the mystery surrounding Shakespeare himself.
Bryson jumps into those mysteries head first, interviewing scholars, establishing what is and is known about the world’s most famous playwright, discussing what can be proved and disproved or neither, as well as discussing questions of authorship, lost plays, and background of cultural, social, political, and historical events of the time that influenced the work.
One thing that I found particularly interesting was that plots and characters by authors and playwrights during Shakespeare’s time were considered common property, and Shakespeare consequently used established characters and plots from other plays, most of which survive in pieces or in name only in the historical record. The plays themselves have disappeared.
The whole book was very interesting but one part that Bryson does focus on towards the conclusion of the book is that people seem determined to believe that William Shakespeare – whether they think he was a composite person or a pen name for one author or many authors – didn’t write his own works. Bryson goes on to say that the theories about who the true authors really were never seem to quite fit and that this determination also doesn’t seem to apply to other authors at the time, Ben Johnson or Christopher Marlowe being prime examples.
I think the fact that people can’t believe that Shakespeare wrote his own work kind of speaks to the work’s enduring brilliance. After all this time and all this study and scholarship, people still can’t believe that one man wrote all those plays. It’s incredible.
So that was my journey through Bill Bryson’s works. I highly recommend all of Bill Bryson’s stories. You will learn stuff, and laugh out loud doing it. I also highly recommend the audiobooks, which Bryson reads himself with his dry, humorous delivery.
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002
Ah yes, Theft By Finding – my return to David Sedaris.
After 2016 I basically didn’t pay any attention to Sedaris again until last year when I borrowed this audiobook from the library. I actually went to one of his readings for this book, which was highly enjoyable. I had planned to get an autograph but it was Sunday night and I couldn’t wait on the line since I had to work the next day.
This book was essentially diary entries of Sedaris’s from 1977-2002, and he admits he went back and filled in some gaps and made sure everything made sense before putting them out.
I loved these stories. Whether they’re tales of his early work in construction or of his family at the beach, I enjoyed them thoroughly – although not the 9/11 entry so much. To me, that entry, while well written, felt lost to me. I guess we all felt lost then. It brought back too much of that feeling of waiting around with nothing to do, waiting for something to happen that never happens. I hated that feeling. I hated remembering that feeling.
I think what I like most about Sedaris, and maybe he’s done this on purpose, but maybe he hasn’t, is that feeling he invokes of being a passenger and observer in his own life. He is observing, but he also somehow gives the impression that he has zero control over what happens to him. He randomly ends up on the street buying pot in the middle of the night because his roommate was supposed to do it, but he went to go get laid instead, so David had to do it because his roommate talked him into coming. (This isn’t an actual example, but it’s just the kind of thing Sedaris does – things happen to him like he has no choice in it).
Maybe some people find this annoying. Even I do sometimes. But I think part of Sedaris’s appeal to me is that I often feel like a passenger/observer taking part in my own life. There’s all that “Oh, you’re the heroine of your own story” bullshit out there, but really, I’m not fully in control of my own circumstances 90% of the time, and a lot of the time, I feel like everyone else on the stage and I’m the only person in the audience.
I even managed to hook my husband on Sedaris with this book, because I made him listen to portions of it in the car with me when we went places. I’m looking forward to his next batch, which is supposedly a thing that’s happening (supposedly 2003 – present-ish).
Also, “theft by finding” is a real thing. According to Wikipedia:
Theft by finding occurs when someone chances upon an object which seems abandoned and takes possession of the object but fails to take steps to establish whether the object is genuinely abandoned and not merely lost or unattended.
I really like this phrase and idea for some reason.
Theft By Finding was a solid series of essays/diary entries. Any David Sedaris fan will enjoy it.
The Princess Diarist
Losing Carrie Fisher in 2016 bothered me. I loved and admired her from afar, the way many did. I thought she was brave, and she was funny, and she was brilliant.
I borrowed and listened to The Princess Diarist because I missed her, and I wanted to hear about her affair with Harrison Ford. Not exactly the most serious reason, but a reason all the same.
I loved the parts where she read her diary. I get that part. I get the teenage girl/young woman stuff. The part where her daughter read her poetry/stream of consciousness? Not so much. I am not good at poetry.
There wasn’t a lot about the making of Star Wars, but there was a lot of insight into the heart of a young woman from the perspective of her older self. I relate! I angsted so much as a teenager. Now…not so much.
It was a short book – I think I listened to the whole thing in one to two afternoons. Worth it if you want some gossipy deets on a steamy affair and the classic overthinking of everything by someone new to the sex game. Not worth it if you wanted a lot of cool Star Wars info. I didn’t need the Star Wars info to enjoy it.
I liked The Princess Diarist and its look at Carrie Fisher, who has been one of my heroines since I watched her blow out the grate on the Death Star and say, “into the garbage shoot, fly boy!” and always will be one of my heroines for her writing talent, her sharp wit and biting humor, and her always honest evaluation of herself.
Her last memoir is deeply personal and lovely. It made me miss her. I never met her, but I miss her.
Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living
Nick Offerman’s Paddle Your Own Canoe was the other book I read on my honeymoon. It was beachier reading than Smoke, for sure. It was way less dense and funny.
For those who don’t know, Nick Offerman played hyper-masculine Ron Swanson on NBC’s little-engine-that-could comedy Parks and Recreation. I have only seen a few episodes of Parks and Recreation, so I know very little about Ron Swanson, but I did know of him, and I feel that speaks to the popularity of the character and the actor.
Anyway, Paddle Your Own Canoe is, basically, a memoir. Offerman reflects on his life growing up in Bumblefuck, Illinois. I apologize profusely for referring to wherever Offerman grew up as Bumblefuck, but I can’t remember the actual name and Offerman himself said it was a very small Illinois town that was hours from the nearest city. So again, my apologies to Bumblefuck, Illinois for not remembering its real name.
It chronicled how Offerman got into acting and comedy, and gave bits of life advice that are obvious but quite a bit invaluable in many ways, especially when stated so plainly. Example: find something you can do that you enjoy or makes you money or both. Offerman learned carpentry and this skill kept him from completely starving to death during his “paying his dues” years in “the business.” He still spends a lot of time making things out of reclaimed wood. It’s a hobby turned business that he deeply enjoys. And while this seems like and obvious tidbit, it really clicks when someone actually says it.
The book also tells the story of how Offerman met his wife, Megan Mullalley (Karen on Will and Grace) and their life together.
Paddle Your Own Canoe was a really fun read. I enjoyed it immensely because (while he insists otherwise) Offerman is clearly a funny, intelligent man who thinks for himself and whose life philosophy is, basically, the same one I subscribe to: don’t be an asshole. He also seems to have the same quiet pride in his country that I do, which basically boils down to “It’s not perfect, but it has its own, original brilliance of a governement experiment to be proud of, its ideals for us to reach for, and we’re working on it.”
So me and Nick Offerman are basically the same person, except he has way better facial hair. So…I wrote Paddle Your Own Canoe. You should read it. I also starred in Parks and Recreation. You should watch it. I’m taking credit for it now.
words in scarlet ink 