What are you reading?

[The JD]

I finished Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, this after reading Fifty Shades of Grey. It was a bit like losing hundreds of brain cells, then gaining them all back.

Now I'm reading Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson. I hope my brain cell regeneration continues, but that might be too much to ask from a book with a stuffed mouse wearing a cape and ruff on its cover.

[trixie]

Originally Posted by The JD

I hope my brain cell regeneration continues, but that might be too much to ask from a book with a stuffed mouse wearing a cape and ruff on its cover.

Maybe the mouse is practicing his Shakespeare.

[nycfem]

Let us know what you think of Let's Pretend, very mixed reviews on Amazon.

Originally Posted by The JD

I finished Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, this after reading Fifty Shades of Grey. It was a bit like losing hundreds of brain cells, then gaining them all back.

Now I'm reading Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson. I hope my brain cell regeneration continues, but that might be too much to ask from a book with a stuffed mouse wearing a cape and ruff on its cover.

[Greco]

"small memories A Memoir"

by Jose Saramago

translated from the Portuguese
by Margaret Jull Costa

what a pleasure to read how
this man "saw" the world

Greco

[trixie]

Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury (Mignola, Fegredo)

The Orchid Thief (Susan Orlean)

A Secret Kept (Tatiana de Rosnay)

[WingsOnFire]

Double Take by Catherine Coulter

[aishah]

why are faggots so afraid of faggots? by mattilda bernstein sycamore.

[ONLY]

Just finished "Seven Up" in the Stephanie Plum series (Janet Evanovich)

Just bout half way through "Dance Macabre" in the Anita Blake series (Laurell K. Hamilton)

And both series of books were recommended by my beautiful lady Thank you so much I am really enjoying them.

[The JD]

I just finished Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir). There were certainly some laugh-out-loud phrases and anectdotes, but overall, I found it lacking. Jenny Lawson is best known as a blogger ("The Bloggess") who writes snarky and self-referential posts about being caught in (and creating) embarrassing social situations. This sounds like the perfect reading material for a David Sedaris enthusiast (me), but Lawson's snippy blog-style writing just doesn't translate to a longer work. I never really got engrossed in the tales of her manic life; instead, it was more like a stand-up comedy act, complete with SENTENCES IN ALL CAPS where she's actually screaming the one-liners from the page. She constantly got detoured off the main narrative, then made detours off the detours... I felt like I needed a flow chart to keep up.

If you love her blog, you'll probably love her book... but the reason the blog-style of writing works for blogs is because they're meant to be short and irreverent, and it's okay to throw in non sequiturs because each post is less than 500 words. But for a 300 page memoir? Time to modify the writing style.

** Warning: Shameless self-promotion to follow**

Now I'm reading Deaf American Prose: 1980 - 2010 (Gallaudet Deaf Literature Series), a collection of essays by Deaf and Hard of Hearing authors. It's a terrific anthology, though I admit I'm biased since I'm one of the authors.

[Arwen]

How about what book am I NEVER reading? Anything else by Orson Scott Card. And that's hard because I really liked his work. Until I read this. He's entitled to his opinion. I'm also entitled to mine.