humor – My Book Joy

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Review: Have I Told You This Already? by Lauren Graham

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Jennifer

Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don’t Want to Forget to Remember by Lauren Graham

Recommended: not really…
If you know you really like her style of humor, if you’re interested in acting/filming minutiae

Summary

With her signature sense of humor and down-to-earth storytelling, Lauren Graham opens up about her years working in the entertainment business–from the sublime to the ridiculous–and shares personal stories about everything from family and friendship to the challenges of aging gracefully in Hollywood. In RIP Barneys New York, she writes about an early job as a salesperson at the legendary department store — and the time she inadvertently shoplifted; in Ne Oublie she warns us about the perils of coming from an extremely forgetful family; and in Actor-y Factory she recounts what a day in the life of an actor looks like (unless you’re Brad Pitt).

Filled with surprising anecdotes, sage advice, and laugh-out-loud observations, Graham’s latest collection of all-new, original essays showcases the winning charm and wit that she’s known for.

Thoughts

Boy, I did not like this. What a surprise! I guess I don’t like her style of humor? It just wasn’t humorous to me, if it was meant to be. A lot of these were annoying, and frankly a lot of the topics felt superficial and shallow and that’s not always terrible, but in this case it just didn’t work for me. I ended up skimming several of the stories, and in completely skipping one or two of them.

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Her eyes had the golden brown sparkle of a cockroach in the sunlight. They were watery and large like chestnuts.
Hero in a Halfling by William Tyler Davis

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It’s a compliment…?

Quote• Posted on February 22, 2023 by Jennifer

Chatty

February 2023 TBR: just a few

Posted on February 5, 2023 by Jennifer

Hey y’all! I only have a few books specifically planned for this month, and the rest is going to be a lot of mood reading. Here’s what I have in mind!

Miscellaneous united!

Her Name Is Knight by Yasmin Angoe is a book I got from Kindle First Reads a while back, but didn’t end up reading yet. It’s part of the current Kindle Challenge as an option for Black History Month, so I figured now was the time! Unfortunately, it’s incredibly graphic and violent and covers some really terrible things. So far I’ve been really struggling to read it because it’s just so incredibly grim, even though it’s also interesting and compelling and intriguing. I think I’m past the worst of it though (god willing…) so I’ll continue on… slowly.

Hero in a Halfling by William Tyler Davis is my answer to the book above, and some of the others I’ve finished recently that were on the darker side. I really needed a light fantasy where no one was worried about suicide or rape or financial ruin. So far, none of those have come up. I have a feeling this is a bit similar in vibe to the wildly popular Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, though I haven’t read that one (yet). It’s lightly parodying and makes me smile a lot.

Divide Me By Zero by Lara Vapnyar is a book I had not heard of until I found it on a shelf at the bookstore today where I treated myself to picking one book out. This was the winner! It’s a reflective book with a Russian immigrant who was raised on math as the MC. It’s also by Tin House Books, which I’ve been recently introduced to through Aardvark Book Club and have enjoyed their unusual subject range in their titles. Maybe this is another winner?

Honestly, that’s it. This is all the energy I have for planning right now. I haven’t even posted in a week, which is extremely uncommon for me. This is what I could manage. Back to reading….

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Fast-Forward Friday

Fast Forward Friday: Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey (1/17/23)

Posted on January 13, 2023January 11, 2023 by Jennifer

Hey y’all! IT HAS BEEN A WHILE. I fell off doing Fast Forward Friday titles last summer-ish when there was a span of time where there genuinely weren’t many new releases I was looking forward to. Those that I was looking forward to were usually ones I had already received ARCs of and didn’t think it made sense to put it as a FFF feature. Anyway, I’ve got lots of books I’m excited for once again so I wanted to start this series back up1 😊

In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey!
Expected Release: January 17, 2023

Why wait on this one?

The title and cover made me think this would be a bit of a funny read, and the blurb only backed that up. Situational humor of “a surprisingly young divorcee” will provide plenty of fodder for laughs, I’m sure! Even if they are a bit of the pained or awkward variety. I think this book will have a character who doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Oh come on, I’m a fan of basically any book with a plot that is essentially a woman redefining or reclaiming her life in a way that suits her goals and happiness. So for Maggie to be plowing on through it all to get things done? I can’t wait to cheer her on!

And of course, I do think this will have a lot of emotional and tender moments besides the humor. Because those life-redefining journeys aren’t usually easy, and require some (tough) introspection. As Maggie considers what she wants and needs, I’ll reflect as well!

Summary

Maggie is fine. She’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée™.

Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and “get back out there” sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.

Reviews

Review: More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell

Posted on December 30, 2022 by Jennifer

More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell

Book one review here! Mini Review: Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell

Summary

‘Customer (holding up a book): “What’s this? The Secret Garden? Well, it’s not so secret now, is it, since they bloody well wrote a book about it!'”

From “Did Harry Potter kill Hitler?” to “Can we play cricket in your bookshop?”, a selection of the most ridiculous conversations from the shop floor. Bewildering, hilarious and slightly alarming, this is a book for dedicated booksellers and booklovers everywhere.

Illustrated by the Brothers McLeod, this collection includes queries and incidents from bookshops (and libraries) around the world, and even a section of Weird Things Customers Say at ‘Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops Book Signings.’

Thoughts

Well I enjoyed book one and I figured book two would be much the same. Lo and behold, it was! There were still some references to books or cultural things that I could see sailing over the heads of people less familiar with reading overall. For example, the customer looking for the book about a boy with autism and a dog and called “the curious something something…” would have had me chiming in with “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” with the other 3 booksellers in that moment.

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Reviews

Review: I Named My Dog Pushkin by Margarita Gokun Silver

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Jennifer

I Named My Dog Pushkin by Margarita Gokun Silver

Recommended: yes!
For a how-to on getting out of Soviet Russia, for culture clash and integration stories told with a smile and a wink, for a lot of general Russian culture and lifestyle information

Summary

Buy a pair of Levi’s, lose the Russian accent, and turn yourself into an American. Really, how difficult could it be?

Fake an exit visa, fool the Soviet authorities, pack enough sausage to last through immigration, buy a one-way Aeroflot ticket, and the rest will sort itself out. That was the gist of every Soviet-Jewish immigrant’s plan in the 1980s, Margarita’s included. Despite her father’s protestations that they’d get caught and thrown into a gulag, she convinced her family to follow that plan.

When they arrived in the US, Margarita had a clearly defined objective – become fully American as soon as possible, and leave her Soviet past behind. But she soon learned that finding her new voice was harder than escaping the Soviet secret police.

She finds herself changing her name to fit in, disappointing her parents who expect her to become a doctor, a lawyer, an investment banker and a classical pianist – all at the same time, learning to date without hang-ups (there is no sex in the Soviet Union), parenting her own daughter ‘while too Russian’, and not being able to let go of old habits (never, ever throw anything away because you might use it again). Most importantly, she finds that no matter how hard you try not to become your parents, you end up just like them anyway.

Thoughts

This book had been on my list for a long time, and I don’t even remember how I originally found it. I am so glad I finally can around to reading it, because I was just as good as I had hoped it would be! Granted, I had no idea who/what “pushkin” was or why that would matter but I got the sense this would be filled with humor and I was correct.

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Reviews

Review: Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld

Posted on December 1, 2022 by Jennifer

Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld

Recommended: sure
Do you like Jerry Seinfeld’s jokes? for a linear timeline of his jokes through decades, sourced from routines, tv shows, and never-performed material, for jokes that read almost like a story with a very natural flow and connections between them

Summary

Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a twenty-one-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”

For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.

Thoughts

I went through a phase in The Covid Times of watching Seinfeld for what was my first time, barring miscellaneous episodes I saw pieces of over the years at a hotel or flipping through channels. There’s a segment in each show with a bit of Jerry doing a standup routine on a topic that usually relates in some way to the plot of that episode. In this book, I recognized some of those little segments that I had heard in the show. There is definitely material that you may have heard or read elsewhere included in this, because it’s a pretty comprehensive collection of it all. If you’re an avid Jerry Seinfeld person, this book will have some new stuff, and a lot of familiar stuff.

The organization of this made it a lot easier to read it straight through. It’s set up with jokes from each decade of his career, and this contextualizes a lot of it in ways that makes it helpful to remember. Some thoughts I had while reading this:
“Oh, this was before the internet.”
“Oh right, misogyny wasn’t seen as so socially problematic.”
“Oh, yup, 9/11 definitely changed some things.”

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Quotes

Sucks great (not what it sounds like)

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Jennifer

I say to you, that “sucks” and “great” are the exact same thing.

You have an ice-cream cone. You’re walking down the street. The ice cream falls off the top of the cone. Hits the pavement. Sucks.

What do you say? “Great.”
Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld

Release Day!

Just Published: Jokes to Offend Men by Allison Kelley, Danielle Kraese, Kate Herzlin, & Ysabel Yates!

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Jennifer

Hey y’all! Just a reminder that Jokes to Offend Men by Allison Kelley, Danielle Kraese, Kate Herzlin, & Ysabel Yates published today! Check out the full review here, or grab a copy of your own!

Summary

A man walks into a bar. It’s a low one, so he gets a promotion within his first six months on the job.

Four comedy writers transform classic joke setups into sharp commentary about the everyday and structural sexism that pervades all facets of life. Jokes to Offend Men arms readers with humorous quips to shut down workplace underminers, condescending uncles, and dismissive doctors, or to share with their exhausted friends at the end of a long day. A cutting, cathartic spin on the old-fashioned joke book, Jokes to Offend Men is a refreshing reclamation of a tired form for anyone who’s ever been told to “lighten up, it’s just a joke!”

see the full review!

Reviews

ARC Review: Jokes to Offend Men by Allison Kelley, Danielle Kraese, Kate Herzlin, & Ysabel Yates

Posted on October 23, 2022October 23, 2022 by Jennifer

Jokes to Offend Men by Allison Kelley
Expected Publication: October 25, 2022

Summary

Thoughts

The title is a bit tongue in cheek, but the jokes themselves pull no punches. This collection is sometimes funny jokes, but often read more to me like social commentary on the form of anti-joke format (where it’s set up like a joke, but is actually just a fact or point instead of a traditional punchline). So yes, I had some smiles and a few laughs, but overall it was less funny and more grim. The mood is very much like when you laugh at terrible things because the alternative is to give up.

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