The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

I’m a big fan of Marian Keyes and was very excited when I found out this was coming out. And very happy to get my name on the holds list early! It was a real pleasure to read something of hers again that revisits the Walsh family. Since I wrote about her books for my St. Patrick’s Day post I’ve been itching to go back and read her earlier books and this definitely made me want to. There are 5 Walsh sisters and this is the final sister’s story-Helen.
Helen doesn’t really like people, she’s brusque, and she doesn’t fit in with folks. She’s a private investigator who’s fallen on hard times-business has dried up and she has lost her house, electricity, etc-and she’s forced to move back in with her parents.  This is all especially difficult because, as she tells us in bits and pieces, she’s had a bout of depression that landed her in a hospital once before, and it seems like it might be happening to her again. Out of the blue an ex-boyfriend comes to her with a very important, top-secret, case: she must find a missing member of a once powerfully famous boy band before the reunion concert scheduled in less than a week’s time.

I really enjoyed this so much. Keyes is always funny and has a great way of blending funny, sassy, strange characters with genuinely heartfelt, realistic, touching emotions. It was a treat to see Mammy Walsh again and little peeks at the other sisters.  And it was fun to have this one be a mystery and try to figure out where Wayne could have gotten to.  The only thing that wasn’t super was the part about her no-longer-friend, Bronagh.  She is alluded to occasionally, always in the past tense, so you know something big has happened to her.  From previous books I assumed it was going to be a huge, very emotional revelation, and it ended up being very anticlimactic and not a big deal to me. But really, that was just a small part of it.  I loved this and it was so much fun to have a Marian Keyes to read again.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? By Maria Semple

This has been on the edges of my awareness for a while, as the author has written for Arrested Development and when I read that in several reviews I knew I had to read this. I loved it! One of those books I kept finding time to read, and blew through it pretty quickly. It was so funny! And, had quirky that the book I just read a few days ago (Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore) had someone who worked at Google and lots about that, and this one has someone who works at Microsoft and lots about that?

This book is made up of emails and memos, but also some straight connecting narrative.  Bernadette and Elgie are married and their daughter Bee is a brilliant 8th grader. Elgie is a brilliant Microsoft guy, Bernadette was once a brilliant architect (MacArthur Genius Grant brilliant), and so pretty much everyone in this book is smarter than you. Except possibly Audrey and Soo-Yin, the awful nasty parents of some of Bee’s classmates. So many wonderful characters! Everyone lives in Seattle, which Bernadette hates. And her commentary on Seattle and the people is hilarious. Really, Bernadette is simply hilarious. She’s pretty much agoraphobic. Well, sort of. She doesn’t like to leave her property and has outsourced most aspects of her life to a virtual assistant in India. No other adults like Bernadette and some of them seem to downright have it in for her.  Fortunately Bee loves and adores her and the two have a great time together.  Bernadette loves Bee so much that when Bee asks for a trip to Antarctica, how can she refuse even though she hates being around other people?

Now, we know from the get-go that Bernadette vanishes right before the trip. How we get to that moment is most of the story, and then the fallout from her disappearance. I loved all the, well not really subplots, and not just incidentals, but the different parts of the story that revealed what the different characters were like. From the prospective parents brunch (hoping to lure “Mercedes Parents”–gag), to the rides on the Microsoft Connector, to the email exchanges between Manjula and Bernadette, all of it combined to make one big multi-faceted story.

I’m not sure if I’m supposed to like Bernadette wholeheartedly or think she is flawed, but I am definitely in her camp and found her flaws totally understandable. For all that people tried to blame her for stuff, I felt like it needed pointing out that a lot of other people needed to be blamed for the shit they had done to Bernadette. I felt pretty angry on her behalf!!

But overall, I loved this, thought it was funny, adored Bee, cracked up over every comment about Seattle, was entranced by the South Pole, and thought it was great. Will definitely be reading her first novel now.

Elliot Allagash by Simon Rich

Paul got this and passed it on to me. The whole time he was reading it he kept saying that it was different than Rich’s other things, that it was very predictable.  I see what he meant about predictable-simply that it was a familiar story–unpopular boy has wealthy manipulative boy take over his life and bring him untold popularity and power, but in exchange for doing whatever the other kid tells him to do. The whole time you know that it’s not going to end very well. But that said, it doesn’t matter that it’s a classic story, because so is a boy meets girl story! What was here was the Simon Rich humorous writing that I expected.  Sure it’s not one page jokes or anecdotes, but the funny is still there. I especially enjoyed (and imagine he had fun with) how completely over the top wealthy the Allagashes were. Elliot is an 8th grader, but has his own personal dumbwaiter to receive drinks in.  It was like a crazy world a kid might dream up for what the richest people in the world are like.  And Elliot is indeed a clever mastermind.  But, as you would expect, he’s kind of nutty and a bastard.  This is a very quick read and I thought it was hilarious and had a satisfying ending.

(I think this is an adult book, or at least marketed that way, but it is definitely high in teen appeal.)

Seriously…I’m Kidding by Ellen Degeneres

After completing the reading challenge and reading lots of zombies and other things, I thought it was time for a light change of pace.  I read Meg’s review of this Ellen DeGeneres book and thought I’d give it a try.  She had read and mentioned Mindy Kaling’s book, which I had really liked.  I didn’t like this as much as Mindy’s book, but it was still funny and quick and easy to dip in and out.  Ellen has such a strong voice that as I read it I could easily “hear” her in my head speaking the words.  Which occasionally made some of the chapters seem too much like a long winded bit, but for the most part I enjoyed this.  I sincerely believe that she is probably very much like the person she presents herself to be and would love it if she was my neighbor and friend. And then she and Portia could come over for dinner parties and board games with me and Paul and it would be awesome.

Are These My Bazoombas I See Before Me? by Louise Rennison

I hadn’t been planning on listening to any of the 10 choices from the Amazing Audiobooks list for this reading challenge, but my friend lent it to me and I had four days of Tabby at “camp”, and I decided to buckle down and listen and sew.  Because it’s British and funny I right away thought of my first very good audiobook experience-Bridget Jones’s Diary.  This is the 10th and final installment in the Georgia Nicholson series and although I haven’t read more than the first three (and many years ago, at that), I had not trouble knowing what was going on.

Part of the fun of these books is how slangy and crazily dramatic Georgia is, and that came across great on audio. I think I’d like to adopt the expression “nervy B”, as in “I think I’m going to have a nervy B if you don’t stop bothering me!”

I am definitely not a very good audiobook listener– a few times I walked out of the room, answered the phone, etc. without even thinking about the fact that the story was still going on (and I didn’t even rewind because it didn’t seem like I missed anything.) I did listen during some very late night driving on an unexpectedly long car trip, and it was quite the life saver.

The narrator was fantastic and the book very funny.

How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written

Paul and I are big fans of Archer.  If you haven’t watched this show on FX, then you are missing out.  It is hilarious (and not for the faint of heart, you won’t believe the things they do and say.) It is also smart and witty.  And now Archer has written a book telling you all about how to be just as awesome as he is. Except no one is more awesome than he is and he makes a point of telling you that throughout.
Basically I loved this book because I could easily hear the entire thing in my head in Archer’s distinctive voice (that would be H. Jon Benjamin, who also voices Bob’s Burgers, which we’ve just started watching because we love him so much.)  Seriously, this would be the best audiobook ever.  It was like getting an extra couple of episodes.

This was a birthday gift for Paul, and here’s his take on it: (which is of course much more detailed and better than min.) http://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/sterling-archer-how-to-archer-the-ultimate-guide-to-espionage-and-style-and-women-and-also-cocktails-ever-written-2012/

Lana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sidescrollers by Matthew Loux

Making great progress with the YALSA Best of the Best Reading Challenge! Another one of the Great Graphic Novels Top Ten list and again, a quick read.  It seems like cheating!  I have to say that I really liked this and for someone like me who likes graphic novels but will not invest a lot of time into finding ones I like, using the list is super handy.

This is about a bunch of recent high school grads who are buddies and play a lot of video games*, have crushes on girls, hate an obnoxious football guy, and are afraid of a cat.  It was super funny and I liked the frienship between the guys.  I loved the drawing style of their arms–looked like they were zipping around everywhere. And in this one day they do zip around a lot all to go to a show, get a girl, get back at a guy.

There were a couple of minor characters who two guys who play pranks and make mischief and not only acted like, but also were drawn to totally look like Jay (from Jay and Silent Bob.)

My favorite part may have been when one of the guys says, “hey you, get your damn hands off her!” which, as everyone should know, is from Back to the Future.

*just read in the Goodreads description “tranquil laziness.” Yes, that is apt.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

We saw David Sedaris live the other night and he was a hoot.  The only book of his we don’t have is Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, so we picked it up after the reading to have it autographed. Alas, the line was too long and we had a babysitter waiting at home, so we took our book and left.

This book is very different from his others-all the stories are featuring animal characters (with very human lives).

The stories are pretty sick and disturbed, with a dark humor to them, imbuing the animal characters with human traits, which are seamlessly combined with their animal traits and instincts.

For example, in the Judicious Brown Chicken, a hen sees her sister killed after the sister has revealed lesbian tendencies. She assumes that there is a cause and effect there and continues to assume when any animal dies that it is because of a characteristic they exhibited.  So she’s like a person, but all the animals are dying in the way of the farmyard-hawk, snake, etc.

In another story a mouse steals baby animals to feed to a snake, and then is confronted by those animals’ mothers, seeking their lost children.

In the Parrot and the Potbellied Pig, though, the animals are more like animal characters in a people world (the parrot is a journalist.)

The animals don’t wear human clothes, but they talk.  And they talk a lot and say crazy human type things. They have neuroses, are alcoholics, come from dysfunctional families, and more.

I liked The Grieving Owl the best-this is one of the stories where the animal-human world is just like it really is, except the animals talk and have very human conversations.  This owl’s mate has died and he can’t stand his lazy and stupid family.  He has taken to getting information from potential prey (I won’t kill if you can tell me something interesting) because he delights in knowledge and learning about the world. When a rat tells him that there is a kind of leech that lives only in the anus of a hippopotamus he takes off to the zoo to meet Lois (that’s my slave name), the hippo.  By the way, all these stories have little illustrations by Ian Falconer, of the Olivia picture books fame.  Beware, Olivia fans! These illustrations have the charm of Olivia mixed with the grotesque details of the story. So imagine how this particular story is illustrated!

 

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? By Mindy Kaling

Oh, Mindy Kaling. You are a hoot. On Twitter, on The Office, and in your book.

This is nonfiction-funny chapter/essays.  And although the emphasis is on Mindy Kaling as a funny person, I think she has a lot of good things to say in here. About family, about work ethic, and about young women having confidence and being strong. She’s a great role model.  But, as much as she tries to say that she’s just a hard working nerdy writer who happens to act in and write for and produce a hit tv show….um, you’re famous now. Totally. So don’t act like it could just happen to anyone. You’re super talented and super funny.

If you didn’t read this last year, what are you waiting for? Go have a laugh.

By the way, this is another book I brought home and Paul ended up reading, too.

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl by Stephanie McAfee

This was very funny, reminds me a bit of Stephanie Plum, what with the madcap stalking, carrying a gun, etc.

There are three friends at the heart of the story–Chloe is married to a verbally abusive controlling asshole, Lilly is beautiful but being accused of an inappropriate relationship with a high school student, and Ace is the central character-always battling her view of herself and the lovely man (Mason) she’s been on and off with since high school. The setting is great-a Missisissippi town that is very Southern.  All the friends grew up there and have either never left or since returned.  When Mason comes back to town and Chloe asks her friends to get evidence of her cheating husband, madcap hijinks ensue.