Remember the hissy fit North Korea pitched over Seth Rogan’s cinematic turd fest The Interview? From their reaction, you’d think the famously repressive country had something against the silver screen. As it turns out, nothing could be further from the truth. After Kim Jong-il died in 2011 (he was the one in jumpsuits) it came out that the former Dear Leader was a huge movie buff, with a dedicated smuggling system implemented just so he could watch western cinema. In his twenties, he was appointed […]
“Normal is boring. Weird is better. Goats are awesome, but only in small quantities.”
I absolutely fell in love with Jenny Lawson’s first book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir. Detailing her unconventional childhood out in the West Texas boonies, Lawson seemed to be the obvious heir to David Sedaris. While her book tackled serious issues like her difficulty being “normal” and her miscarriage, it seemed like she was more interested in being funny than insightful. Hew newest book, Furiously Happy flips that ratio. It’s one part funny, three parts an uncomfortable discussion of mental issues. […]
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Feminists
Gloria Steinem’s first book in more than two decades is classified as a memoir, but I don’t think that’s accurate. Although this first chapter starts like a traditional autobiography, documenting her unconventional childhood as the daughter of a travelling antique salesman and a mentally ill mother, the rest of the book is about the people she’s met. Her book is about the mothers and stewardesses and cabdrivers she’s talked to, the colleges where she’s spoken and the other feminist workers she’s worked with. At 81, […]
An Emphatic “Meh”
I picked up Robert Kurson’s latest book Pirate Hunters after really enjoying its predecessor. Shadow Divers was about the discovery of a German submarine that had sunk off the coast of New Jersey. I was hooked on that book, as Kurson talked about the divers’ near death experiences, the eerie feeling of exploring a ship full of the corpses of young enemy combatants, and the research necessary to positively identify the vessel. It was the story of adventure and discovery that kept me enthralled until […]