Carl Hiaasen’s Bad Monkey reminded me a lot of Dave Barry’s books — lots of crazy shit going down, kooky people, weird coincidences, and of course, it all takes place in Florida. I was not quite blown away with the plot of Bad Monkey, but the dialogue was extremely well-written and witty. I loved the two main characters — Yancy and Rosa — based entirely upon their conversations with each other. “Miami … the floating-human-body-parts capital of America.” Andrew Yancy is a disgraced Floridian police officer — I’ll let you […]
Fun and creepy
This is one of those books that reveals something about 100 pages in that makes you want to flip back to the beginning in order to reread everything with that new information in mind. Which makes it a great read, but extremely hard to review without spoiling that fun for someone else. So bear with me! I picked up Magic (and Marathon Man, which I’ll be reviewing later this week) after listening to As You Wish, in which Cary Elwes mentions William Goldman’s other works. I’ve only ever read The Princess […]
A bit too much mommy-bashing for me
So I’ve read two other books by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor. One was written prior to her starting a family — it’s all stories about boys and drunken nights and celebrity encounters. It’s cute, but nothing special (I reviewed it at one point this year on CBR). Then I read another of her books, written after she came to terms with her drinking problem, which struck in earnest while she struggled with three kids, two of whom were preemie twins. That one was pretty good –frankly written and funny. Sippy […]
A Different Kind of Memoir
I was kind of expecting to like this more than I did. My familiarity with Lena Dunham is completely based on her presence on social media — I’ve never watched Girls or any of her movies. But I like her — she’s smart, she’s bold, she’s trying to change things. But I just didn’t feel much for this book. “There is nothing gutsier to me than a person announcing that their story is one that deserves to be told, especially if that person is a woman.” One thing […]