Reading a book by George Carlin is basically just like watching him perform live. Actually, it’s also really similar to having a conversation with my Uncle Jeff, but most of y’all don’t know him so we’ll go with the first comparison. It’s rapid-fire jokes, littered with swear words and politically incorrect observations. Some of the jokes will make you snort, some will make you roll your eyes, but by the end…you’ve had a good time. Napalm & Silly Putty includes such observations as… “Did you ever […]
“Sometimes, happiness feels so fragile…So what do we do about it?…Live. Forget that it’s fragile. Live like it isn’t”
You know how sometimes you’ll read a book and think, “This seems like it would be a really great movie one day?” The impression I kept getting from reading Marisa de los Santos’s Belong to Me, is that it would make a really good television series. Her characters are so incredibly well fleshed out and just seemed like such real people. And while there is plot to keep things moving, I really just wanted to spend more time with the characters. It would make for a great […]
The adjacent possible
I found this book, six chapters about six different inventions or discoveries that changed the world in massive ways, to be utterly fascinating. I did, however, also enjoy a 400 page book about salt, so I understand that your mileage may vary. Then again, y’all are a bunch of nerds like me so you should probably go ahead and read this one. Steven Johnson, who also wrote a really cool book about cholera, examines six innovations that had worldwide implications. Each chapter starts with a […]
Celebrity encounters and other tales
I loved Alan Cumming’s autobiography, Not My Father’s Son. It was raw and honest and heartbreaking. He tries to show some of that same emotion in You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams, but this one just did not do it for me. Cumming apparently really enjoys photography, and even has a traveling show. He’s a very talented man, no doubt — his acting, his singing, his general wonderfulness. But his photography seems very amateurish. I say this with absolutely no ability to take artistic photographs on my own, so take my criticism […]