A couple reasons for why I chose this as the 18th book to read in 2017. One, I went to my local library to find a new book to offset the cost of buying two books in the last couple of weeks. And, my library - while I appreciate it's proximity to my house and general cleanliness - doesn't really have very many books. I go in with a list in the notes section of my phone and they don't have a single one. So, it turns into aimless browsing until something catches my eye. In this case, they had just given me the library equivalent of "last call" (read: a very nice library lady telling me they were closing in 10 minutes), so I grabbed the first thing I saw that looked decent on the shelf in front of me. I've read a lot of Sedaris's stuff before, so I knew I'd like it.
The main reason, though, that I went with a book of essays is that I needed a palate cleanser after reading book 17 of the year. The weight of that book camped out on my chest and I needed something weightless. This served that purpose quite well.
If you haven't heard of David Sedaris before, he's a comedian, but not in a Dane Cook sort of way. He's a comedian in the NPR world. I'd heard him there years ago and went on a bit of a Sedaris binge. Most of his writing isn't LOL funny, it's smart, nodding funny. Though, there are times when you laugh your ass off, too.
This book, though, sort of underwhelmed me. There were funny parts, for sure (most of them are reflections on his clearly stoic father.) But, I was actually glad to be done with it. It also seemed to lose steam as the pages went on. It didn't take me long to read, but I wasn't rushing to pick it up, either. It may have been my mood. It may be that I'm not a good target audience for this particular collection of essays. It didn't diminish my appreciation for Sedaris overall, but if I was recommending anything he's written, this would be it.
Better get it back to the library; one of the 10 shelves is missing its anchor.
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