I used to be a fan of Chelsea Handler, I’ve read her first three books and I used to watch Chelsea Lately. Her schtick began to ran thin and other than a few mentions on some gossip sites (mostly for her friendship with Jen Aniston) she fell of my radar. My father gifted me Lies that Chelsea Handler Told Me for a recent birthday so I figured I’d give her another chance. Chelsea Handler is a narcissistic, pathological liar who basically pays people to be […]
I’m Glad I Wasn’t the Lady of the House in the Victorian Era
Obligatory synopsis from Goodreads: An almost forgotten classic though a founding text of Victorian middle-class identity, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management is a volume of insight and common sense. Written by what one might now describe as a Victorian Martha Stewart, the book offers advice on fashion, child-care, animal husbandry, poisons, and the management of servants. To the modern reader expecting stuffy verbosity or heavy moralizing, Beeton’s book is a revelation: it explores the foods of Europe and beyond, suggesting new food stuffs and techniques, mixing […]
A Chronicle of The Today Show’s Downfall, Not So Much Insider Info on Morning TV
Brian Stelter’s Top of the World: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV (2013)is a bit of a misnomer. Less of an insider expose into the “cutthroat” world of morning TV, Stelter’s book is more of a chronicle of the rivalry between Good Morning America (GMA) and Today and the events that led to Today’s eventual downfall to number two in 2012 after sixteen years at number one. Opening up with “Operation Bambi,” the name given to the plan to oust Ann Curry from Today, […]
J. Maarten Troost’s Latest Travelogue: Enjoyed the Wit, Wished for More Substance
I became a fan of J. Maarten Troost when I read The Sex Lives of Cannibals, his 2004 travelogue that describes the time he spent on the little-known (to most Americans, at least) South Pacific nation of Kirabati. The author’s style is amusing and self-deprecating, and he has some worthwhile commentary on politics and the attitudes of the Western world. Nine years later, Mr. Troost published Headhunters on My Doorstep, and while I still enjoy his writing style, the book sadly lacks substance. J. Maarten […]
All Over But the Criticism
Rick Bragg’s memoir, All Over But the Shoutin’, has a lot of potential. He ostensibly claims it is a story about his mother and growing up extremely poor in Northeastern Alabama. Bragg grew up with a single mother and a father who drank a lot, and somehow turned into a reporter for the New York Times who won a Pulitzer Prize. Bragg does some things really well with this book. His depiction of his mother is of a wonderful woman who gave up everything to […]
More About Katrina
While at a friend’s house for dinner last week, a friend lent me this book. This is the same one who turned me on to steampunk, so I trusted her judgment. I found this to be a really compelling, interesting and infuriating book about one component of the horrors of Hurricane Katrina. However, I really wish that I hadn’t Googled Mr. Zeitoun when I finished it, for reasons I’ll share at the end. This review will contain some spoilers, because there is a bit of […]