Breathers

Breathers: a zombie's lament by SG Browne is a bit of a horror story, but mostly a romantic comedy. It's about Andy, a middle aged zombie who reanimated after a grisly car accident. His wife died and his daughter was sent to live with her aunt. He wandered back home and now lives in his parent's wine cellar.
Being a zombie is a bit shameful for all involved. Andy can't speak because of his accident so he limps around town with a wipeboard over his neck. More often than not, he comes home covered in food and garbage people have thrown at him.
His parents are ashamed of him and hide him away when friends come to visit. Andy really only leaves the house to go to his support group meetings where you meet an interesting cast of characters, some who meet their untimely demise when breathers (aka living people) beat them and pull off their limbs. Rita, a suicide victim with stitches over her neck and wrists, soon becomes Andy's love interest though he struggles with his feelings because he still misses his wife.
Ultimately, this a funny and touching story about what it's like to be an outsider.
Check out "Andy's blog" here.

Assassination Vacation

Venture into the hilarious world of assassinations. Yes, hilarious. Sarah Vowell, a humorist/columnist/voice of public radio has a morbid interest in Presidential assassinations. She set out to visit various sites across the U.S. that are linked to the assassinations and recorded her adventures in this hilarious travelogue.

Vowell brings readers to the homes of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley as well as to more obscure places such as the Mutter Museum which has specimens of John Wilkes Booth's thorax and Charles Guiteau's (Garfield's assassin) brain.

Here is a chart from the Mutter of Pres. McKinley after he was shot.




By speaking with the historians, curators, and tour guides, Vowell brings readers very close to the assassins by revealing their lives, motives, and deaths. For example, she points out that many people hated Lincoln, and Booth thought that he would be a hero. Also revealed is the poor and lonely childhood of McKinley's assassin, Czolgosz. Looking to find a place to fit in, he began attending anarchist meetings and thus began his plan.

Though death is the "theme" of the book, Vowell looks at the assassinations as as story and examines each character objectively and with humor. Those interested in history will be pleased to learn a great deal about the assassinations- much more than is ever taught in any school. Travelers will be inspired to visit the many museums and historical sites mentioned. Recommended for fans of Lincoln books and travelogues.

Hear Sarah Vowell read an excerpt here

The Accidental Time Machine

The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman

Matt Fuller is your average guy, a bit on the lazy side, stuck in a dead end job as a lab assistant at MIT. He is building a calibrator when it suddenly disappears and then reappears a second later. He experiments with the machine and realizes that he has built a time machine. This particular time machine only goes forward in time and the interval it travels into the future increases by 12 each time.

If Matt is touching the time machine, he also travels with it. With nothing going in his life, he decides to travel. The first few times, he only travels a little bit, but he keeps ending up situations where his only escape is to jump forward again. Haldeman offers a unique perspective on the world in each of the futures presented. When he meets and falls for a young woman, he must decide what is best for the two of them and what kind of future world he wants to live in.

This book is a fun and fast sci fi read. It will appeal to sci fi fans as well as your average fiction reader. Nothing is too far "out there" or fantastical for the average readers' taste.

Oval Office Oddities

Oval Office Oddities: An Irreverent Collection of Presidential Facts, Follies, and Foibles
by Bill Fawcett

For a light, fun, and educational read, check out Oval Office Oddities. It tells interesting and funny stories about our nation's Presidents. The chapters are divided by topic such as Presidential firsts, Presidential peculiarities, and Presidents as people. You'll find out what interesting hobbies Presidents had, as well as who was having extramarital affairs, and what kind of pets they had. (Calvin Coolidge had a pet raccoon named Rebecca) This book is a great conversation starter and good for history fans who don't have much time for a long historical narrative.

LOOK ME IN THE EYE: MY LIFE WITH ASPERGER'S

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's is a memoir written by John Elder Robison, brother of Augusten Burroughs- the author of Running with Scissors.
Augusten encountered many fans who thanked him for mentioning Asperger's in Running with Scissors and also writing an essay on John in his book Magical Thinking. Instead of writing a whole book about his brother, he convinced John to write it himself. Though I enjoyed RWS, some of the crazier events disturbed me. Robison's memoir is much tamer, yet still entertaining and humorous.

The memoir is less about Asperger's and more about John's take on his crazy family. As a young boy, he feared his alcoholic father and became increasingly disconnected to his mentally ill mother. He dropped out of school and left home at 17. Because of his Asperger's he was good at working with machines and ended up as a guitar technician for the band KISS. However, being around people was not comfortable for him, so he left and continued to struggle to find a career that would suit him. Interspersed with his stories from these various positions are chapters that describe Asperger's and how it has affected his relationships and career choices. These chapters give great understanding to people unfamiliar with Asperger's and Autism.

Look Me in the Eye is a must read for all fans of Augusten Burroughs works. Fans of memoirs will enjoy his tales of growing up in a dysfunctional family and how that lead to him being on the road with KISS. Those looking for understanding of Asperger's will want to skim the book and read the asperger's-focused chapters.


For more on Asperger's-
The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome by Jessica Kingsley
Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support

Why is My Mother Getting a Tattoo

Well I am back from vacation and was able to finish three books while I was gone.
The first is a collection of true stories by Jancee Dunn. Jancee has written two books, Don't You Forget About Me, a novel about a woman who moves back in with her parents during her divorce, and But Enough About Me, a memoir of her years working at Rolling Stone. This one, Why is My Mother Getting a Tattoo? and other questions I wish I never had to ask, is about her family.

Every family has their funny and quirky attributes, and her family is no different. This is a purely funny and happy book. No real sad sob stories because she admittedly had a very happy childhood. The stories are about the mundane silly things in her life, such as the weird articles her father sends her in the mail, arguments over what kind of pies to eat at Thanksgiving, and her husband's aversion to breakfast buffets and brands of jeans with long names.

This is a very quick read, 205 pages total, each story has less than 20 pages. They'll make you laugh and remind you of the funny things that occur within your family.

Then We Came to the End

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

A fantastic debut novel from Joshua Ferris about a Chicago marketing firm's employees. Ferris delves in to their work lives with intimate detail on their fears of being laid off, their attitudes towards each other, and how their personal lives affect their work lives. Though many of the characters face depressing situations, the novel is very funny and witty, full of truth about workplaces- how coworkers tease and pull pranks on each other, workplace gossip, and office pariahs. Each chapter could stand alone as its own story detailing the various going-ons in the office, such as the stealing of each other's desk chairs, the rumors surrounding their mysterious boss, and bizarre reactions from the laid off employees.

I breezed through this book, each chapter, though about the mundane and ordinary, seems full of excitement and hilarity. Easily the best book I have read in years.