Take the Cannoli

Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I heard Sarah Vowell speak at the closing session of PLA in March 2010, and she was so hilarious, I added her books to my to-read list. This is the first of her books I have read, and overall I enjoyed it. She has a fabulously sarcastic sense of humor, although I think she's funnier in person than in parts of this book. I generally agree with her politics, so I usually got a kick out of her take on things, but she lost me in the chapter on the Chelsea Hotel. I just couldn't make myself finish that essay, maybe because I had never heard of it before picking up her book, but, yeah, a hotel that's filthy on purpose?! Some famous people stayed there at one time, and that's supposed to make squalor exciting or interesting to read about? Um, not so much.

For readers' advisors: character doorway



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Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Grace [Eventually]: Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took a while for me to get into the swing of this book. Partly, I think, because I read it entirely during lunch breaks. But mostly it was a little slow in the beginning because I was unfamiliar with Anne Lamont's personal history and style. In her teens and twenties she was a drug user and an alcoholic, and although she's been sober for more than twenty years now, she still talks in her essays about her early years...a little too cavalierly, in my opinion. Something about the way she almost assumes that experimenting with drugs is normal and quite to be expected just really rubs me the wrong way.

On the other hand, her essays are often amusing, and I LOVE her politics, her support for libraries, and her view of faith (i.e. a faith full of love and compassion rather than forcing your narrow beliefs down everyone else's throats). I can see why this book was last month's choice for the book group at my church.


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The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had seen the online video of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon University a couple of months ago. He'd been featured on an episode of "Oprah," and I was so impressed by his optimism in the face of tragedy, that I actually searched for and carved out time to watch the whole lecture. This book is basically that lecture expanded and annotated with additional stories and examples. It's fabulous: funny and wise and poignant. It reads like Pausch is talking directly to you. (I give big kudos to Jeffrey Zaslow who turned Randy's bike-ride-conversations into a book in Randy's "voice.")

Although the book can stand on its own, I would recommend watching the video first so that you can see all the photos and get all the visuals. Only a few are reproduced in the book. Being able to visualize what he's describing or referencing gives more context and meaning to his lessons, I think. And keep the Kleenex box handy for both. This man had SO much life in him, it's hard to believe he actually could have died a few months ago. It simply doesn't seem possible.


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