I know, I'm jumping the gun a little bit here, but I already know what books I want to suggest for when I host bookclub in May, so why not get the vote going? Although I've really been enjoying our books of late, I've decided we are in need of something lighthearted, uplifting, and funny.
Here they are:
1. A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel
Stats: Paperback, 282 pages, available used on Amazon for .. it looks like less than a dollar?!
How I heard about it: My coworker who also recommended The Book Thief. I think she has great taste in books.
What it's about: It's a hilarious memoir of a girl growing up in a small town in Indiana in 1965.
Synopsis: When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears.
More: It's a clich to say that a good memoir reads like a well-crafted work of fiction, but Kimmel's smooth, impeccably humorous prose evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel. Born in 1965, she grew up in Mooreland, Ind., a place that by some "mysterious and powerful mathematical principle" perpetually retains a population of 300, a place where there's no point learning the street names because it's just as easy to say, "We live at the four-way stop sign." Hers is less a formal autobiography than a collection of vignettes comprising the things a small child would remember: sick birds, a new bike, reading comics at the drugstore, the mean old lady down the street. The truths of childhood are rendered in lush yet simple prose; here's Zippy describing a friend who hates wearing girls' clothes: "Julie in a dress was like the rest of us in quicksand." Over and over, we encounter pearls of third-grade wisdom revealed in a child's assured voice: "There are a finite number of times one can safely climb the same tree in a single day"; or, regarding Jesus, "Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn't be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn't afraid of blind people." (Mar.) Forecast: Dreamy and comforting, spiced with flashes of wit, this book seems a natural for readers of the Oprah school of women's fiction (e.g., Elizabeth Berg, Janet Fitch). The startling baby photograph on the cover should catch browsers' eyes.
Here are some reviews:This is an absolutely hysterical down-home kind of memoir of Haven Kimmel’s growing up years in Mooreland, Indiana. She’s goofy and strange, and full of spunk and energy.
This book is proof that each of us has plenty of material in our `ordinary' lives to use as material for writing a memoir.
Reading this book was such pure, emphatic joy. Zippy reminds me a bit of a female Dennis the Menace -- little bit of a pest, but sweet, mostly innocent, and a lot curious. The stories inside are told with a poignant tone, a wistfullness for the days when life was simple, despite how big it all seemed when you were only 3-feet-tall.
Read more on Amazon
Read more reviews on Goodreads
2. The Leisure Seeker, by Michael Zadoorian
Stats: Hardcover and softcover, 288 pages, $6.50 hardcover used on amazon. Looks like there are cheap paperback versions too, they just didn't show up on the initial search page.
How I heard about it: My grandparents both loved this book and are passing it around my family. They both have an excellent taste in books.
What it's about: A couple in their 80s decide to go on one last road trip. He has Alzheimer's and she is terminal with cancer. From what I gather it is one of those funny yet sad books that makes you appreciate life.
Synopsis:
John and Ella Robina have shared a wonderful life for more than fifty years. Now in their eighties, Ella suffers from cancer and has chosen to stop treatment. John has Alzheimer's. Yearning for one last adventure, the self-proclaimed "down-on-their-luck geezers" kidnap themselves from the adult children and doctors who seem to run their lives to steal away from their home in suburban Detroit on a forbidden vacation of rediscovery.
With Ella as his vigilant copilot, John steers their '78 Leisure Seeker RV along the forgotten roads of Route 66 toward Disneyland in search of a past they're having a damned hard time remembering. Yet Ella is determined to prove that, when it comes to life, a person can go back for seconds—sneak a little extra time, grab a small portion more—even when everyone says you can't.
Darkly observant, told with humor, affection, and a touch of irony, The Leisure Seeker is an odyssey through the ghost towns, deserted trailer parks, forgotten tourist attractions, giant roadside icons, and crumbling back roads of America. Ultimately it is the story of Ella and John: the people they encounter, the problems they overcome, the experiences they have lived, the love they share, and their courage to take back the end of their own lives.
MORE: What do you do when the life you've shared for over 50 years is coming to an end? Ella, who has cancer, and John, who has Alzheimer's, leave behind their doctors and grown kids for one last road trip to Disneyland. They follow Route 66 from their hometown of Detroit, visiting former tourist attractions that are nearly as decrepit as they are. With the freedom of those with nothing to lose, determined to live their remaining lives to the fullest, they do so with love, humor and charm. Zadoorian’s offbeat humor and obvious sympathy for his characters takes a story that could have been grim in the wrong hands and turns it into one of the most delightful books I’ve read in years.
Reviews:
This book was an incredible story of meeting life on its own terms right up until the very end. Though parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny, others will bring tears to your eyes.
You know what I loved the most about this book? It made me stop worrying so much about being middle-aged; in fact, after I finished it, I felt downright young. And it gave me courage
But be aware, this is not some depressing book filled with nothing but
complaints about aging and sadness about the good old days being gone.It is funny, bittersweet, tense and hysterical. Things happen! This
is a story that moves along and, like any good book, you keep wanting
to get back to it to see what will happen next. Very importantly,
there are no false dramas used to move things along. There are no
trumped up dark family secrets so often used to create fake tension.
The beauty of this story is the normal-ness. These are plain people
who are interesting just because we can identify so much with their
insights and lives. Their choice is actually to continue to be as
normal as they can be: to not be crammed into all of these last minute
definitions of "patient", "cancer sufferer", "old person" and the rest
of it, and try to do something that for them is quite normal: get in
the RV and take a vacation from all of that!
Read more on Amazon
Read more on Goodreads
3. The Sex Lives of Cannibals, by J. Maarten Troost
Stats: 272 pages, paperback, available used on Amazon for cheap!
How I heard about it: Hannah, our former bookclub member, recommended this book. I think I remember Anna saying it was good too.
What it's about: Nothing to do with sex or cannibals. Unfortunately, haha. It's a funny travel memoir about a guy who moves with his wife to a tiny remote island that ends up being absolutely nothing that they expect it will be. Crazy adventures ensure. Supposedly his writing style/voice is similar to well-known Bill Bryson.
Synopsis: At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost—who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs—decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the Earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better.
The Sex Lives of Cannibals tells the hilarious story of what happens when Troost discovers that Tarawa is not the island paradise he dreamed of. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles through relentless, stifling heat, a variety of deadly bacteria, polluted seas, toxic fish, and worst of all, no television or coffee. And that’s just the first day.
Sunburned, emaciated, and stinging with sea lice, Troost spends the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options. He contends with a cast of bizarre local characters, including “Half-Dead Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life), and eventually settles into the ebb and flow of island life, just before his return to the culture shock of civilization.
With the rollicking wit of Bill Bryson, the brilliant travel exposition of Paul Theroux, and a hipster edge that is entirely Troost’s own, The Sex Lives of Cannibals is the ultimate vicarious adventure. Readers may never long to set foot on Tarawa, but they’ll want to travel with Troost time and time again.
Reviews:
I think this email is long enough! Just go to amazon, b&n, or Goodreads if you want to read some reviews.
***I know known of these books are your classic novel, so just for fun I'll let you know the other -- more serious -- books I was considering. If no one likes the above ideas we can vote on one of the following:
1. Little Bee, by Chris Cleave (304 pages)
2. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, by Laurie R. King (I was going to have a bee theme going on, haha). (384 pages)
3. The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls (288 pages)
Again, make sure you email me your vote by next Tuesday!
I hope everyone is enjoying Sarah's Key so far! I've found it to be a very addicting book!
Carolyn
carolyn.pierson@gmail.com
