All posts tagged: humor

I Should Write More Letters…

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Full disclosure: I finished Ali Wong’s Dear Girls about three weeks ago. I have also had a few glasses of wine tonight. Finally, the world is crazy and I can barely string two coherent thoughts together, let along write a poignant and thoughtful book review (my husband and I regularly have conversations that go like this: Me: “Did you, um, wait, when, um, did they, um, what’s the, um… do you know what I mean?” Him: “Yeah, but, if we, well.” and so on) . But here goes! I loved Dear Girls. It was a perfect and much-needed break from the reality we are living right now. At times it was touching, at times it was thoughtful, but mostly, it was just true and relatable, and hilarious. Even when the stories were so far from my own personal experience that I couldn’t even fathom their reality, it was relatable. And that’s a feat. At times I thought there is definitely a specific audience for this book. Like, maybe you need to be a mother, or a wife, or Asian, …

April Book

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Spring is on it’s way! Thankfully, right? It’s been a long, dark winter and we’re really in the mood for something light and shiny. And April at The Bookly Club means we pick a book that can make us laugh and shed that winter mood. This year we’ve chose Ali Wong’s Dear Girls as our comedy relief for April. Following her hysterical, runaway-hit of a standup special on Netflix (Baby Cobra) Wong released Dear Girls in October of 2019.   The book is written as a series of 14 letters (aka chapters) to her two daughters. From her perspective, it’s everything they’ll need to know in life. As the subtitle reads, “Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life.” Chapters include, “How I Trapped Your Father,” “Tips on Giving Birth,” and “A Guide to Asian Restaurants.” But fair warning: if you haven’t watched her stand-up you should. If for no other reason than to know what to expect with her humor and her raw, brutal, descriptive honesty about sex, relationships, womanhood, etc. …

Phone on table

A Dog is a Bicycle with Emotions

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“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.” First things first, I loved this book. After hearing people rave about the audiobook version, I decided to give it a shot. (I mean, who doesn’t want to list to Trevor Noah on their way to work and while making dinner?) I’m fairly new to audiobooks, but this one might be my favorite so far. Noah was able to convey his story as only he can, with perfect inflection, comedic timing, and emotion in his voice. The story kept me engaged the entire time, and my mind tends to wander easily. Noah’s story is an incredible one, and he did a phenomenal job of injecting just the right amount of humor to lighten up even the most intense situations. In fact, (if you’ve read it, you’ll know just the scene I’m talking about) one particular story toward the beginning of the book had me laughing …

April Book

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It’s been dark and gray for awhile now. I’d say we’re ready for more light, literally and figuratively. Which is why in April we read something with a sense of humor to help lighten the mood. And this April we’re reading Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime! And we’re SO excited for this one. If you know the name Trevor Noah, it’s either because you’re a fellow booklover and have heard GREAT things about this book, and/or you’ve seen Noah on The Daily Show as Jon Stewart’s replacement as of September, 2015. He’s a comedian (writer, producer, political commentator, television host, etc.), so we definitely expect a few laughs out of this book. However, from the little we know so far, he also has a very interesting, pretty intense, story to tell. Noah was born in Johannesburg, South Africa during apartheid. The son of a black mother and a white father, his parents’ relationship was illegal. His childhood was layered with all the complexities of race, religion, family, homeland, and everything in between. Beginning his career …

Confession Time

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I have to admit, like Katie C., I was hesitant going in to this novel. I have complicated feelings about Amy Schumer — I thinks she’s funny, but can only take so much of her. 300+ pages of her humor had me a little nervous. But here’s my biggest confession: I didn’t finish it. And not because I didn’t like it, but because I wasn’t in to it. I also have made a new promise to myself to stop reading books I’m not enjoying. With over 300 unread books on my shelf (I’m not exaggerating), it’s becoming increasingly clear that abandoning books needs to be something I’m okay with. Otherwise I’ll never come even close to making that unread number smaller. Maybe at another time when I didn’t have so many other,  heavier books (ahem, Fates & Furies) calling my name I would have been able to muddle through. I laughed out loud a couple times in the beginning, and read some lines out loud to my husband, but like I am with her humor, …

Just What I Needed

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If you’re reading my review, I’m going to assume you’ve read Katie C.’s review. I will admit here that I am the one who suggested this book for The Bookly Club, and I was SO NERVOUS to read it because I knew not everyone was so excited to do so. What if it was terrible or disgusting?  Or what if it just made you really dislike Amy? That has happened to me before. I won’t say who, but there is a person I adore(d) whose book I read and it just made me not like them. I was petrified this would happen again and everyone would blame me for making them read an awful book about someone who turned out to be an awful person. I was thrilled when Katie C. like the book. Because I liked the book, loved it even. When I would chuckle or straight up laugh while looking at my Kindle, my husband would say “Amy Schumer’s book?” And I would snort out a “yes,” and proceed to read him whatever …

Surprise, surprise

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I had extremely low expectations for this book. In fact, at first I was against reading it at all. Not only is Amy Schumer someone I could give or take, but 300+ pages of her raw and self-deprecating humor seemed trivial, uninteresting and not worth the time it would take the read the book. So it’s a near miracle that I say now that not only do I not think this book was a waste of time, but I liked it. Like, really liked it. “One of the first times I was paparazzied, they caught me stand-up paddleboarding in Hawaii. I didn’t even recognize myself. I saw the shots in magazines and thought, Oh, cool, Alfred Hitchcock is alive and loves water sports.” Non-fiction short stories aren’t even really my ‘thing’ either. I don’t usually choose this genre. But I found this book to be not just funny (as one would expect), but relevant, empowering, even moving at times. I have an entirely new outlook on who Amy Schumer is and where she comes from. I …

April Book

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All these April showers and exponential lack of vitamin D has us craving something happy, funny, and endorphin-releasing. A pick-me-up if you will. And who better to pick us up than Amy Schumer with her semi-autobiographical book and collection of personal essays The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo. This New York Times Bestseller, released in 2016, addresses some serious subjects such as gun violence, sexual assault and consent, domestic violence, Schumer’s troubled relationship with her mother and her father’s multiple sclerosis… but all from her raw and humorous perspective, of course. Schumer has dealt with a lot of criticisms for her stand up comedy and some subject matter from her show Inside Amy Schumer. Criticisms that her male counterparts may not face? But her seemingly inappropriate sense of humor and her willingness to tackle of sometimes taboo topics (see essay topics above) put her in the category of ground-breaking. And although she insists that this book should not be categorized as memoir, autobiography, or self-help, she offers some very personal stories and some very relevant advice (i.e. money, self-employment, sex, …

Great, Just Not for Me…

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I’m sure the title of this post made you say “WHAT?!” And I don’t blame you. Let me start by saying I’m the wrong person to review this book. Why? I’m not a short story person. I enjoy the occasional short horror story and I have a slightly higher tolerance for personal essays or memoir-based short stories a la David Sedaris. But fictional short stories are just not my jam, and they honestly never have been. Generally, when I see those words on the cover of a book, the book goes back on the shelf. I give you this information so you understand my biases before you read any further. Let me start with the positive. This is a smart read. I was consistently and repeatedly impressed with how intelligently written all of B.J. Novak’s stories were. They are all based in that intellectual, thought-provoking humor that manages to still be just a little silly and a little absurd. I really enjoyed it. It’s also an incredibly fast read. I have a Kindle, and after …

Great Reads

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After the rollercoaster that was Betrayal, One More Thing was just the book I needed. I guess you could say it restored my faith in the good. It was short, sweet, and, let’s be honest, you could just skip whichever stories you weren’t in the mood for. The stories range from one sentence, at most, 20 pages. Each story is a nice little package with interest all its own.  So it was easy to hop from story to story, making it a very fast read. Granted I read most of it on a plane, but I finished it in only a day and a half. I’d definitely recommend this as an entertaining, thought-provoking, laugh-out-loud book for anyone and everyone. I think my favorite part was how a few of the stories connected to each other (the ambulance driver and the girl who gives the best advice, and the missed connections red shirt post). Of course I had my favorites, and my not-so-favorites: Love it : Missed Connection: Grocery spill at 21st and 6th 2:30pm on Wednesday The longest missed connection post …