Party of One: A Memoir in 21 Songs, Dave Holmes

Go read this! It's hilarious and heart breaking, and you will want to read every part of it out loud to whoever is closest to you at the time. Dave manages to be very, very funny, while also reminding you of the crushing pain of being gay in the late 80s and early 90s, before being out and proud was really a thing for kids, especially at Catholic school. And he does it all to a mixtape of songs of the era that made me incredibly nostalgic. I'm a few years younger, but that just means I a) know all the songs and b) voted for him in Who Wants To Be A VJ on MTV, because TRL was requirement viewing for me after school, every single day, no matter how much I hated Korn and Limp Bizkit. My sister remembers my outrage during the trivia contest, shouting, "WHY AREN'T PEOPLE VOTING FOR THE SMART NERD WHO KNOWS STUFF???" when Jesse Camp inevitably won.

This book is a delight. You will feel all the feelings reading it, and you will want to tell these stories as if they were your own.

Grade: A
#73 in 2016

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Half sci-fi, half parody, this book is sort of a tumblr post come to life. The bad guy is a Men's Right's Activist, more or less, and the heroine is just a normal lady trying to get by in a world determined to murder her. It's ridiculous and funny, and then also occasionally scary and upsetting. Action-adventure-sci-fi-dystopia-parody-horror-noir isn't a genre, right? It should be.

Grade: I don't know, the highest B possible?

2015

John Dies at the End, David Wong

Comedy horror is REALLY hard to pull off. The first third of this book is more horror, and I was totally creeped out; then the horror part settles down and it's kind of funny, mostly when John (the narrator's unreliable best friend) is around. After a while the unspeakable horrors just get kind of dumb, and I felt like the ending wasn't nearly big enough, but damn if I didn't just check to make sure no one was inside the TV watching me with their hands pressed against the other side of the screen just now. Ack. Apparently there will be sequels? Apparently I will read them.

Grade: B

Originally posted 2010

Dying to Live: 85% of a True Story, Chuck Klosterman

Dude, shut up. The book is readable and interesting and occasionally even funny, but only when Klosterman shuts the fuck up about himself (maybe 30% of the book). He draws some really specious conclusions about people and life and love, he drives nowhere for no reason and has no justification for a lot of it, he is elitist about low culture, he is relentlessly obsessed with himself. Worst of all, the whole thing is written in the present tense. ARG. I enjoyed Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, back in the day, and felt bad when people were all "That Klosterman dude needs to shut the fuck up," but... Dude needs to shut the fuck up.

Grade: D

originally posted 2007

Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett

One of my favorite Pratchetts, because it's hilarious, and a beautiful sendup of Buddhism and human nature. My only complaints are that there is sort of no main character and the denoument requires a lot of chocolate, which makes me crave chocolate. It also contains one of my favorite Pratchett lines ever:

"Things either exist, or they don't," said Jeremy. "I am very clear on this. I have medicine."

Grade: B

originally posted 2006

Going Postal, Terry Pratchett

Now this is my idea of a quick summer read (in other words, I bought it yesterday afternoon). In my experience you are either a Pratchett fan or you aren't, and there are good arguments on either side. I concede that the Discworld books are formulaic (you try and write 900 books in the same universe and keep them all fresh) but I enjoy them. About 90% of them fall in to the "fun, a couple of out-loud laughs, quick read" category, while the other ten percent are split between amazing (Soul Music, Small Gods, and in my opinion any of the Rincewind books) and the utterly unreadable (Pyramids and Moving Pictures). 

This book is in the safe 90%; it made me laugh a bunch of times, particularly when the covert gossip organization turned out to be called The Smoking Gnu. Heh. Basically Our Hero is out to save the Post Office, so on the one hand it's about letters vs. email, and on the other hand it's about the role hope plays, and on the third hand there's something confusing about Angels. None of these books are especially character-driven (by which I mean, no one has a complex story arc; they are one thing, and then they become another, or they are one thing, and then they realize that's who they are and just embrace it) but I really liked the main character in this one and his love interest. 

The more of these I write the more I realize I really enjoy universes with lots of Hey It's That Guys who appear and reappear throughout the series. I admit to cheering when Ridcully and Carrot showed up, and being disappointed at the lack of Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler. 

Oh, and for those of you who've read these, this one has chapters. I know! That's how I managed not to finish it last night; there were stopping points!

Grade: B

originally posted 2006 -- the made-for-tv version of this book is one of my faaaaaaaavorite things to watch

Code of the Woosters, P.G. Wodehouse

A re-read, and it still makes me laugh out loud, although I will admit I'm picturing the BBC series in some of the scenes. On being cornered breaking and entering, by a small and angry dog:

"Are you afraid of a tiny little dog, Jeeves?"
He corrected me respectfully, giving it as his opinion that the undersigned was not a tiny little dog, but well above the average in muscular development. In particular, he drew my attention to the animal's teeth.
I reassured him:
"I think you would find that if you were to make a sudden spring, his teeth would not enter into the matter. You could leap on to the bed, snatch up a sheet, roll him up in it before he knew what was happening, and there we would be."
"Yes, sir."
"Well, are you going to make a sudden spring?"
"No, sir."

Grade: A

Originally posted 2006