Review: The Land and Its People (by David Sedaris)

My Rating: 4 stars

The Land and Its People is David Sedaris’s newest essay collection, published just last month, and the second collection of his that I’ve read so far this year.  Even though I have a print version of the book, I decided to go with the audio version again, as I saw that all the essays were recordings of live performances, which enhanced the reading (listening) experience for me last time, so I figured it would do the same this time around as well (and fortunately, I was right).

In this collection of essays, Sedaris employs his trademark wry, self-deprecating humor to reflect upon the various roles that we take up in this world and our numerous human relationships as well as interactions – essentially, he explores what it means to be a human being in this land that we inhabit.  As is his style, most of the essays reflect his irreverent sense of humor, with subjects ranging from the intimate – such as Sedaris’s relationship with his husband Hugh as well as his interactions with his siblings and various members of his family – to the strange and absurd, such as when he challenges his friend to eat a truck tire. And yes, some essays may feel more grating than others, especially the ones where he pokes fun at certain groups of people or pushes the envelope with some sensitive subjects – but my philosophy is usually to take this stuff in stride knowing that it is part of the humorist/comedian’s “act” -- as long as it doesn’t cross any lines, of course.

As a whole, I found this collection of essays quite enjoyable and many of them funnier than I expected, though there were a few where the joke was on me for not “getting” the punchline.  A few of the essays also sounded familiar, so likely I had read them from other publications, since Sedaris’s work is widely published.  Overall, this was a nice palette cleanser from the heavier stuff that I’ve been reading and helped me to unwind given the particularly stressful week I’ve had at work.  As I noted in a previous review, I am slowly making my way through Sedaris’s backlist and continue to insert some much-needed levity into my life wherever I can find it.

Review: Calypso (by David Sedaris)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

I’ve been feeling a bit of overwhelm lately looking at my ridiculously long TBR list, which I keep adding books to faster than I am able to read them. This feeling of overwhelm, coupled with the fact that I am running out of space for all the physical books I have in my house, has driven me to make a few much-needed changes to the way I plan my reading. 

First though, let me explain how I got here.  Ever since I discovered Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) around 10 years ago, my reading life changed dramatically in that a huge focus of my reading every year has been on new releases.  Sure, I read backlist books as well, but except for my two years in graduate school (which, given my major in English Literature, required that I read tons of not only backlist but also classics), the majority of my time was spent trying to get through an ARC of a new release before its publication date.  At the same time, I also suffer from a serious case of BOOK FOMO where I will often go on book buying binges and before I know it, I will end up with a stack of books (both new releases and backlist titles) that I have every intention of getting to as soon as possible but inevitably set aside because of some other book I need to read (either for review or book club or both).  The result is that, over the past decade, I’ve accumulated hundreds (okay, it’s probably more like thousands) of books on my TBR (and bookshelves) that I want to read but haven’t found time to get to. 

So going back to the changes I mentioned earlier: in addition to incorporating audiobooks into my reading (which has helped me get through many of the nonfiction backlist titles in my collection), I’ve also been more intentional about requesting fewer ARCs, which gives me room to incorporate more books from my own shelves when planning my list of reads each month. Three months in, I am happy to report that this strategy seems to be working, as my reading log shows that I’ve read 10 backlist and 9 new releases so far this year, which is very close to the one for one ratio that I was hoping to achieve (though this will probably change when all the “big books” come out in the summer and fall, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there – for now, I will take every win I can get, LOL).

Just today, I finished another backlist title – one of David Sedaris’s (many) essay collections, Calypso, which I had gotten as one of the Book of the Month titles back in 2018.  I’ve read individual essays/articles that Sedaris has written over the years in various publications, but this was my first time reading an entire collection of them in book form, which, I have to say, is an entirely different experience from reading them individually.  While I enjoyed this collection quite a bit overall, I didn’t find it as funny as I anticipated it would be, especially given Sedaris’s trademark wry, cynical, and candidly irreverent sense of humor that is usually right up my alley.  I’m thinking this could be because I listened to this one on audio – which of course meant that I was also doing other tasks at the same time – so it’s possible that I may have gotten distracted and missed some of the funnier bits. With that said, one of the particularly enjoyable aspects of the audio version is that a few of the essays were recordings from his live performances, which definitely enhanced the listening experience for those (and not surprisingly, I found those to be the funniest essays in the collection).

I actually have several of Sedaris’s essay collections on my shelf, which I intend to work my way through by interspersing them wherever I can (though I probably will need to do some research first to see whether I should pick up the audio or the print version).  I’m also looking forward to his newest essay collection coming out in May – just in time for summer reading!

Review: Other People's Houses (by Abbi Waxman)

 My Rating: 3 stars

After a series of heavy reads, emotional reads, ones that tugged at my heartstrings and made me cry, I was desperately in need of a lighter read to help boost my spirits.  I had Abbi Waxman’s Other People’s Houses on my list of “ARCs past publication date that I need to get to” and since I knew this author to be a humorous writer, I decided to move this book up the list.   It turns out I made the right choice, as this was a fun read, one that was filled with snarky humor and realistic characters who dealt with everyday issues that most of us could relate to.  The central character in the story is Frances Bloom, a middle-aged mother of three who enjoys helping others despite the overload of responsibilities she already has on her plate with running her own household as well as being the carpool mom for her neighbors’ kids.  After Frances accidentally walks in on Anne Porter – the mother of two of the kids she carpools to school – having an affair with a man that wasn’t Anne’s husband, she finds herself reluctantly pulled into the fray when, a couple days later, the secret is revealed in the worst way possible.  Meanwhile, the other carpool families also have secrets of their own that they are more than willing to push to the back burner for the time being while they navigate the trials and tribulations of family life and raising kids.    Anne’s affair ends up impacting all these families in ways they never imagined and eventually causes them to re-examine their own lives and marriages.

While I did enjoy this book quite a bit overall and found the characters easy to relate to, I was not able to connect a whole lot to the story on a personal level as I initially thought I would, probably because I’ve read too many books with similar setup recently (families with kids all living in the same neighborhood dealing with every day issues of school, running the household, etc. whose lives are suddenly upended when an unexpected event occurs).  In fact, this particular story reminded me of Sally Hepworth’s The Family Next Door, except that this one was much lighter in tone and way more humorous, not to mention much more irreverent with its fair share of swearing and sex-related references.  With that said though, I actually enjoyed these characters far more and felt that the interactions between the couples in this one were more realistically portrayed and in line with what many of us would see in our neighborhoods.  The couple I actually enjoyed reading about most were Frances and Michael, as the hilarious way they would often banter back and forth while they tried to navigate the joys and frustrations of life with 3 kids reminded me of couples I know in real life.

Overall, this was an entertaining read and one that I felt was much needed during this particular “down” phase that I’ve been going through.  Though there were some serious issues that did get brought up in the story, those were dealt with appropriately without being heavy-handed and the light tone was maintained throughout, which is credit to the author Abbi Waxman’s story-telling skill.  This one is definitely recommended, though with the caveat that this might not appeal to all audiences due to the abundance of “colorful language” (which, in my opinion, was more than expected but certainly not excessive).

Received ARC from Berkley via Edelweiss