Dress Your Family ..., How to be an Antiques Detective, etc
Four short books this time, clearing the queue for more.
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (David Sedaris): The only other thing I've read by Sedaris wasn't autobiographical so this was kind of a change; I have the vague idea this is more typical, though. It seems like it would be weird to be a family member or friend of his and know that apparently all your interactions are fair game for being written about*. He has an essay about this fact but that does not actually make it less weird. Possibly it makes it more weird, in the sense that he explicitly acknowledges that it is kind of creepy and invasive and he's going to keep doing it. I liked the essays better as the book went along; I'm not sure if it was getting used to the creepiness or if the essays were actually getting better.
Anyway, aside from being mildly triggery of my "agh, you're embarrassing yourself" flinch reflex, this was pretty good. Some of the stories near the end were even great.
*Although, of course, the flipside is you don't know everything, just what he reports, so when his dad fades from the scene it's hard to tell exactly what relationship they had after the divorce, and while he speculates a lot about what his siblings think of him they never actually gets a chance to speak for themselves.
How to be an Antiques Detective (Anne Gilbert):
I picked this up due to it being next in the catalog after How to be an Alien, not because I know anything about antiques. Nevertheless, it was a pretty interesting survey for people who know more or less nothing. I learned lots of things about identifying Chinese vs Japanese pottery, early American glass bottles, and pie safes. The book was written in 1978 so everything in it is probably totally out of date, but c'mon, pie safes.
The Damned Season (Carlo Lucarelli): This is the sequel to Carte Blanche and is slightly its superior -- a better mystery, with more investigation and more characters actually involved, and another view on the main character's personality and background. The overall plot continues to evolve in a satisfying way; there's a complication at the end that should lead nicely into the third book (which probably won't be out for a year, grr).
Cutting Up Touches (David Avadon): I am interested but not particularly knowledgable about both stage magic and petty thievery, so you would think that a book about the history of picking pockets as a stage magic trick would be right up my alley. But in practice, I dunno, the book manages to cover both too much and too little. It works best as a biography of three magicians who specialized in pick-pocketing acts, and while it's interesting to see about the life of three pretty different guys, it doesn't get deep enough into their lives or acts to make me really feel like I got much. On the other hand, there's surprisingly little info about the magic here -- in retrospect possibly I should have realized he wasn't going to give any magic tricks away, but even more details about what the audience saw in particular acts would have been good, instead of just telling us they were totally wowed. Similarly, if you say this guy was fond of the Ring on Stick trick, it would have been nice to get some explanation of what that was. Overall, as a two-hour lecture or as an article in a magic magazine (which much of the book was adapted from) it would have been good; as a book it's a little lacking. Also, it's made from this funny glossy paper which is kind of freaky to touch, although maybe that is just to distract me from the guy lifting my wallet.
Up next: as you know, it is Classic Adventure Novel week. I am starting with The Mark of Zorro and going from there.
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (David Sedaris): The only other thing I've read by Sedaris wasn't autobiographical so this was kind of a change; I have the vague idea this is more typical, though. It seems like it would be weird to be a family member or friend of his and know that apparently all your interactions are fair game for being written about*. He has an essay about this fact but that does not actually make it less weird. Possibly it makes it more weird, in the sense that he explicitly acknowledges that it is kind of creepy and invasive and he's going to keep doing it. I liked the essays better as the book went along; I'm not sure if it was getting used to the creepiness or if the essays were actually getting better.
Anyway, aside from being mildly triggery of my "agh, you're embarrassing yourself" flinch reflex, this was pretty good. Some of the stories near the end were even great.
*Although, of course, the flipside is you don't know everything, just what he reports, so when his dad fades from the scene it's hard to tell exactly what relationship they had after the divorce, and while he speculates a lot about what his siblings think of him they never actually gets a chance to speak for themselves.
How to be an Antiques Detective (Anne Gilbert):
I picked this up due to it being next in the catalog after How to be an Alien, not because I know anything about antiques. Nevertheless, it was a pretty interesting survey for people who know more or less nothing. I learned lots of things about identifying Chinese vs Japanese pottery, early American glass bottles, and pie safes. The book was written in 1978 so everything in it is probably totally out of date, but c'mon, pie safes.
The Damned Season (Carlo Lucarelli): This is the sequel to Carte Blanche and is slightly its superior -- a better mystery, with more investigation and more characters actually involved, and another view on the main character's personality and background. The overall plot continues to evolve in a satisfying way; there's a complication at the end that should lead nicely into the third book (which probably won't be out for a year, grr).
Cutting Up Touches (David Avadon): I am interested but not particularly knowledgable about both stage magic and petty thievery, so you would think that a book about the history of picking pockets as a stage magic trick would be right up my alley. But in practice, I dunno, the book manages to cover both too much and too little. It works best as a biography of three magicians who specialized in pick-pocketing acts, and while it's interesting to see about the life of three pretty different guys, it doesn't get deep enough into their lives or acts to make me really feel like I got much. On the other hand, there's surprisingly little info about the magic here -- in retrospect possibly I should have realized he wasn't going to give any magic tricks away, but even more details about what the audience saw in particular acts would have been good, instead of just telling us they were totally wowed. Similarly, if you say this guy was fond of the Ring on Stick trick, it would have been nice to get some explanation of what that was. Overall, as a two-hour lecture or as an article in a magic magazine (which much of the book was adapted from) it would have been good; as a book it's a little lacking. Also, it's made from this funny glossy paper which is kind of freaky to touch, although maybe that is just to distract me from the guy lifting my wallet.
Up next: as you know, it is Classic Adventure Novel week. I am starting with The Mark of Zorro and going from there.