A Couple of Memoirs

Book:  Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Author:   Jenny Lawson 

Grade:  B

Recommended:  Wear depends, you are going to piss yourself reading this book. 

This is the "mostly true memoir"  of Jenny Lawson's childhood, marriage, and her general life.  The first part of this book was funnier than the second, but I still enjoyed this super quick debut read by Jenny Lawson.  She writes The Bloggess, which is a hilarious way to spend your work day.  This book was good, but you occasionally find yourself wondering how many crazy things can happen to one person and if some of it is an exaggeration.  I also thought that Lawson's liberal  use of the word vagina was over the top.  I found myself not caring much about her genitalia and its various issues.

Otherwise, this was a laugh out loud funny book, so much so that I caught myself laughing in public places, like the Metra or the courthouse.  Awkward!  I definitely recommend this book and author.  She's funny, interesting and a very quick summer beach read.  I totally enjoyed it.

I haven't been updating that often and that's because I bought a house and have been updating my home renovation blog at Brown Beauty, which is the name of our house!

The second memoir I've read lately is:

Book:  I Am Not Myself These Days

Author:  Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Grade: A 

Recommended to:  Everyone, literally everyone. 

I love love love Josh Kilmer-Purcell. He is the goat farmer from the Amazing Race and this is the memoir of his life before meeting Brent, starting a farm, and running the Race.  His writing style is very funny and I laughed out loud even more with this book than Let's Pretend this Never Happened.  This is the story of Josh during his days as a drag queen and his crack addicted escort boyfriend.  This book is actually heartwarming despite the subject matter and Kilmer-Purcell displays an enormous writing range because in a single chapter you are pissing yourself laughing and the next you weep over Josh's life and choices.  This is a beautifully done memoir and I recommend it to anyone looking for some thrills and tears this summer.

Happy Reading!!

The Racketeer by John Grisham

Book:  The Racketeer

Author:  John Grisham 

Grade:  B 

Recommended To:  John Grisham fans that don't care for accuracy. 

I try to read every John Grisham as soon as it comes out, but with the move, the house renovation, and birthdays and anniversaries, I just couldn't justify spending 20 whole dollars on this book as soon as it came out.

Then, I discovered the "Hot Reads" section in the Downers Grove Public Library.  I'm so pleased to be a member of a library again and the DGPL is excellent.  It is spacious, airy, and chock full of books.  Plus, you can rent kindle books and it is all free!  An amazing thing, libraries.

So, I browsed the Hot Reads section and it basically had every book that has been on my to-read list that I refused to pay full price for.  I picked up The Racketeer and The Black Box and finished them both very quickly.

The Racketeer is about a prisoner who makes a deal with the feds and is released from prison after giving up the name of the person who murdered a federal judge.   The story twists and turns and has a lot of cliffhangers that keep the reader's attention.  It was a very fast read and I liked the plot.

What I didn't like were some of the obvious holes that some slight research could have corrected.  Grisham freely admits in a note in the back of the book that he just wrote without researching and although he came clean, the book needed Wikipedia (at least!) to be believable.

A great story, gone slightly awry warrants a B grade.  I recommend this book as a summer beach read.

Happy Reading!!