[openbook booknumber=”0688149553″]

[rating:2/5]

I loved watching M*A*S*H reruns growing up, so when I found this book at a brown bag book sale I just had to pick it up. M*A*S*H by Richard Hooker is the book that the TV series was based off of. When my husband read the book he thought it was hilarious and highly recommended it. I dove in with high expectations that unfortunately ended up being too high.

The characters come across as far more serious in the novel. Their attempts at banter and fun and games came across as what they really were, mere attempts at sanity in the insanely harsh conditions they faced serving in Korea. As a whole, the novel seemed to have a much different tenor then the light hearted TV series does.

The other thing that was different (or perhaps my memories of the TV show were rose tinted) is there seemed to be a great deal more and much harsher misogyny. I remember the fighting with “Hot Lips” Houlihan, I did not recall anything concerning whore houses, brothels or the taking advantage thereof by married enlisted men and officers.

[openbook booknumber=”9780316143479″]

[rating:5/5]

Another hilarious collection of essays by David Sedaris. This was another book that I read aloud to my husband. Again, a lot of this book had to be read in private though, and not around relatives. It’s definitely adult reading and adult language!

The portraits he paints of every day people doing things that are absolutely crazy in a way that makes them seem mundane is his calling card and he does this to excellent effect in this new novel. Whether it’s the woman that lives alone in an apartment building that acts like she runs the place (and really does), the crazy people he hitchhikes with in the early 70’s, his parent’s take on art, or the people he meets in his attempt to quit smoking in japan, it’s all written with a humorous edge and a sarcastic wit that makes even the most outcast and odd palatable.

[openbook booknumber=”0553284673″]

[rating:4/5]

I had never read a book written by a comedian before, though I have read comedic writing (in the form of David Sedaris). That said I found this book to be very entertaining and laugh out loud funny. Love and Marriage is a humorous accounting of Bill Cosby’s success and failures in love in the first half of the book, and in marriage in the second half.

A lot of people were disappointed in Love and Marriage because, unlike his book Fatherhood there was humor but no wit, no advice on what to do to survive the uncertain waters of love or marriage. Because Bill Cosby, like the rest of us, is just as clueless about what makes love and marriage work. He has a general idea, as do we all, but a lot of it remains a mystery as he himself admits. I didn’t read Fatherhood but I also didn’t feel like I could hold him not being in a position to dole out advice against him.

[openbook booknumber=”081296666X”]

[rating:4/5]

Another gem by Mil Millington, this was also another book that I read aloud to my husband. It often had both of us in tears from laughing so much. Partly for the well written humor and commentary on relationships, and partly because we related to a lot of the arguments had by Pel and Ursula.

In the story Pel has to deal with missing colleagues, paying off illegal deals, and stepping into increasingly larger shoes as more and more work is foisted off on him. Ursula and his kids make things at home similarly wacky and stressful as they deal with moving to a new home, renting out their old one and visits to school counselors.

[openbook booknumber=”0812973488″]

[rating:3/5]

Hello. My name is Robert, and I haven’t been dead for sixty-three days now.”

That’s the opening line of Love and Other Near-Death Experiences. The story of a guy named Rob and his attempts to get around a new found phobia about making decisions, since one made by chance happened to save his life. His fiance gives him an ultimatum to either get his life figured out or she wouldn’t marry him. So he put his job on the line one night as a late night Jazz DJ to talk about his problems on the air, pouring out his feelings about his near death experience and his issues now even being able to choose what clothes to wear in the morning or whether to walk left or right around obstacles in his path, as who knew what choice would result in life or what one death?

In the end his late night admission opened a can of worms with internet bloggers grabbing the audio recording of the show and running with it, the radio station forums overflowing with supporters and bashers alike, and with other near-death survivors coming out of the wood work. Soon he finds himself in the middle of a crazy plot with fellow near-death survivors and trying to find out answers and make correct choices before time runs out.