The Comedy Bible by Judy Carter

I have no desire to become a stand up comedian, write for sitcoms, or even tell a joke. But I was fascinated by the anatomy of a joke. Carter, while interspersing her analysis with lots of very funny examples, breaks down how a good joke is made. It probably appeals to same part of me that loves learning about an actor's craft or even literary analysis—how do they do what they do. I was also sort of amused by Carter's relationship with her audience. She treated us as stand up comedy wannabees who kept trying to take short cuts and not do our homework. It made me wander about her students.

Promise Land--My Journey Through America's Self-Help Culture by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro

Taking down the self-help industry is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. It just doesn't take much effort to find egregious examples of simplification, manipulation, and straight out stupidity, but I'm happy to find more ways to explain why I think this industry is evil. Lamb-Shapiro actually doesn't. While calling them out, she still yearns for them to actually help. Maybe that's because her father is an almost famous self-help guru. I liked the insider scoop, but mostly I liked how funny and self-deprecating she was.

The Living Fire New and Selected Poems by Edward Hirsch

Hirsch is one of my favorite poets, so it was fun to revisit his books in this abbreviated form. Like a highlights.

Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech

It's a lovely children's book about poetry. Rose first read it in first or second grade, and it seemed so immense then. Now, it seems so short.

The White Mountains by John Christopher

Remember this book? I loved this series in 6th grade. I found the book at the library book sale and reread it before I recommended it to Rose since, like every other 6th grader, she's reading a lot of dystopia fiction these days. The book still holds up. Not brilliant but solid on human nature and scary.

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

I don't understand why this book is a classic. It has some beautiful passages, sure, but basically there's no plot or character development. Nothing happens. It's like she took a bunch of stories about the old west and a few diary entries from the priests and wrote them up nice. Well, that is exactly what she did. We read this book for my book group. I'm always happy to tick another classic off my list and even better to discuss it with my delightful book group, but I still feel like I'm missing the point.

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe. by S. C. Gwynne

The bad news is I knew nothing about the Comanche and their 300 year reign over the American West, post the Spanish invasion. The good news is I learned a ton from this book. I feel like whole swathes of history and geography came to life for me. I would have never read this book without my book group, so hurrah. I have a much better sense of the Texas attitude, the incredible hubris of Manifest Destiny and how it tied to religious values, and living in a warrior culture at the pinnacle of their power.

Sixkill by Robert Parker

All the above books aside, most of my reading is comfort reading, particularly rereading Robert Parker mysteries. Like this one.

You'll notice there aren't many kids' books on the list. David still listens to books on cd's non-stop, so I've certainly heard bits and pieces, but John has been drafted as the full-time bedtime book reader. So I sit in the other room and listen to Mysterious Benedict Society. Lovely.