SkyMaul

I hope that everyone had a happy version of whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year. Also, before we begin today's review, I was sick of looking at the dark blue screen and not being able to tell where the links were in my posts. I hope this new template alleviates that problem.

So we all know how creepy/funny those airplane catalogs are. The comedy group Kasper Hauser has taken their absurdity to another level with the parody book SkyMaul - Happy Crap You Can Buy From a Plane. This book has fake ads for services like "You Can Set a World Record for How Happy You Are. Guaranteed." and the "Off My Back" Relationship Book Summaries. The products are all ridiculous items that do sort of remind you of the actual SkyMall catalog. In the parody book you will find the Cat's in the Cradle flask (engraved with the words "when you comin' home, Dad, I don't know when..."); Vegetarian-Be-Gone Totem (ward off vegetarians with this HUGE donkey head or elk head or whatever it is); Break it to them tastefully with our Medical Test Result Fortune Cookies (you tested positive for...). All the fake ads have descriptions and pictures of the products that all come with a severely bloated price tag. Of course this book, like many others I review, is silly and overall pretty pointless, but hey, it's funny.

Eat the Document

Browsing through some of the best of the year books lists on Fimoculous, I came upon Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta on multiple lists and thought I'd check it out. The story of Mary Whitaker and Bobby DeSoto alternates between the 1970s and the 1990s and follows the lives of these two lovers turned fugitives. After a radical war protest event gone wrong, the pair are forced to part and go underground, changing their names and identities. Although what exactly happened is a mystery until the end of the book, the stories of the two, as they unknowingly reside in the same city and live their semi-normal lives with their children (in Mary/Louise's case) and their bookstores (Bobby/?????'s case) all while keeping their true selves a secret. There are two characters who might be Bobby and, at least in my case, I was almost sure I knew who Bobby had become but sometimes I doubted myself. That mystery made things confusing at times but also interesting. I enjoyed this novel and the fringe characters, Louise's son Jason and bookstore frequenter Miranda added a lot to the story. Spiotta is a wonderful writer who can craft a great story and writes in a truly literary manner. I'm intrigued to check out her first book, Lightning Field.

The Brick Testament

Brendan Powell Smith, the notorious Internet celebrity also known as "The Reverend" has been kind enough to give the world a series of books that we didn't even know we had been waiting for. The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis is the first book of the bible illustrated with LEGO characters. Luckily for us, Smith has grandiose plans to do the whole bible illustrated in this manner and so far has published three books including this one. It's so much easier to understand the bible when you can see the little yellow LEGO figure of Abel face down in his LEGO blood while God says to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" and Cain replies "I don't know" (page 49). Each page has the quotidian English "translation" of a bible verse and the verse number below it with a LEGO picture describing what is happening. For further reading, Powell Smith's related website is incredibly detailed and contains more stories than any of the books do.

Thanks to my coworker Kiki for pointing out the Cain and Abel page :)

Election

I think that Tom Perotta is a great writer; he's funny and creates characters that are interesting, flawed and likable. His novel Little Children was very good and recently made into a movie that got nominated for three Golden Globes today. A while ago I decided I should read some of his other books since I liked Little Children so much.

Although I have never seen the movie Election, I really enjoyed the book which is Perotta's second novel. This book follows a teacher and a few students during an election for high school student body president. The book is presented in one of my favorite formats where one character narrates each chapter. The politically ambitious Tracy Flick is pitted against the popular jock Paul Warren in the beginning of the fight until Paul's sister joins the race. Tammy, the sister, is in love with Paul's girlfriend and is probably the most intriguing character in the novel. Her chapters are full of teen angst and present a lot of drama. The history teacher, Jim McAllister narrates some of the chapters and his point of view of the election and his life are both interesting. This is a short novel and the whole time the reader is dying to know who wins, but in the end gets a good story along the way.

Theme: Broadway musical coffee table books

I love Broadway musicals, they're my guiltiest pleasure and I can't get enough of the music, the shows and the books. Unfortunately, my dear readers have to suffer through countless (okay, two so far) Broadway musical book reviews. I figured I'd spare you all the pain and do a theme review featuring many Broadway musical coffee table books in one post thereby sparing my readers any more musical book reviews. Well, I'm not promising anything, but I'll try to hold back after this.

Someone caught on that Broadway musical fans of the 2000s like the musicals so much that not only will they get suckered into buying tickets to the show and the soundtrack, they'll buy books too! RENT was the first Broadway book to come out with the show, because RENT is the coolest. Following the RENT book's lead, other recent or current shows released books that include the lyrics, book, interviews with actors and producers, lots of pictures and information about putting the show together. I reviewed the Wicked book and was positive about it. But the more I explored Amazon after getting my Avenue Q e-newsletter (I know, I'm hopeless) about their new coffee table book, I realized these were just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to RENT, Wicked and Avenue Q having coffee table books out, Hairspray, The Color Purple, The Producers and Mama Mia! also have them. And, if that weren't enough, the PBS documentary Broadway, An American Musical also has a companion book. It's almost too much, even for me.

That said, if you actually enjoy Broadway musicals, I hope I'm not disappointing you by lumping everything together. If you don't, feel free to jump for joy now. And speaking of... if you're a musical fan you should check out the PBS documentary because it's a really interesting presentation on the history of Broadway.

Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees...

Robert Lanham created The Hipster Handbook in 2003 and made a name for himself among New Yorkers and people curious about what exactly classified a "hipster". The book did not impress actual hipsters because they were so over being labeled and the book didn't apply to them anymore (or so they say). So at the end of 2004 Lanham released Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees, and Other Creatures Unique to the Republic and looked to appeal to a new audience - everybody. All readers are familiar with a "WB" - someone who strongly identifies with Bugs Bunny and wears only Warner Brothers clothing, in my experience they're always jean shirts. This book presents idiosyncrology groups which are further divided into specific types of people like the obvious gym people, the not-so-obvious yanknecks (rebel-flag-waving rednecks who live outside the South) and the hilarious CATSCANs (Cannot Attempt to Socially Categorize, Anthropologically Noteworthy). One of the CATSCANs is Mary Hart, noteworthy because she does not age and has a $1 million insurance policy on her legs. Another is Randy Constan who, despite working as a computer programmer, routinely dresses like Peter Pan and has become somewhat of a celebrity in the process. He has a website and a Wikipedia page and I remember seeing him on Conan a few years ago. Although this book is kinda silly, it's pretty entertaining because every type of person you read about, you think about the last time you went grocery shopping and find yourself nodding and laughing.

My Year Of Meats

Although Ruth L. Ozeki's My Year of Meats was published in 1999, it has themes relevant to today's society and presents a story unlike any other novel I've read. The two main characters are women involved with the Japanese show My American Wife!, a television documentary show actually designed to promote meat products in Japan and not showcase American families like the viewers are led to believe. The producer of the show is Jane Takagi-Little, a character based heavily on the author's actual experiences as a documentary film maker. Jane travels cross-country making shows and slowly discovers the ugly underbelly of the meat industry - lots of hormones in the meat which are affecting the consumers. Once she realizes this, Jane begins to sabotage the program slowly. The other main character is Japanese Akiko Uneo whose husband runs the advertising for My American Wife! Akiko sees an episode of the show that focuses on vegetarian lesbians (one of Jane's first deviations), wants to help Jane and the two spend the rest of the novel trying to expose the meat industry. Overall, this novel has a lot to cover but it keeps the reader interested while examining cultural differences, different kinds of exploitation, gender roles and relationships.