Go For It, Nakamura! by Syundei

Go For It, Nakamura! by Syundei

Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! #1, 200 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐.25/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Nakamura has fallen in love-at-first-sight with one of his classmates, Hirose -- but there's a problem: they haven't actually met yet...and Nakamura is a total klutz who might bungle things before they even begin!

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by Bruce Coville

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by Bruce Coville, 48 pages

I was actually looking for a completely different book by Bruce Coville when I stumbled upon this truncated children's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now, it must be acknowledged that I am not a Shakespeare scholar by any stretch of the imagination but rather an enthusastic casual admirer. 

However, I thought this adaptation was simply fantastic. The illustrations are captivating, especially those of Puck. The story itself is well told for a younger audience who isn't quite ready to parse the full play; in fact, some of the book was directly quoted from the play, which gave the whole thing a full effect. I was so pleased with this rendition that I ordered a copy of every Coville version of Shakespeare that's available in Missouri Evergreen. 

 

Life of the Party: Stories of a Perpetual Man-Child by Bert Kreischer

 

Life of the Party: Stories of a Perpetual Man-Child by Bert Kreischer - 256 pages

Bert Kreischer doesn't know how to say "no." If he did, he wouldn't have gotten himself mixed up with a group of Russian mobsters on a class trip to Moscow, earning him his nickname: "The Machine." He wouldn't have wrestled with a bear or swum with sharks on national television. He wouldn't have (possibly) smoked PCP with a star of Saturday Night Live. And he wouldn't have been named the Number One Partier in the Nation by Rolling Stone, inspired the movie National Lampoon's Van Wilder, or performed standup to sellout crowds across the country.


The stories Kreischer shares in Life of the Party are a guidebook on how not to grow up. From his fraternity days at Florida State University, to his rise as a standup, to his marriage and first brushes with fatherhood, Kreischer shows you a path that may not lead you to maturity or personal growth. But it will lead you to a sh!tload of fun.

This was very entertaining to listen to, if you've watched his standup and like it then you'd like this.  He's so funny, while he's reading he even laughs at what he wrote.  This was very entertaining!

Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld

 

Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld - 480 pages

Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a twenty-one-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”

For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.

I tried reading the book and I just couldn't, but listening to it on audio was so much better, it was like listening to a set of his.  Very entertaining, but he is one of my favorites.  

The Thursday Murder Club

 

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman  382 pages

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

If you are a fan of cozy mysteries, you will enjoy this one. The characters are cute, and it's funny how they use their age to their advantage!

Funny Story by Emily Henry

 Funny Story by Emily Henry-387 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Daphne is all set to marry Peter or, at least, she thinks she is. But after going out to his bachelor party with his best friend since childhood, Petra, he decides he's in love with her instead after she confesses that she's in love with him. Obviously, Daphne is devastated and now must move out of the house Peter seemingly bought for them to live in. Now, Petra is moving into the house with Peter and Daphne ends up moving in with Petra's ex-boyfriend, Miles. I enjoyed the pop culture references and snark. Both made me chuckle quite a few times. I found myself really rooting for Daphne and Miles and both are likeable characters. I really liked the ending. 

Overall, I enjoyed this as I did Happy Place, also by Emily Henry. 

The Heartbreak Rule by Stephanie Archer

The Heartbreak Rule by Stephanie Archer -- 302 pages

He’s her friend’s hot ex, Satan’s apprentice, and the last guy she’d ever fall for. A slow burn standalone enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy.

Gemma’s a rising comedian with dreams of sold-out tours and Netflix specials. Nothing will get in her way—especially not the cocky asshole at the comedy club bar every night. He broke her friend’s heart and she hates him for it.

Reid’s a secret romantic who loves his dog, his old theatre, and sparring with a certain commitment-phobe comedian. When the comedy club closes without notice, he opens his theatre to the comics, including the witty, charismatic Gemma. She’ll rip his heart out, so he should keep his distance… but he can’t help but provoke her.

They need to work together without bloodshed so call a truce, but the tension builds and sparks fly. He’s off limits, so why is she fooling around with him? She’ll leave him in the dust, so why is he finding reasons to spend time with her? This hilarious romance features a grand old theatre, sharp banter, stand-up comedy and an all-night variety show.

Yearbook by Seth Rogan

Yearbook by Seth Rogan -- 260 pages

Hi! I’m Seth! I was asked to describe my book, Yearbook, for the inside flap (which is a gross phrase) and for websites and shit like that, so… here it goes!!!

Yearbook is a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best. (I understand that it’s likely the former, which is a fancy “book” way of saying “the first one.”)

I talk about my grandparents, doing stand-up comedy as a teenager, bar mitzvahs, and Jewish summer camp, and tell way more stories about doing drugs than my mother would like. I also talk about some of my adventures in Los Angeles, and surely say things about other famous people that will create a wildly awkward conversation for me at a party one day.

I hope you enjoy the book should you buy it, and if you don’t enjoy it, I’m sorry. If you ever see me on the street and explain the situation, I’ll do my best to make it up to you.

The Best of Me by David Sedaris

The Best of Me by David Sedaris -- 387 pages 

For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing.

 

Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler’s lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say “give it to me” in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.

 

But if all you expect to find in Sedaris’s work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to terms—at long last—with the other.

 

Taken together, the stories in The Best of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expected—it’s often harder, more fraught, and certainly weirder—but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful.

 

Full of joy, generosity, and the incisive humor that has led David Sedaris to be called “the funniest man alive” (Time Out New York), The Best of Me spans a career spent watching and learning and laughing—quite often at himself—and invites readers deep into the world of one of the most brilliant and original writers of our time.

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong -- 224 pages

In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong resonated so heavily that she became a popular Halloween costume. Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women, and why you never see new mom comics on stage but you sure see plenty of new dads.

The sharp insights and humor are even more personal in this completely original collection. She shares the wisdom she's learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life off stage, including the brutal singles life in New York (i.e. the inevitable confrontation with erectile dysfunction), reconnecting with her roots (and drinking snake blood) in Vietnam, tales of being a wild child growing up in San Francisco, and parenting war stories. Though addressed to her daughters, Ali Wong's letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving, and enlightening (and disgusting) for all.

How to Date Men When You Hate Men by Blythe Roberson

How to Date Men When You Hate Men
by Blythe Roberson, 272 pages

I'm not sure if Blythe remembers me, but I am married to her mother's cousin.  I believe she played with my children a few times.  With that being said, I had to read her book.  I knew she graduated from Harvard, wrote for the Onion, and writes for the Stephen Colbert show.

Blythe is a very talented writer.  I can see her on the path to writing many more books.  This book is funny, and I like when she makes lists, like good flirts/bad flirts, places to meet men, etc.  I like how she divides the book into simple chapters.   This is an awesome book if you are looking to date.  However, I am over 50 and didn't relate too much because I am married and don't anticipate dating anytime soon.  My twenty something children would probably benefit from reading this book.  I know Blythe must wonder how men feel dating her after she wrote this book.

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham - 304 Pages

"Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they’ll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the only house on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty, they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash, they aren’t even going to have a tree. They won’t need one, because come December 25 they’re setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences—and isn’t half as easy as they’d imagined.

A classic tale for modern times, Skipping Christmas offers a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that have become part of our holiday tradition."

I didn't realize that this book was related to the film, Christmas with the Kranks, when I first picked it up, so it was a nice refreshment as it brought back memories to when I had watched the film with my family here and there whenever it aired on TV.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite - 240 pages
Release Date: 11/20/18

This dark yet hilarious debut novel follows nurse Korede as she serves as a reluctant clean up crew for her sister's unfortunate habit of killing her boyfriends.  Fans of Dexter will find much to enjoy here.  At parts it's laugh out loud funny and other sections will make you just want to cry.   

There is a nice meditation on the meaning of family and the nature of those ties that bind that underpins this dark comedy.  The action takes place in Lagos, Nigeria so for me this was also a glimpse into an unfamiliar culture so that was very interesting too. 

I was able to read an advanced copy through NetGalley and the book will be released in November. 

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin - 209 pages

This book is memoir by the comedian Steve Martin reflecting on his childhood and stand-up career.  As this is a topic that he very rarely talks about anymore, I found it fascinating.  He stated at one point during the book that he didn't necessarily want to be a comedian but a performer.  I think that sums up the book perfectly - especially as he walked away from stand up comedy in the 1980s and has refused to go back instead focusing on acting, writing, and most recently his music.  This was a great book - especially on audio as he narrates his own memoir.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

                                      Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, 208 pages

The riveting, mega-bestselling, beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man, a vocation, and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of 2007 by Time and Entertainment Weekly.

In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.”

Emmy and Grammy Award–winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.

At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.

Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times—the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.

 

I listened to this in the car on another trek across Missouri. It was pretty self-analytical and not as funny as I was thinking and hoping it would be. Unfortunately, this did not make me laugh out loud but I do have a deeper understanding of the inner workings of a comedian's mind now.                                    

Skip Beat! by Yoshiki Nakamura

Skip Beat! by Yoshiki Nakamura  -- 4512 pages
v. 1  184 pages           v. 7  200 pages    v. 12  200 pages
v. 2  208 pages              v. 8  200 pages    v.  13  208 pages
v. 3   208 pages          v. 9  200pages    v. 14 200 pages
v. 4  208 pages              v. 10 200pages    v. 15 - 22 - 1888 pages
v. 5    208 pages          v 11  200 pages

Instead of wallowing in despair when her famous boyfriend (Shotaro) dumps her after using her to make it big, Kyoko goes to work for the rival showbiz company to become even more famous than Sho. Unfortunately, Kyoko doesn't know the first thing about acting and bumbles her way through by sheer luck. The chemistry and romance builds with each new volume. The illustrations are great and tell the story as well as the words. This is a very light, easy read sure to please many.

Itazura Na Kiss by Kaoru Tada

Itazura Na Kiss by Kaoru Tada - 1,000 pages
V. 1 - 300 pages
V. 2 - 324 pages
V. 3 - 376 pages

Kotoko (Class F)  has had her eye on Naoki Irie (Class A) since their first day of Intermediate school.  School is almost over so Kotoko writes a love letter to Naoki that he refuses to read. Unfortunately for Kotoko, Irie is the smartest teen in the school and doesn't tolerate "stupid" girls. Kotoko doesn't give up, though, and the first three books are her ridiculously funny stalker tactics to get Naoki to notice and fall in love with her.

I Never Met a Story I Didn't Like: mostly true tall tales

I Never Met a Story I Didn't Like : Mostly True Tall Tales by Todd Snider -304 pgs.

Todd is a favorite songwriter & musician of mine. This book is in part a compilation of the stories he tells at his concerts, and they are hilarious. His stories are as good as his songs. As he says at most every show before launching into one of these never get tired of hearing well-worn gems: " My name’s Todd Snider, I’ve been drivin' around this country more than 15 years. I make these songs up and I sing 'em for anybody that’ll listen to 'em. I'm going to share them tonight not because I think they're smart, or because you need to know them, but because they rhyme. Some are sad, some are funny, some are short, some will seem like they go on forever, and sometimes I may ramble on for as many as 18 minutes in between a particular song." I got this book at his book & music tour at the Sheldon Concert Hall earlier this year, where he performed songs & read passages, then was gracious enough to sign copies & take pictures. The stories are pretty great on their own, even if you don't know who he is. The book is full of extremely interesting characters (Todd is quite a character himself) & some not so flattering stories about a few well-known main stream musicians. However, reading this book with Todd's voice in your head is the full experience.

Growing Up Laughing by Marlo Thomas

Growing Up Laughing by Marlo Thomas - 382 pages

For as long as Thomas can remember, she’s lived with laughter. Born to comedy royalty—TV and nightclub star Danny Thomas—she grew up among legendary funny men, carved much of her career in comedy and, to this day, surrounds herself with people who love and live to make others laugh. Thomas takes us on a funny and heartwarming adventure, from her Beverly Hills childhood, to her groundbreaking creation of That Girl and Free to Be . . . You and Me, to her marriage to talk-show king Phil Donahue.

Her youth was star-studded—Milton Berle performed magic tricks (badly) at her backyard birthday parties. George Burns, Bob Hope, Sid Caesar, Bob Newhart and other great comics passed countless hours gathered around her family’s dinner table. And behind it all was the rich laughter nurtured by a close and loving family.

Growing Up Laughing is not just the story of an iconic entertainer, but also the story of comedy. In a voice that is curious, generous and often gleeful, Thomas not only opens the doors on the funny in her own life, but in a series of insightful and hilarious interviews also explores the comic roots of today’s most celebrated comedians.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The interviews are hilarious, as is the recollections of her childhood and her becoming a force in the entertainment industry and the women's movement.  

Diary of a Mad Diva by Joan Rivers

Diary of a Mad Diva by Joan Rivers - 289 pages

This is a mock-diary of a year in the life of Joan Rivers.  It is definitely a book for those who are fans of her comedy.  Every page is filled with her jokes and comments that are sure to offend many.  I thought the whole book was worth it just for her comments on much she hates "Flo" from the Progressive insurance commercials.  She summed up my hatred of those commercials perfectly.  The oddest part of the book was reading her thoughts on how she wanted her funeral and how she expected to ring in 2015 with her daughter.  It was very strange reading those parts knowing that she had recently passed away.