Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris 275 pages

This collection of largely autobiographical essays was an excellent audiobook.  The short stories make car trips breeze by, and I'm sure more than one fellow driver in traffic wondered what was making me laugh so hysterically.  Sedaris discusses everything- from searching for a stuffed owl and finding a taxidermied human arm, to his first colonoscopy; the election of 2008 when Sedaris was living in France to why he feels uneasy about eating Chinese food.  All of which were alot funnier than they sound, and often thought-provoking.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, by David Sedaris

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, by David Sedaris, 159 pages

I highly recommend that if you are going to read this book, check out the audiobook version instead.  It is a collection of short stories, featuring animals with human-like qualities, and the narrators include the author and my personal favorite, Elaine Stritch (think Jack's mom, from 30 Rock).  These stories are mainly dark, but some are funny and others are quite poignant.  Personal favorites included a dying mouse being told by a healthy mouse that he brought it on himself, before the healthy mouse is injected by a lab technician with AIDS; one about a wild bear always looking for sympathy for her mom's death, before meeting a dancing bear who has had all of his teeth removed and lives chained up; also, one about two flies talking over a pile of vomit was particularly interesting. The audiobook version of this did more for me than the print copy, but the illustrations (by Ian Falconer) in the print version are worth checking out.