The Thieves of Manhattan: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)"Thieves" is magically entertaining. I loved Langer's wonderfully inventive literary references. Famous author's names can become verbs or evocative nouns such as when Ian, the main character, gets fed up with his crazy life and wants to pull a salinger, meaning he wants to hide away for awhile a la JD Salinger. People at upscale literary readings and parties drink faulkners (whiskey) or fitzgeralds (gin rickys), they wear ecklebergs or franzens, both forms of eyeglasses.
In the beginning Ian, a failing writer, meets Jed, another failed author, or is he a scam artist? and they embark on an adventure as they rewrite Jed's memoir. Along the way they speculate about what literary talent is, who has it, who's a fake or real in the corporate literary world and among their fellow writers. I loved the inside look into book society as well as the adventure tale running throughout the story. There are also a few love stories along the way and some cloak and dagger adventure. Best were the humor and the sense of fun. I enjoyed Langer's book immensely.


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Motel of the Mysteries Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was actually a gift from my Mother who knows I enjoy things archaeological and historical. Since she`s more than a trifle eccentric and has a marvelous sense of the absurd, I've a sneaking suspicion she was poking a little fun at me--which is something I probably need once in a while for my own good.
The Motel of the Mysteries is a wonderful send up of the fields of archaeology and history. It's aim is doubtless to entertain, at which it's vastly successful, but over and above that the book makes quite clear what archaeology legitimately can and cannot do. I think it also points out that what is taken as "The Reality" of the past is often as much a function of current cultural biases and of the personal motives of individual researchers as it is of what actually occurred in the past. (This was made quite clear to me when I saw Knossos on Crete for the first time and realized that a great deal of imagination had gone into the reconstruction of the "Minoan" buildings there).
My favorite parts of Motel were Archaeologist Carson's interpretation of the hotel bathroom as the inner sanctum of a religious structure and the subsequent depiction of his assistant--ala Heinrich Schliemann with the Trojan treasure and Leonard Wooley with the Ur III treasure--wearing bathroom accoutrements as religious paraphernalia.
The author also pokes fun at museums and at all of us, when he includes a collection of "Souvenirs and Quality Reproductions" available for sale at the end of the book. My favorite is the coffee set based on the "sacred urn" (toilet). Goodness knows I've purchased my fair share of quality reproductions on my travels throughout the world!
This should be suggested reading for every college history and archeology major and required for those seeking degrees over BA in these fields!

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It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.

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How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (And They Will) Review

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(More customer reviews)I first saw garden gnomes in the early 70's while stationed in Germany. Even the most staid and restrained German garden seemed to have at least one and usually scores of them. Personally I've never had any problems with gnomes. I was taught to deal with different cultures with kindness, curiosity and willingness to learn about and from them. So, it comes as a shock to know that someone - Chuck Sambuchino fears and says there will definitely be an attack.
My motto has always been better safe than sorry, always be prepared, never run out of toilet paper during a blizzard, etc. If you want to be ready then this would be a good book. There is some good advice anyway: secure your chimney caps, keep floors clear, do not set landmines on your lawn.
One word of advice that is not mentioned in this manual, my German landlady told me gnomes that carry red mushrooms with white spots were good luck. I do notice none of Sambuchino's gnomes have these good luck mushrooms, so maybe that is what the trouble is. Who knows, but this would make a nice giggle for anyone owning a garden gnome and you never know when survival manuals might come in handy??

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Move over zombies and adolescent vampires. There's a new threat in town—and it's only twelve inches tall. How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack is the only comprehensive survival guide that will help you prevent, prepare for, and ward off an imminent home invasion by the common garden gnome. Once thought of as harmless yard decorations, evidence is mounting that these smiling lawn statues are poised and ready to wreck havoc. The danger is real. And it's here. Class 1 gnome-slayer and gnome defense expert Chuck Sambuchino has developed a proven system—Assess, Protect, Defend, Apply—for safeguarding property, possessions, and loved ones. Strategies include step-by-step instructions for gnome-proofing the average dwelling, recognizing and interpreting the signs of a gathering hoard, and—in the event that a secured perimeter is breached—confronting and combating the attackers at close range.

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David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall Review

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(More customer reviews)As you would expect from David Sedaris, this disc is completely hilarious and should help tide you over until his forthcoming "Untitled Collection" is released in June. I imagine that many of the essays he reads on this disc (most were originally published by Esquire) will find their way into that book.
As he proved with Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris is at his best when he's exposing cultural differences, as illustrated through language and tradition (especially religious customs, with all of the associated secular trimmings). From the questions he chooses to ask upon arriving in a new country (his first is always "what do your roosters say?") to his confusion with the languages that humans speak (the French use the same word for chef and boss), his unique perspective shines a different light on some very funny, if not always particularly significant, truths.
If you were moved to tears by his attempt, in French, to describe the basic tenets of Easter, you'll certainly feel the same about his description of the practice of Christmas in the Netherlands. Evidently, though the Dutch think the idea of Santa employing elves is freakish and disgusting, they see nothing wrong with a Santa who is assisted on his yearly journey by "six to eight black men" (according to tradition, they were once slaves, but now they're just Santa's close friends).
My only criticism is that two of the tracks are rereadings of excerpts from The David Sedaris Box Set (they're bonus tracks, originally taken from the Esquire article "Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?," but they're on the Barrel Fever disc of the box set). Still, at least they're quite funny, so you don't mind hearing them again. You just might wish that the CD were longer and included only new material.

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At David Sedaris' sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall he debuted five new stories, all captured on this CD. They include a parrot who mimics an ice maker, lovers quarrelling over a rubber hand, and a Santa Claus who moonlights from his job as bishop of Turkey.

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Hello Kitty Must Die Review

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(More customer reviews)Imagine, if you will, what the offspring of Sandra Tsing Loh (or Amy Tan) and Chuck Pahlaniuk might be like. Imagine their daughter had a law degree and chucked it to write crime fiction, but kept the stiletto heels and Prada.
You've just imagined both Angela S. Choi and her debut novel's protagonist, Fiona. Except Fiona chooses not to write crime fiction, but to abet crime itself, in a very strange way.
This is a pithy and entertaining read. Fi is not an adorable, likeable character, not a Hello Kitty (all cuteness, no mouth, no threat, no will of her own), but a smart and sassy woman who knows what she wants -- and, more importantly, what she does not. The story concerns her unorthodox but ultimately successful quest to achieve both ends in her own prickly way.
Her partner in crime, Sean, is less well-drawn and never quite comes alive, but perhaps he doesn't need to. While Fi describes him as the love of her life, it's obvious that she doesn't mean this in the conventional or romantic sense: he's her ultimate anti-fashion accessory, and on that level he's just what the doctor ordered (and yes, he's a doctor). His job is not to fulfill or complete her, but to wedge her out of the role in which she has felt trapped, as is, perhaps, hers for him.
Ultimately, this book is about getting stuff out of one's system. Now that Choi has gotten some stuff out of hers -- her obvious distaste for Chinese culture and for the way in which deliberate singles are viewed -- I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next, for she shows a great deal of promise. Next!

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