Monday, March 19, 2012

ONE WORD 365 // Week 11, Book 11

I still have a smile on my face from last week's book...

Bossypants
By Tina Fey
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011

I'm sure you heard me cackling late last Monday when I started this book. I could barely get through a sentence. 

And the tears! I was weeping from laughter. 

As I continued, there were less tears, though the humor was still there.

It's difficult to write funny, to write comedy and get laughs, but Tina succeeds. Maybe it's because I'm such a fan of her and of "30 Rock" and her character Liz Lemon. Maybe the book reads super funny to me because I can envision her saying it or reading it aloud. I should try the audio version sometime, perhaps, just to see if it makes me laugh more.

The book tells Tina's story: her days growing up and working the local summer theater to joining Second City in Chicago and then her work in NYC as a writer for "SNL" and becoming the mastermind behind "30 Rock." She isn't afraid to admit embarrassing moments or moments in which she maybe fell short. 

She told enough on herself to make her story interesting without doing a "tell-all" book. I don't know that I'd want a "tell all" book anyway. I just enjoyed reading her version of her recent rise to "fame," though I'm not even sure she would call herself famous. She's famous to me because I'm such a fan.

Also, from this moment forward I will be using her phrases "grade A dummy" and "dumdums" as often as possible in conversation.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

ONE WORD 365 // Week 10, Book 10

Catching up here....

The Wagon and Other Stories From the City
By Martin Preib
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010

I think I originally bought this book via Amazon for my Kindle because it was cheap. I heard nothing about it so it was a complete shot in the dark.

In it Martin Preib shares his memoirs through a series of essays: his days as a beat cop in Chicago as he transports dead bodies and trains new officers, and his time as a doorman at a hotel in downtown and organizing workers for a union vote. Overall the book is more about his observation of the city of Chicago, making it a living character to his stories.

I got the feeling that he really loved Chicago; it was a city that drew him in and wouldn't let him go. But at the same time, he was also very clear about the ugliness that runs the city and the cycle of violence that continues on and on. You get this peek behind the curtain to some degree. Reading his stories from his time as a beat cop made me want to go to Chicago, find a cop and give him or her a hug -- and then go kick down the bureaucrats' doors and tell them to use common sense.

It wasn't all just about his beat cop days. The essays from his time of hauling corpses to the morgue were also good but sad and heavy. Fitting, I suppose. Reading his perspective of death and/or watching him sort through findig death's place in the world was interesting, though heady at times. I also like observing his life as a hotel doorman and how he learned the tricks of the trade. That lightened things up. The book even ended on a higher note as he joined the YMCA and started playing basketball games with the men there. You got the sense that while he often felt like one of the forgotten in the city, it was there he found a small place.

I enjoyed the book. Maybe because I got it free or cheap. But also because Prieb was a "writer" who for the longest time didn't actually write. He did other jobs to free up his time to write. Eventually, he did it, and we have this book. That gives the book an overall sense of victory. It's a testament to the good of the city of Chicago, even when so many ugly things also happen there.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

ONE WORD 365 // Weeks 8 & 9, Book 9

Confession: I sped read this book. It was 500 pages long and it was due back to the library today -- I had to get through it.

The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, From Grocer's Daughter To Prime Minister
By John Campbell
New York: Penguin, 2011

I saw the movie The Iron Lady in January and loved it. A bit sadder than I expected but still quite good. I was 3 when Lady Thatcher became Prime Minister, and though while growing up I remember hearing her name on the news, I never really paid much attention to her story, her politics, her place on the world stage. After reading this book and seeing its movie adaptation, I kind of wish that I had been old enough to understand and to care. She was quite the character.

I like politics and international relations. In this day and age, we should each to some degree care about what happens on the world stage. Globalization has made the world so much smaller. And I left this book with a little sadness and/or remorse that I hadn't know more about her while she was Prime Minister.

A few thoughts from reading the book....

The book was very detailed -- from what I could tell through speed reading. The author included a lot of material. He was not all praise, and he was not all condemnation. He seemed fair-handed in his assessment of Lady Thatcher's time in office.

I found myself reading more closely the parts that included her husband Denis, her daughter Carol and the Queen. I read the sections with Denis or Carol because I had seen the movie, in which both were present. The love story/relationship between Margaret and Denis was a large part of the movie so reading more about the real life story was interesting. The movie included her daughter Carol in a role that her daughter probably would not have in real life. In real life Margaret's daughter is quite scathing about her relationship with her mother. And the section discussing the interaction and relationship between Lady Thatcher and the Queen was very interesting (I thought). It wasn't covered in the movie but how it was covered in the book was fascinating.

The movie showed how quickly Lady Thatcher lost her position as Prime Minister. I don't really remember that from growing up (guess I didn't care so much at 14), so when I saw the movie version, I was curious to find out if it happened that fast. Apparently, it did. The book was very descriptive of those three weeks (it happened fast!).

I really enjoyed the book. I loved getting some depth to what the movie portrayed in a couple hours' worth of time. The movie hit most of the high points, though it didn't touch on Lady Thatcher's relationship with America so much (especially with President Reagan) or her fights with the European community or her jet-setting as a world figure. I think the movie did what it set out to do -- show who Margaret Thatcher was and how she might be dealing with dementia now -- and the book more than filled in any blanks.

It was long but I'm glad I (sped) read it.