The Last Black Unicorn
reviewdate:
May 27 2019
isn:
9781501181849
Tagged with comedians
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
reviewdate:
Aug 10 2018
isn:
9780399588174
book type:
recommendation:
I'm Just a Person
reviewdate:
Dec 8 2016
isn:
9780062266651
book type:
recommendation:
Why Not Me
reviewdate:
Aug 24 2016
isn:
9780804138154
book type:
recommendation:
You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain
reviewdate:
Aug 5 2016
isn:
9780143129202
book type:
recommendation:
You'll Grow Out of It
reviewdate:
May 21 2016
isn:
9781455531189
book type:
recommendation:
No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood
You know how I'm always complaining about the uneven writing in anthologies, especially Seal Press anthologies? Well that's not a problem in No Kidding. As promised in the subtitle, the contributors are all writers, most of them currently writing professionally. If anything, I felt that the stories were too even, too alike. Basically, the childfree/childless contributors love their nieces, nephews, dogs, cats and careers.
reviewdate:
Sep 14 2013
isn:
978-1-58005-443-0
author gender:
book type:
medium:
Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, the
"At first glance you might find the above [diary entry] interesting but that's because it's me, and you obviously find me interesting enough to read this book."
"Another nice thing about the Jews is that their rabbis don't make a habit of sexually violating their youngest and most vulnerable congregants. Of course, there are obvious reasons for this. For one thing, Jewish clergy are allowed to fuck and masturbate and marry. The first two of these activities work amazingly well for relieving sexual tension. … Oh, also, the Jewish clergy are allowed to have vaginas. As a general rule for any large organization, if you're looking to reduce the rape-iness of it, try hiring more women."
"I have comic friends who are gay. Some remain in the closet, and I don't blame them. It's not just out of fear of prejudice--it's fear of the gay community taking ownership of them. Suddenly, they are a gay comic, saddled with responsibility to represent."
"Please make this book be finished. I'll be honest: I kind of blew it off." from the Afterword, by God, quoting Silverman.
reviewdate:
Apr 11 2013
isn:
978-0061987076
author gender:
medium:
Girl Walks Into a Bar Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle
Rachel Dratch's compelling memoir is compelling. She tells the story of her fifteen-years-in-the-making overnight success, some failures (that she often managed to turn around on her second try), her friendships, getting knocked up in her mid-forties, and other stuff.
reviewdate:
Apr 7 2013
isn:
978-1-10-157990-9
author gender:
free:
medium:
recommendation:
Roseanne: My Life as a Woman
You know you're a book geek/librarian/dork when you're constantly distracted from a text with the thought, "Did anyone proofread this thing?" You get the feeling that the editors at Harper & Row threw up their hands at some point and didn't give a fuck about getting the name Alfred E. Neuman right or fixing a mistaken "know" for "now," and didn't have the fortitude for copy editing either, since the narrative frequently bounces off the rail (billiards reference). Aside from my criticism of how the book was produced (seriously, I wouldn't have released a book in that condition if I were a publisher, but I guess since Roseanne was big money in 1989 they didn't care), I did enjoy reading it.
Quotations:
I think men like to pretend that they are not wholly dependent on women. Women like to pretend that they are dependent on men. And there you have it, folks, the Rosie Barr view of the BATTLE OF THE SEXES.
I always insisted on being the teacher when we played school, the mother when we played house, and the star of every neighborhood play. I didn't feel then (or now) that hogging the glory is a disservice. I can do it better than anyone and, being a perfectionist, I always make sure to do everything myself.
What we need is a Woman, a mother for President, and I'm going to run someday, and my campaign motto will be "Let's vote for Rosie, and put some new blood in the White House--every twenty-eight days."
We admitted that we were powerless over being female and that our lives had become unmanageable. We came to believe that a power deep within ourselves could restore us to sanity.
reviewdate:
Apr 7 2012
isn:
0-06-015957-x