Posted by Candice on Wednesday, Jan 17, 2018
Like books? Like bars? Like good food and drink, and lively conversation? Then you might want to join us at our next BYOBook meet-up! We're meeting on Tuesday, February 6, at Basta Pizzeria Ristorante, starting at 6:30 p.m.
We will be discussing Roz Chast's Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, which was one of the New York Times Book Review's top ten books of 2014. In it, Chast recounts the time spent caring for her ailing, elderly parents, and the NYT describes it as "a beautiful book, deeply felt...about what it feels like to love and care for a mother who has never loved you back...and achingly wistful about a gentle father who could never break free of his domineering wife and ride to his daughter's rescue." If that doesn't convince you (and it might not, I know), the reviewer goes on to say that it "veers between being laugh-out-loud funny and so devastating I had to take periodic timeouts."
Interested? We have multiple copies, both in our circulating collection and in our ebook collection, and more copies at the Info Desk on the second floor of the Library (stop in or call 319-356-5200 to check availability). You can register for the event in our calendar. If you can't make it to this one, stay tuned...We've got Atul Gawande's Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End on deck for March.
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About the Author
I work at the Info Desk on the second floor, and I select books for the adult nonfiction collection. I have a degree in anthropology, which really helps in selecting...well...almost anything. I also manage the Art To Go collection of framed prints and original art, and the nonfiction DVDs.
What do you like to read?
In no particular order:... more
This was so good! I came across this title on ICPL's 'Featured Collections' scroller on the website (which, by the way, is a great way to find titles you might not be aware of), and I was hooked from the beginning. The story is told in alternating chapters by Mae and Chris, and the first thing of note is that I found both narrators to be unique and excellent, with a nice range of emotion (even hard-on-the-outside Chris). You know when a narrator sounds just like the character you're imagining? This had that going on for me. The story itself is compelling and original, even while having well-known elements that are in the miasma surrounding Hollywood: the big players, the world of dirty secrets perpetrated by those who hold the power, the broken systems, the people who fall through the cracks, and the people who perpetuate all of this in various ways. I found all the characters to be nicely fleshed out, especially Mae and Chris of course, but the side characters are also given unique characteristics and situations that tell their stories. One final note: this is the second book I've read or listened to recently that has a female "cleaner" at the center of it, someone who helps cover up bad situations for powerful people in Hollywood (the other is the Devil's Playground), and it is making for some very interesting post-book thinking. -Candice