The Best Of Life

David Sedaris. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.: Little, Brown and Company, 2004
0316143464 Clean, tight and unmarked. Slight smudge on top edge and slight wrinkling to upper back of the dustjacket. From Publishers Weekly In his latest collection, Sedaris has found his heart. This is not to suggest that the author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and other bestselling books has lost his edge. The 27 essays here (many previously published in Esquire, G.Q. or the New Yorker, or broadcast on PRI's This American Life) include his best and funniest writing yet. Here is Sedaris's family in all its odd glory. Here is his father dragging his mortified son over to the home of one of the most popular boys in school, a boy possessed of "an uncanny ability to please people," demanding that the boy's parents pay for the root canal that Sedaris underwent after the boy hit him in the mouth with a rock. Here is his oldest sister, Lisa, imploring him to keep her beloved Amazon parrot out of a proposed movie based on his writing. ("'Will I have to be fat in the movie?' she asked.") Here is his mother, his muse, locking the kids out of the house after one snow day too many, playing the wry, brilliant commentator on his life until her untimely death from cancer. His mother emerges as one of the most poignant and original female characters in contemporary literature. She balances bitter and sweet, tart and rich?and so does Sedaris, because this is what life is like. "You should look at yourself," his mother says in one piece, as young Sedaris crams Halloween candy into his mouth rather than share it. He does what she says and then some, and what emerges is the deepest kind of humor, the human comedy. Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library Journal Adult/High School - This lighthearted follow-up to Me Talk Pretty One Day(Little, Brown, 2000) contains a selection of personal essays. Some of the pieces appeared previously in magazines or on the NPR radio program This American Life. The first half of the collection focuses on Sedaris's childhood, including his relationship with his supportive mother and "man's man" of a father. Family vacations, snow days from school, and parental conflicts are all rendered in a comic style. Several of the pieces highlight the author's growing up with the knowledge that he is gay. He writes about the mixture of feelings he experienced in a real but funny manner. The second half moves Sedaris into adulthood. Although still dealing chiefly with his family, the focus shifts to his brother and sisters. From Tiffany, who collects and sells junk right from her house, to macho, floor-sanding Paul, Sedaris sets up a family dynamic that's sometimes odd, sometimes sad, but always funny. A handful of pieces include or refer to his life partner, Hugh. Whether it's apartment searching in "Possession" or the clash of personalities in "A Can of Worms," it's refreshing to see a writer portray a gay relationship that's committed and monogamous. Although not as unified as his other books, this collection serves as a touching reminder of how odd, funny, and unique our lives really are. - Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks Magazine Critics agree that Corduroy and Denim marks Sedaris?s transition from a humorist and essayist into a full-fledged memoirist. The volume returns to the dysfunctional childhood and adulthood tribulations that made Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day bestsellers, and contains the same snarky wit, heartbreaking humor, and touch of malice. But this time, melancholy, introspection, and even a bit of sadness create more emotionally wrought stories. Perhaps Sedaris is, as Newsday suggests, finally recognizing the distance he often puts between himself and his subjects. The only complaint? A few pieces add humor in inappropriate places (does Sedaris really covet the Anne Frank house?). A must read for Sedaris fans; for novices, the best introduction to one of the nation?s funniest writers. Copyright ? 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. From AudioFile David Sedaris's latest collection of essays is his most intimate, made even more so by his keen delivery. They reflect a writing maturity: His insecurities and compulsions are more apparent than ever, which just makes the stories of awkward childhood, awkward adolescence, and awkward adulthood that much more eminently relatable. Which is not to say that you won't be laughing out loud at his impression of his redneck brother in "Rooster at the Hitchin' Post" or any of the other small absurdities of life that he captures so memorably. One of Sedaris's gifts is that he can be hilarious and heartrending (but never maudlin) in the same sentence. Three of the live performances, including "Six to Eight Black Men," will be familiar from last year's LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL, but they're no less funny on second listening. Sedaris's essays are written to be heard, so listen up--he just keeps getting better. J.M.D. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award ? AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright ? AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition. From Booklist Sedaris' piquant essays are as meticulously honed and precisely timed as the best stand-up comic routines, which is, of course, what they are. A National Public Radio star, the author of five best-sellers, including Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), and a hall-filling performer, Sedaris--openly gay, nervy as a tightrope walker, sharply hilarious, teasingly misanthropic yet genuinely compassionate--has a unique ability to supply exactly the right details to bring every funny, awkward, ludicrous, painful, horrible real-life moment into harrowingly crisp focus. But given all that he has already revealed about his childhood, family, and bizarre adventures, one wonders how he can continue to mine his life to create fresh and arresting essays, and, indeed, a few pieces do feel strained. It stretches one's credulity, for instance, to envision young Sedaris panhandling or taking erotic advantage of a strip poker game. But when he muses over his parents' "slumlord" phase, remembers a rich aunt and a neglected nine-year-old girl, and profiles his over-the-top brother, he is mesmerizing, and his ability to make the reader gasp, laugh out loud, or grow teary is undiminished. At the same time, there's an increased edginess to his work, reminding readers that beneath the brio, Sedaris, gifted connoisseur of the absurd, is deadly serious. Donna Seaman Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved Book Description Whether by nature or by nurture, Ma and Pa Sedaris certainly knew something about raising funny kids. Amy Sedaris has built a cult following for her Comedy Central character Jerri Blank, and David, the more famous of the two siblings, continues to spin his personal history into comedic gold. A good chunk of the material in Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim debuted in other media outlets, such as The New Yorker, but Sedaris's brilliantly written essays deserve repeat reads. Based on the author's descriptions, nearly every member of his family is funny, although some (like sister Tiffany, perhaps) in a tragic way. In "The Change in Me," Sedaris remembers that his mother was good at imitating people when it helped drive home her point. High-voiced, lovably plain-spoken brother Paul (aka The Rooster, Silly P) has long been a favorite character for Sedaris readers, though Paul's story takes on a serious note when his wife has a difficult pregnancy. The author doesn't shy away from embarrassing moments in his own life, either, including a childhood poker game that strays into strange, psychological territory.Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim provides more evidence that he is a great humorist, memoirist, and raconteur, and readers are lucky to have the opportunity to know him (and his clan) so well. His funny family feels like our own. Perhaps they are luckier still not to know him personally. --Leah Weathersby Download Description David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives?a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is another unforgettable collection from one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today. From the Publisher The desperately anticipated new collection by the beloved and bestselling writer Time Magazine named America's Favorite Humorist. About the Author David Sedaris is a playwright and a regular commentator for National Public Radio. He is also the author of the bestselling Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. He travels extensively though Europe and the United States on lecture tours and lives in France.

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Life Magazine 1 November 1994 Best Parties of the Year 11/1/94: Life Magazine 1 November 1994 Best Parties of the Year 11/1/94, Time Life Inc.
11/1/94

Life Magazine 1 November 1994 Best Parties of the Year- Some of the contents of this Life Magazine are: -General Hugh Shelton-our man in Haiti, Dracula & Transylvania, how Americans celebrate, Billy Graham-preacher, National Museum of the American Indian The magazine is complete and in good to very good condition. -We stock over 10,000 Life, Look, Post, Collier's, People, Time, and other magazines! They are a wonderful gift for Birthdays, holidays, Reunions, and other special events! If there is a PHOTO ICON next to this listing, please click on it to see an example of the cover of this magazine.

[SW: Life Magazine 1 November 1994 Best Parties of the Year 11/1/94 General Hugh Shelton-our man in Haiti, Dracula & Transylvania, how Americans celebrate, Billy Graham-preacher, National Museum of the American Indian]

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Linda Greenlaw. The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island. Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.: Hyperion, 2002
0786866772 From Publishers Weekly Greenlaw (The Hungry Ocean), known to readers of The Perfect Storm as the captain of the sister ship to the ill-fated Andrea Gail, gave up swordfishing to return to her parents' home on Isle Au Haut off the coast of Maine and fish for lobster. Her plainspoken essays paint a picture of a grueling life as she details maintaining her boat and her equipment, setting and hauling hundreds of traps with a crew of one (her father, a retired steel company executive), contending with the weather and surviving seasons when the lobsters don't bother to come around. She intersperses her narrative with plenty of eccentrics who live on her tiny island (there are 47 full-time residents, half of whom she's somehow related to). Among them are Rita, the inveterate borrower who's such a nuisance that Greenlaw's parents hide behind the couch when they see her coming; George and Tommy of Island Boy Repairs, who make a horrendous mess of every job they undertake; and Victor, the cigar-eating womanizer who imports a red-headed flasher from Alabama. One of Greenlaw's themes is her desire to find a husband but, according to her friend Alden, she intimidates men: she's tough talking, feisty and very self-assured, which is no doubt why the other lobstermen on the island readily accept her as one of them. Self-speculation and uncertainties such as these nicely balance her delightfully cocky essays of island life. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Greenlaw's first book, The Hungry Ocean, was a best seller because it was written by a female sword boat captain; her vessel was a sister ship to the Andrea Gail (the subject of Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm); and it was a darn good story. The author has an impressive command of language, combining her own salty remarks with wry and witty characterizations. It also doesn't hurt that she has an eccentric and eclectic group of people to describe in her latest memoir. Greenlaw left swordfishing to return to Isle au Haut, seven miles off the coast of Maine, where her parents live. Confronted with only one general store, no Starbucks, no video store, no mall, and lacking nearly any amenity that most people expect these days, she would be the first to admit she's returned to a simpler way of life. With her retired father as her crew of one, she maintains her boat, the Mattie Belle, and the equipment; sets and hauls hundreds of lobster traps; and wrestles with the weather, elusive lobsters, her mother's battle with breast cancer, and her own biological clock. She returned to this island in order to be closer to her parents, find a husband, build a house, and have children. Despite the isolation and lack of services on Isle au Haut, most listeners will somewhat envy the simpler life and sense of community and family that Greenlaw celebrates. Highly recommended for all public library collections. Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll., Kansas City, MO Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. From AudioFile In this follow-up to the author's bestseller, THE HUNGRY OCEAN, about her life as a swordfishing boat captain, Greenlaw has returned to her native Isle au Haut, Maine, to live with her parents, fish for lobster with her father as sternman, and hope for a chance to marry and start a family. Since the population of the island is 47 total, she is aware that the plan may have its flaws, but she gives us the year as it comes, making it vivid, salty, and real, a pleasure to read about if not to live through. Like many untrained readers, Greenlaw often rushes her words, but the account is so personal it's still a plus to have it in her own voice. B.G. ? AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright ? AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. From Booklist Greenlaw's first book, The Hungry Ocean (1999), was a best-selling account of a grueling, month-long swordfishing trip on the sister ship of the tragic Andrea Gail, of The Perfect Storm fame. The Lobster Chronicles finds her still fishing, but in a different place, at a different pace, and in pursuit of a different quarry. And rather than another treatise on commercial fishing, Greenlaw's newest is a flotsam-and-jetsam commentary on life. Her decision to give up being captain of a larger vessel for a return home to the small Maine island where her family has lived for generations leads her to pursue a more personal and independent style of making a living. The labor of maintaining the boat and hundreds of lobster pots is taxing, but she sets her hours and goals, and so has time for local lighthouse politics and interplay with family and other odd characters. All is not perfect, as the lobster season is poor and her mother becomes ill, but Greenlaw, as comfortable on the page as she is on the ocean, once again proves to be both enlightening and highly entertaining. Danise Hoover Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved Book "Greenlaw writes about island life with the same plainspoken lyricism . . . humor that elevated her first book to bestselling status." Boston Globe "Sense of independence is what this clear, proud memoir is all about." Book Description Declared a triumph by the New York Times Book Review, Linda Greenlaws first book, The Hungry Ocean, appeared on nearly every major bestseller list in the country. Now, taking a break from the swordfishing career that earned her a major role in The Perfect Storm, Greenlaw returns to Isle au Hauta tiny Maine island with a population of 70 year-round residents, 30 of whom are Greenlaws relatives.With a Clancy-esque talent for fascinating technical detail and a Keillor-esque eye for the drama of small-town life, Greenlaw offers her take on everything from rediscovering home, love, and family to island characters and the best way to cook and serve a lobster. But Greenlaw also explores the islands darker side, including a tragic boating accident and a century-old conflict with a neighboring community. Throughout, Greenlaw maintains the straight-shooting, funny, and slightly scrappy style that has won her so many fans, and proves once again that fishermen are still the best storytellers around. Download Description In THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES, Linda Greenlaw returns from her years of adventure to Isle au Haut, the island that has been the Greenlaw home for five generations. There are only 70 year-round residents on the island, 10 of whom are Greenlaws. In describing her first year as a lobsterman, the author explores themes of love, family, and the pursuit of a simpler life. In particular, she discusses working with her father, who is her helmsman, and their relationship - what they learn about lobstering and each other. The book contains many vivid, and sometimes hilarious, stories of life on Isle au Haut and the characters who live there. THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES also describes the ongoing battle between Isle au Haut lobstermen and the Stonington lobstermen. This is the war that is referred to in the title, and it is this conflict that provides a narrative arc for the book. The book integrates material on topics ranging from the secret ingredient in Linda's mother's lobster casserole recipe to island lore. In addition to these kinds of lighter items, THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES includes a harrowing section on three young island residents killed in a boating accident. As in THE HUNGRY OCEAN, Linda Greenlaw displays Tom Clancy's genius for describing equipment, Jimmy Breslin's flair for a yarn, and a wonderfully real voice, sometimes contemplative, often cranky, always all her own. About the Author Linda Greenlaw's first book, The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey, spent more than six months on the New York Times bestseller list. She now continues to live and lobster on Isle au Haut, Maine. 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Stephen Jay Gould. Ever Since Darwin: Reflections on Natural History. W. W. Norton, 1992
0393308189 Book Description "A remarkable achievement by any measure?. [Gould] is a writer of great natural wit, and his sophistication and learning range far beyond?biology."?Chicago Tribune Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all of Gould's succeeding collections, it brings the art of the scientific essay to unparalleled heights. Its genius? Gould's ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate science. 15 illustrations. About the Author Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002), a professor of science at Harvard University, was the author of more than twenty books. He received the National Book Award for Wonderful Life and the National Book Critics Circle award for The Mismeasure of Man. November 20, 1977 The History of a Theory By JAMES GORMAN EVER SINCE DARWIN Reflections in Natural History By Stephen Jay Gould. ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENY By Stephen Jay Gould. Science is not organized common sense, according to Stephen Jay Gould, the young Harvard biologist and paleontologist who writes the monthly column "This View of Life" in Natural History Magazine. "At its most exciting," he writes "[science] reformulates our view of the world by imposing powerful theories against the ancient, anthropocentric prejudices that we call intuition . . . Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective information. It is not a creative human activity." In Gould's two new books, "Ever Since Darwin" a collection of his magazine columns, and "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" a scholarly study of the theory of recapitulation, he not only explains scientific theory but comments on science itself, with clarity and wit, simultaneously entertaining and teaching. His essays "range broadly from planetary and geological to social and political history, but they are united . . . by the common thread of evolutionary theory." He writes, wryly: "I am a tradesman not a polymath; why I know of planets and politics lies at their intersection with biological evolution." His examples are delights. "The best illustrations of adaptation by evolution are the ones that strike our intuition as peculiar or bizarre," notes Gould. He asks us to consider the gull midge. These tiny flies, which feed primarily on mushrooms, reproduce in a peculiar fashion when food is abundant. The young, created without aid of a father, grow in the mother's body by feeding on her flesh. When they have finished consuming their only parent they emerge, leaving a hollow shell behind. Within two days their own children are beginning to feed at the maternal trough. At first glance, suggests Gould, such ravenous matricide, even among bugs, may disgust us. But seen in the light of evolutionary theory, the behavior emerges as efficient and adaptive. It allows the flies to reproduce quickly when food is plentiful, reaching numbers large enough to insure that some survive when food is scarce. Introduced to a commercial mushroom bed, in five weeks gall midges can reach a density of 20,000 insects per square foot. Or another case: About 600 million years ago, in the "Cambrian explosion," single-celled bacteria and blue-green algae blossomed into a wide variety of marine life. The best explanation for this explosion, according to Gould, has come not from an accumulation of new facts, but from a new idea -- that a "cropper," an organism that eats other organisms, promotes diversity. The cropper feeds on the dominant species, preventing them from crowding out new arrivals. Perhaps, the explanation goes, life exploded after the first cropper ignited the fuse by feasting on algae that had been growing free for two and a half billion years. Gould not only celebrates the human imagination in science, he also insists we recognize the social and cultural influences on that imagination. At their best, new theories free us from our prejudices; at their worst, they support the biases of their creators. The danger is amply illustrated in the history of the attempts to find parallels between ontogeny (individual development) and phylogeny (evolutionary history) -- a subject he deals with in several essays in "Ever Since Darwin" and tackles at great length in "Ontogeny and Phylogeny." In one form or another, the idea that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" has exerted its force since antiquity. At the peak of its influence, in the latter half of the 19th century, belief in recapitulation was the dominant viewpoint in evolutionary biology. Organisms were thought to replay their evolution in their embryonic growth, so that one could read in the development of a fetus the history of its lineage. Thus, a human fetus would initially resemble an ancestral single-celled organism. At a later stage its embryonic gill slits would recall a piscine forebear, a later step in evolution. It would then progress through the reptiles, birds and lower mammals to reach its human state. These resemblances, argued the recapitulationists, were the result of a general law operating in evolution. Development, they claimed, was constantly accelerated, so that ancestral traits were squeezed into earlier and earlier stages while new traits were tucked on at the end. And, they believed, at the end of evolution the most accelerated accelerated, and the most advanced, was man. In presenting the rise and fall of the idea of recapitulation in "Ontogeny and Phylogeny," Gould takes care to place science in context. The theory was fostered in the early 19th century by a belief in both progress and unity in nature. Mired in it origins, and profoundly anthropocentric, recapitulation in its turn influenced the culture in which it arose. Some of its main proponents used it to support racism. Blacks, they said, were less accelerated in development, less advanced. Born criminals it was argued, were also sluggards in the evolutionary march and could be identified by "the morphological signs of an apish past." Even Freud felt the theory's power. He wrote that the oral and anal stages in human ontogeny "almost seem as though they were harking back to early animal forms of life," and linked them to reliance on smell and taste before upright posture made vision our dominant sense. Recapitulationist arguments about human nature may seem remote now. But the hunger for biological explanations of human behavior is as strong as ever. Popular writers like Robert Ardrey ("African Genesis," "The Territorial Imperative") argue that aggression is in our nature. E.O. Wilson, a Harvard colleague of Gould's, suggests in his book "Sociobiology" a genetic rationale for behavior that can explain both warfare and altruism. Gould, however, is skeptical of any sort of biological determinism. In his essays in particular he champions flexibility as humanity's essential characteristic. And, he points out in both his books, biological determinism is most often used to justify the status quo. If a scientist finds a class, or group, to be biologically superior, it is invariably the one to which he or she belongs. The theory of recapitulation has long been discredited. Experimental embryology, with is emphasis on the immediate mechanical and chemical causes of development, pushed aside the recapitulationists' broad, speculative approach. And the rediscovery of Mendelian genetics at the turn of the century provided a mechanism (genes) for natural selection and discounted the law of acceleration. Gould, however, draws from the dross of the old theory a significant insight -- the recognition of the importance of changes in the pace of development. It need not be accelerated; organisms can also develop more slowly than their ancestors. In either case, however, such change can be a powerful evolutionary pathway. New traits, such as an extra tooth or a novel pigment, appear with agonizing slowness. But a change in the pace of development can occur quickly and have dramatic results. A sexually mature larva may appear completely different from the ancestral adult form. In the conclusion of "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" Gould argues for the controversial position that we ourselves are evidence for the importance of such change. We evolved, he believes, through a slowing of development; and we retain many traits which now can be seen in the juvenile stages of our primate relatives and which no doubt characterized our ancestors' early stages -- rapid brain growth, a small-jawed face, upright positioning of the skull. Most important of all, our childhood is extended, enhancing our greatest advantage, the ability to learn through experience. "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" is a rich book, but it does not give up its rewards without a struggle. The book, as Gould notes, is written primarily for biologists. The documentation is voluminous, the arguments are precise and thorough, technical language is used freely, and technical issues are met head-on. Unlike popular science writing, in which the reader is kept afloat by the efforts of the writer, here one needs to know how to swim. Fortunately, much of the same material is covered in "Ever Since Darwin," which is the best sort of popularization. Gould never mystifies science; he shows both its power and its weaknesses. In one of his essays Gould asks how nonscientists are to judge the rival claims of experts. There seems to be no clear answer, but it does help immeasurably to know how science works. How to penetrate science? Start with Stephen Jay Gould. James Gorman is an associate editor of The Sciences, the magazine of the New York Academy of Sciences.

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