I Love Everybody (and other Atrocious Lies): True Tales of A Loudmouth Girl by Laurie Notaro

This new collection of original essays from the bestselling author of “The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club,” “Autobiography of a Fat Bride,” and "We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive" tells of life, work, family, friendship and love (or lack thereof).

I feel like I know Laurie, perhaps because there is a little bit of me in her stories...or perhaps it is that there is a little bit of my friends in her stories, whatever the case, she cracks me up.

Her first book was given to me as a gift. Reading it was like like witnessing a train wreck. You don't want to look but you can't turn away. Keep in mind when you read this book, that the chapter called "Swimming with the Fishes" is the story of my life. Don't ask! I'll admit it, I've had stuff happen to me that should not happen to anyone, ever...its proof that God has a sense of humor...or that he hates me...I haven't decided which.

Just check it our from the library and take a glance. It's humorous, not deep reading...just sit back and enjoy it. Atleast celebrate that you do not have days like Laurie has....that would not be good.

What are the odds?!

I read "Night" because of my cousins suggestion. I just finished it before leaving for Hanover New Hampshire to attend Chris' Dartmouth Graduation ceremony where he graduated summa cum laude and to watch him become a member of Phi Beta Kappa...he's a smart kid! Anyway, who do you think was giving the Commencement Address? Just guess! None other than a Nobel Laureate for Peace... Elie Wiesel! Can you believe that?! What are the odds? I was discussing the book with Jean as we strolled the campus on the way to the frat dinner party and she said, "Oh, he's going to be speaking at graduation tomorrow", I thought she was kidding. Lucky for me, she wasn't.

Night by Elie Wiesel

" A slim volume of terrifying power" -The New York Times
I couldn't have said it better myself. Cousin Cindy turned me on to this book. It is a powerful, heartbreaking read. Don't skip the preface by the author, you will only regret it. The entire book is only 120 pages, so you have no excuse not to. In the bottom picture, taken at Buchenwald, Wiesel is pictured in the second row, seventh from the left taken on April 16, 1945, five days after the camp was liberated. Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to the Auschwitx concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his dispair as a deeple observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. It is a testimony to what ahooened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Ok Guys, This is not something that I would seek out....but its more like it called out to me. I first read about it in the New York times, many months ago. I was interested in it, and made a mental note to read it if I crossed its path in a book store or the library. Then a few weeks ago...I saw another article int he paper. When it pointed out that Ms. Didion lost her daughter months after the book was published...I knew I had to read it. It's a fast read...heartbreaking...but quick. It just reminds you how fast things can change, how greif strikes us all in different ways, how memories flood to us and how we avoid the things that trigger those floods. Just read it.

"Life changes fast.
Life changes in the instant.
You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." ~ Joan Didion

Editorial: Book Description

From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year’s Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion’s attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.”