BOOK #86

The author's life was in the shitter. Failed marriage, long custody battle, never ending lawsuit, running out of money. So he simply decided to put more good out into the universe than complain about the bad. He started writing thank you notes. To everyone. His kids, his employees, his fellow lawyers, his ex-wife. And slowly his life turned around. Not necessarily from the thank you notes but from his attitude change. I believe all the notes actually made him stop and think what was good in his life versus what was bad.

And attitude is everything.

BOOK #85

Without a doubt, Patton Oswalt is one of the funniest smartest comics working today. If you don't know him from stand up, you might know him from "King of Queens" or more recently, the voice of "Ratatouille".

His essays are brief but true to life and very very funny.

I highly recommend this book. But only if you HAVE a sense of humor.

BOOK #84

I should really make a point of starting to write down why and where I find a certain author. It's usually a link off a link from goodreads.com or sometimes even a review. I honestly cannot remember how I found about this author. But I'm glad I did.

This book is kinda sorta like "The Help" but in modern day Texas. And the kinda-sorta is a long stretch. Set in a fictional Texas small town that sounds like someplace I would live. I actually think it's based on Austin, only way smaller.

The characters are funny and believable. The horrible ex-husband is way horrible and I found myself saying out loud 'kill him!' and 'stab him!' more than once. Thank god I was tucked in bed in snowbound Wisconsin when all this killing was going on in my head.

Another fun ride of a book.

BOOK #83

I'm still on my quest to figure out why I'm retarded when it comes to love, intimacy and relationships. I discovered Dr. Berman from the OWN Network. She has a terrific sex/relationship show and I never fail to miss it. She's a very very good therapist. And the show only proves that a lot of relationships and sex lives got jacked up somewhere in the person's past. Dr. Beran is very good at untangling the couples and putting them back on a strong path.

But, this book wasn't anything new or revealing for me. One of my previous posts talked about a book called "Attached" that was a way bigger help for me than this one. But it was encouraging to know that everything she talked about in this book, I've already incorporated into my life. So I must be getting close.

But if you are not a reader of these type books, I still encourage you to either read this book or find her show on the OWN Network. She's worth it.

BOOK #82

In one of my earlier posts, I reviewed Crosley's first book of essays "I Was Told There'd Be Cake", which I loved. Next to David Sedaris, Crosley is rapidly becoming one of my favorite funny writers.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel the funny, humanity or warmth from this book as I did in the first one. Which is funny as a lot of other reviewers feel the opposite. They didn't like the first book as much as they did the second. So who knows.

But remember, any artist's first published work - whether it be writing, poetry, photography or music will be a culmination of years and years of work. It's always going to be the second body of work that shows whether they can hang tough. Crosley can. I hope she writes again.

BOOK #79, #80 & #81

Now, THIS is my favorite series of Vicki Lewis Thompson. The entire series centers around a banished witch & warlock couple to a small town in Indiana called Big Knob. Get it? Get what this series is filled with? Yup, hot sex along with magic spells. I love all of them.

There's also a iPod loving magic dragon that lives in the forest, a Loch Ness Monster that lives in the local lake and a town that only has internet service at the local cafe. How far fetched can it be? And the townsfolk have no idea this couple exists as a witch and warlock.

The books are actually funny most of the time but I get a big kick out of all of them. I hope she continues this series as they are too much fun to put down.

BOOK #78

Hold on because I'm thinking I read alot of Ms Thompson's books in a row. This is one of the books in the series of 'love and nerd' books that she did a few years ago. Of course, the titles of this series always tickle me as does the cover.

For some reason, her writing with this series is a bit off for me. There seems to be a lot of writing that goes nowhere and I find myself wandering off the story a bit. This is my least favorite series of Ms. Thompson's.

Although I have to say that this book actually kept me occupied and I never wandered off. I believe I read it in abou two days. And I think I have about six of them stacked up here somewhere. Perfect for the summer!