Some Annotated Reading August 8

Lots going on the week before last, including house guests. Last week was recovery. If you've ever read about introverts needing recovery, believe it. I was overwhelmed just from little things I needed to do to get work and life back on track. Too overwhelmed to do an annotated reading post, which appears to be one of the few things I do here these days.

Books

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West. I don't know how I found out about this, but it's terrific. I've read a number of books of essays by young women who are say, comedy people, and the essays are very memoirish things. From this book, it appears West is more of a witty social commentator. Her essays, even if they are personal essays, do what I believe personal essays are supposed to do...they move from the personal to the greater world. The meaning of "the witches are coming" title...wow. Lots of good stuff in this book. I'll be looking for more of her work. 

The Lemon by S. E. Boyd. I'm sure I came upon this one because it won this year's Thurber Prize. I had a little trouble getting into it, which was probably due to the point-of-view switches. They're always an issue for me. And I found the ending...not all that ending-like. But I suspect this book is more of a satire about celebrity than it is a story, and it was an enjoyable read between the beginning and the ending. 

About Humor

"One of the main inventors of the form": Bob Newhart's stand-up comedy mind unbuttoned" (I hate it when titles have no caps) by Melanie McFarland at Salon. McFarland quotes Marc Maron: "Newhart was part of a shift from rapid fire punchlines to methodical, contemplative comedy." This reminded me of my high school English teacher who said he didn't care for Bob Hope, because he just stood on a stage and told jokes. Probably the most significant thing I took away from my year with him.

Eating

An Ode To The Saltine Cracker by John DeVore at Medium. 1st. I don't actually know what good food writing is, but I enjoyed this very much. I don't eat saltines anymore, because I don't eat wheat, but one gluten free company makes something it calls "table crackers" that serves the purpose for me. This article left me feeling that perhaps crackers don't exist for soup, but that soup exists for crackers. 2nd. I just noticed that this article wasn't published at a Medium publication but directly by the author. Nonetheless, it did very well according to the number of claps and comments, which can be difficult to do without the help of a publication. Well, this author has nearly 140,000 followers. So he doesn't need a publication.  

Kamala Harris is reclaiming what it means to be a "woman in the kitchen" by Marin Scotten at Salon. I found this very interesting, because Harris has been in what you'd think would be a high-profile position for nearly four years and evidently has talked about cooking quite a bit. I am not a foodie by any means. Eating is more my interest, and while I had pretentions for cooking as an art years ago, I cook to sustain life now. Still, I do a little reading about cooking. In four years, the only thing I'd heard about Kamala Harris cooking was the story about her explaining how to cook a turkey while she was waiting for an interview to start. What's that about? Was the press not interested before the last two weeks, even though there are videos of her talking about cooking? Was I reading the wrong stuff? 

Humor

J.D. Vance's Least Favorite Movies and TV Shows by Caroline Horwitz at MuddyUm. I like repetition in humor, and I enjoyed the cat repetition here. 

I'd Like to Present an Argument Against Funeral Karaoke by Graham Techler at Points in Case. A very good example of incongruity humor.

After Playing Magic the Gathering with You, a Child, I Have Concluded That My Life is a Lie and I Probably Have Dementia by Dave Goldstein at Frazzled. Love the way the game leads the speaker to his life conclusions. Also, I've lived through Magic the Gathering and am now immersed in Pokemon. I'm going to point out that at Chez Gauthier those collectible card games are perceived as a guy thing. It's not that I, a woman, am intellectually too weak to play them. It's that I won't.