Reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity--a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival.   Check this out!

Libba Bray's book was great, I think, because she was so angry. This is a funny book, and absurd in a Pynchonesque way. Beneath the surface is a mighty list of grievances: about gender roles & identity & orientation, about commercialization & materialism, about stereotypes, about corrupt politics & hypocrisy... Bray is so intent on shining a light in dark corners that the satire has real bite. More Voltaire than Huxley, we are meant to laugh. But we are also supposed to come away with a new desire to live humanely. Five out of five for a funny book that may secretly be important.   Check this out!

This book was OK. A little repetitive and the science was sometimes hard to follow.  Check this out!

This book was OK, but I think it lost something in the translation. I will not be continuing with the series.  Check this out!

I treasure this slender volume of lyric poems by former San Franciscan, Richard Brautigan. The poems are short, whimsical, and frequently surrealistic. “The Alarm-Colored Shadow of a Frightened Ant” reads in its entirety: “The alarm-colored shadow of a frightened ant/wants to make friends with you, learn all about/your childhood, cry together, come live with/you.” The even shorter "Cellular Coyote" reads: "He's howling in the pines/at the edge of your fingerprints."  Check this out!

Andrej Grubacic, Serbian-born author and professor of cultural anthropology at the California Institute for Integral Studies, offers an inspiring alternative history of recent decades in the lands of the former Yugoslavia. Rather than focus exclusively on the sufferings caused by wars, foreign intervention, and market restructuring, the author presents the region’s long history of creative solutions and resistance to internal and external oppressors.  Check this out!

This collection of essays and lectures by the influential American composer John Cage was first published in 1961. The author’s creative and frequently witty prose ranges widely over the fields of music, dance, painting, and literature. Since its publication Silence has been a source of inspiration to generations of artists, musicians, writers, and readers. Even the questions Cage raised in this book continue to influence artistic production. He writes, for example, “Composing’s one thing, performing’s another, listening’s a third. What can they have to do with one another?” I reread this book from time to time, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the history of the arts post-WWII.  Check this out!

Robert Musil has been called the Austrian Proust, and his major, and unfinished novel, is a classic of 20th-century literature. The first volume of this novel, translated by Sophie Wilkins, begins as comedy of manners among the upper classes on the eve of World War I. Musil, who trained as a behavioral psychologist and mathematician, explores the effects of science’s relativization of values on the dissipated lives and psyches of his protagonists. The novel’s language is essayistic, experimental, lucid, though often dreamlike. Characters converse for hours over politics, music, poetry, death, philosophy, sexuality, and insanity. Volume II includes Burton Pike’s translation of several hundred pages of additional scenes and notes by the author. These pages allow one to peer into the workshop and mind of one of the last century’s greatest authors.  Check this out!

Robert Musil has been called the Austrian Proust, and his major, and unfinished novel, is a classic of 20th-century literature. The first volume of this novel, translated by Sophie Wilkins,begins as comedy of manners among the upper classes on the eve of World War I. Musil, who trained as a behavioral psychologist and mathematician, explores the effects of science’s relativization of values on the dissipated lives and psyches of his protagonists. The novel’s language is essayistic, experimental, lucid, though often dreamlike. Characters converse for hours over politics, music, poetry, death, philosophy, sexuality, and insanity. Volume II includes Burton Pike’s translation of several hundred pages of additional scenes and notes by the author. These pages allow one to peer into the workshop and mind of one of the last century’s greatest authors.  Check this out!

This fictional celebration of San Francisco in the 1980s is a novel-in-verse inspired by the example of Alexander Pushkin’s classic Eugene Onegin. Seth’s novel follows the loves and losses of four young professionals—two engineers, a lawyer, and an artist—via a stream of sonnets whose language is by turns sentimental, satirical, lyrical, and compassionate. The author’s vocabulary is dazzling and his resurrection of Pushkin’s meter and rhyme scheme a remarkable feat. Despite its occasional cleverness, the novel tackles serious issues and is emotionally engaging. Seth, who was born in Calcutta,has written a major novel that is also a major work of poetry, as well as the quintessential San Franciscan novel.  Check this out!

Clever who-done-it, with unusual characters and plot.
But it was sort of bland and TV-ish, with hollywood-type of story-line and predictable outcomes to the story-line. I give it a C+.  Check this out!

while this is not a new book it's new to me since with my adult adhd reading is super difficult for me. i was drawn to this book largely because i guessed i could read it. i could read it. the single or rather the predominant grace of it is the heroine's journey, where the protagonista does not take the bullying she suffers at the hands of her witchy boss lying down. she ultimately refutes it in the most satisfying way possible to the reader and presumed identifier with her troubles. getting to live in a world with town cars and manolos and donna karan is delicious. i loved it and am grateful i got off of my literary high horse long enough to read and thouroughly enjoy it.  Check this out!

Good, but long winded. Too much jumping around trying to follow different characters.  Check this out!

This is the third book in the Walt Longmire Mystery series. They just keep getting better and better. Unlike the first two books that take place in Wyoming, this book has Walt in Philadelphia. I can't wait to read the next one.  Check this out!

This book captures the brilliant mind of this great underrated female comedian. I read most of it on MUNI and often chuckled out loud. You learn a bit about her childhood, her struggles as a young comedian, and her adventures of raising adopted kids. I've been wondering how she survived her hardships and overcoming her alcoholism. Her humor and big heart got it through it all. Bravo, Paula!  Check this out!

I selected to read this after hearing of Ephron's death this past month. It didn't disappoint me at all and I wish I had read it sooner. Her reflections on life is amusing. I especially enjoyed her essays "I Hate My Purse" and "The Lost Strudel or Le Strudel Perdu" A great easy read. We lost a very witty lady.  Check this out!

I've enjoyed Ephron's films so decided to read this book of essays as I needed some humor in my life. This was a quick, very enjoyable read. She's quite funny. This book will especially interest women of a certain age as we look back at our lives. Having read this, I admire Ephron even more.  Check this out!

I've enjoyed Ephron's films so decided to read this book of essays as I needed some humor in my life. This was a quick, very enjoyable read. She's quite funny. This book will especially interest women of a certain age as we look back at our lives. Having read this, I admire Ephron even more.  Check this out!

Using wit and her razor-sharp intellect, Rachel Maddow details the progression of executive prerogative in advancing foreign military operations from Reagan to the Obama administrations. The rise of private contractors with their lack of accountability and pricey overcharging for services is what is sucking the $$$ from the American economy, and there are still nukes moldering in their silos.  Check this out!