Month: December 2020

Calypso by David Sedaris

First Lines: “Though there’s an industry built on telling you otherwise, there are few real joys to middle age. The only perk I can see is that, with luck, you’ll acquire a guest room.”

Summary

If there is a theme among this collection of essays, it would be family. Sedaris is fiercely loyal and loving when it comes to his own, but he also isn’t afraid to describe their less attractive qualities. We learn of the overly-tanned skin of one of his sisters as well as his father’s hammer toes, but his love for them is never in question.

Throughout the essays, Sedaris seems to be grappling with reaching middle age, but in a way that makes you genuinely laugh out loud.

He reflects on the complicated relationship he shares with his father, who he knows won’t be around much longer, and looks back on life with his mother, who died of cancer in her own middle age. While spending time with his family at the North Carolina beach house he purchased, they recount stories of their sister Tiffany who committed suicide just before her 50th birthday. While these can make for sad stories, they are also poignant and hilarious. Sedaris has the talent of making his reader laugh at the bleakest of situations.

My Thoughts

Sedaris is one of the very few writers who unfailingly makes me laugh and cry within a mere five pages. His ability to find comedy in pain is admirable and his skill in communicating as much through writing his uncanny. Although I only have two siblings instead of the five Sedaris grew up with, I can relate to his close-knit sibling relationships. Reading essays of the Sedaris siblings lounging and talking on a beach blanket, I felt my family would have fit right in.

Wreck the Halls by Sarah Graves

First Line: Blood was everywhere, so much of it that at first Ellie and I didn’t realize what it was or understand what we’d walked into.

Summary: So opens the story, WRECK THE HALLS, the fifth book in the Home Repair is Homicide series with Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree. An ex-Wall Streeter, Jake has bought a fixer-upper in small town, Eastport, Maine with her son, Sam, and her boyfriend, Wade and learns small towns have their own secrets.

When Jake and her best friend Ellie arrive at the kitchen of Faye Anne Carmody’s they find her dazed and covered in blood and her no-good husband, the town butcher, Merle, who is missing. Then Jake discovers his body wrapped in his own butcher paper and the town residents all have an idea of what happened, an open and shut case against the wife, Faye Anne.

Jake and Ellie aren’t convinced of Faye Anne’s guilt as take it upon themselves to find the real killer and when another citizen of the town is murdered they realize the murderer’s trail began long before the death of Merle the butcher.

Thoughts: This book is another of my cozy mystery authors I enjoy reading. The way it is written you also glean a few details on home repair, especially older ones worn by the weather off the coast of Maine. The author uses several twists and turns to keep the story moving along and I kept guessing at the real villain. I like this series and would recommend it to anyone.

In Death series by J. D. Robb

This series is by far the longest running and favorite series I’ve followed. It’s Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb, and I was already a fan of her books, so when my friend & coworker Kristy told me about them, I jumped right in!

It takes place in the future starting in the 2050’s and follows Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas through her cases and her personal life. Currently there are 50 in the series, and several extra books in between.

She always starts the book with a quote that has to do with that story, then you follow the whole case through, beginning to end, going to the crime scene, interviewing witnesses, what Eve is thinking, giving a little from the killers side, and then the satisfying take down. You also delve into her personal life with Roarke, her complicated past, her inner circle of friends, and her hatred for fashion & social life. I have laughed, cried, gasped out loud, and sat in stunned silence.

I would love to list my favorite characters, but there are way too many, and I would feel bad if I left anyone out. In the beginning Eve was a loner, but throughout the book she develops relationships that really makes a family unit. I can’t describe J.D. Robb’s talent at making these fictional characters feel like real life people. I would love if she did spin off series of any of the cast of characters.

I also have to add that I have listened to the series on audio, and the narrator Susan Erikson probably contributes a little to my love of the series, if you haven’t listened to them, I highly recommend it! The way she voices each person is distinct and incredible, their voices have been permanently cemented in my mind.