The Big Skinny by Carol Lay

Reading Level: Adult Graphic Novel
(4 out of 5)

I thought I had seen every type of weight loss book known to man but I was wrong!  The Big Skinny How I Changed My Fattitude by Carol Lay is a graphic novel weight loss guide memoir.  I have to say it was fun to read.  She even provides some fun recipes at the end of the book.  If you have ever struggled with your weight you can relate to this book and laugh out loud.  Her thoughts have been your thoughts and her struggles have been your struggles.  It is really fun to read someone's memoirs picture by picture!

Whispers of the Dead by Simon Beckett

This is the third novel I've read by mystery writer Simon Beckett, and it's only been a few weeks since I read his first one, "The Chemistry of Death". The second was a bit of a disappointment, but "Whispers of Death" is perhaps even better than the first book.

By now, I'm familiar with the protagonist, Dr. David Hunter, who came to a small British village called Manham in response to an advertisement for a GP, a general practitioner. His back story is that Hunter's wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident, and he left London to escape the tragic memories of their deaths brought up daily by his career as a forensic anthropologist. In short, he found it hard to deal with the death of his family while constantly working on other homicide cases for the police. After solving a murder there, Hunter returned to London with a new girlfriend, Jenny, but she leaves him after the second book
finds him bogged down again in a new murder mystery in the British Isles. One of the team of brother/sister killers from that book tracks him to his London flat, and leaves him near dead. That brings us to the beginning of this book, in which Hunter again tries to escape bad memories, this time by coming to America and the "body farm" in Tennessee, the infamous field laboratory where law enforcement personnel study real corpses, and where his old mentor teaches.

But as fate would have it, the Knoxville facility soon sees its own share of corpses, and that's just among the staff and students! Tom Lieberman, Hunter's mentor, is asked to help the local detectives at a baffling local crime scene using his special skills. However, this time Hunter has to help him, as Lieberman's health is rapidly failing, even though the local police and medical personnel are
unhappy at his interference. The case they try to solve is complicated by the fact that the killer seems to know as much about time and method of death as the Body Farm staff, and he is making the murders hard to solve by switching bodies and identities. Along the way, Hunter is stalked, Lieberman dies, and the pregnant wife of a colleague is kidnapped, before Hunter uses his instincts to
stumble onto the body farm the killer has set up at a decrepit spa.

By now, I'm familiar with Beckett's use of misdirection to throw the reader off the killer's trail, so even as he calls one character the killer, I wait for the final twist and reveal which have been the hallmark of Beckett's work so far. In the dramatic conclusion, Hunter again faces off against the true murderer, using his words and his wit to survive until help arrives. Another great novel by Simon Beckett from his reviewer, someone who generally doesn't like mystery novels, but who somehow can't stop reading Beckett books! A gruesome good time for those who like shows where crimes are solved by forensic evidence.

Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy by Bob Harris

Bob Harris spent some time as a stand-up comedian. That background comes through clearly in his non-fiction account of his Jeopardy! days, "A Prisoner of Trebekistan," which is filled with his unique and off-kilter (although not off-color) 
brand of humor. I remembered the author's multiple appearances on the show from seeing his picture on the cover, as Harris is a man who definitely made an 
impression on the famous game show for both his quirky looks and unusual commentary. 

That personality is why he was chosen to come back on so many Jeopardy! Champions Tournaments, chosen even before those contestants who made more money, because he was just so much fun. 

Besides the show, Harris talks candidly about his failed relationships with various women, and his world travels, although I find that those final chapters of the book were the most tedious for me to read through, despite his humor and his frequent 
references to odd trivia that he learned while abroad. Where the book really sings, however, is where he recounts his time on the show, his study methods, and the other Jeopardy! contestants he met and befriended. Luckily, that's most of the book. 

Other reviewers have found the final bits interesting, where Harris philosophizes about how Trebekistan (a fictional land named after Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek) is the world, and how everything is tied together in a web of knowledge. But I knew that going in~ what I enjoyed about Harris most is his stories about Cleveland (having lived there) and its losing ways. Most helpful for other Jeopardy! hopefuls is his teaching how he memorized impossible facts by making mental pictures, and I found his advice in keeping with other books on 
memory tricks of the champions ("Moonwalking with Einstein", for example.) 

So what is this book? Autobiography? Memory guide? Advice for the world 
traveler? It's a little bit of all those, with a touch of humanistic philosophy thrown in for good measure. So my advice would be, for those like myself who only wanted to know about Bob's time on Jeopardy! and how he managed to win 
against some of the show's greatest champions, stick to reading the first % of the text. Like the Beatles in the late '60s, Harris takes a spiritual journey near the end of the book that would have been better if it had been more personal and less public. 

Reviewed by Gerti 

The Housekeeper's Diary by Wendy Barry

Wendy Berry served as the housekeeper for Prince Charles' mansion,

Highgrove, from the mid '80s until the early '90s. That's the time span before Britain's Prince of Wales was separated from Lady Diana Spencer, the woman more universally known as "Princess Di." As a result, Berry was an observer to the behavior of both of those famous people, as well as their sons, Prince William and Harry, during good times and, more often, bad.

The cover says the book was "Banned in Britain", and while I'm not sure that is true, this diary is certainly contains information to which the Palace might object. It's a no-holds-barred look at the underside of British royalty. Berry shows Diana's many flaws, something rarely seen in other books on this time period in her life. Berry talks about how the Princess was moody and manipulative, trying to keep her sons away from Charles at every opportunity when the relationship between the couple started to fail. Berry also shows Charles to be a good father, a seldom seen viewpoint in much of the literature about the couple, but acknowledges the genesis of his affair with the woman who is now his wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

In short, this book dwells very little on the mundane aspects of keeping house for such rich and famous people, and wallows instead in their dirty secrets, making it a terribly juicy read. Berry doesn't hold back even when discussing the tricks the little princes played on the staff, or the behavior of other royals and servants. All of which makes this book a much better read than the average politically-correct versions of royal British life, and that makes it a perfect read for steamy summer days and nights. 

Submitted by Gerti 

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

I was so excited when the library finally got me this book! I had waited many months for my name to show up as #1 on the waiting list, and even longer for the person who had checked it out before me to return it. Once past the initial euphoria of finally holding the book in my hands, I discovered that like other books that David Sedaris has written, this one is filled with amusing episodes from Sedaris' life, some of which are found in his other collections. That was a bit of a letdown. Fortunately for me as a reader, this collection contains one of my favorite vignettes, "Big Boy", which takes me back to an episode during my own childhood when my cousin Pam and I were trapped in a bathroom at a relatives home. Sedaris' account is side-splittingly funny. So was the event we lived through. It's great when a book can make you laugh out loud. This book makes you run to friends and family and force them to read the passages that have made you weep with laughter. Not every book that claims to be funny makes you laugh... this one does.

In the first half of the book, Sedaris draws hysterical portraits of other family members, most especially his sister Lisa (who will say anything) and his father (who is a food hoarder). The second half of the book involves Sedaris' attempts to learn or perhaps avoid learning French. He talks about his teachers, his fellow language students, and the peculiar words and phrases he does learn ("bottleneck", "witch doctor") in lieu of those phrases that would be more helpful in conversation with the people in Paris. As always, Sedaris is both touching and amusing, and his writing style and gift for description are nothing short of brilliant. It's always a pleasure to pick up one of his books, even if, as in this case, I've read some of the stories before. Like visiting with old friends from high school, however, you leave remembers why you wanted to get together in the first place. Sedaris is a comic writer of the first order, and I will continue to read through all the titles he has published.

Submitted by Gerti

Awakenings by Oliver Sacks

This is the second book I've read by famed neurologist Oliver Sacks, and while different in subject matter than his book "Uncle Tungsten" which involved his experiences as a boy fascinated by chemistry, the brilliance and humanity of the great doctor come through the same way in this book, which involves his treatment of patients institutionalized because of encephalitis lethargica, or "sleepy sickness."

It took me more than my allotted 6 weeks to read, mainly because even when I got to the epilogue, I couldn't stop reading, because Sacks couldn't stop writing! Even after the many chapters on the patients he's treated, Sacks talks about the stage and screen adaptations of this popular text (most notably the film version by Penny Marshall starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams), and about the history of the "sleepy sickness" that occurred during and after WWI and which so changed the lives of the people it touched, patients, and families. I checked out the movie while reading the book (since it took me so long!), so it was interesting to see Sacks' take on the filmmaker and her 2 main stars, whom he calls Bob and Robin. This chapter itself makes it worth the fine I'm paying right now, because it is a fascinating look at all the effort the Hollywood team made to meet and study the patients with this particular disorder in order to portray them accurately in their movie. I am dismayed that the library doesn't have another famous play about such patients, called "A Kind of Alaska" by famed playwright Harold Pinter. Hint, hint, library book buyer!

As for the background of the disease, it is terrifying to think that one can have a cold or flu, and 20 years later end up with Parkinson's-like symptoms that may lead one to being institutionalized. Unfortunately, such a nightmare did happen for hundreds of people, and although I have studied the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 before, this particular disease, while occurring around the same time, has gotten no Nova specials, even though it is horrifying in its own way that sufferers were condemned not to death, but to a form of living death that Dr. Sacks (among others) awakened them from decades later thanks to a drug called L-Dopa. Their stories are truly inspiring and show the resilience of the human spirit despite impossible odds and challenges. One patient especially (Ed W., who is portrayed by DeNiro in the movie as Leonard) strikes me as brilliant and his comments on his own condition and how he is trapped within his frozen body are among the most heart-breakingly moving.

If Sacks can be said to have a flaw as a writer, it is that he can't stop writing (a flaw we share, it seems!) Sometimes on a page, I couldn't decide whether to concentrate on the voluminous footnotes or the text itself, and sometimes upon turning a page, forgot which of the two I was actually reading. But that's my problem. I strongly recommend the book for those with interest in medicine, psychology, or Parkinson's disease, because it provides brilliant insights on them all. I have checked out another book from Sacks, and another book on the disease he describes here, and eagerly look forward to reading them both.

Submitted by Gerti

Naked by David Sedaris

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction

I took this book on my recent vacation to the Wisconsin Dells, and found myself awake in the middle of the night reading it. Like other books that Sedaris has written, this book is rich in humor and filled with amusing episodes from Sedaris life. Luckily for me as a reader, Sedaris does all kinds of things I would never consider doing, like hitchhiking across the country or working as a migrant worker, so it gives a great perspective on a way of life that is both funny AND foreign.

Sedaris draws hysterical portraits of other family members, like his sister Lisa and his father. The most touching piece in the collection is a story written after his mother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. As always, Sedaris is both touching and amusing, and his writing style and gift for description are nothing short of brilliant. It's always a pleasure to pick up one of his books, and I can't wait till I'm #1 on the wait list of his latest!

Submitted by Gertrude

Tales of an African Vet by Dr. Roy Aronson

Tales of an African Vet

by Dr. Roy Aronson

Did you know that fish can get the bends? Neither did I!

Tales of an African Vet is not your regular, James Herriot-style animal book. Dr. Aronson does indeed have a small animal practice in South Africa, but this book is based on his adventures in the wild.

You'll meet Jabu, a baby elephant rescued from a mud flat in the Klasseri Reserve on the western border of Kruger National Park.

Then there is Munwane, an injured baby rhino saved by a park ranger from a pack of hyenas.

And a lioness named Mehlwane, meaning “the one with the eye” who required surgery to repair a genetic defect that rolled her eyelid inward, making the lashes irritate the eye.

These stories don't take place at the office; these are surgeries performed in the middle of the bush in South Africa. First you have to track your patient, then immobilize them with a tranquilizer dart. You then set up your sterile “field” and do the work you need to do, and then you monitor your patient until they are awake and can defend themselves.

From elephants to rhinos, gemsbocks to hedgehogs, and cobras to cheetahs, you will enjoy this telling of Dr. Aronson's life in the glorious bush of South Africa.

Submitted by Laurie

Stolen Figs by Mark Rotella

Stolen Figs is a book about a man that visits his family in Calabria, Italy with his father. Memories of Mark's father come alive and the author learns about the history and adventures of the Rotella family. He meets many characters that all know his relatives because of the closeness the little town shares. It tells of places the author visits and the history of the town. As the author takes you through the town you feel like you are with him by the way he describes the sights, sounds, tastes, and how it feels. I enjoyed this book and felt like I was visiting Calabria.

Review submitted by Erica