I am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert ★★★☆☆

Stephen Colbert for President!

Non Fiction – Humor

230 pages

Publication Date:  2007

Former Presidential candidate in South Carolina and the handsome(if he does say so himself) anchor of the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert, endows his followers from the Colbert Nation with his hilarious, “enlightened” and in no way well-informed world views that he wasn’t able to elaborate enough on during his show.

Stephen Colbert is either a national treasure or bat crap crazy … or possibly both.  No matter what category he falls in I, as always, found him delightful.  As a fan of his show, I am well acquainted with his humor.  His writing is incredibly clever, witty, deliciously sarcastic and oh so wrong.  Colbert enjoys universally poking fun at pretty much everything and everyone.  Nothing is sacred in the Colbert Nations.  Taken with a good sense of humor, I found even the values I hold dear thrown on the chopping block for comic fodder to be pretty dang funny.  And as I finished this book I realized I would never be the same.  Stephen Colbert’s sage advice of, “Don’t Suck,” is something I will carry with me always.

ISBN  0446580503 (ISBN13: 9780446580502)

Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich ★★☆☆☆

A chore to read.

Fiction – Mystery(Cozy)

384 pages

Publication Date:  2004

Alex Barnaby #1

Alexandra (Barney) Barnaby is in pursuit of her wayward brother, Bill, in Miami.  She hopes to find him and save him from whatever fresh catastrophe he has gotten himself into this time.  During her search she runs into Sam Hooker, a NASCAR driver who is pursuing Bill for the theft of his boat.  They learn that Bill is in pursuit of a sunken treasure, but he isn’t the only one.  Together Barney and Hooker race to the finish line to find Bill before the  “others” can get to him and the sunken treasure he has found.

Try as I might I could never find the rhythm of the story and slip into it.  While things did get a little better as the story progressed it never reached the point of redemption and in the end just trying to finish the book was a real chore.  I never warmed up to Barney and as a first person narrative from viewpoint that was a real problem.  Barney’s character just didn’t feel authentic to me for some reason.  I found Hooker unlikable and got sick of his constant NASCAR references really quickly.  The secondary characters were rather disappointing, especially since I know that is one of the areas Evanovich tends to shine in.  The mystery itself could have been incredibly interesting, but the characters were just too distracting to really get into it.  I regret the time I spent on this one!

ISBN  0060584025 (ISBN13: 9780060584023)

The crown has been passed on!

The year long reign of Whip It by Shauna Cross as most viewed post ever has come to an end with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith taking over the crown.

 

Long Live the new King!