This was fun! In high school I read 100 million Star Wars novels (approx) and then pretty much dropped them for several years, but Ashley told me this was like "Ocean's 11 but with Han and Lando" (which is what pretty much every review says. I think it might actually be on the book jacket. If not, it should be, because it's exactly like Ocean's 11 but with Han and Lando. I mean there are even 11 people involved with the plan.)

Anyway, like I said, it had been a few years since I read a Star Wars novel so it took me a little while to get back into the swing of it and I ended up skimming some descriptions of spaceships or whatever. Like, I get it, it's a spaceship. In space. Or whatever.

It was fun! If "Star Wars Ocean's 11" sounds fun to you, you will probably think this is a fun book! If "Star Wars Ocean's 11" does not sound fun to you, you are probably just lying to yourself.

Here is a story about Jonathan Franzen: I read [b:The Corrections|3805|The Corrections|Jonathan Franzen|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355011305s/3805.jpg|941200] several years ago, perhaps just after it was at its zeitgeistiest. Yes that's a word. What are you looking at.

Anyway, I remembered really liking it, and several years later when I found myself contemplating a fairly limited audiobook selection at my parents' home library, I checked out an audio version of the Corrections and listened to most of it on a trip. It was not as good as I remembered it being, but I thought, well maybe now my tastes are more SOPHISTICATED. I had listened to something like 9 of 10 discs of it and then had to return it to their library. I decided to get the audiobook from my home library so I could finish the last disc. Then I realized that my parents' library had the ABRIDGED version and the real version was at least 20 discs long. I was unwilling to dedicate the time to listening to the entire 20 discs, but I think that The Corrections was probably at least as good as I had remembered it being. Jonathan Franzen uses a LOT of words, but by God, he earns them.

******

OK I wrote all of that as a note when I added this book but before I started listening to it

like

is Jonathan Franzen parodying himself?

Like

when he goes to China to investigate the factory where his puffin golf club cover is made, because he loves birds sooo much...

...

is that for real.

When he suggests that maybe if David Foster Wallace had gotten into birdwatching, he wouldn't have committed suicide...

is that for real??

There are some good essays in this collection, but I think I already read them all on the internet already, and then there are just like A BILLION OF JONATHAN FRANZEN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT BIRDS.

I used to feel bad for Franzen because he was forever going to be known as DFW's less-talented friend but now I think I feel bad because he's so obsessed with birds??

Oh I forgot there are also some hilariously crotchety thoughts in here about technology, like literally he is mad when people end cell phone conversations with "Love you!"

Go put a bird on it, Franzen.

Uhhh... you know that thing when you can recognize that something is well-done and still not like it that much?

That is how I felt about this book. I had to abandon a few of the stories halfway through because they were too scary. A lot of them were just like... really, beautifully, weird. Too weird for me, maybe? And I feel like my bar for weird is pretty high? But the weirdness was really well done.

Would it be a surprise to any of you if I said a David Sedaris live audio CD was hilarious? Most of this material isn't printed anywhere (yet?) and I wouldn't be surprised if it stayed audio only, since a lot of it was REALLY enhanced by David's accents/vocal mannerisms. Great stuff.

SIGH. I mean I probably wouldn't have picked this up at all if it hadn't been written by Dave Eggers, who I LOVE. But I always forget that I prefer his memoirs and books based more directly on true stories (Zeitoun, What is the What) to his straight-up fiction. Like pieces of this were obviously based on reality.

I guess ultimately Eggers's project with this is to humanize the upper class white dudes who sent factories overseas but maybe I'm not that interested in that project, which is a moral failing on my part I suppose.

Of course it is well written, of course it is beautiful, but ultimately I just did not care super much about Alan and his family. OH WELLZ

What a cool, weird novel. I was really surprised by it--I'm not familiar with the movie or the musical, and the copy from our library is like... from 1975 (OK I just looked it up, our copy was purchased in 1986). ANYWAY it looks old (especially since I'm used to reading flashy YA novels and graphic novels) but it feels surprising and fresh and relevant. Uhh basically I literally judged it by its cover and its cover was inaccurate.

Also I probably need to re-read this after having read the Wikipedia article for every historical figure in this.

Uhhhh a fellow cat lady lent me this and told me I had to read it because cats and then she kept asking me if I'd read it yet? BOOK BULLY

IDK it was like a traditional British mystery novel, which I don't normally like, but it was about how the town decided to outlaw cats because they spread disease so in retaliation the cats teamed up to murder local politicians? It was unexpectedly graphic??

Anyway then the town starts get nervous about black plague (because the cats also go on strike) and then the cats come back and everything's fine??

I mean I know I'm a cat lady, but am I such a cat lady that someone would assume I would want to read about cats murdering and devouring townspeople?? I... guess probably I am. Oh wells.

This is one for the pretentious liberal arts majors. Of which I am one, so I liked it. Basically the whole time I was reading this I felt like I was preparing for a class I'm not actually taking. Again: which I liked. I mostly read this because my friends Sophi and Tara made me read it, and I thought it was interesting that each of the 3 of us strongly identified with a different one of the 3 protagonists. (Mine was Mitchell, who tried to save the world and gave up after 3 weeks.)

I used to flip through this at my friend Stacey's apartment and I finally sat down and read it all the way through. Like... obviously I love RuPaul. Obviously. I love his positive attitude and ~realness~ in and out of drag, and my favorite parts of this book revolved around that. (Sometimes it gets borderline The Secret-esque, which I hate, but... whatever.) There were also a ton of gorgeous photos of Ru in drag. I also enjoyed reading, in DETAIL, about all the work Ru puts into her drag. For someone who wanted to start doing drag, this might be a good how-to manual. For a fan, it's a cool behind the scenes look.

Also there is a lot of advice in here that I read and was immediately like, "I am NOT doing that." Get up at 4:30am to work out? I am NOT doing that. Invest in cashmere sweaters as part of your basic travel wardrobe? I am NOT doing that. Never eat in public? Never eat after the sun goes down? I am NOT doing that. And that's why RuPaul is RuPaul and I am me.

~You're born naked and the rest is drag~

Yes yes yes. I would like this to be required reading for everyone please. I knew Baratunde Thurston was hilarious but this is just... SUCH deft humor + history + anger + theory... really perfect handling of race in America which is basically impossible to discuss anymore. I loved the commentary from The Black Panel (including a token white guy [the guy behind Stuff White People Like, in fact]), too.

Bonus: since I've read this and [b:How to Be a Woman|10600242|How to Be a Woman|Caitlin Moran|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327903507s/10600242.jpg|15507935], I am now qualified to be Oprah.

Oh and PS this book is $3 for Kindle right now, TOTALLY WORTH IT. Or inquire at ~your local library~