Going to be honest here: I think this was just over my head. I have a feeling I should take Philosophy 101 and then re-read it. Also there was a part in the middle that he said you should skip if you weren't interested in semiotics, and I don't really know what semiotics is, so I totally skipped it.

The book poses as a personality quiz in the form of multiple choice questions, which are really just thought experiments. These were usually at least somewhat interesting and thought-provoking, especially the last few. OK as I think about the end of the book maybe it's a 2.5 star book for me. I don't know. I think it's well-written but just not the type of soul searching I prefer. OH ALSO this book is labelled a "satire" of self-help books but it's totally not a satire. I mean it has funny moments and kind of a wry tone, but it's definitely a self-help book.

Ohh, what a perfect book! I LOVED all of these characters so much. And this audiobook was really well done. I really liked having a different voice actor for each character.

My only quibble with this book, as one who went to the junior high state scholastic bowl championship, is that so many of their quiz bowl questions would just never hold up in an actual tournament because they were so open-ended. But those kinds of questions made for a better story, so I forgive it.

Like its predecessor, this book was intensely weird and funny. By the end of it I did get a little tired of the intense strangeness. But still, hilarious, and if you liked The Areas of My Expertise, you'll certainly like this.

I picked this up because David Sedaris recommended it at his reading. Sedaris said he really enjoyed Tower's turns of phrase, and there are some amazing descriptions in here--e.g. a baby pigeon brought in by a cat "was pink, nearly translucent, with magenta cheeks and lavender ovals around the eyes. It looked like a half-cooked eraser with dreams of someday becoming a prostitute." I mean, WTF, what kind of person comes up with that line? It's perfect.

The stories themselves are sharp and excellently characterized snippets at mostly sad people. Reading them tended to make me feel slightly bad about myself as I connected with their base, selfish instincts.

This was probably my least favorite Princess Diaries book so far, possibly because I'm not into prom the way Mia is. Like the others in the series, it's funny and has very realistic teen characters. But let's not forget that sometimes real teens are just annoying.

I think I heard about this book on NPR or something and liked the title. It's been on my "to read" list forever and I finally read it! I liked it but didn't love it, as the 3 star rating indicates. It felt like she had originally written it as a one-woman show or stand-up routine or something--it didn't seem like it was meant to be read. There were a lot of jokes that seemed awkwardly stitched in. But they were usually funny jokes, so, pass. I have some Jehovah's Witness relatives so I'm interested in the topic. (But I don't have any Mormon relatives and I'm also interested in Mormonism, so maybe I'm just interested in religions that are likely to eff you up. No offense if you are reading this and are JW or Mormon... I said LIKELY TO, not DEFINITELY WILL.) Anywayyy it was pretty funny and had some telling anecdotes about how effed up JWs can be.

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. I'm not a huge fan of zombies or unicorns, per se, but I flipped through it and Holly Black and Justine Larbestier's commentary seemed entertaining, so I went for it. There's an amazing range of stories here on both topics, from lighthearted to serious social commentary (and a few zombie stories that I shouldn't have read right before bedtime). A few faves... Maureen Johnson's story strongly suggests that maybe Brangelina have adopted ZOMBIE children and Meg Cabot's story features a unicorn named Princess Prettypants, need I say more?

I was really excited to read this book. I even pre-ordered it on the Internets, something I usually reserve for books of a Harry Potter stature. But I just love Mike Birbiglia's standup. He is a funny, funny guy. I cannot emphasize that enough. If I were reviewing any of his standup shows or albums I would give them 5 stars. But this book was 50% his standup routine written down, which was less funny than his standup routine being performed. And it was kind of awkwardly strung together, like it was kind of a chronological memoir of his life and kind of an excuse to hold the jokes together. I mean... it was still very funny, because he is a funny guy. But not as funny as his standup routines are. If you don't know who Mike Birbiglia is I really strongly recommend watching or listening to him rather than reading this book. DO IT.

A funny, charming Viking novella. Extra star for the audio book version--Neil is SO good at reading his own work. I especially liked his bear voice.

Hmm. I thought this was really uneven. It was split between two storylines, Thea's and Peter's. Thea lives in a mysterious underground world and Peter's parents are scientists. And the first 3/4 of Peter's storyline was pretty boring. Also I didn't really like either of the audiobook readers, but especially not Peter's. But there were some cool concepts here and I did get caught up in Thea's storyline. I might give 3 stars to the paper version but this audiobook is not great.