I'm filing this along with Julia Alvarez under Books that Are Improved by Reading them in the Dominican Republic.

I mean it was good, but it didn´t leave me raving about it or anything.

I have re-read this book several times and I still love it. I've read reviews complaining about how pretentious Dave Eggers is and like... I'm not gonna tell you this book isn't pretentious. I'm just going to tell you that I love it anyway. Actually maybe I love it because of how pretentious it is. Maybe I love it because Eggers hates how pretentious it is yet clearly cannot help himself.
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I just read this again because I have been having some bad months and I thought this would make me feel better. It did. But also worse. But in a good way. You know?
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I read this in high school and just re-read it to see if I still loved it as much as I did.. six? Seven? years ago. The answer is YES. This is one of my favorite books of all time and I think you should go read it, right now. I love it because it shows you can be cynical and hip and postmodern and still know that there is beauty in life.

Very funny, of course. For me, it was less laugh-out-loud funny than Me Talk Pretty (my personal favorite Sedaris book), but perhaps a little more thoughtful? It seems like he's exhausted bizarre childhood/young adult stories, and this book focused more on his actual life. I never really knew that much about Hugh before. I love it most when Sedaris writes about different cultures, and so my favorite essay of the bunch was the final piece, about trying to quit smoking in Japan. Anyway--I don't think any Sedaris fans will be disappointed by this.

First of all: I don't understand why this book is "Unauthorized" but edited and annotated by Rob Thomas? Why didn't he just authorize it while he was at it? BUT ANYWAY.

This was alright. My favorite part were the notes from Rob Thomas. The first essay (after Thomas's introductory essay) read like a dumb blog entry and I was terrified that the whole book would be like that. But it didn't. I wish I had read this right after re-watching the series, I think I would have gotten more out of it. Anyway, this was fine, but nothing earth-shattering.

So good. Such a compelling story, and I always love Margaret Atwood´s perceptive portrayals of gender and class. ENGLISH MAJOR APPROVED.

I think this would probably be a three star book if I weren't living in the Dominican Republic... a lot of my enjoyment was derived from simple recognition. STILL THOUGH it was pretty good.

Chekhov rules.

I really liked this book and I'm pretty bummed that DFW just died. That said, probably not everyone would enjoy a 60-page essay about lexicographers as much as I did. But you might like it more than you thought you would... his style is somehow very intelligentsia-ish but also accessible and charming. "Big Red Son" and "Consider the Lobster" are especially Don't-Miss essays in my book. Also "The View from Mrs. Thompson's" cuz it's about Bloomington IL, holla!

These essays were indeed very good, although Slater picked A LOT of essays about death. Spouses, pets, oneself... did no one write any happy essays that year? Still though, good. Obvi.

Wow, this book was fucking great. Before this, all I'd read by Steinbeck were a few of his lesser works (The Pearl and In Dubious Battle) which made me think I didn't like Steinbeck that much. But this was genius.