December Book Report

Recipe for disaster: read the final chapters of Larry McMurtry's Terms of Endearment in an empty house. Cry-fest City! I loved the movie (so well cast), and I loved the book even more. It's not your typical Mommy-Dearest mother-daughter relationship and Aurora (the mother) is a piece of work. How a man could have created this character is beyond me. I haven't seen the movie in years, but I don't think they made much of Rosie's (Aurora's maid) trials and tribulations. Short recap: to her utter shock, Rosie's husband takes up with another woman. When she finally comes face-to-face with the woman, she realizes "the other woman," whom she has imbued with so much power, is nothing but an overweight, ugly thing (but with a lusty appetite). 


That's just one example of those "Aha" moments when you realize McMurtry has caught things just right. In the book, Aurora has a magical effect on several suitors, but when she is introduced to Vernon's (one of her four suitors) long-time acquaintances at the breakfast diner, they are surprised at how old she is -- for this slightly tubby woman with the aging Cadillac Vernon has turned his life upside down? It's along the lines of beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


And finally, of course I love that the book is set in Houston, and it's obvious McMurtry has an appreciation for the city and its quirky entrepreneurial spirit.


For a change of pace, I read It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong, the chick behind the enormously successful dooce.com blog. Originally, I thought this would be a great gift for a new mother, but um, probably not a good idea. While I loved reading about her bout with post-partum depression (and subsequent hospitalization), it would probably scare the bejeezus out of most breast-feeding people. Yes, it's a horrible thing, but Heather has a sense of humor I can appreciate. I think she's great, but perhaps she's an acquired taste? If you're a blissed out mom, not your thing, but for the rest of us, she puts into words the frequently unvoiced and conflicting thoughts that new babies can arouse. 


Though I loved Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, I wasn't so crazy about Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. I couldn't get through the tedious scientific approach to bonking and after 50 pages, I quit the book and concluded that people who study sex so scientifically are a bunch of weirdos. Frankly, I don't want to know that there are sex-machine events just like there are knitting circles and soccer leagues. I may give it another go in a couple of months - the book got excellent reviews. Maybe I'm just a hopeless prude.



The best chapter in Tina Fey's Bossypants is the one about doing photo shoots for magazines.

Once your hair and makeup are done, you'll slip into your first look. It will most definitely be one of the dresses that didn't even come close to fitting you, so Lot's Wife will bridge the gap with a thick piece of white elastic and some safety pins. Don't ever feel inadequate when you look at magazines. Just remember that every person you see on a cover has a bra and underwear hanging out a gaping hole in the back. Everyone. Heidi Klum, the Olsen Twins, David Beckham, everybody.

I am amazed at (and glad about) this woman's success. She's funny and smart and humble, and she's not an extroverted fool. Perfect read for a behind-the-scenes look at network television, female humorists, etc.


One thing, though, for some reason the "man arms" on her book cover creep me out.