Book Report for January

Instead of putting the Christmas decorations away, I have been watching "The Office" from Season 1 (available on Netflix) and eating black-eyed peas for good luck. When not lounging in front of the TV, I have been reading reading reading.

I loved A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. You would love it, too, if you are around my age [50-ish but still hot] and are prone to pondering high school/college friendships and where they are now. One thing I liked is that each chapter is written from a different point of view. As you go through the book, you're immersed in the story but not quite sure whether you are being given important information or not - so you have to pay attention to everything. So I reread parts and got that much more out of it. The book has won every award there is - which usually turns me off, but in this case, the book lives up to the hype. I think it is one of my favorite books of the year.

I don't know why I picked up The Best Nonrequired Reading of 2011, but I'm glad I did, even if I'm scratching my head over some of the selections. Poignant, funny, deadly serious - it's a great range of material, all from publications I would not ordinarily read - like Mother Jones and The New Yorker and Esquire and various indie press offerings you can't find anywhere but in a college town full of English majors. Favorite piece was on Roger Ebert - of Siskel & Ebert - and his struggle since losing his ability to speak due to cancer - a real upper, eh? But it is. A committee of high school students helped hone the selections. Lucky them.

In the self-improvement category, I offer you Women Food and God by Geneen Roth. I bought it because Anne Lamott blurbed it. Of course I've been struggling to lose the same crappy 15 (well, okay, 20) pounds all year and this is a totally different approach. I was all set to do some kind drastic diet (isn't this the most boring subject ever?) but the book changed my mind. Especially after reading this:

In an April 2007 UCLA study of the effectiveness of dieting, researchers found that one of the best predictors of weight gain was having lost weight on a diet at some point during the years before the study started. Among those who were followed for fewer than two years, 83 percent gained back more weight than they had lost. Another study found that people who went on a diets were worse off than people who didn't."

Dang! So I'll probably follow this Geneen's plan (which is, basically, asking yourself if you're hungry and paying attention to what's going on inside, or put another way, the AFGO approach. {Mentioned in the book, AFGO refers to "Another Fucking Growth Opportunity".} Be warned, for the umpteenth time, I'll be trying to learn to meditate. I'm up for it, though; it seems kinder and gentler than giving up Oreos.

For a laugh, check out Amy Sedaris on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, modeling "Weekend Pants." I think I have a pair of these...