Smart!
That just shows how humor is such a personal thing. I’ve seen so many cartoons that cracked me up in the last couple of years I even occasionally bother to take a pic and post them elsewhere (unless they were available online, too).
mostly because I am eternally behind 
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Just finished this one. Extremely well written and informative. Goes much deeper than the movie itself – basically a dual bio of Belushi and Aykroyd. Highly recommended for fans of SNL/Second City/NatLamp humor.
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I finally finished Murakami’s “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle”. I’ve read most of his stuff and had the book since the late 90s but could never get through it given the relative heft and structure. I’m glad I did. It explains his ability as an author in a way his other books can’t. I always liked his writing but I definitely understand him much better now.
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A favorite of mine! I read it in 2002 and many more of his novels since.
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Just started; so far it is hitting the spot.
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I can’t really read novels anymore although I liked The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Dias.
Can anyone recommend good memoirs? I really liked What the Taliban Told Me by Ian Fritz, Seventh Daughter by Cecilia Chiang, all The Moth Presents books.
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A few years ago I read The Port Chicago Mutiny.
The publisher blurb:
During World War II, Port Chicago was a segregated naval munitions base on the outer shores of San Francisco Bay. Black seamen were required to load ammunition onto ships bound for the South Pacific under the watch of their white officers—an incredibly dangerous and physically challenging task.
On July 17, 1944, an explosion rocked the base, killing 320 men—202 of whom were black ammunition loaders. In the ensuing weeks, white officers were given leave time and commended for heroic efforts, whereas 328 of the surviving black enlistees were sent to load ammunition on another ship. When they refused, fifty men were singled out and charged—and convicted—of mutiny. It was the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history. First published in 1989, The Port Chicago Mutiny is a thorough and riveting work of civil rights literature, and with a new preface and epilogue by the author emphasize the event’s relevance today.
Then came across this on the AP:
And then today, from the Washington Post, I read this op-ed (gift link) by these two:
Thurgood Marshall Jr. is a lawyer and son of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Tracy Roosevelt is deputy chief of staff to the secretary of the Navy and great-granddaughter of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Anyway, the book was excellent, if upsetting.
On another note, I will happily read most anything published by Heyday Books.
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I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country by Elena Kostyuchenkos (Link to an NPR interview) - excellent writing, compelling reading:
What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forché - about El Salvador:
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While not technically a memoir, Charles Bowden’s Murder City read like it was memoir-adjacent. He’s struggling to grasp the reality that is happening around him, while documenting the horror and chaos.
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I finished Ruth Reichl’s The Paris Novel. Nice little beach read sort of book. Lots of wonderfully evocative food scenes. On to something a bit more substantial - audio version of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom. Only a couple of chapters in but so far so good.
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Two of my favorite memoirs are The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and Breaking Night by Liz Murray. Hair-raising!
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I’ve read lots of memoirs about people who escaped from North Korea. (If you need any pointers, just ask me!)
Really like Escape From Camp 14.
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Just finished Testimony, Robbie Robertson’s memoirs of his life from childhood up through a couple days after The Last Waltz was filmed and none of the other Band members showed up for a session.
Robbie is a really good writer. Obviously his take on things doesn’t jibe in various respects with Levon Helms’s take. I would read both of their books with a few grains of salt and enjoy the stories. After all, it’s only rock & roll…and we like it!
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My book club read In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park. Rubbed me the wrong way so I’d love a recc for a more credible memoir!
They all run together in my mind now.
Have you read Escape From Camp 14? This boy was born in a labor camp - prison and didn’t know any other kind of life existed until he met an older, newly imprisoned man who told him about rest of the world. The boy was always hungry, would do anything just to get a small amount of food, lived on millet porridge and cabbage soup.
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Kant. Lots and lots of Kant.
I haven’t read it; I’ll check it out.
It really made me realize that I have the life I have because of an accident of birth, parents and location of my birth.
It made me appreciate my life more.
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