This Time Together, Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett.

When I went to the library last week, I picked up This Time Together, Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett from the Best Picks table. I was still knee deep in Special Topics in Calamity Physics at the time, which I was having trouble getting through. As a reward, when I finished that long bad boy earlier this week, I decided to read Carol Burnett's latest book. And I loved it! Devoured it in a couple of days because...

I love Carol Burnett.

I mean I really love her. She is so funny. And the book brings back so many of the good memories I have of watching her show. Did you know it was on for 11 seasons? I just knew it as always on. And when it was gone, I missed it. She got the title from the song she and the cast always sang at the end of the show, "I'm so glad we had this time together."

I saw Jim Carrey talking on Oprah earlier this year about Carol Burnett and I could totally relate. She was (is) pure genius. She wrote this book in small chunks, chapters that are never more than 10 pages or so long. Not long enough, but she tells the story and wraps things up just right.

Do you have a memoir or autobiography that you've read that you'd like to share?

Book Read:  This Time Together, Laughter and Reflection
Author:  Carol Burnett
ISBN:  978-0-307-46118-6

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Okey, dokey. When my daughter gave me Special Topics in Calamity Physics to read, I made a face. Unlike her, I did not major in chemistry (never even took chemistry, ever, or physics, like she had, advanced college courses, at that) and thought this looked way over my head, even though I knew it wasn't a textbook. It is fiction, but still. That name. But she said, "I think you'll like it." And I did.

Blue Van Meer and her father Gareth live their lives changing schools each year. He's a college professor and she's a senior, the year she narrates the story. The first two-thirds of the book is filled with background on their relationship, her starting her final year of high school at yet another new school, tales of the June Bugs (women Gareth dates for a minute then drops the next), and the new friends that Blue is thrust into at the invitation of a film teacher, Hannah Schneider. And it's very scholarly with references thrown in to real and probably made-up books to stuff I just don't know about. Lots of background. Lots.

But once the murder/suicide/whatever it was in the woods occurred, the book got interesting. In fact, the last two-thirds of the book flew by. Granted, I stayed up late last night and got up early and read till after 10 this morning, but I wanted to finish this book.

I won't give the plot away, but Special Topics in Calamity Physics is an interesting read that leaves you wondering, which Pessl refers to somewhere in the 514 pages--the fact that many of us dullard Americans don't like movies or books that have ambiguous endings. I don't mind them, nor did I mind this ending. I thought the whole book was totally unrealistic, of course, but an interesting read.

Have you read this book? What did you think of Blue and her father and the whole premise?

Book Read:  Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Author:  Marisha Pessl
ISBN:  0-670-03777-X

Long Time, No Post

It's been a while since I've posted here. It's not that I haven't been reading. I have. I finished up a big copy editing project last week and am reading a big book that seems to be taking me FOREVER! It's Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl.  

STICP is good, but all of the trivial facts are way over my head, making me read slower, I think. And no, it's not about physics or I wouldn't be reading it. Ugh.

I predict I'll finish it within the week though since I won't be reading ALL day EVERY day in addition to the evening fun reading I do.
What are you reading?