Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama has just married off her three daughters (one of them for the second time), and wants nothing more than to spend time traveling with her husband Earle. Her only problem? Lenore Simmons Krackenberry. Everyone in town loves Lenore, but Sookie has always found her mother overbearing and obsessed with…
Tag: humor
Review: My Planet
My obsession with Mary Roach is well documented, so I was surprised to learn that she once wrote articles for Reader’s Digest. Fortunately the editors of this classic American magazine are geniuses, and recently published all of Roach’s columns in My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places. Not only are the essays further evidence…
Review: Gulp
My obsession with all things Mary Roach is well known, so of course I was glad to get my hands on a copy of her most recent masterpiece, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. This book marks the author’s return to the taboo aspects of the human body; but instead of talking about decomposition (Stiff)…
Review: Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night follows a set of twins, Viola and Sebastian, after they are separated from each other when a storm destroys the ship on which they are traveling. Believing her brother dead and unable to find work anywhere, Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario and takes a position in the house…
Review: The Pun Also Rises
What exactly is a pun, and why do they exist? What’s the point of them? And should they be considered the highest form of language…or the lowest? For the answers to these and other questions, look no further than The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More…