Book Club (May/April 2014)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Obviously this is considered one of the greatest pieces of literature in human history, but I just wish it was a little bit shorter. Technically, I think I had the unabridged version and the print was tiny and very close together, but 500 pages is a lot of reading. I will probably read this again down the line because it deserves re-reading and I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I missed out on. I don't think the book was perfect (and what I do know, right?). Some of the dialogue tends be way too verbose, but when Dostoevsky gets it right, it can be downright chilling.
Drunk On Sports by Tim Cowlishaw
I love Around the Horn on ESPN. It's one of the few shows I still enjoy on any ESPN network. I don't really have a group of favorite analysts from the show, but I always enjoy when Tim Cowlishaw is on. This show in particular includes glimpses of the analysts' true personalities, but just because you watch someone on TV doesn't meant you actually know anything about his or her personal life. Drunk On Sports isn't a memoir so much as it is a story about an alcoholic who didn't realize he was an alcoholic, continued to be an alcoholic and finally decided not to be an alcoholic. It's not a self-help book, as he iterates on multiple occasions because he never found those helpful for his own problems. His actual sports reporting stories are great – all the stuff with Jimmy Johnson and the Cowboys, stories about actually working for a local paper and its transitions throughout the years. But there's a lot to take from his story about how to approach, deal with and, really, diagnose an alcoholic, especially one whose life isn't necessarily in shambles.
Bossypants by Tina Fey
I like Tina Fey. I wasn't super into SNL, but I was a huge 30 Rock fan. I knew there were mixed reviews about this book, but I wanted to read it anyway. I read Mindy Kaling's book a couple years ago and really enjoyed it, and I just assumed I would feel the same way about this. It starts off pretty weird. It's a memoir, but she tends to intentionally keep so many details to herself, and her childhood really isn't all that interesting. But it takes a turn for the better when she starts telling stories about her time at SNL and later on 30 Rock. The first third of the book had me thinking Fey's humor didn't translate well to 15-page chapters, but by the time she gets to the NBC years, there are moments I literally laughed out loud. She also opens up about being a woman in the industry and being a mother and whether having more kids will affect her career, and I definitely appreciated this as well. As much as it's obvious women don't get proper respect within the comedy/sitcom world, it's nice to hear specifics from someone who works both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
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