Lamb by Christopher Moore

I decided to read this book for two reasons: (1) I tend to like a story told from a different perspective (like John Gardner's Grendel and Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl) and this one is humorously told by Jesus' childhood friend who saw him as a man, not as a savior (author's notes). In other words, I like the narrator. And (2) it answers a question from one of my favorite movies, Dogma: "Jesus suddenly goes from age twelve to thirty ... Where are the volumes of text dealing with the missing eighteen years?"

I enjoyed this book. It reads, not surprisingly, like a memoir: the narrator (Levi bar Alphaeus who is called Biff) alternates between talking generally about what is happening (either in the present writing or in the past reflecting on or introducing a scene) or the actual happening. I found that the material handled really well; and it helps that Moore does not attack or question Christianity as a religion or Christ, he's just telling a story. I think that (making it seem like this could've really happened in this way) makes the story the most compelling.

I think with books that I don't like, or don't like as much, I have way more to say but with this book I'm pretty much done talking. I liked it and I think if the subject matter interests you and you have the time, you should read it.

Visit Christopher Moore's website for more information about the author and how to purchase his books.

Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein

I picked up the audiobook of Have Space Suit—Will Travel because it was a familiar title and I've always intended to read something by Heinlein. I didn't realize until I started it that it was a Young Adult novel, but it was still an enjoyable listen, performed by a full cast and including music and a few sound effects.

The story is narrated by a high school senior/recent graduate named Kip Russell. Kip enters a contest with the intention of winning a trip to the moon, but ends up with the runner-up prize of a genuine space suit. It's not in very good condition but he manages to get it fixed. While taking the suit for a walk outside his house, he messes around with the radio,  pretending to communicate with the callsign "Peewee." Much to Kip's surprise, a girl genius named Peewee had been listening and lands her flying saucer nearly on top of him. Along with a diminutive but maternal alien that Peewee named "the Mother thing," the young protagonists end up on the Moon, then on Pluto, and later on the Mother thing's home planet, repeatedly encountering and escaping from aliens they dub Wormfaces along the way.

One remarkable thing about Have Space Suit—Will Travel is the amount of research Heinlein put in to his descriptions of how the titular space suit helps Kip survive, considering he wrote this novel more than a decade before man actually set foot on the Moon. There are also fairly accurate calculations of distances between planets and how long it would take to reach them. The first couple chapters before Kip gets the space suit made me expect the whole work to be an amusing jaunt, but despite the implausibility of some of the scenarios, the moments when Kip and Peewee have to survive the harshness of space with limited air and water felt suspenseful and realistic.

This book is a little dated by today's sci-fi standards and wasn't intended to be as thought-provoking as some of Heinlein's other work, but it makes for a fun ride.

You can learn more about the author at the website for The Heinlein Society.

The Not So Secret Emails Of Coco Pinchard by Robert Bryndza

This book was brought to my attention by BookBub (deal expired).

There are two reasons why I downloaded this book without giving it much thought: first, it was free, and second, it is made up entirely of emails and I wanted to see what that looked like. The style is jarring at first but after a while, I got used to it. Each chapter is a month of emails from her Sent items, many of which to one or both of her longtime friends Chris and Marika. The familiarity between Coco and her recipients made it difficult at first but after a while, I found the characters familiar and followed easier.

We meet up with Coco at Christmas in London after she has published her first book, Chasing Diana Spencer. She is celebrating with her husband, Daniel, her college-age son, Rosencrantz, her mother-in-law, Ethel, her sister-in-law, Meryl, and Meryl's husband Tony. Coco does not keep up the pretense that her life is perfect and we witness as it unravels. First, Coco catches Daniel cheating on her in the bed that they share and they divorce. Then Coco's literary agent drops her as her publisher decides to recall and pulp her novel. So in a couple of strokes, Mr. Bryndza has stripped Ms. Pinchard of her career and her relationship. She goes through a depression, but as with all "feel good romantic comedies" when a door closes, a window opens, and Coco finds a new normal.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I expected in how the emails would look like but I found myself surprised at their format. You get a date/time, an email address, and the body of the message. Also, as I mentioned before, you have to get through several emails before you get into the groove of the characters because you are effectively peeking into someone's Sent items and they aren't assuming you don't know these people in their life. The other thing I found strange (in that I don't expect anyone writes emails like this) is that Coco tends to start describing a scene and then writes out the dialogue like a normal novel which makes it not feel like an email anymore.

That being said, I liked this book. Coco is endearing and as I read, I was rooting for her. She made the classic mistakes when someone has been betrayed, rejected, and humiliated and while I found myself wanting to shake her out of it, she worked it out and came out on the other side better for the experience. It is the first in a set of three, with a promise of more on the author's website. I don't have plans to read anymore in the series in the near future (I have too many other things I want to read) so that leaves them in my list in the distant future.

Visit Robert Bryndza's website for more information about the author and how to purchase his books.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler is always in good company when associated with Tina Fey from their work on SNL, or with Nick Offerman from co-starring on Parks and Recreation. Now she has written a book that rivals Fey's Bossypants and  Offerman's Paddle Your Own Canoe for being one of the most entertaining memoirs I can recall reading.

Poehler begins Yes Please by complaining how hard it was to write a book, so she must be annoyed that Offerman wrote two (the second of which I'll read soon) in the time it took her to write this one. There's a chapter written by Seth Meyers, ostensibly to give Amy a break from writing, and passages by her parents recounting the day she was born. Then the chapter about working on Parks and Recreation has notes written by the show's co-creator, Michael Schur. All of these guest writers and more appear in the audiobook version, which I recommend just as highly as the hardcover. There's a running gag that it was recorded in a sound booth that Amy built herself inside Mount Rushmore.

Yes Please is mostly about Poehler's life, with some jokey essays and haikus sprinkled in. An interesting aspect of the print version (which makes it impossible for me to say "only listen to the audiobook") is the reproductions of real documents: things she wrote as a child, a presumably real report card, photographs, even a letter that Hillary Clinton wrote to Poehler's son Archie right after he was born. Most chapters include humor, but occasionally Poehler gets very personal, such as with the repercussions of an SNL sketch that offended Chris Cooper and his wife, to whom Poehler personally apologized. Near the end of the book, she describes the surrealism of balancing a humanitarian trip to Haiti with the planning of jokes for the Golden Globes via email.

This book may have been a struggle to write, but it was worth every bead of sweat. It turned out as truthful and funny as Poehler hoped.

Visit #AmySaysYesPlease for how to purchase and to participate in her social media campaign.