Photo Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Reuters
Yes, Ryan from The Office wrote a book, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories … And it’s good. The stories are sweet, but never saccharine, and his humor is reminiscent of Woody Allen. “He is someone who has real depth to his writing while being really entertaining,” says B.J. Novak (ahem, that’s his real name). “And that’s what I try to do.”
Novak hopes “people find it an easy read with only some depth when you want it.” Damn, that’s what she said doesn’t really work there. Anyway, his reading Monday, February 10th at The Brattle sold-out ages ago, so if you didn’t get tickets console yourself with this book trailer featuring Mindy Kaling. Even better, buy the book which is on shelves now.
In other literary news, Massachusetts native Jenny Offill will be reading from her epistolary novel, Dept. of Speculation on February 5th at Brookline Booksmith. Offill ruminates on middle class ennui through the fragmented story of one unnamed woman’s despondent marriage. At times the vignettes read like a list of sorrowful sentences jammed together into some assemblage of plot. Some of it resonates. The best sections are striking in their sparse sadness. The rest is a self-indulgent pity-party of a bored housewife with failed artistic aspirations. But if you’re into that sort of thing (and some of you must be, based on the success of Eat, Pray, Love), the reading starts at 5pm.
And later this month, New York Times best selling author Matthew Quick will be reading and signing at Porter Square Books. He brings you The Good Luck of Right Now, a novel about the whimsical and quirky journey Bartholomew Neil embarks on to discover more about himself and more about his late mother and her past. A definite recommendation for anyone who has seen or read Quick’s Silver Linings Playbook (and enjoyed it for reasons more substantial than the looks of stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence), this novel is similar in the way it takes the reader through the mind of the zany protagonist. Sound good? February 25th at 7pm. Be there.
BOOK REVIEWS BY SARA SELEVITCH & ARIELLE OZERY