Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

Book: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Author: David Sedaris
Like/Don't Like: Thoroughly enjoyable. And a little heartbreaking.

I sort of feel a little connection to David Sedaris because we both love a good story. Throughout this collection of his I could see that his mind worked the same way mine does: that if I happen to see something weird or fascinating or funny I can't wait to tell people about it. We both plot out how we're going to phrase it, how to lead into it, how many people can we tell. It made me feel slightly less needy knowing that there was someone else who does this. And it made me never want to meet him over hot chocolate because we would inevitably get into a game of story one-upping and I would lose. Because he has the craziest stories.

And he's way more talented. The guy can write. He has a gift for starting out with something small, like a talking parrot or a boy trying to bring his parents coffee at a hotel, and turning it into very funny, often heartbreaking, story about his relationships with family and friends. There were times when I found myself laughing as I was welling up, which is a good sign of great story-telling.