"I Feel Bad About My Neck, And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman" by Nora Ephron - audiobook review

I ordered this audiobook for Fran and thought I'd listen to it myself because I quite enjoyed Heartburn and I'm a big fan of When Harry Met Sally…. As the title suggests, these are a series of comical essays about being a women, from trying to hide your neck when you get older to the tedium of "maintenance", and her various relationships (real and imagined) with chefs and authors of cookbooks. It was quite short and also, at times, a little dated (first published in 2006 but written about the 70s, 80s, and 90s). The audiobook version is narrated by Nora Ephron herself and she's delightful company. There are many parts of her personality that remind me (affectionately) of Fran. But, as with Heartburn, there are other parts of her worldview that I find more challenging, and which made me a little sad: sad about all the shit some women have to deal with; sad that couples philander and break up; sad that some women care so much about handbags or wear shoes that don't actually fit them and actively harm their feet; sad that people have plastic surgery to try to hide the inevitable fact of ageing. I'm not saying Nora Ephron is into all of these things (she's not). I don't really know what I'm saying. So maybe I should stop. The point is: it made me a little uneasy at times. But maybe that's a good thing. I guess I was hoping for more of a comfort read.

"Inciting Joy: Essays" by Ross Gay - book review

This was a Jolabokaflod present from Fran, which I started reading straight away on Christmas Eve. It deals more with grief than The Book of Delights but is still full of delights. My favourite essay was "Dispatch from the Ruins (School: The Eleventh Incitement)", which blew my tiny mind. It's about his views on university education and teaching; capitalism; bullshit jobs; and starts with an account of a faculty meeting in which students are referred to as "units". It reminded me of some of the philosophies of Sir Ken Robinson, the creativity expert and educationalist; The Cancer Stage of Capitalism; and A People's History of the United States. Gay describes how he runs some of his classes: giving everyone an A grade at the start to get that worry off the table; joining in the creative challenges he sets his students. It's hard to describe and I don't want to. Just read it.

"Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys" by Billy Crystal - audiobook review

An enjoyable autobiography covering both the actor Billy Crystal's personal and professional lives. The audiobook version also features some chapters performed live on stage as part of a stand-up comedy set. I preferred the other chapters that were just read by the author: they were less performative. I was most interested in what he had to say about one of my favourite films, When Harry Met Sally…. He's good company and it's quite touching at times how much of a proud father and grandfather he is. It also made me laugh out loud a few times. I didn't realize he was personal friends with Muhammad Ali, Mickey Mantle, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

"The Secret History of Christmas" by Bill Bryson - audiobook review

A short (3 hours and 3 minutes) and mildly entertaining audiobook about the history of Christmas in Bill Bryson's inimitable style, narrated by the author himself. It focuses mostly on the UK and USA. It's remarkable how many of our Christmas traditions are relatively recent. Most of the them date from the 1840s onwards. It's reassuring to know that Christmas has always been about feasting and excess, drawing as it does on the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Full of facts and tidbits, which I will now forget or vaguely misremember.