Worst Nonfiction: A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style by Tim Gunn with Kate Maloney. It turns out Tim Gunn is not that interesting in book form. He didn't even say make it work, and that takes like, one second to type.
Best Fiction: Hunger by Knut Hansum
Worst Fiction: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Maybe it's because I read it a decade after I should have, but it was pretty forgettable. This does not bode well for The Grapes of Wrath.
Best Memoir: A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald Ford by Gerald Ford. Or as I liked to call as least half of it, "Hey, Let Me Tell You What Else I Don't Like About Ronald Reagan by Gerald Ford."
Worst Memoir: Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business by Dolly Parton. It just kind of rambled on to nowhere.
Even the Author thought Chester A. Arthur was boring: Chester A. Arthur by Zachary Karabell
Sarah Vowelliest: Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
Best of the Genre I’m Ashamed I Occasionally Read: Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. I kind of liked the movie.
Worst Chick Lit: Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella. You would think by now they would see that this woman has a problem.
Best Year of Doing Something: The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs. Take that, book about a year of cooking recipes from the Bible.
I wonder if that would work?
Best Terrible Conspiracy Driven Online Publication I Regret Reading: Kissinger: the Secret Side of the Secretary of State by Gary Allen
Best Title: The Art of Tying the Cravat: Demonstrated in Sixteen Lessons, Including Thirty-Two Different Styles; Forming A Pocket Manual; and Exemplifying the advantages arising from an elegant arrangement of this important part of the Costume; Preceded by A History of the Cravat, From its Origin to the Present Time; and Remarks on its influence on Society in general by H. LeBlanc Esq.
Best Terrible Conspiracy Driven Online Publication I Regret Reading: Kissinger: the Secret Side of the Secretary of State by Gary Allen
Best Title: The Art of Tying the Cravat: Demonstrated in Sixteen Lessons, Including Thirty-Two Different Styles; Forming A Pocket Manual; and Exemplifying the advantages arising from an elegant arrangement of this important part of the Costume; Preceded by A History of the Cravat, From its Origin to the Present Time; and Remarks on its influence on Society in general by H. LeBlanc Esq.
Worst Title: Thirteen Days: a Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Robert Kennedy. So boring. He could have jazzed it up a bit. Every Pig has its Bay 2: Kennedy's Revenge. Tagline: They've got almost two weeks to save the world.
Worst Book about Food: House of Plenty: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Luby's Cafeterias by Carol Dawson and Carol Johnston. Throughout the book the authors alluded to a terrible crisis in the restaurant's history, calling it the "worm in the apple" with all the drama short of adding a Dun-Dun-Dunnn at the end of each chapter. In the final chapter we discover this crisis is the lawsuit over family money and that one side of the lawsuit actually wrote the book. It seems odd that this is presented as the worst part of Luby's history, as the chain's past includes multiple deaths, all of which, from a CEO's suicide to a mass murder in Killeen are described in gruesome detail. Describing Luby's as the pinnacle of the American Dream, this book's highlights include randomly placed family photos of Luby’s founders and descendants posing together or square dancing and little of the actual restaurant. If you want to recreate Luby's dishes, you're in luck, they did print recipe cards with 1/3 of the ingredients and all the instructions missing. All in all, it really captures the spirit of dining at Luby's.
Best Book about Food Save the Deli: In Search of the Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen by David Sax
Best Collection of Martha Mitchell Quotes: On With The Wind: Martha Mitchell Speaks (additional dialogue by John Mitchell)
Reread Book I'll Read Again: Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Worst Book about Food: House of Plenty: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Luby's Cafeterias by Carol Dawson and Carol Johnston. Throughout the book the authors alluded to a terrible crisis in the restaurant's history, calling it the "worm in the apple" with all the drama short of adding a Dun-Dun-Dunnn at the end of each chapter. In the final chapter we discover this crisis is the lawsuit over family money and that one side of the lawsuit actually wrote the book. It seems odd that this is presented as the worst part of Luby's history, as the chain's past includes multiple deaths, all of which, from a CEO's suicide to a mass murder in Killeen are described in gruesome detail. Describing Luby's as the pinnacle of the American Dream, this book's highlights include randomly placed family photos of Luby’s founders and descendants posing together or square dancing and little of the actual restaurant. If you want to recreate Luby's dishes, you're in luck, they did print recipe cards with 1/3 of the ingredients and all the instructions missing. All in all, it really captures the spirit of dining at Luby's.
Best Book about Food Save the Deli: In Search of the Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen by David Sax
Best Collection of Martha Mitchell Quotes: On With The Wind: Martha Mitchell Speaks (additional dialogue by John Mitchell)
Reread Book I'll Read Again: Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
6 comments:
Awesome, Elisabeth. Your lists are the best.
Tim Gunn could not manage ONE make it work! heehee
Oh, and a personal thrill to hear Catcher in the Rye bashed. (Tho, don't agree that that doesn't bode well for Grapes of Wrath. Not that I've read Grapes of Wrath, but pretty sure that if you don't like it, it will be for different reasons than Cather in the Rye.)
Hey, Ford really bashes Reagan THAT much? Surprised.
Best Title -- for real??? Ha! Also ha for "Every Pig has it's Bay." You've clearly missed your calling. Again.
Best Book about Food: Damn, I'm hungry.
Thanks so much for this treat.
I exaggerated about Ford, but I don't think he said a thing about RR that was positive. I think part of that was the campaign, but still, he didn't change his tune writing the book. It's more of a reminder to me that the presidents weren't all buddies, despite the liberties I'm taking with my musical, All the Presidents' Friends (Are Other Presidents).
You can read my favorite titled book here.
Oh, the cravat book really is old-timey. I thought it was modern and the title just made to sound old-timey.
Yes, the campaign, that makes sense. Guess I just would not expect that much bad mouthing from Ford. Tho, it might be refreshing.
Your musical, at least its title, is a winner.
My planned book of lists is thwarted by my current writing of a book of fake musical titles. And fake, five second songs.
Well, not sure if this would work in the end, you'd need to talk to your real editor, but it's possible that your fake musical titles and your fake five second songs could themselves be lists within your book of lists. Or should the lists be confined to presidential and vice presidential themes? That might be a somewhat thin volume? Do I underestimate the depths of your knowledge and passion on that front? Either way, glad to hear that your book of lists is now a planned book of lists! Heehee. I take full credit for that even if you planned it before I told you to plan it. So, unthwart it, whatever you have to do.
Update: I have not forgotten or given up on MY idea for you your book of lists. So, the pressure is still on.
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