55. The Answer is No: A Short Story by Frederik Bachman

listened on Audible, only on Audible

68 pgs. (Short story) (1:49)

2024
Adult Short Story HUMOROUS
Finished 12/31/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.91
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary anywhere (translated)

My comments: This story is a riot that tries to answer the question: what is it to be happy?  It is ridiculously silly in its satire and really cracked me up.

Audible synopsis:  In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.

• Goodreads synopsis:  Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?

  
  Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
  
  Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.

Poetry Picture Book - No More Poems! by Rhett Miller

Illustrated by Dan Santat

2019, Megan Tingley Books, Little, Brown & Company

HC $17.99  Bosler Juvenile section

48 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.17 - 123 ratings

My rating:  4  

My comments:  There's been some controversy about one of the poems in this collection, "Brotherly Love."  I've got to admit that I think it's a riot, but I love it as an adult.  I do think it's not quite the poem to be included in a book of poetry for kids from 7 to 10, and I'm really surprised that the editor didn't think about all the parents (and teachers) that might potentially be up in arms about a poem that tells some pretty descriptive ways to kill your sibling....smothering with a pillow, dousing with gasoline, drowning by dunking three times...
     All the poems are really funny.  He borrows freely from Shel Silverstein, at least two of his poems are direct knock-offs - which I enjoy a lot.  We all have mentor texts from which we write."The Bathtub's Too Small" is a longer retelling of Silverstein's "Crowded Tub" and "My Homework" is definitely a reworking of Silverstein's "Sick."  Great fun.
     Of the 23 poems, only a couple have a rhythm that doesn't quite work for me.  All in all, they're funny, well-written, clever, and just plain fun!

In Defense of Rhet Miller's No More Poems!  Excellent thoughts...

My Secret Karate

There’s a type of karate I specialize in

I invented it all on my own

No one has witnessed my secret karate

It’s meant to be practiced alone

I stand on my left foot and raise my right leg

Using muscles in abs, thighs and tush

And with just the toe of my special blue sneaker

I make the toilet flush

I toggle the lever or mash down the button

Or lean on the handle just so

That way my fingertip never gets yucky

Thanks to the skills of my toe

Courtesy’s something my mom always taught me

Starting when I was a kid

So using the toe of my special blue sneaker

I lower the seat and the lid

My secret karate is practiced in private

In public bathroom stalls

I don’t mean to brag but my balance is awesome

I never touch the walls

I don’t have a name for my potty karate

I might call it Tae Kwon Doo

Or maybe I’ll say I’m a third degree black belt

In the top secret art of Kung Poo

Goodreads:   Acclaimed singer-songwriter Rhett Miller teams up with Caldecott Medalist and bestselling artist Dan Santat in a riotous collection of irreverent poems for modern families. 
          In the tradition of Shel Silverstein, these poems bring a fresh new twist to the classic dilemmas of childhood as well as a perceptive eye to the foibles of modern family life. Full of clever wordplay and bright visual gags--and toilet humor to spare--these twenty-three rhyming poems make for an ideal read-aloud experience. 
          Taking on the subjects of a bullying baseball coach and annoying little brothers with equally sly humor, renowned lyricist Rhett Miller's clever verses will have the whole family cackling.

MOVIE - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

PG (2:05)

Wide Release 12/25/2013

Viewed Wed. 1/15/2014 at El Con

RT Critic: 48 Audience:  77

Cag: 5 Loved it, loved it, loved it!

Directed by Ben Stiller

Actors:  Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, Kristen Wiig

My comments:  This was hilarious, fun, and clever.  Ben Stiller was just wonderful (I never realized how blue his eyes are) and Sean Penn was the perfect actor for the part he played.  I laughed loudly and often.  And I love seeing Iceland, where about a quarter of the movie was filmed, and I loved the unlikely friendships that Walter made. I think the movie was beautifully done, and I'm glad that most audiences loved it as much as I did!

Rotten Tomatoes Review:  Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), an employee at Life magazine, spends day after monotonous day developing photos for the publication. To escape the tedium, Walter inhabits a world of exciting daydreams in which he is the undeniable hero. Walter fancies a fellow employee named Cheryl (Kristen Wiig) and would love to date her, but he feels unworthy. However, he gets a chance to have a real adventure when Life's new owners send him on a mission to obtain the perfect photo for the final print issue.

2. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

2013, Simon & Schuster

295 pgs.

Adult CRF 

Finished 1/8/2014

GoodreadsRating: 4.09

My Rating: 5 Awesome/a Favorite!

Acquired:  TPPL

Setting: Collegiate Melbourne, Australia and NYC

1^st sentence/s:  "I may have found a solution to the Wife Porblem.  As with so many scientific breakthroughs, the answer was obvious in retrospect.  But had it not been for a series of unscheduled events, it is unlikely I would have discovered it."

My comments: :This book was absolutely hilarious - I didn't want it to end.  Clever, insightful, and absolutely wonderful.  It was a way-too-fast read...one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time!

Goodreads Review: Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.

MOVIE - The Heat

R (1:57)
Wide Release 6/28/13
Viewed at ElC on Tuesday, 8/6/13
RT Critics:  66  Audience:  79
cag:  5/Loved it
Directed by Paul Feig
20th Century Fox

Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock

My comments:  This was one freakin' hilarious movie.  Never mind the crazy over-the-top Boston accents ("are you a nahk?" - too funny).  The storyline was somewhat plausible, the characters were waaaay out there - and the actors depicting those characters WORKED it!  Totally entertaining, ha-ha-ha funny, stupidly endearing - those two protagonists work together like peanut butter and jelly.

Rotten Tomatoes summary:  Uptight FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) and foul-mouthed Boston cop Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) couldn't be more incompatible. But when they join forces to bring down a ruthless drug lord, they become the last thing anyone expected: buddies