Winner of the National Book Award--Jincy Willet

This is the book I took to read at the Roosevelt Tavern, and it was an excellent choice all around.

It's subtitled "A novel of fame, honor and really bad weather." Dorcas Mather, small town Rhode Island librarian, is waiting out a hurricane in the library, drinking and reading and criticizingIn the Driver's Seat: The Abigail Mather Story, the hack true crime book designed to get her twin sister, who is in prison awaiting trial for murder, some sympathy. This book is a triumph of narrator voice, as Dorcas takes on Yankees, fake Yankees, intellectuals, reading, libraries, childhood, feminism, men and women, and what really happened with her sister through the course of reading and being infuriated by the book (for inaccuracy, awkward writing, and the dippiness of the author). It's also a book about sisterly love, extremely funny, and completely enjoyable. Willet's an author beloved by David Sedaris (see, now you want to read it too!) and I'll be looking out for her other books.

You Know, This Attitude Problem Is An Inherited Trait

If you're Slovak or intimate with some sort of Eastern Europeans, check out this. It's funny because it's spot on.

I have a pet theory about Cleveland--it's not just that the weather and the economy are bad. Face it, Cleveland's best days are in the past, and not even the upcoming global drought and the Great Lakes Water Compact will be able to save it. Cleveland has an congenital case of depression born from its immigrant/migrant past as a stopping point for Eastern Europeans. We're not the happiest of people, we like security, and we don't challenge the status quo. Hard workers though.