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The Best of Me by David Sedaris
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The Best of Me (edition 2020)

by David Sedaris (Author)

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6421536,628 (3.99)11
Essays. Literary Criticism. Nonfiction. Humor (Nonfiction.) HTML:David Sedaris's best stories and essays, spanning his remarkable careerâ??as selected by the author himself For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing. Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler's lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say "give it to me" in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird. But if all you expect to find in Sedaris's work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to termsâ??at long lastâ??with the other. Taken together, the stories in TheBest of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expectedâ??it's often harder, more fraught, and certainly weirderâ??but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful. Full of joy, generosity, and the incisive humor that has led David Sedaris to be called "the funniest man alive" (Time Out New York), The Best of Me spans a career spent watching and learning and laughingâ??quite often at himselfâ??and invites readers deep into the world of one of the most brilliant and original writers of our time.The Best of Me AUDIOBOOK TRACK LISTING CD01 Track 01: Introduction (new recording) From Barrel Fever 1994 CD01 Track 03: Glen's Homophobia Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2. From Holidays on Ice 1994 CD01 Track 06: Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol (new recording) CD01 Track 08: Christmas Means Giving (new recording) From Naked 1997 CD01 Track 11: the incomplete quad (new recording) From the New Yorker CD01 Track 14: Girl Crazy (new recording) CD02 Track 01: Card Wired (new recording) CD02 Track 02: How to Spend the Budget Surplus (new recording) From Me Talk Pretty One Day 2000 CD02 Track 03: You Can't Kill the Rooster (new recording) CD02 Track 05: Me Talk Pretty One Day (new recording) CD02 Track 07: Jesus Shaves (new recording) From the New Yorker CD02 Track 09: Dog Days (new recording)From Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Demin 2004 CD02 Track 10: Us and Them CD02 Track 12: Let It Snow CD03 Track 01: The Ship Shape CD03 Track 04: The Girl Next Door CD03 Track 08: Repeat After Me CD04 Track 01: Six to Eight Black Men (live record… (more)
Member:kmg387
Title:The Best of Me
Authors:David Sedaris (Author)
Info:Little, Brown and Company (2020), 400 pages
Collections:Your library, Kayla's Home Library - IRL, To read
Rating:
Tags:sedaris, nonfiction, essays, humor, signed copy, towne book center november 2020, hardcover

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The Best of Me by David Sedaris

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» See also 11 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
Always funny. Fantastic collection. More grief and joy inspired by his family and life. ( )
  bschweiger | Feb 4, 2024 |
The audio book is great. It's hilarious listening to David Sedaris reading his essays...a much needed laugh break during these stressful times. ( )
  ellink | Jan 22, 2024 |
The first few stories almost made me give up, but most of the others were better and a few were hilarious ( )
  danielskatz | Dec 26, 2023 |
I am a big fan of essays and personal memoir and I've enjoyed Sedaris on NPR over the years, but try as I might I just can't fall wholly in love with him the way so many people have. He's absolutely an exceptionally talented writer who knows how to tell a story, my problem is that....I rarely like his stories. I thought for sure I'd have a better experience with a "best of" collection (this is the second or third Sedaris book I've sampled,) especially since I went with the audio version. But I found most of them to be exceptional in terms of craft but not particularly interesting in terms of content.

Normally in a case like this I'd say, "I am just not the target audience for this," but I'm pretty sure I am absolutely in the target range and I'm just a contrarian.

Spring 2022
FFE Trucking
Libby / Nashville
Audio
( )
  Kim.Sasso | Aug 27, 2023 |
this was actually quite good. i'm not usually much of a fan of his but i think that this is the way to read him - in his voice only. i really didn't much like the recordings of his live readings where the laughter made him pause at all the wrong times and it just felt like i was being told what was supposed to be funny (and often i felt much differently) and found myself getting really annoyed during those essays. but the others, both the essays and the fictions, were well done. i even found myself finding a lot more value in essays that i've not really liked before, when i read them myself. and there were a few that i remember liking, and that were even better when he reads them.

what i really found here is that there is a lot more depth to his work than i have given him credit for in the past. he is saying so much more than he is drawing attention to himself, and his love for his family really comes through. (maybe especially in that interview included at the end.) this makes me want to read him again, or at least to let him read all of his books to me.

"This is akin to another of his often asked questions - why do you choose to remember the negative rather than the positive? I don't, I insist, thinking 'I will never forget your giving me such a hard time over this.'" ( )
  overlycriticalelisa | Jan 23, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
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Keenan, JamieCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Essays. Literary Criticism. Nonfiction. Humor (Nonfiction.) HTML:David Sedaris's best stories and essays, spanning his remarkable careerâ??as selected by the author himself For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing. Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler's lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say "give it to me" in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird. But if all you expect to find in Sedaris's work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to termsâ??at long lastâ??with the other. Taken together, the stories in TheBest of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expectedâ??it's often harder, more fraught, and certainly weirderâ??but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful. Full of joy, generosity, and the incisive humor that has led David Sedaris to be called "the funniest man alive" (Time Out New York), The Best of Me spans a career spent watching and learning and laughingâ??quite often at himselfâ??and invites readers deep into the world of one of the most brilliant and original writers of our time.The Best of Me AUDIOBOOK TRACK LISTING CD01 Track 01: Introduction (new recording) From Barrel Fever 1994 CD01 Track 03: Glen's Homophobia Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2. From Holidays on Ice 1994 CD01 Track 06: Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol (new recording) CD01 Track 08: Christmas Means Giving (new recording) From Naked 1997 CD01 Track 11: the incomplete quad (new recording) From the New Yorker CD01 Track 14: Girl Crazy (new recording) CD02 Track 01: Card Wired (new recording) CD02 Track 02: How to Spend the Budget Surplus (new recording) From Me Talk Pretty One Day 2000 CD02 Track 03: You Can't Kill the Rooster (new recording) CD02 Track 05: Me Talk Pretty One Day (new recording) CD02 Track 07: Jesus Shaves (new recording) From the New Yorker CD02 Track 09: Dog Days (new recording)From Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Demin 2004 CD02 Track 10: Us and Them CD02 Track 12: Let It Snow CD03 Track 01: The Ship Shape CD03 Track 04: The Girl Next Door CD03 Track 08: Repeat After Me CD04 Track 01: Six to Eight Black Men (live record

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