Vinyl Cafe Diaries

It's hard to be disappointed by McLean's stories. Funny, incisive, honest and unpretentious, they aim to touch the heart and sometimes include a friendly little moral to remind the reader to enjoy life. The Afterword which explains how the characters got their names was a nice touch. Always an enjoyable moment to spend with one of Canada's favourite families.

A collection of short stories about music store owner Dave, his wife Morley and their kids, Stephanie and Sam. In "Lazy Lips", Dave is asked to give a speech about music to a university class, a predicament that takes over his life for weeks, causes enormous anxiety, and results in the weirdest performance the students have ever experienced. "A Night to Remember" has Dave filling in at a babysitting job when Stephanie gets sick, with the children seeing Dave as their opponent. In "No Tax on Truffles", young Sam discovers the world of exotic foods and spends his own money on a pre-ordered truffle at the local gourmet shop. He counts down the days until he can finally receive his expensive truffle, as his father has told him that truffles show more are the most delicious chocolate. show less

Faithful listeners of the Vinyl Cafe on CBC Radio will recognize these stories but I bet even they will still enjoy them. Dave and Morley and their kids each have a section of the book and introduce their section (well Morley doesn't really have time to but it works out anyway). If you haven't been introduced to Dave and Morley it's high time you were.

Summer of 2004 while visiting and living on Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, CA, I became a fan of CBC Radio http://www.cbc.ca/listen/index.html and especially a program called The Vinyl Cafe http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/ This year's Christmas stocking contained a couple of Stuart McLean's books (Thanks Mom-in-law and Annette); tales taken from his humorous radio broadcasts where often Dave gets himself deeper and deeper into often predictable but still hilarious situations. Because I have listened to several Vinyl Cafe broadcasts, as I read the stories I hear McLean's voice and his uncanny timing and delivery. McLean's books are a fast read . . . (lj)

I liked the way this book was divided into four parts - one for each member of the family. You don't hear a lot about Stephanie and Sam, so it was fun to read about them. I really liked Dave & the Duck; Christmas on the Road; and Rashida, Amir and the Great Gift-Giving. Morley's "thoughts" were also great.