Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jul 27, 2011

Sparrow rated it:

David Sedaris is such a fudging ray of sunshine. I’m using the uncomfortable word “fudge” in this review as much as possible because I find it extra-obscene and sweetly domestic at the same time. Kind of like Sedaris. (Also, weirdly, I just found out that amazon.com will allow "fudge" as a replacement for "fuck," though to me there is a more obscene quality to "fudge," despite the fact that it is a yummy desert.) Anyway, I never realized before that it could mak More...

44 comments like (36 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

Jessi rated it:

Wow, this is ……I don’t know what or how to?…. So David Sedaris has written several essays from the point of view of different animals living in the wild and dealing with day-to-day issues. I can imagine that some people might have thought WTF? But I found it quite enjoyable, some were disturbing, but when you get right down to it situations that were plausible and true to life in the real world.

The Grieving Owl was my favorite, about an owl whose mate has died and dealing with his i More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2011

Chelsey rated it:

This book is a new story each chapter. The concept of Anthropomorphism makes you believe that this book will be excellent or is it because I had to wait on a HUGE waiting list from the library? Yes this book was in my mind terrible. The concept is that animals have human traits and I think the author was trying to show that people are judgmental hypocrites, especially when it comes to choosing friends, raising children, dating, religion etc. I think it is supposed to be funny because you ca More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2012

Nathalie rated it:

OMG! Heard him speak recently, and he read two stories from this book - due out in October. I'm not a huge fan of his satire, preferring his autobiographical stuff rather, but these stories were certainly funny and crowd-pleasing. Ian Falconer, author of the Olivia children's books, will be doing the illustrations. Can't wait!!

Got this for Christmas, and Whoa! Liked it way better than I thought I would - much harsher and more caustic than anything he's done before. Like Aesop but much More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2010

Johnida rated it:

Bought this book so I could get a seat for the Sedaris reading/book signing at Changing Hands in December. I wanted to read it anyway, so seemed like a fair enough deal.

This is a new area for Sedaris, and seems to be a good fit for him. Although this collection is not my favorite thing of Sedaris' I've ever read, it was certainly entertaining. To be fair, judging this collection against his other essays is a bit of an apples-and-oranges situation. The stories contain some great satire More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

Kathy rated it:

I wanted to love this book, I really did. I have seen Mr. Sedaris read live several times and have always found him hilarious, so I thought I would listen to the audio version and see if I fared any better than the print version had with most of the readers on here, who seemed to be left cold by this latest offering.

On the plus side for the audio version, you get not just David Sedaris, but the incomparable Elaine Stritch, who raises the level of positively everything she is associat More...

3 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2010

Jenn rated it:

Wow, this book is incredibly disturbing! Instead of Sedaris's usual personal essays, here are dark, dark fables starring talking animals, each story brimming with all the horrible things people say and do to each other, and ending with an even more horrible zinger. The writing is clever, and I even chuckled occasionally, but I just couldn't get past the subject matter. (Picture adorable children's picture book pig Olivia with her eyes plucked out, and you have an idea about Ian Falconer's creepy More...

4 comments like (19 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2010

Katywhumpus rated it:

I normally like to listen to Sedaris read his books (so much of the humor is in his tone), but I wandered into a bookstore the day this one was released and couldn't resist it. I have listened to him enough that I heard this whole book in his voice anyway. The clerk in the bookstore where I bought it (who clearly was not familiar with Sedaris's work) had put it on a front table because he wasn't sure whether it belonged in the adult or children's section. It's most definitely not for kids. It's More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2010

Kristin rated it:

I was unsure of how well I liked this one until the last story, which was awesome. Nearly every story includes an animal talking about his or her own asshole, or another animal's asshole. I was thinking the theme of the book is assholes. Then Caris came home and told me he'd watched The Human Centipede, which, he said, involves a whole lot of assholes. Then I realized the theme of the entire day must be assholes.

6 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Ryan rated it:

Nice little collection of short stories. They are funny in a weird kind of way. Many of the main characters remind me of various people I know. My girlfriend and I read the book together and we enjoyed it. The stories make for great light entertainment before bed and are good for a chuckle. The illustrations are spot on. The font is quite big, so the book isn't as long as it seems. My favourite story in the book happens to be about a dancing bear.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

So under normal circumstances this is not something I would traditionally read. This is my August book club read and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Some of the stories were funny but others were a little too violent or mean spirited for me. Some of them were amusing like "Hello Kitty" and "The faithful Setter" and had a more positive slant to them. However more violent ones like "The crow and the lamb" or "The sick rat and the healthy rat" were mo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2012

Manya added it

As you guys read earlier, my dad and I went to a David Sedaris book signing. We decided to get his newest book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk signed for my grandfather, who's sense of humor is something else. And since Christmas was still a few weeks away, my family decided to capitalize on having the book in the house by all reading it. And before anyone gets up in arms, its something my entire extend family does.

So after the book signing that night, I settled in with Squirrel Seeks Chi More...

0 comments like

Feb 01, 2012

Kirsten rated it:

Leave it to author David Sedaris to put together a collection of hilariously bizarre and twisted short stories featuring anthropomorphic critters.

“Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk” includes a total of 16 contemporary, adult-themed fables, each illustrating a moral lesson. Sedaris’ leap from memoir to fiction is delightfully irreverent and makes for a fun and fast read.

Each story presents a moral dilemma through the adventures of an animal endowed with human characteristics and qui More...

0 comments like

Jan 22, 2012

Erin added it

This book, is definitely not a children's book, like i originally thought. The usage of animals and anthromorphic ideologies gave me a the false notion of a whimsical and child appealing book, and i was definitely mistaken. I had heard the name David Sedaris before, but i wasn't quite sure why i had, or why he was famous. Turns out, hes a very popular author with a somewhat sadistic and dark sense of humor. This essay collection of short stories places animals in real world situations. For examp More...

1 comment like

Jan 21, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

After reading this, I took a pencil and made a note by each of the 17 stories in the table of contents. Most read "ugh," a few read "blah," and then there were the few that really grabbed me: made me laugh and even pulled a bit at the heartstrings. (They totalled 3.) I couldn't even finish the last story, titled "The Vomit-Eating Flies."

If you've heard David Sedaris on the radio, you know what to expect: acidly funny observations on the human condition More...

0 comments like

Jan 02, 2012

Laura rated it:

This book should have been called "Contemporary Fables for Stupid People: Post-Modern Morals." I think I laughed twice while reading this book, which by the way, only took two hours because the type is real big and the plots are simple. Normally, I can count on David Sedaris for making me laugh so hard my stomach hurts. I did not have such belly laughs while reading "Randomness is the Point, Dumbie: Life Lessons by David Sedaris."

Perhaps Sedaris was out of materi More...

0 comments like

Dec 21, 2011

Moira rated it:

Was it well written? Yes. Were the parables clever? Yes. Did I like it? NO.

These 16 beast fables follow in the tradition of Aesop, Horace and La Fontaine. While I appreciate Sedaris's craftsmanship, I found the stories to be excessively gruesome and tongue-in-cheek, castigating a variety of modern fools without providing the "moral of the story" at the end.

Sedaris pokes fun at the sort of uneducated, bourgeois attitudes you find televised on Jerry Springer. Ign More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2011

Christina (Reading Thru The Night) rated it:

I feel as though I am one of the LAST people on the face of this reading planet who had not read David Sedaris. And I also have a huge confession to make:

Up until recently I managed to confuse David Eggers and David Sedaris. (I've still not read any Eggers...)

A good friend of mine raved about Sedaris when I asked if I should check out his stuff. Then, some time in the recent past, he was interviewed on The Daily Show. Since I admire and respect both my friend and Jon Stewart, More...

0 comments like

Nov 28, 2011

Lynn rated it:

Extremely short, quick read that I didn't really find that enjoyable. The thing about most fables is, they have a point, either a lesson, or a warning, or something. These are dark portraits of human behavior at its worst, wrapped around stories about animals most of us find somewhat cute and cuddly. (Ok, maybe we don't feel that way about snakes and hippos, but whatever.) The stories for the most part are dark, gruesome and twisted, with no redemption whatsoever. After two or three, you pr More...

0 comments like

Nov 02, 2011

Nikzad rated it:

Sedaris has moved away from his trademark memoir writing style, and I should say that’s unfortunate. The stories here are short compared to his previous work, and thus he doesn’t go much into the details, the images he describes are primitive and lack the desirable “depth”. At more than a few instances, the stories felt incomplete. This is contrary to, for example Naked, in which you were amazed by how smart he could expand and extend the story at a point when you thought it’s finished.

More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2011

Jill rated it:

About five or six years ago I belonged to my one and only book club. It lasted for a year and each month we lost more and more readers until at the end there were only two to four of us. One of the books we read before losing so many members was David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day. Two of the other women had read it before and raved about it. I liked the second half but was bored during the first section, granted I only gave myself two days to read it before we were meeting to discuss it, More...

0 comments like

Aug 28, 2011

Bookworm rated it:

Strange. Funny. Original. It's hard to describe this book the way I want to. While reading it I went from laughing (out loud) to almost vomiting in disgust...what book can do that, all while keeping a light airy feel to it? Overall this is a humourous book that delves into the really dark humour a fair bit. But, the content is just...strange at some points. It kind of reminded me of a mix of Monty Python type humour and some no-name crude stand up comedian who relies on swearing and sextalk to m More...

0 comments like

Jul 25, 2011

Adriane rated it:

Known for his quirky genius, David Sedaris showcases his remarkable talent in this collection of animal stories that, though illustrated by Ian Falconer (author/illustrator of the Olivia children’s stories) is only appropriate for grownups, and twisted ones at that. Sometimes poignant and charming, while at others macabre and gruesome, these stories are always surprising because…well…it’s talking animals, right? If you like family dramas along the lines of, say, Stephen King’s Stand By Me, or More...

0 comments like

Jul 19, 2011

Tammy rated it:

I know what you're thinking. This book was released months ago. What took me so long? I don't really have a satisfactory answer to that, but I've read it now, and that's what counts, right?

Let me amend that. I enjoyed this tome in audiobook format, so I guess I've listened to it now.

I love audiobooks, especially when I'm traveling, but I have never wanted to buy one. Until now.

When I was wee - I'm thinking 5,6,7 - I had an album (round thing. We played t More...

0 comments like

Jul 01, 2011

Gordon rated it:

At first I couldn't understand why Dave Sedaris would write a book of fiction centered around animals. The idea was clunky at the start of the book and took a couple of stories before it felt comfortable, and even then most of the stories felt so much like Sedaris that I wondered why he hadn't bothered to write them with human characters.

By the halfway point of the book, obvious reasons began to emerge. By writing about animals as speciesist and petty, he was able to highlight some of More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

Sean rated it:

A lot of the time I tend to think David Sedaris is a lot less funny than other people seem to, but this book is really, really funny. WAY darker and more disgustingly graphic than I would have thought too (not that that's a problem, in fact I'd count it as a plus). The violence and cruelty has a certain Loony Toons-like quality. It actually reminded me of Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, which my dad got for me as a kid.

At times the book seems like a personal checklist of types of peo More...

0 comments like

Jun 07, 2011

Becky rated it:

This may have been the most I have ever enjoyed David Sedaris. I find that his personal essays, and his voice, while entertaining, wear on me after a short while. He just writes about himself all the time and then reads it aloud and it is just too much David Sedaris. But this! This is a work of fiction, and the audio version has four different people reading the stories. I find this to be a great innovation in the history of David Sedaris.

The stories are about animals envisioned to hav More...

0 comments like

May 20, 2011

Alexandra rated it:

I had always heard good things about David Sedaris but had never actually picked up any of his books. But this one caught my eye today because of the cover, and all the interesting illustrations inside. Not to mention, I liked the fact that the stories were short and funny (ish) and I also liked the pages. Very smooth and glossy like a children's book. How superficial of me but yes. That is why I chose this book.

But after having read it, and in just a few hours, I am happy I did. Mos More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 05, 2011

Karen rated it:

I love David Sedaris and this may be his best collection yet. "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk" is a collection of short fiction stories about animals and is the perfect book for an afternoon. It's a quick read, but one that will warrent a revisit.

The stories seems simple, but have layers of meaning and often point to the faults that we have as humans. Sedaris uses animals to bring up taboo subjects and expose the ugly side of humanity. The stories often use humour as a deflection More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 03, 2011

Benjamin added it

This is the first Sedaris I've ever read in complete book form; up till now, I've gotten my Sedaris in discrete chunks on NPR, as God intended. And I think I might go back to that method; because when you read Sedaris in big chunks, it's a lot easier to get overloaded on the humorous cruelty of it all.

Seriously, I felt sort of overwhelmed by stories that ended with "and then the animal got its comeuppance according to poetic justice." A few examples: The whiny bear gets some More...

2 comments like

reviews