January 2018-Start the New Year With a Laugh!

[Homewood Public Library]

This January we’re going to Start the New Year With a Laugh! Read or listen to a book of humorist essays, a book with witty characters, or a biography of a comedian. Anything that makes you crack up! At the end of the month we’ll do a random drawing, awarding a $50 Visa Gift Card to the winner. Don’t forget to check back on the first day of February to join the next challenge!

[Heather]

I've picked Radio free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance by Bill McKibben as my humorous book: "As the host of Radio Free Vermont -- 'underground, underpowered, and underfoot' -- seventy-two-year-old Vern Barclay is currently broadcasting from an 'undisclosed and double-secret location.' With the help of a young computer prodigy named Perry Alterson, Vern uses his irregular broadcasts to advocate for a simple yet radical idea: an independent Vermont, a republic separate from the United States, operating under a free local economy. But for now, he and his radio show must remain untraceable, because in addition to being a lifelong Vermonter and concerned citizen, Vern Barclay is a fugitive from the law. In what can be read as a tribute and an encouragement to the trend of organized civil resistance now building across America, McKibben imagines an eccentric group of activists who carry out their own version of nonviolent guerrilla warfare, which includes dismissing local middle school children early for 'Ethan Allen Day' and hijacking a Coors Light truck to replace the stock with local brew." -- From publisher's description.

[Kristina]

For this month's theme I read The Nix. It is a hilariously serious read. The characters are just funny and caricatured enough to lighten up the extremely serious topics the book deals with, from war to molestation to having your dreams crushed. At first I was expecting a Where'd You Go, Bernadette type mom, knowing this was the story of Samuel who is abandoned by his mother Faye, only to have her resurface in his life decades later when she is in hot water for attaching a presidential candidate. She is his Nix, or a Norwegian spirit responsible for taking away what you love most. But over alternating sections, we learn Faye's motivations and discover she has a Nix of her own. We meet hippie protesters and swanky publicists, we meet super gamers and a student cheating her way through college and life. And I loved them all! I was laughing out loud, but I also literally dropped my jaw when certain secrets were revealed. Coming in at a little over 600 pages, it could have been a little shorter, but I would certainly recommend Hill's debut.

[Homewood Public Library]

Both of those sound fantastic! This month I'll be reading Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story by Adam Rex. It will probably have too much teen angst, but the unusual story line definitely caught my attention!