Short Stories

My husband picked up "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk" by David Sedaris on a shopping trip to Borders one day. When he showed it to me, I said, "Great, I've been wanting to read that." I figured he would finish it quickly and would be in my hands in no time. I listened to him reading it, laughing loudly at the stories, wanting to share them with me. I refused, however, not wanting to spoil the fun for myself. Unfortunately, he does not read as often as I do, so I had to wait a while before I got my turn. It ended up being my 28th book of the year.

My first impression was about the illustrations by Ian Falconer. They are wonderful! Each story has at least one illustration, some of them have several. They are simply drawn, in black and white, sometimes with a touch of orange.

The book was a little disappointing though. After hearing my husband cracking up, I was sure I would do the same, but it didn't happen. I never laughed out loud at any of the tales, not even once. Some of them were cute, many of them were odd, but none of them were hilariously funny like I had hoped.

The stories are all centered around animals in curiously human situations: dating, parenting, relationships, everyday life. Sounds pretty good, right? I thought it would be, but other than making me think "How weird", they didn't have much of an impression on me.

Obviously, some people will love this book, it just wasn't for me. I would suggest reading a story or two in the bookstore before you buy it to make sure it fits your taste.