Interesting Books

I've finished reading two great books: Magical Thinking, by Augusten Burroughs and, The Mole People, by Jennifer Toth.

Magical Thinking is leg-slapping hilarious. I got some mighty strange looks as I was laughing loudly on the subway. If you've been reading Burrough's trilogy of books (Running with Scissors and Dry: A Memoir), then you'll really enjoy Magical Thinking. The first two were funny but being biographical, they were also a bit disturbing, especially Running with Scissors. Laughing while reading that book was more of a nervous laughter because of the bizzare life experiences that shaped Burrough's early life. Dry was an honest portrayal of living life as an alchoholic and the how he's been working to stay dry.

Magical Thinking is altogether different. In this book, he recounts life as it is today- and he has story after story that are less about the dramatic craziness of his youth and more about how he looks at life today. Through his lens, life is both funny, bizarre, and yet, wonderfully surprising.

The Mole People was a different book altogether. In it, the author writes about her experiences as she was researching a story for a newspaper she was writing for. Realizing the material was much larger than what could fit in a newspaper, she compiled her experiences for a book. The Mole People is the true story of the communities that live in the abandoned subway and train tunnels beneath New York City. Often reaching 7-10 stories underground, Toth relates the lives of the homeless in a starking and honest way. Reading this book will give you more compassion for the homeless as well as feeding the imagination for those old Beauty and the Beast re-runs we saw on television in the early 90s.