The Early Word: New Books For The Week Of November 18, 2007

This week: six shopping days, seven new book titles. Thirty-five shopping days 'til Christmas. You do the math...

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

Born Standing Up is a highly appealing memoir of self-effacement and wit, revealing how Steve Martin almost unwittingly became a big star, seeking instead celebrity on his own terms. After, all, it’s not always easy to stay true to your integrity with an arrow in your head, playing a banjo. But it’s absurdities like that that propelled Martin not just into wild-and-crazy stand-up comedian-hood, but also into writing and acting careers in movies, plays, and books.

In addition to writing about what works on stage and screen, Martin recounts life with his girlfriends, his complex relationship with his parents and sister, and about some of his mentors and great peers in comedy such as Johnny Carson, Lorne Michaels, and Dan Aykroyd. And, though Martin is a bit unforthcoming about his personal life, he does broach issues of fear, anxiety and loneliness. The book is illustrated throughout with often amusingly annotated black-and-white photographs collected by Martin. The Jerk.

An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems by Glenn Beck, Kevin Balfe

In An Inconvenient Book conservative TV and talk-radio host Glenn Beck ponders how political correctness, special interests, and utter idiocy have gotten us so far away from  commonsense solutions. From topics ranging from Enviro-Gore to Islamic fundamentalists, poverty to perverts, I’m sure we can expect — driving home the insistency of his serious points — a huge wallop of Beck’s biting drollery (“Please look at my side — is it actually splitting?” he once asked a contentiously joking guest.)

MORE NONFICTION FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION...

Punching In: My Unauthorized Adventure as a Front Line Employee by Alex Frankel

A Year with the Queen by Robert Hardman

Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen

P. Allen Smith's Living in the Garden Home: Connecting the Seasons with Containers, Crafts, and Celebrations by P. Allen Smith, Jane Colclasure (Photographer), Kelly Quinn (Photographer)

NEW FICTION IS HARDLY WORTH WRITING HOME ABOUT AND NOT EVEN AS LONG AS THIS INTRODUCTORY HEADING:

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

SEE?

Article Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

Gordon Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, freelance writer, and book reviewer for the San Diego Union Tribune. For many years he worked in and managed bookstores and record stores. Email him and he'll stop talking in the third-person.
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