Name: Jessica Kinlund's review of Let's explore diabetes with owls by David Sedaris
Item: Let's explore diabetes with owls
Rating: 5
Author: Jessica Kinlund

David Sedaris

From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences. Whether railing against the habits of litterers in the English countryside or marveling over a disembodied human arm in a taxidermist's shop, Sedaris takes us on side-splitting adventures that are not to be forgotten.

Let's explore diabetes with owls

Mtopo

Yiayiá loved us. Not in a specific way-she could no sooner name our good qualities than the cat could yet still we could feel it. I'd occasionally allow her to stroke my hand. All us kids would from time to time, and all of us thought of it as work. Oh, how exhausting it was to let someone adore you.

Jessica Kinlund

Marvellous. Although it’s better heard than read, I think. He has a way of describing the richness of the mundane. And dealing with his Dad..

Jan Jackson

Laura Hilliger

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Laura Mauler

I loved everything that was about his real life, and hated everything that was fiction. It's easy enough to skip the fiction, and doing so made this a solid 4 star book for me.

Clare

I enjoyed his other books but this one was just miserable. To the point I have no desire to read anything else written by him ever again.

Daniel Kilby

Jeannette Ordas

I was looking forward to this since it had been ages since I read something by David Sedaris. I enjoyed most of the short stories but there were at least a couple that made me bristle. A decent collection, but I remember his older books being so much funnier.

Marisel 

He makes me laugh aloud. Every. Single. Time. Something he gets that I get too. It’s a very gratifying exchange.

olivia musick

officially a fan of david sedaris - looking forward to reading more of his books! if you love humor and/or essays, definitely give him a try. i was rolling with laughter with each essay.

Elizabeth Moore

I really enjoyed this book, and am surprised that more reviews don’t mention the interesting father theme in this book. He writes a lot about his family in his other work, but this one seemed to be quite specifically themed and framed around his full-circle (slash vicious cycle!?) relationship with his dad. Whereas a lot of the more negative reviews focus on the perception of him flaunting his privilege and whining about the trappings that come along with his good fortune, when you read it through the lens of a father-son book, it all tied back beautifully for me to his one essay, Memory Laps. How much can anything you attain, rise to, or accomplish make you happy in the end if acknowledgment by the one person whose approval means everything to you has eluded you your whole life? I thought his stories and the way there were ordered were not only hilarious, but super poignant and touching in light to his relationship with his dad.

Did anyone else feel like as his writing gets crankier and “back in my day...” infused that he’s becoming his own father in many ways?? I fee like his stories were this cool mix of coming to terms with what was never there, and also realizing that he and his dad are more connected than he ever realized. I know it was below the belt and not a very nice thing to do, but the whole getting even thing at the end with his dad, a moment in which he both finally got the better of him AND finally got the father support and love that he’d always felt he lacked, was pretty brilliant and I’ll admit that I teared up a little. This might just make me a bad person or a whack job, but if I’m in the company of David Sedaris then I am cool with it.

4 stars well-earned, for me!

Ryan Hagerty

So good. Insightful, funny, full of voice. David Sedaris is personable and relatable and everything about this makes me want to be his best friend. He's so honest and open about his life experiences and his thoughts. He says things that some of us I think are afraid to say out loud and I connected with his writing more than I have with a book like this in a long time.

Kath Lau

Roberta Dee

This is my first Davis Sedaris book and didn’t know too much about his work before going into this. I was thoroughly laughing out loud and wanted to tell others some of the hilarious stories. I highly recommend the audiobook, as David narrates it himself. The delivery of the stories would not have been as impactful had I just read them alone in the physical book

Anina

Daryl Houston

I didn't love Sedaris when I first read Me Talk Pretty One Day many years ago, but I've since gotten over the part of myself that sneered back then at the sort of stuff he wrote. This was a nice collection. I laughed plenty. He doesn't write really heavy stuff, but every once in a while he thinks about it. That makes his essays fun and not entirely substanceless and pretty good for a lazy weekend jaunt.

I hadn't been exposed to Sedaris before reading this, and I'm at a loss as to why that is. He seems to embody a form of humor that is at once tragic and delightful, and is delightful precisely because it's so tragic. 

If you strip the book of its wit, Sedaris comes off as a sad, sad man. He uses, even accentuates that, though, and twists and contorts it into something that, though you think you probably shouldn't, you can't help but laugh at. He has a way of cutting straight to the heart of the human condition, then putting a microscope up to it and exposing it as absurd. 

His father plays an especially prominent role in this book (I've no idea if that can be said of previous books), and he (the father) becomes such a ridiculous but real character that, by the end of the book, I both desperately want to meet him and feel as if I already have. 

My bottom line: if you want a non-stop series of laughs that engulf a host of other emotions, you'll love this.

Grreg Gorey

Lucy Pullicino

Asli Turkoglu

Laura Walden

A guy walks into a bar . . . From here the story could take many turns. A guy walks into a bar and meets the love of his life. A guy walks into a bar and finds no one else is there. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless. In Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, Sedaris delights with twists of humour and intelligence, remembering his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants) his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant) and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered pygmy. By turns hilarious and moving, David Sedaris masterfully looks at life's absurdities as he takes us on adventures that are not to be forgotten.

Jessica Kinlund &
Let's explore diabetes with owls by David Sedaris

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Jessica Kinlund &Let's explore diabetes with owls by David Sedaris

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Join the club

Jessica Kinlund &
Let's explore diabetes with owls by David Sedaris