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Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
16 March 2014
Title
| Sex in the Title |
Author
| Zack Love |
Publisher
| Create Space |
First Published
|
January 2014
|
Pages
| 328 |
Genre
| Comedy, Romance |
..A Comedy about Dating, Sex and Romance in NYC (back when phones weren't so smart).
And this is exactly what you get with this book … a hilarious comedy about 5 friends, in their late twenties, and their (romancing) adventures in NYC. I was reading the book mostly on the train, and earned some funny looks from my fellow commuters when I was laughing out loud - literally.
Firstly, we have Sammy, or Heeb as known to his friends, calls himself a 'Bagel Jew' (I love that!) and he is not very lucky with the ladies. Though successful in his job, he stumbles through a variety of mishaps and feels that his lack of head hair and body height is not helping matters. His plan is to enjoy a few years of playing around before finding a nice Jewish soul mate. Doesn't prove easy and after a particular unpleasant accident involving a cat and his very private body parts, he is admitted to hospital only to find that his hospital room mate, Evan, suffered similar injuries to his private body area after an unpleasant encounter with a lady of the night. Evan works in computers, but he also wants to be a writer. He is very much in love with a famous actress Delilah whom he met through a few chance encounters. But a famous actress is unobtainable surely, or is she? Heeb suggests that all Evan needs to do is write a book which can be turned into a movie for Delilah to take the lead role in. And how to get her attention? Just put 'Sex' in the title of the book. Easy!
The other men in this quintet are Heeb's old college friend Carlos or 'Lucky Chucky', Mexican, very attractive and luck seems to follow him. But he has his principles so will he find a woman who can match up to those? Than there is also Narc who is of Chinese heritage and got his nick name from his love of narcotics. Narc's life will change when he becomes disillusioned with his job in corporate law and decides to take up a different type of employment, very different from corporate law indeed. And Trevor, British, of African heritage, he too will have a life-changing experience.
As we follow the 5 through a few years of their life, there will be good and bad times, success and failure. The writing is mainly humorous and I giggled through their adventures. There were quite a few scenes / words which I picked out and thought: I should use this (in conversations), this is so funny. I mean, do you speak 'Subway Intercomese'? Heeb is trying to pick up a women whom he speaks to on the subway and he refers to the voice from the subway loudspeaker as speaking 'Subway Intercomese'. Tee Hee, those announcements seem to be the same wherever you are in the world and I can assure you that subway announcers in Berlin and London also speak 'Subway Intercomese'.
But it's not only humour - I also found a more serious voice in the book about finding yourself, accepting yourself and wonderful friendship. Heck, I think we all would like to have good friends like those 5.
The author states in the foreword that the book is about sex - obviously, and if you are offended by it, than the book is not for you. I have to say that yes, of course, sex is frankly discussed, however, the language is never dirty nor is the sex described explicitly - and there is no need here. It's more like friends being open with each other and discussing sex, but never in an unpleasant way.
If you live or have lived in NYC or know it well, you may enjoy recognising places etc. I have never been and would love to… one day I will come over to the city that never sleeps. I also understand that the author is writing a follow-up and I would love to pick this up to see how the life of those five will go from here on.
Book received from the author in return for an honest review
99 CENT SALE (LIMITED TIME): Enjoy the male "Sex and the City" with FIVE fictional boyfriends and lots of sexy laughs along the way! "Sex in the Title" is a witty, award-winning romantic comedy from the male POV and it's now on sale for .99 (about 75% off the regular price of $3.99). Grab your Kindle copy now:http://tinyurl.com/AmazonSITT (or for Amazon UK: http://tinyurl.com/AmazonSITTUK)
13 January 2014
Title
|
The Divorced Not Dead Workshop
|
Author
| CeCe Osgood |
Publisher
|
CeCe Osgood - Kindle
|
Publication Date
|
10 Dec 2013
|
Pages
| 230 |
Genre
| Romance, Comedy |
The main protagonist is Dorsey Bing, in her mid-thirties and divorced for the past 5 years, she seriously has to sort her life out (both relationship status and work situation). So her 2 best friends and Dorsey come up with the idea of a workshop for divorced people, as they are 'divorced - and not dead'. She is not too keen first but just has to go with it. The story pretty much plays out for the duration of the workshop and the days immediately prior and after. Different characters, both men and women, attend the workshop, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and their different stories and how they changed or, in some cases, how my perception of them changed. I initially had problems to distinguish between the different people, however, in a chapter or two it all becomes clear, as all the characters are distinctive and well drawn out.
Dorsey's background is slowly revealed during the book - the story of her divorce etc. While this is a serious subject, it is tackled with a wonderful sense of humour, and here for me lies the real strength of this book. I did laugh with Dorsey, and there can't be many of us who haven't' experienced, for example, going to a public toilet and finding droplets on the seat (nice!!). Or how about this: you have some saved money and you are sure you are going to save for that special occasion /special frock, and than suddenly… yep, something else, very urgent, has come up. I highlighted quite a few phrases where I thought 'this is too funny, I should use this' (not in a book, but in entertaining my co-workers). The story is very contemporary, with references for example to Ebay, listening to Joss Stone. These are things I can image myself doing.
My favourite character, as so often for me, was actually one of the 'supporting cast' - Ralph, Dorsey's stepfather. Quite simply because if I would ever need/have a stepfather, I would like to have someone like Ralph. I deliberately did not tell you anything about Dorsey's love interest/s in this review -you would have to find out yourself.
The book is not so much about finding 'Mr Right', but more about 'finding the courage to get out there again'. As a first novel, this is very promising and I would certainly read CeCe Osgood again. It made my daily commute go very quick and put a smile on my face.
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