I am a devoted Sedarisan.  Okay, so I just made that word up.  It should be a word – it just isn’t…yet…but it should be.

As a Sedarisan, I’ve read his books, seen him in person, and fantasized about being one of his sisters.  So no one should be surprised here that I couldn’t wait for LET’S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS to come out.

And I wasn’t disappointed. The book is brilliant and I laughed out loud. Several times. Over and over. (Hellooooo! Devoted Sedarisan!)

David Sedaris has a way of looking at our world through the eyes of…oh, say your weird cousin – the one who notices that not only are there ants on your sidewalk, but the ants are   walking funny and seem to be making their way to a specific crack in the pavement that implies, upon closer inspection, that they are drunk and heading to a brothel.   And Sedaris is funnier than your weird cousin when he points it out.

My favorite essay in the book, and it was really, really hard to pick a favorite – would be the second essay, where he talks about the differences between parents today, and our parents – back in the Jurrassic Period, according to my kids…or the 1970′s according to me.  I won’t give anything away, but when he compares discipline between the generations, I thought he was talking about me.

The other essays in the book deal with his travels – which makes me want to be his travelling partner very, very badly – and other odds and ends of his unique life as an author who writes funny books.

If you like David Sedaris – you’ve already devoured the book the minute it came out, hiding behind the bed so your spouse thinks you are actually accomplishing something.  If you’ve never heard of him (after I’ve picked my jaw up off the floor and asked you if you live in a black hole) – Insist you need to read this book.  And maybe then, you’ll be a devoted Sedarisan too.

Enjoy!

There’s snail mail, email, faxes and used books. All of these are effective systems for delivering messages, email being the fastest and snail mail earning its name within the modern context. But, any way you get it, “good mail” is a perennial upper. You open up Hotmail, groan upon finding work memos and appointment reminders, and emit an ‘Ooh!’ of delight as you spot a friend’s note smiling at you from the grunge work.

Message by way of ancient used book is charming and reliable, even if it is glacier-slow. Put a note, photograph, airline ticket stub, whatever in your book and, wait long enough, some other reader will find it one day. Many an ‘Ooh!’ has been breathed by used book buyers finding some sort of treasure in their purchase.

For me, it happened just a few days ago. Someone in a 1920 lit class passed me a note. The speed of delivery may have been on a 93 year delay, but the charm of getting the message was worth the wait. Really, it wouldn’t have been nearly as  nice without nearly a century separating me from its writer. The fact that it was never meant for me is all the better.

So, it was just a simple torn off yellowed piece of lined paper. So, the message was simple. So, it was missing a verb. The meaning – and the penmanship – was clear. In one hand was written, “I sorry”. In another, “So am I.” And there it was, in my lap, having fallen out as I perused Junior High School Literature, Book Two by Elson and Keck, copyright 1920.

Now, yes, it’s true that the note could have been placed there anytime since 1920, as could the repeated jottings in matching script along margins and on the covers. But I like to think it was long ago that Isabella Currie Duke was scratching away with her pencil. If she wasn’t making sure everyone knew her homeroom number and class level, she was copying authors’ names, titles, the publisher’s name, copyright dates. Maybe Isabella was practicing penmanship. Or else, the poor girl was bored. I happily imagine that she was engaging in some surreptitious texting with a classmate the old-fashioned way: the passing of notes. (There was another inquiring about the location of a missing hygiene textbook.)

What was Isabella supposed to be studying? What’s in a junior high lit text circa 1920? Writers we still study in high school, like Shakespeare Longfellow and Dickens.But, there’s also William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham’s “Speech Against War with the Colonies.” That’s one I’d never read before Isabella’s note dropped into my lap just. I was enjoying this textbook more I ever had my own when I was actually in school. It’s so ironic, but so natural, that the thing which bored both Isabella and me when we were school-aged, decades apart, was intriguing to the grown-up me.

When I was in school and read about World War I-era poet Rupert Brooke, he was long before deceased having died at war. His black and white photo and the bio in my text suggested a sensitive and handsome young Englishman who got me dreaming about early 20th-century Cambridge University. When Isabella was in school, Brooke had died just a few years before. She was living in the time I was dreaming about.

This was some very good mail my book delivered to me. Isabella inadvertently sent me a message. She was in the High Eighth, Room 29, and she reconciled with a friend through a passed note, doodled her name and everyone else’s for no good reason, and read a 660 page book of various readings in which only two writers shared her gender. She memorized two stanzas of Longfellow’s Evangeline. And, she was utterly playful.

I know this because apologies and missing property inquiries weren’t the only messages she sent. She had one there, apparently, just for anyone perusing her book.

It was a charmer:

Page 100: “If you want to know my fellow’s name look on page 533.”

Page 533:“I forgot! I mean 627.”

Page 627: “You have too much curiosity!”

That is probably so, Isabella. But I’m not ashamed to say I’ll be looking for more interesting notes the next time I open your book.

Yes, Jenna Bennett finally has a new Savannah Martin novel out! I loved this one. I’ve read every book in the series, but I think this one is my favorite. If you haven’t read the others, you can still start here, but I suggest you start with the first book, A Cutthroat Business, and you’ll be hooked.

When Savannah sees her co-worker, and boss, washing blood from his hands, she’s immediately suspicious, and matters get worse when there’s a connection between him and the open house she’s supposed to host.

We get to delve further into the relationship with Savannah and Rafe in this installment, and suffice it to say, it’s a bit more on the steamy side than the previous novels in this series, but the mystery is well plotted, and the story is a page turner.

From Amazon: It’s late February, just two months after Savannah Martin and Rafael Collier finally worked things out between them, and Rafe is already sneaking out of bed in the wee hours.

Catching fellow realtor Tim Briggs rinsing blood from his hands in the office sink makes for a welcome distraction, and when Tim disappears just as one of his clients is found dead in a nearby park, Savannah throws herself into the investigation with abandon.

But even the murder mystery taking place right under her nose can’t completely distract her from worrying about personal problems. Has Rafe changed his mind about their relationship, or is something else going on? And what are the chances of Savannah coming out of this latest debacle with her life – and her heart – intact?

ALSO IN THIS SERIES

1) A Cutthroat Business
2) Hot Property
3) Contract Pending
4) Close to Home
5) A Done Deal
5.5) Contingent on Approval (holiday novella)

Give Jenna Bennett’s Savannah Martin, real estate mystery series, a try. You won’t be disappointed. She didn’t make the USA Today Bestseller list by accident.