Mini Reviews #2: Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls – David Sedaris & Dragos Goes To Washington – Thea Harrison

Two mini reviews for Friday!

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls – David Sedaris

let's explore diabetes with owlsA guy walks into a bar car and…

From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved. 

Sedaris remembers 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. 

With Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris shows once again why his work has been called “hilarious, elegant, and surprisingly moving” (Washington Post).

Rating: 3/5

Mmm. I was expecting more, but ended up mostly underwhelmed. Overall, not as funny as I hoped it would be, although the other does include some humorous moments. The book is a combination of fictional short stories, non-fictional accounts from episodes in the author’s life, featuring appearances from his long-suffering family, and general wry observations.

We’d all turn our backs on privilege, but comfortably, the way you can when you still have access to it. No one wanted to call home asking for money, but we all knew that in a pinch our parents would come through for us. 

The author does also have some problematic views/perspectives, but he does acknowledge these, at least. All in all, a fairly swift read, but one that left me mostly unmoved. I found myself occasionally smiling or thinking ‘That’s so true,’ but was hoping for some laugh-out-loud moments, based on what I’ve heard about David Sedaris – this is the first book of this that I’ve read. Some of his political diatribes, however, did make me want to fist punch the air with fierce glee.

We’re forever blaming the airline industry for turning us into monsters: it’s the fault of the ticket agents, the baggage handlers, the slowpokes at the newsstands and the fast-food restaurants. But what if this is who we truly are, and the airport’s just a forum that allows us to be our real selves, not just hateful but gloriously so?

Dragons Goes to Washington (Elder Races #8.5) – Thea Harrison

dragos goes to washingtonDragos Cuelebre, Lord of the Wyr, needs to throw a party without maiming anyone. That isn’t exactly as easy as it might sound.

After the destructive events of the last eighteen months, the Elder Races are heading to Washington D.C. to foster peace with humankind. Not known for his diplomacy skills, Dragos must rely on his mate Pia to help navigate a battlefield of words and polite smiles rather than claws. With Dragos’s mating instinct riding close to the surface, his temper is more volatile than ever and the threat of violence hovers in the air.

Then the human spouse of a prominent politician winds up murdered and Dragos and Pia must race against time to hunt down those behind it before they are held responsible for the crime.

Rating: 2.5/5

This is a novella set in the world of Thea Harrison’s the Elder Races, and focuses on the main couple that started off the whole series.

I’m pretty conflicted, tbh – I think the rest of the series has never lived up to the magic of the first book, which I adored – and has devolved into the same tired tropes and UF cliches that make me want to throw things.

It was great to revisit Pia and Dragos again in this short story, along with the world of politicking and troubled alliances, but gah, I could have done without the seriously cheesy love scenes and the whole ‘you are mine’ sentiment. Not entirely the author’s fault though – this is a paranormal romance series – I’m just jaded from reading the same tropes over and over again.

Eh. I still want to read the next two novellas in the series though – despite my criticisms, I’m curious to see where this plot thread goes.

ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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