First Line Friday (17): Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin, and here is the first line: 

I did stand up comedy for eighteen years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success.

Goodreads Synopsis

In the midseventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away."

Emmy and Grammy Award winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.

At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.

Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times, the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.

Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.

If you're a fan of Steve Martin, I would suggest adding Born Standing Up to your TBR here

Summer Reading Quick Reviews

I haven't been great at keeping up with my reviews lately because back towards the end of April I managed to break my thumb while I was trying not to step on my dog. Mavis is fine. My thumb, however, required surgery to fix, and I was off work for six weeks. The silver lining to that incredibly lame start to my summer is that I was able to knock a few books off my TBR, I I just wasn't able to review them, given that my thumb was being held into place by a couple of pins and a splint. But now that I am pins and splint free I can finally catch up on my reviews. I only have a few brief thoughts on each of them so I have decided to put them all into this one post, so without further ado, here are my thoughts on my summer reading choices so far.

Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah

Goodreads Synopsis

The town of Bishop is known for exactly two things: recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women—missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers’ much-delayed memorial.

With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney's twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret too: the summer fling she had with Delilah's boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.

Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood—and now it craves theirs.

My Thoughts

I loved the premise of this book. Stories about spooky towns always have my heart. Add in some mysterious  disappearances and usually I am sold, but execution wise, this story fell short for me. I feel as though the characters lacked depth, which made it very hard to feel engrossed in the story. I think this may be do, in part, to the frequent changes in POV and the short chapters. It was difficult for me to connect to the characters and feel attached to the story. Not my favourite read this year, but definitely not bad. The atmosphere was there, which I loved, but the characters and their development just missed the mark for me.

Night of the Living Queers: Thirteen Tales of Terror Delight by Shelly Page, Alex Brown, Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron, Sara Farizan, Kosoko, Jackson, Tara Sim, Rebecca Kim Wells, Trang Thanh Tran, Vanessa Montalban, Em X. Liu, Maya Gittelman, Ayida Shonibar, 

Goodreads synopsis

No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story will be told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection will bring fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.

Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.

My Thoughts

This was such a fun read. I am a BIG Halloween girl, so I am always in the mood for anything that's going to make the Halloween season feel a little bit closer, and this did not disappoint. Each story was uniquely unsettling. My only gripe is wishing that the stories were a little bit longer, so I could stay in the spooky little universes that the authors created for a little bit longer. Overall, if you're looking to feel Halloween vibes a little earlier this year, I definitely suggest picking this one up.

Everything The Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

Goodreads Synopsis

Evil waits for the unsuspecting in the small town of Henley’s Edge, Connecticut after a recent string of unexplained disappearances.

Lives are interwoven and transformed forever when pacts are drawn, deals are made, and when hatred is left unrestrained.

Some will succumb to the darkness that lurks in the cellar of Mr. Heart Crowley’s home, others will resist, and some will face a truly remarkable being—creator of tides, vessel of infinity, eater of darkness.

My Thoughts

I really struggled with this one. Overall the writing style wasn't for me. There was an abundance of metaphors and similes in every paragraph, which I am usually not too picky about, but they were so frequent that they were distracting and the flow and paragraphs felt congested and bogged down. If I wasn't listening to an audiobook, I feel like I may have started skimming paragraphs to get through the congested writing. 

I also found that there were very violent scenes that didn't serve any narrative purpose in the long run, and were seemingly were included for some kind of shock factor. I understand that some people enjoy a little shock factor darkness, but it wasn't for me. Overall, I had pretty high hopes for this novella, but it fell short for me.

A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

 

Goodreads Synopsis

If there’s one trait that makes someone well suited to comedy, it’s being able to take a punch—metaphorically and, occasionally, physically.

From growing up in a family of firefighters on Staten Island to commuting three hours a day to high school and “seeing the sights” (like watching a Russian woman throw a stroller off the back of a ferry), to attending Harvard while Facebook was created, Jost shares how he has navigated the world like a slightly smarter Forrest Gump.

You’ll also discover things about Jost that will surprise and confuse you, like how Jimmy Buffett saved his life, how Czech teenagers attacked him with potato salad, how an insect laid eggs inside his legs, and how he competed in a twenty-five-man match at WrestleMania (and almost won). You’ll go behind the scenes at SNL and Weekend Update (where he’s written some of the most memorable sketches and jokes of the past fifteen years). And you’ll experience the life of a touring stand-up comedian—from performing in rural college cafeterias at noon to opening for Dave Chappelle at Radio City Music Hall.

For every accomplishment (hosting the Emmys), there is a setback (hosting the Emmys). And for every absurd moment (watching paramedics give CPR to a raccoon), there is an honest, emotional one (recounting his mother’s experience on the scene of the Twin Towers’ collapse on 9/11). Told with a healthy dose of self-deprecation, A Very Punchable Face reveals the brilliant mind behind some of the dumbest sketches on television, and lays bare the heart and humor of a hardworking guy—with a face you can’t help but want to punch.

My Thoughts

I loved this memoir. I am a huge fan of Jost on SNL, so when I saw that he had written a book, I knew I had to get my hands on it. It was funny and touching and overall a delightful read. I could just hear his voice in my head while reading, so if you're a fan on seeing Jost on Weekend Update every Saturday night, this book is for you.