The Best of Me

by David Sedaris

Paperback

Status

Available

Description

Essays. Literary Criticism. Nonfiction. Humor (Nonfiction.) HTML:David Sedaris's best stories and essays, spanning his remarkable career�??as selected by the author himself For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing. Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler's lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say "give it to me" in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird. But if all you expect to find in Sedaris's work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to terms�??at long last�??with the other. Taken together, the stories in TheBest of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expected�??it's often harder, more fraught, and certainly weirder�??but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful. Full of joy, generosity, and the incisive humor that has led David Sedaris to be called "the funniest man alive" (Time Out New York), The Best of Me spans a career spent watching and learning and laughing�??quite often at himself�??and invites readers deep into the world of one of the most brilliant and original writers of our time.The Best of Me AUDIOBOOK TRACK LISTING CD01 Track 01: Introduction (new recording) From Barrel Fever 1994 CD01 Track 03: Glen's Homophobia Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2. From Holidays on Ice 1994 CD01 Track 06: Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol (new recording) CD01 Track 08: Christmas Means Giving (new recording) From Naked 1997 CD01 Track 11: the incomplete quad (new recording) From the New Yorker CD01 Track 14: Girl Crazy (new recording) CD02 Track 01: Card Wired (new recording) CD02 Track 02: How to Spend the Budget Surplus (new recording) From Me Talk Pretty One Day 2000 CD02 Track 03: You Can't Kill the Rooster (new recording) CD02 Track 05: Me Talk Pretty One Day (new recording) CD02 Track 07: Jesus Shaves (new recording) From the New Yorker CD02 Track 09: Dog Days (new recording)From Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Demin 2004 CD02 Track 10: Us and Them CD02 Track 12: Let It Snow CD03 Track 01: The Ship Shape CD03 Track 04: The Girl Next Door CD03 Track 08: Repeat After Me CD04 Track 01: Six to Eight Black Men (live record… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Hccpsk
I really like David Sedaris, so I seek out his writing often in various places. In The Best of Me, he has gathered many of his favorite essays and stories and put them chronologically into one collection. For readers like me--familiar with his work--it is fun to reread favorites, find new pieces,
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and to see his growth as a writer. For new readers, it’s a good introduction to his often unbelievable comments, brutal honesty, and wicked sense of humor. A definite recommendation that can be read straight through for those with stronger constitutions, or taken one story and time for others.
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LibraryThing member bookczuk
Pandemic read. Excellent. being well versed in David Sedaris, I agree that these are some of the best.
LibraryThing member reader1009
audiobook- humor/short fiction and biographical essays (old classics as well as more newly published, relatively unheard works spanning the author's long career; don't skip the bonus interview at the end)
LibraryThing member DrApple
As always, some of the stories were uproariously funny and some were sad. I always enjoy David Sedaris though because of his unique way of recounting an incident and his unusual view of the world.
LibraryThing member SheTreadsSoftly
The Best of Me by David Sedaris is a very highly recommended collection of 46 essays spanning his career. All of these previously published essays were personally chosen by Sedaris as representing the best of his writing. This is a collection for fans who will appreciate seeing what he has selected
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as the best and this would be an excellent introduction for those new to Sedaris.

David Sedaris is one of the few humorists who can keep me laughing even if I have read the essay before. As with any collection, not every single piece would have been chosen by me (I believe there were 2 I didn't care for as much) but that is simply quibbling over what is a masterful presentation of many of his memorable pieces. His writing can leave me laughing so hard I'm crying and then continuing to chuckle long afterwards. There are other essays that are serious and heartbreaking as events from his life and family are the subject. Now, I believe it is that time of year to reread Holidays on Ice.
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LibraryThing member rmarcin
David Sedaris has put together a series of essays that he has enjoyed and gone back to over the years. I laughed out loud at some of these and had my heartstrings tugged at others. I enjoyed the author's reading of his essays, I feel that having him read them was authentic.
Sedaris explores family
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and traditions, and is a keen observer of other people. The interview at the end of the audiobook is also enjoyable.
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LibraryThing member addunn3
Short stories from Sedaris. Some of them were printed in other books.
LibraryThing member mojomomma
This Sedaris collection overlaps with the last one I listened to, so it wasn't quite as funny.
LibraryThing member steve02476
Good stuff of course, but I had heard virtually all of these stories already. I think they were mostly drawn from recent collections and not so much from old ones which I’m less familiar with. Or maybe I’ve read them all now? (Horrors)

There was a one-hour interview with Sedaris at the end,that
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was kind of interesting.

Of course, I listened to this on audiobook.
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