A Little Vacation Reading

I brought two books to read while on vacation, not expecting I'd get through either one. However, our youngest lobbied to drive, so I've spent most of the driving time  in the back seat, leaving plenty of time to read.

Look so here are a few reports:

Born Standing Up, by Steve Martin. Autobiographical of his years in standup. Sweet and sad, as he takes us through his relationship with comedy, performing, and his family, particularly a fraught relationship with his father, who wanted to be a performer but seemingly did little to pursue that dream.

Plenty to chew on for anyone with creative pursuits, seeing his easy routines and jokes come after years of writing and practice and failure.

Of interest: He gave up on marijuana after a bad experience led to repeated anxiety attacks and says it likely stopped him from ever trying cocaine.

Also, this:

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. I tend to shy away from Holocaust-adjacent fiction, but I'd heard good things about this one. And the good things were true. The book is narrated by Death, but is told with a lot of pathos and humor that knew when to be just heavy enough and when to be light.

People grow, characters develop, secrets are hidden then revealed, then just about everyone dies as you'd expect.

Little judgment is passed, but So sack leaves plenty of thinking for the reader to do. He doesn't let lessons or morals of the story get in the way, though they're alluded to throughout.

Vacation goes on, and I managed to pick up.five new books at a thrift store in Omaha. Looking forward to those.