Max Brooks – World War Z (2006)

This book has been out for a while now, but having never been huge into the Zombie craze, I wasn’t dying to read it. I have always however found the premise interesting and my curiosity brought this book back to my attention. Essentially Max Brooks is inspired by Studs Turkel’s The Good War in writing this book and aims to replicate his style. As The Good War is an oral history of the Second World War, World War Z is an oral history of the Zombie apocalypse.

The story is presented through a series of interviews with various fictional characters about their experiences with the Zombie War. The book takes the reader all around the world, similar to The Good War, but a major theme is that of American isolationism, which is interesting given the climate in which Brooks was writing.

I personally didn’t love this book, but it is a fresh and interesting take on the dystopian future genre. Fans of the Walking Dead or other Zombie themed tv-shows/movies will probably love this book. As I said however, Zombies were never really my thing so it’s hard for me to fangirl about this as much as some other people have.

James A. Miller and Tom Shales – Live From New York (2002)

600 pages later and I finally finished this oral history of Saturday Night Live. The entire book is just stories and interviews with people involved with the show from its inception in 1985 to 2002. While I was reading I flagged my favourite parts, so I thought I would share them here.

1. Chevy Chase speaking with 20/20 hindsight. He is quite remorseful over his inability to get along with John Belushi, and more generally for being an ass.
2. Everyone talking about Gilda. How sweet and wonderful and funny she was, and how terribly tragic he death seemed. Of course a number of Saturday Night Live Stars have lost their lives prematurely, like John Belushi, but the interviews about Gilda nearly brought me to tears, especially Bill Murray’s and Steve Martin’s.
3. The process undertaken to hire Eddie Murphy. How much of a stir it caused, how talented and undervalued he was, and how upset everyone was when he left the show. At the 40^th anniversary show it was nice to see him come back.
4. Dan Akroyd talking about John Belushi – “I had eight ears with John, and we had a ball every second. I mean, we had our disagreements, naturally, but we sure made each other laugh. In any group you’re going to have people who precede the others. I just hope he’s waiting for me on the other side. I’m sure he will be.”
5. Larry David wrote for SNL and none of his sketches made it on to the show. They did however, become future episodes of Seinfeld.
6. Tina Fey, Amy Poheler, and Jimmy Fallon talking about just starting out on the show and their hopes and dreams for the future. We’re in that future now and with 30 Rock ended, Parks and Recreation ending, and Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Show, its great to know that things panned out for them

There are so many great stories and tales from the show. The ideas behind sketches, the friendships that were made and broken, the best and worst hosts. It’s revealing and funny, and while long, totally worth the ride.

#TBR Tuesday – Live From New York

This past weekend, Saturday Night Live held a three and a half hour live celebration of the show’s 40th anniversary. The special brought back favourite cast members and characters and did its best to stuff as many cameo appearances into as many sketches as possible. The show also features montages of some of the more memorable moments on the show. Everyone who was interviewed said the same thing, be it a host, a cast member or musical guest, that the experience was just so unreal.

Live From New York is an oral history of the show from its birth in 1975 to the 2002-2003 season when it was published. It is 600 pages long as is simply conversations with people who were involved with the show. Seeing all of these old sketches made me want to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes, so I am looking forward to reading this.