Playing With Myself by Randy Rainbow

Hello everyone.  I hope your day is going well.

Today's book deals with several sensitive topics, the author does this with heart and comedy.  If you are politically driven, don't like a raunchy laugh or are easily offended, perhaps skip this review.  I promise to have a delicious thriller up next. 

I recently read Playing with Myself by Randy Rainbow.  Randy is a popular personality on YouTube.  He does parody videos with rewritten songs generally from Broadway shows.  He is enormously gifted and if you have a sense of humor, he will brighten your day.  I gave my speech about politics because once Trump became President, his administration was the subject of many videos.  I thought this book would be about how Randy makes those videos, using a green and a computer, and it is, but there is much more substance, which surprised and delighted me.  The book tells the story of when he was a child, figuring out he was gay, eventually telling his parents.  He encounters plenty of mean kids in school, as we all do.  Randy talks about wanting to be a performer but almost falling into his current career.  There are loads of sarcasm, profanity, laughs galore and even a few tears. If you're interested in the people he's met and has worked with, the author does not hold back, naming them all specifically.  He has charming stories about Carol Burnett, who I'm so happy to say is actually due the adoration I've had for her for years.  You'll read about Stephen Sondheim, Steve Martin, Patti LuPone...the list of his admirers is endless and the stories amazing.  Best of all, the reader is treated to a peek into Randy's relationship with his mother, which will make you choked up and smile at the same time. This is a feel-good book you'll be glad you read.

If reading nonfiction isn't your thing, I get it, in general it isn't mine.  At the least do yourself a favor, put away your political affiliation, pull on your big boy/girl pants, and go look up Randy Rainbow on YouTube.  You will be amazed at his talent.

Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen by Serena Valentino

Hello everyone. Hope you are well. I've been reading up a storm, well perhaps an intermittent shower for some of you but a storm for me. It is June 9th, and I've just completed my fourth book. My husband might tell you this is cheating as I finished my first book of the month at precisely 12:20 am on the first. But you have to cut the previous month off somewhere and everyone knows (read with exaggerated eye roll) that midnight is the cut off. So I have branded him wrong, me correct (as any happily married man will know his wife is always correct, because we ARE). That brings my total this year to 31 books read. That is as many as I read in all of last year, so I'm pretty darn happy.

If you read my blog intro, which shame on you I know you didn't, then you'd know already that I don't "do" audiobooks. For the record, I would read/listen to anything that had a great story so perhaps I should say I haven't "done" an audiobook yet. Another thing I don't usually do is Young Adult books. Sure, I've seen youtube, now branded "booktube", full of 20 somethings proclaiming they've read 8 gazillion books in a month. (By the way, one gave a very negative review on The Woman in the Window, not liking so much of what she read including how it was set in London.....really? It is set in New York...so I don't know about "reading" so many books in a month. Course, I could just be extremely jealous as I am, as you know, a confessed pokey ass reader.) (as a sidenote, what is with all the quotes in this post? geez),

Anyway, I don't get all these adults, men and women....not boys and girls, but men and women that are reading books for kids. There are so many adult books that are fantastic, why would you read outside books meant for you? Judgmental isn't it? Yeah I know. I've got a sink full of dishes and my left leg is falling asleep, I think I'm cranky. ...Breathe...."Anyway," she said sweetly and calmly, all that rant being out there I did see a few kids books I was a tiny bit curious about. Have you seen these books about Disney stories where they retell what happened, often before or after the official story? I wonder if these are a result of the whole Wicked series. Anyway, I might have purchased a few, okay three.

So last week, I could not resist and I opened, just to glance at the first page or two of Fairest of All. It is a story about the wicked queen in Snow White. No spoilers but it talks about when she was a child, her parents, Snow White's life before her, the wicked queen's marriage and relationship with the king. To be completely honest, I was blown away. The story by Serena Valentino intertwines with the Snow White story I know and love, brilliantly. It explains but doesn't rewrite or distort any part of the original.  Obviously, I read the whole thing and am trying to look away from the others I purchased as I have a long list of books to read this month. If you don't want to dish out the money for this book, check out your library, since it was published in 2012 it's probably off reserve! As for me, I have a sudden craving for a bright red apple.