Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time, as the song goes! What's interesting to you, though, aren't the whys and wherefors of that time, but what I was--or wasn't--reading throughout.
I'm one of those people who reads before hitting the hay. I can go to sleep without those few, precious paragraphs (yes, that's often all I have the energy for...but it sure does make a good book last!), but I don't like to. Suddenly though, I found myself unable to read at all. I was so distracted by all the emotion I was dealing with, that I couldn't deal with anyone else's issues: their love, hate, joy or fears. I was overflowing with my own. But I missed my bedtime habit...ok, I was missing a few bedtime habits, but reading was the only one over which I had any control!
Finally I found an author whose writing didn't agitate me in any way, but with his outrageous humor and spot-on ability to sum up a emotionally stoked situation with the turn of one, pithy phrase: Carl Hiaasen. Thank you, Carl!!!
Hiaasen writes the richest and most disrespectful satire I've ever read. His dialogue is at the same time, lean and overblown. His stories are subtle environmental lessons and robust romps through the swamps and swimming pools of southern Florida, and are chock full of characters who range from the most mundane to the creepily eccentric. Weaving that combo together could be dangerous, but this guy does it so flawlessly that it might take your breath away.
No matter whether you're in the midst of the biggest, most wracking emotional upheaval of your life, or are just looking for a little (literary) fun before you hit the sack, anything by this smart, funny, marvelous author will fill the bill. Just be sure you're willing to become addicted.
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