The Reader's Advisor

Reality Bits:
The Not-So-Everyday Adventures of Everyperson

Mary Carlomagno
Give It Up: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less. Morrow, 2006.
[179.9 Carlomango]
Would it be possible to live without the designer coffee, the Kate Spade bags, the technology that were a part of my everyday existence? In an attempt to de-clutter her life, the author resolves to give something up each month.

Jancee Dunn
But Enough About Me: A Jersey’s Girl’s Unlikely Adventures among the Absurdly Famous. HarCol, 2006.
[070.92 Dunn D]
Is being mistaken for Ben Affleck's girlfriend, dancing drunkenly onstage with the Beastie Boys, hiking the Colorado Rockies with Brad Pitt, or eating Velveeta in Dolly Parton's kitchen what life is all about? A Rolling Stone writer learns to appreciate who she is and where she came from.

Suzanne Hansen
You’ll Never Nanny in the Town Again: The True Adventures of a Hollywood Nanny. Crown, 2005.
[649.092 Hansen H]
An entertaining mix of tales of the round-the-clock workdays changing diapers for the rich and famous.

Bridget Harrison
Tabloid Love: Looking for Mr. Right in all the Wrong Places. Da Capo, 2006.
[646.77 Harrison]
She writes a dating column for the New York Post learns the vexing rules of dating in the ultimate singles city.

Maria Dahvana Headley
The Year of Yes. Hyperion, 2006.
[646.77 Headley]
Only 20 and already fed-up with the dating scene, the author wonders if she has been too picky and resolves to find Mr. Right by dating every man who asks her out.

Elliott Hester
Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant’s Tales of Sex, Rage & Queasiness at 30,000 Feet. St. Martin’s, 2002.
[387.742092 Hester]
A humorous look at dealing with the unruly, the smelly, the amorous, the sickly and the MOAs (Mad On Arrival) in a place where there is no escape. Read also: Around the World in a Bad Mood: Confessions of a Flight Attendant, by Rene Foss. Hyperion, 2002. [387.742 Foss]

Judith Levine
Not Buying It: My Year without Shopping. Free Press, 2006.
[640.73 Levine]
What it’s like to wave goodbye to consumerism and material quick-fixes and give up shopping for non-essentials for a whole year.

Bob Levy
Club George: The Diary of a Central Park Birdwatcher. T. Dunne, 2006.
[598.0723747 Levy]
After being downsized out of his corporate career, Levy finds solace in Central Park where he meets a particularly charismatic Red-winged Blackbird named George.

Julie Powell
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen--How One Girl Risked her Marriage, Her Job, and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living. LB, 2005.
[641.5092 Powell]
A Manhattan woman resolves to recreate every recipe she sees on Julia Child’s cooking show.

Jonathan Reynolds
Wrestling with Gravy: A Life with Food. RH, 2006.
[641.5 Reynolds]
Amazing how many big issues—romance, family, employment, travel, recreation death—revolve around food, both simple and haute. A tasty culinary memoir.

Rich Smith
You Can Get Arrested for That? 2 Guys, 25 Dumb Laws, 1 Absurd American Crime Spree. Three Rivers, 2006.
[349.73 Smith]
Did you know that it’s illegal to kiss for longer than five minutes at a time in Kansas? Or that it is illegal in Chicago to fish while wearing pajamas? There are a lot of goofy laws on the books in the United States, and a pair of Englishmen set out to break as many as possible.

Nora Vincent
Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back Again. Viking, 2006.
[305.31092 Vincent]
An 18-month adventure in cross-dressing to see how the other half lives.

Edwin John Wintle
Breakfast with Tiffany. Miramax, 2005.
[649.125 Wintle W]
A gay man’s successful, well-ordered, unfettered single existence is set on its ear when his troubled, street-wise 13-year-old niece comes to live with him.

Franz Wisner
Honeymoon with My Brother. St. Martin’s, 2005.
[910.4 Wisner]
So, what’s a guy to do when he’s be dumped just before his planned wedding? He picks himself up, dusts himself off, and with brother in tow, he quits his jobs, sells all his possessions, and travels the world, visiting fifty-three countries for the next two years.