Cindy Chupack, an Emmy-winning writer and executive producer for HBO’s Sex and the City, is the author of The Between Boyfriends Book: A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays.
Barrel Fever and Other Stories by David Sedaris (Back Bay Books, $13). Hands down one of the funniest essay and short-story collections ever written. My favorites are “SantaLand Diaries”—Sedaris’ strange-but-true experiences as an elf at Macy’s—and “Seasons Greetings to Our Friends and Family!”—an upbeat Christmas letter from a woman clearly in crisis.
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How to Be Hap-Hap-Happy Like Me by Merrill Markoe (out of print). I became a fan of Markoe’s magazine essays when I was just out of journalism school and living in New York. She approaches writing as a social anthropologist, hap-hap-happy to throw herself into ridiculous situations for the sake of the story.
Fraud by David Rakoff (Broadway, $13). Another must-read, by David Sedaris’ friend and sometime collaborator. Once you read the first piece, “In New England, Everybody Calls You Dave,” you’ll be hooked.
About a Boy, High Fidelity, and How to Be Good by Nick Hornby (Riverhead, $13 each). Nobody captures today’s single man as honestly, sympathetically, and humorously as Hornby in High Fidelity and About a Boy. And How to Be Good is a hilarious portrait of a troubled marriage.
Monkey Dancing
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