I just finished reading America’s Boy by Wade Rouse. It didn’t take me as long to finish this book as it did the last. I think the reason is because I could relate to this guy so much in the book. What I thought was going to be a very funny memoir turned out to be a very serious look at family relationships, death of a sibling, being fat, and dealing with coming to terms with your sexuality.

Of course I’m a bit overweight so I could relate to the being fat part, and I could relate to the dealing with teasing in middle school from the bullies, but I couldn’t relate to the death of a sibling. It was interesting how he weaved the stories of his childhood around the dysfunctional family issues with his brother’s death. The book was very interesting and I did enjoy following his life and learning about his coming out and losing the weight and having things turn out just fine in the end. Check it out, it’s a decent read. You’ll enjoy it.

The next book on the nightstand is Tush by Jaffe Cohen. I first heard about this book on the podcast Remarkably Mark. I love his show and when I heard the author talking about his book on the show, I just had to check it out.

Here’s what the publisher has to say:

“After his zodiac chart is read by a great psychic, Joel Eisenberg studies astrology and becomes the most famous media queen in the field. The author of a best-selling book and a nationally syndicated radio show regular, Joel manages to parlay his intuitive skills, gift for gab, and unbridled shamelessness by getting all the cute guys home for a reading and convincing them to expose their rear ends for a dose of ‘chakra balancing.’

But now it’s 1997. There are no more phone calls and Joel is publicly humiliated on his radio show. Believing that he should travel north to meet the soul mate who’s been predicted for him, Joel goes to Cape Cod. Looking for a man who “paints houses,” Joel moves into the home of Dennis Fairchild, a successful artist with a stupendous rear end. What Joel doesn’t realize is that his real soul mate is probably Bill Doyle, the ‘house painter’ living in Dennis’s backyard, fixing up the artist’s home, drinking heavily, and still commun-icating with his deceased lover.

A comic tale of karmic redemption, Tush shows that when we’re foolishly pursuing the wrong goals, the universe wisely knows how to make us suffer for our stupidity.”

Sounds like it will be a fun book and I’m looking forward to checking it out. Of course I’ll talk about it once I’ve finished reading it.