Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

 

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
4/23/13; 288 pages
Little, Brown and Company 

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris is a humorous and glorious collection of 26 entertaining personal stories (or 25 plus a poem). I can't believe I waited so long to read this. 

Sedaris covers a wide variety of topics and different decades as he writes about the observations, struggles, absurdities, and experiences he encounters in everyday life in the selections. Topics include, in part, how much he enjoys dentists, irritating expressions, swimming as a child, his father's expectations and negative treatment of him, traveling to different countries, learning languages, gifts he gives on tours, coffee shops, collecting rubbish, recording everything in a diary, visiting a taxidermy shop, problems after his computer bag was stolen, and having a colonoscopy. As with any Sedaris story topics just sort of lead into new topics and morph into something else. He can make anything a good story

I could totally relate to his experience of what happens when you tell people you like something and then suddenly get inundated with it. A mention of liking owls can result in one to saying, "I've got to weed out some of these owls." Also, as a contemporary, I too learned 'Kookaburra' in grade school music and could probably sing it with him today.

My observations from his most recent collection also applies here when I wrote, "Reading these essays felt like a visit with an observant, insightful, and humorous long-time friend where all the filters are off and you can both laugh and share personal anecdotes expressing exactly what you think about anything and everything."  Additionally, if you have never had an opportunity to hear Sedaris tell one his stories, you are missing out. He can make an already funny story a hilarious story. In many ways it makes all of his stories even funnier if, while reading, you can hear them read by Sedaris, in his own voice and with his own timing. He is a master story-teller. 

As with any collection of stories, there were a few misses for me (some simply because they were a bit dated) but as a whole I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls is an excellent choice for everyone who enjoys the musings of David Sedaris. (Continuing my short break between advanced readers copies and working my way through my TBR stacks from years past.)