Baby Got Books

Light Hilarious Summer Reading

The idea of ‘summertime’ reading always sounds so romantic to me: lying on a beach or next to a pool, drink on the table and book in hand for some undisturbed reading. Fat chance. For me, summer is when my kid, who is normally in school, is with me almost 24/7 and “needs” me every ten minutes. Thus, my summertime reading must be a book that I can pick up and put down without missing a beat. I have found a few such books by Chelsea Handler.

Normally, I would not have picked up a book called Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang but listening to my sister laugh uncontrollably while reading, I decided she shouldn’t have all the fun. After finishing Bang Bang, I glided through her two others: My Horzontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands and Are You There Vodka?, It’s Me Chelsea.

If you are a member of the Moral Majority or if you take pride in always being politically correct, then you probably won’t find these books as funny as I did. There is a lot of alcohol, drugs and sleeping around and I have no problem laughing at her mishaps (whether they are true or not, I don’t care.)

My Horzontal Life was my favorite of the three and of course none of it can be quoted here. The book delivers exactly what the title suggests, supposedly her experiences with many one-night stands as well as with men she did actually date. What I really admire most about Ms. Handler is her ability to create elaborate lies – on the spot! While working as a waitress, she sees a man with whom she just spent the night walk in with his wife. Chelsea becomes her own twin sister, Kelsey, and proceeds to make up several stories about her “loose” twin, Chelsea. He’s pretty ‘smart’ too, he says “wow, you look just like her” and she responds, “that’s usually what happens with twins.”

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang was written after she became famous with her E! late-night show and she reminisces more about growing up with her nutcase family. We all need a retired, widowed father who dates the 22 year old Jamaican cleaning women to keep us laughing.

Next up, Are you there Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea? My 6-year old daughter promptly informed me that Vodka is a drink and thus the title makes no sense. Once again, this book is loaded with short stories of Ms. Handler’s supposed life. At one moment, someone emails her a picture of their dog in front of Niagara Falls. She confesses that pictures of people’s children are ok by themselves, but a pet? She has a great response that I may try:

“I clicked reply and sent a picture of my cleaning lady. Standing next to the toilet, alone. I attached a message that read, “’Not interested? Me neither.’”

Certainly this is not high-brow, award-winning literature, but once in a while it’s just fun to laugh.