Here is the book to save you from many a social gaff. Forget Emily Post and her advice on when to wear gloves and which fork to use. What you really need to know is revealed in Saving Face: How To Lie, Fake, And Maneuver Your Way Out Of Life's Most Awkward Situations by Andy Robin and Gregg Kavet. 2005. (ANF 818.607 ROB).
The authors are men who have written for Saturday Night Live and have a completely different take on social grace training. They have divided the book into sections like Party Situations (forgot a name? don't like the food? when to hug, kiss or shake hands), and then give tactics and sometimes even desperate measures for the resolution of each situation.
The two most un-Postlike sections are those on sex and on bodily functions. What do you do when you clog someone else's toilet? These are definitely desperate times but strangely the authors do not suggest any desperate measures, only tactics. However, their tactics do look like desperate measures to me.
While you are waiting for me to finish with this guide to living, try some of these other titles.
The Great Big Book Of Guys: Alphabetical Encounters With Men by Erika Ritter. 2004. (ANF 305.31 RIT)
Here is a one-woman anthology of personal memoir, blatant flights of fancy (did she really meet Barbie's castoff Ken), and hard-won wisdom about men. Fathers, brothers, lovers, sons, film stars, friends are all included in the author's sights.
The New Smart Approach To Kids' Rooms by Megan Connelly. 2005. (ANF 747.77083 CON)
Children grow up fast and provide lots of opportunity for redecorating. Babies, toddlers, adolescents, teens all have their own personalities and needs, and these designs reflect them.
The Singing Fire by Lilian Nattel. 2004. Fiction. (FIC NAT)
Nehama arrives in London from Poland at the time of Jack the Ripper. She escapes from her pimp into the alleys of the West End where years later she helps another gullible immigrant, Emilia. Their lives remain intertwined even though they end up living on opposite sides of the city.
The Highly Civilized Man: Richard Burton And The Victorian World by Dane Kennedy. 2005. (ANF 910.92 KEN)
Richard Burton, soldier, explorer, ethnographer, and speaker of many languages, poet, traveler, brought his Victorian perspective to all his endeavours. He was a larger than life man intimately involved with the spread of British imperialism.
Bitten: True Medical Stories Of Bites And Stings by Pamela Nagami.
2004. (ANF 617.1 NAG)
Dr. Nagami relates from personal experience and extensive research many cases of bite attacks and the resulting infections and treatments. Some cases feature ticks, ants and other common culprits, but others are products of seals, komodo dragons, and the most deadly, humans.
The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild : The Forgotten Father Of The Flower Garden by Michael Leapman. 2000. Biography. (ANF 635.9152 LEA)
Thomas Fairchild produced the first man-made hybrid plant in Europe and paved the way for the thousands of new varieties now available at the local garden nursery.
Jerry Baker's Green Grass Magic: Tips, Tricks, And Tonics For Growing The Toe-Ticklinest Turf In Town! by Jerry Baker. 2001. (ANF 635.9647 BAK)
The title says it all. Be the envy of all the neighbours with a gorgeous green lawn of thick luscious grass.
Third Watch by Bodie & Brock Thoene. 2004. Fiction. (FIC THO)
The Land of Israel awaits the Messiah. Is Yeshua of Nazareth the one? Zahav, the daughter of an old rabbi waits and wonders, as do Susanna and Manaen, newly married and dealing with Manaen's blindness.
- For more information or to request books online, go to www.virl.bc.ca