Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris

            A while back, I read a novel that is chockfull of entertaining short stories called “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.”  Ranging from his childhood to his relationships and even to undergoing the process of purchasing real-estate, the author of the book, David Sedaris, consistently kept me interested in what would happen in each story next. Plus, after each short story, I was left wondering how things went after the event that he just ended the chapter with.  In the beginning of the novel, a couple humorous entries about Sedaris’ occasionally reckless youth that I particularly enjoyed.

In one chapter, Sedaris and his siblings are locked out of their house and their mother denies them passage, so they decide to get back at their mother.  After quick contemplation, they elect to go to a busy road and have one of them get hit by a car.  They legitimately decide to pull this crazy stunt, but fortunately the first car to drive up to Sedaris’ sister (who is, at the moment, laying down right in the middle road) turns out to be a family friend, so the kids are saved from their own foolishness in the end.  This short story entertained me quite a lot.  Sedaris mentions that he was thinking along the lines of “well, once she finds out one of us got sent to the hospital, she is surely going to feel bad then.”  I have a personal connection to this memory of Sedaris’.  Back when I was a foolish little boy myself, my friends and I always thought that we could sue anyone for doing something we didn’t like.  If a teacher talked to us with a rude attitude one day, at lunchtime we would discuss how we would go about suing her.  In retrospect, however, the majority of short stories in this novel have ideas that I could definitely find ways to connect to my life.  This book makes for a good read for anyone, and I additionally would recommend it to anyone who enjoys comparing stories from novels to their own lives.

Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

     One book that I have recently finished reading, Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, was a page-turner from the very beginning.  The novel starts off with Levitt and Dubner explaining different economic concepts, and then as the book progresses, amassing a plethora of stories, the co-authors exemplify how such concepts are naturally linked to the nature of the common man.  A very unique tactic that the authors utilized for the aforementioned examples is that of using outrageously random types of people in order to make a point.  

     One chapter in the book even discusses the similarities of the Ku Klux Klan and Real-Estate Agents, another comparing Schoolteachers to Sumo Wrestlers.   In one chapter of the book that sported the ridiculous-sounding name, “Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Moms?” an intrepid researcher by the name of Sudhir Venkatesh ventures into South Chicago, his objective being to study a crack-dealing gang of statistically the most violent neighborhood of the city.  During this trek of Venkatesh’s, one gangster, on the topic of why he is undergoing such a dangerous lifestyle, explained that “[they] ain’t got no choice, and if that means getting killed, well s**t, it’s what n****rs do around here to feed their family” (94).  This quote from Venkatesh’s total of six years of continuous ghetto research is particularly intriguing when considering all the various incentives in today’s world of economics.  There is no better reason to do something than to do it for the sake of your life, let alone for the sake of your family members’ lives.  The concept of incentives is thoroughly explored throughout the book by Levitt and Dubner, along with many other economic ideas and factors, although this makes for a great read for just about anyone who has interest in human nature—and of course economics.