"Noah" by Cara Dee

I read Cara Dee's story "Aftermath" a few years ago and really liked it, so I wanted to read another of her books.  Noah is having a very bad two days.  First, he catches his girlfriend of four years cheating on him, and the next day, the plane carrying his parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew crashes killing all on board.  He's never been so depressed or felt so alone.  However, his 23-year-old step-nephew is left, and when the young man moves in with Noah, things start to look up.

This book was very different from "Aftermath" but was still a compelling read.  Julian and Noah don't really know each other but they bond while trying to get through the tragedy.  My only complaints are that big chunks of time were glossed over (one chapter started with "Nine months later"), and there was too much cussing for my taste.  I'm no prude but I found it distracting and too crude for the characters.  259 pages (Kindle edition).

"Wishful Drinking" by Carrie Fisher

In this memoir by actress and writer Carrie Fisher, she says that she is a product of "Hollywood inbreeding."  With icons Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher as parents, she has first hand knowledge of the old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction."  Fisher claims that she decided to write this memoir after undergoing electroshock therapy for bipolar disorder.  She lost some of her memory because of it but what she has left is enough to keep listeners entertained.  Her father left the family for Elizabeth Taylor when she was two, so Fisher has much more to say about her mother . . . and does a darned good imitation of her voice.  She covers how, when, and why she got hooked on drugs (the undiagnosed bipolar disorder played a large part), telephone interventions by Cary Grant, her long roller coaster romance with Paul Simon, her pregnancy by a man who ultimately left her and their daughter for another man, and more.  One of the best stories is about George Lucas' explanation of why she was not allowed to wear a bra during the filming of "Star Wars."  All this is interesting to a point, but she doesn't really delve very deeply into her own psyche to account for her choices or how much of an impact her folks' parenting (or lack of) made her into who she is.  I listened to the audio version, read by Fisher, and the quality wasn't very good.  Many times I had to adjust the volume, especially when she yelled, which was often.  This was written in 2008, before the death of her father and before filming of the newest "Star Wars" movie, in which she will appear.

Audio:  3 hours
Print:  176 pages