Birdseed Cookies: A Fractured Memoir

By Janis Jaquith

Book Overview

Thousands of National Public Radio listeners in the South have delighted in the quirky commentaries of Yankee transplant Janis Jaquith. In these sixty-six essays, originally broadcast on NPR-station... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738849111
• ISBN13: 9780738849119
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

made me laugh out loud

I saw the article about Birdseed Cookies: A Fractured Memoir in the New York Times the other day. As it happened, I had already ordered a copy of the book, and it arrived the same day.It did not disappoint...I totally related to Jaquith and I love her stories about aspects of real life that people don't always talk about. (I can just picture her squeezing into her wedding gown at every wedding anniversary...and how she's worrying that this time, she'll probably have to have someone use a pair of scissors to get her out of it again!)I found Jaquith through the Internet. Someone e-mailed me a link to her site. If you're wondering if you or someone else would like this book, I suggest you visit her website. You can read a lot of these essays there for free. It's radioessays dot com. I, for one, think this stuff is a hoot. And I figure that anything that makes me laugh out loud (repeatedly) is definitely worth the money

not like anything else

I happened to wander into a bookstore during one of Janis Jaquith's readings at a book festival and was impressed: her delivery is wonderful and she's very funny. (she's a radio personality, so no wonder her delivery is so good) I bought the book, and I have to say that I heartily recommend it. It's not just funny: sometimes it can be moving, too. It just isn't like anything else I've ever read. What it is, is a collection of little stories, real ones from her life. And I end up reading certain stories over and over again. I've even xeroxed a few of them to send to family and friends. (a no-no, for sure, but here I am buying extra copies for gifts) I just wish it was available in hardcover, because I'm going to want to hang onto it for a long time.

my favorite christmas gift!

There's a woman in my office who doesn't like "seinfeld." Nice person, but she doesn't like the show and thinks its truly about "nothing." She doesn't like to read dave barry, or david sedaris, and never did like erma bombeck. A book like "birdseed cookies" is in a similar vein: it's about "nothing." Kids with head lice? Giving up on learning to ski? Getting your heart broken? Who cares about this stuff? These things happen to everyone, so why write about them? If that's how you feel, then don't get this book. IF, on the other hand, you LIKE reading about small moments and love that flash of recognition, the moment when you say, "Yes! That's just what it's like!" then you will LOVE this book. You will laugh out loud. You will pass it along to your friends, who will thank you.

A Real Eye-Opener

The essay entitled, "Attention Deficit Disorder - Who Knew?" is worth the price of the book. Janice Jaquith doesn't just tell us what it's like to be a child with ADD, she shows us, in using the point of view of herself as a child, just what these kids go through. I have been the mother of a child struggling with ADD for almost ten years. I have read every parenting and child development book I could get my hands on. But not until I read this story did I have a clue about what it's like to actually BE a person with ADD. My eyes are open and I will never look at my child the same way.The other stories in this collection are really entertaining. I found myself laughing at some parts, and sniffling back tears in other parts. I lent my copy of "Birdseed Cookies" to my son's math teacher so maybe she'll understand what he's going through. I find myself wishing she'd hurry up and give it back, because there are quite a few of the stories in there that I'd like to read again. (Usually, I never read books again once I've finished with them, so this is really something!)

Love those Cookies

Readers who, like me, are familiar with Janis Jaquith's essays on public radio, can't help but hear her voice in each of these collected pieces. But, even those who are complete strangers to her radio work will enjoy the ride through the life and mind of this sometimes ditzy, always insightful writer.The pieces are short, most not more than three pages. You can dip into them, one at a time, to savor each morsel, or, if you're greedy, like me, you'll devour the whole book in one sitting.Jaquith seems to have this knack for telling stories on herself. She sets up her wonderfully wacky solutions for dealing with problems ("I'm a genius.") and then lets us watch them result in absolute failure (Ah, Jeez!). I loved "Pond Scum", the tale of her hare-brained scheme to remove algae from her pond with the aid of electric fans and many extension cords. Only Lucy Ricardo comes close. The thing is, she's not afraid to embarrass herself and that makes for entertaining and revealing reading.It's not all a circus, though. Jaquith examines both the big and small moments of her life and, in so doing, weaves a tapestry that really is a "fractured memoir". She's trying to make sense of it all, just as we all are. The reader alternates between thoughts of "you know, that's exactly how I feel, but I've never been able to put it into words" and "I never knew there were people like that".She takes the reader from unbearable poignancy ("A Magic Phone") to laugh-out-loud comedy (the title "Birdseed Cookies"). The thing is, neither the tears nor the laughter is ever cheap. It's all well-earned and well-executed.This is the kind of book that, like Russell Baker's memoir, you want to buy, not only for yourself, but for your parents, your kids, everybody you love, because it's a way of saying that you're not alone.