Born standing up  : a comic's life by Steve Martin

This is a terrific story with an added bonus - Steven Martin is the reader.  It's a surprisingly intimate look at his childhood and start in the entertainment business.  He stuck to his own vision of humor and struggled for many years!  Fame does not come quickly or easily as he describes how he started as a boy doing magic tricks, life on the circuit as an "unusual" standup comic, stint as a comedy writer, and slow breakthrough as a comic on TV talk shows. I look forward to another book so he can tell his fans about the later years when he branched out to making movies and writing books.  --  JD

 World War Z:  an oral history of the zombie war by Max Brooks

Brooks, author of "The Zombie survival guide" (and son of director Mel Brooks), has created a book similar to Studs Terkel's "The good war"--only this one is a tale of the fictional war between the zombies and humans.  The narrator travels the world to interview people about their memories of the war, which began as a few isolated zombie 'incidents' in China, and spread quickly, causing mass relocation, death, and destruction.  Traditional military strategies are useless:  "What if the enemy can't be shocked and awed?  Not just won't but biologically can't?" 

Fans of George Romero's zombie movies will enjoy this.  The audiobook features many readers, which adds to the documentary feel.  Among the recognizable voices are Alan Alda, Carl Reiner, Mark Hamill, and more.  --SB

May 5, 2008