We read Haven Kimmel’s A Girl Named Zippy last year and we really liked it. So, when we saw her newest book on the shelves awhile back I reserved it at the library. I picked it up. TW read it and didn’t say much about it. I picked it up and read the intro and realized I couldn’t actually remember much about A Girl Named Zippy. Which led me to wonder why I was reading “She Got Up Off the Couch”. Maybe we didn’t like Zippy as much as we remembered?
As I read, I realized I remembered more about Zippy than I first thought. I also think that the reason I didn’t remember more at first is because Kimmel’s books read like blog entries. They do. They’re short, though most are longer than the average blog post. They read like a blogger who is sharing a family story and jazzing it up to make readers laugh. Simple and funny family stories that any of us could tell (and often do). Not that blog entries are forgettable. That’s not what I mean. It’s just that there are so many. And a story from Zippy or Up Off the Couch could have been written by a zillion bloggers – feels like it has been and those stories sometimes blend together. Bits and pieces come back to you now and again but they’re a little blurry and you have to stop and think… was that Mir’s family? or was it Jenny’s? or maybe my own?
Technorati Tags: nonfiction, girlnamedzippy, havenkimmel, blogging, familystories, familyhistory