LITERARY Scene
By Ryan G. Van Cleave
RYAN REVIEWS THREE BOOKS
WITH THREE-WORD TITLES
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DECEMBER 2017 | SARASOTA SCENE 117
arts&culture
THE CHEAPSKATE’S HANDBOOK
by Mifflin Lowe
The 2.0 reissue of local author Mifflin Lowe’s book, The
Cheapskate’s Handbook, comes with a well-earned warning:
“This book is gluten-free, tongue-in-cheek, and off-the-wall.
Reading may cause sudden, unexpected physical reactions,
including guffaws, snorts, and chuckles. For full disclosure,
see inside.”
The warning is well-earned because this book is fun.
Whether you truly have some Scrooge in your DNA or not,
it’s hard to take the Miserliness Aptitude Test (page 5), explore
the Roommate Fee List (page 30), or read the “How to Avoid
Taking Your Spouse or Significant Other to a Movie” chapter
and not crack a smile. Or more.
Lowe is irreverent, silly, and quite often over the top. He
also stars in many of the photographs, from the book cover to
the aluminum foil ironing on page 230, that’s him!
It’s an enjoyable book whether you read it cover to cover
or plunge in for a laugh here and there. Some of my personal
favs? Chapter 4.2 (Extended Family: Do You Really Want to
Know These People), Chapter 5.2
You’re Not Getting Older, You’re
Getting Cheaper: Growing Old
Disgracefully), and Chapter 6.6
Partying: Such Cheap Sorrow).
Don’t worry, too, about this
being outdated. It’s a 2.0 edition,
after all, so he gives you the
cheapskate view on Uber, Lyft,
Miley Cyrus, and more.
Read frugally, and maybe
one day you might make it into
Lowe’s Cheapskates Hall of
Fame!
Rating:R
o
BLACK MOON RISING
by D.J. MacHale
I had another book scheduled to cover this month,
but my 10-year-old daughter saw this book and stole it,
read it, and reported that “it’s really pretty good.” Black
Moon Rising—book 2 in The Library series—is targeted
for ages 8-12, so I figured who better to assess this new
MacHale title than my kid? It tells the story of Marcus,
an agent for the Library—a magical place that exists
outside of normal time and that’s filled with books that
require help to reach a satisfying end. Each book in
the series has Marcus and his friends travel through a
magic portal to set matters right. It’s never easy, though,
because there’s as much danger (witches, ravens, and
wolves) as there is fun.
More important—here are my daughter’s remarks on
the book.
“I KNEW that magic caused the windows to explode at
the middle school.”
“I like that Marcus is so funny. And smart.”
“I want to read Book 1 now.”
This is a very nice middle grade fantasy book that
plenty of older readers—that’s you, Sarasota Scene
book-lovers—could enjoy as well. It works fine enough
without having read Book 1 in the series so long as you
understand the basic premise about how Marcus and his
friends can leap into unfinished books to prevent disaster
and help reach a worthwhile ending.
Rating:
djmachalebooks.com
/djmachalebooks.com