Is This Anything? - Jerry Seinfeld -------------------- 3 Stars

Like many people, I'm a huge fan of Jerry Seinfeld. His show is the greatest sitcom ever made (in my humble opinion), and I've always enjoyed his stand-up routines. Is This Anything is a retrospective of, I believe, every joke he has written starting with his rise to fame in the 1970s and moving to the modern day (it includes a few bits about COVID). While the book was good, it feel a little flat.

While the book also included a few pages about that status of his life prior to presenting jokes from each decade, 95% of the book was simply the telling of every routine, joke, bit, etc. he has ever thought of. The book reminded me from an important part of Adam Grant's Originals (review here) - basically, creative people produce a lot of stuff that's not useful. One of the most interesting findings Grant has about really successful inventors and people is just how much is not used. Well, this book is a testament to that theory! 

And that's really a big part of the comedians process - produce as many jokes as possible, do some stand up and try them out night after night (tweaking language along the way), and then narrow down, based on audience reaction, what's the best stuff.  So, when you see any comedian, like Seinfeld, do a 45 minute stand up routine, that's pruned down from hours worth of material. Well, this book is decades worth of material that never "made it". And, as you might guess, a lot of it is not good. I mean, it's not bad; I smirked on occasion, but often, it was just not funny to me.

The other BIG problem with the book is just that; it's a book. Obviously, comedy is done best when you hear the comedian present it and see the facial expression, body movements, and hear the roar of the laughing crowd. I realized after about 10 pages of this book, I would need to at least get the audiobook. If this is not great material, it would at least help to have it delivered by someone other than my own voice! So, I did make the wise move to the audiobook, which is read by Seinfeld himself; this made a huge difference!

I'm not sure if I can truly recommend this book to all readers. I think if you're an uber fan of Seinfeld and his stuff, you will enjoy this book. Otherwise, it really is a long book to get through with some material that's not so great. Though, it will give you a great sense of how he thinks and what it takes to put together a great standup routine or sitcom. Again if you do pick it up, I strongly recommend the audiobook. My guess is Seinfeld delivers a joke better than you do!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City - Jonathan Mahler ------------------- 4 Stars

As the real title is too long, I'll just reference this book as The Bronx is Burning. You may also be aware of it because ESPN did an 8 part miniseries with the same name in 2007. I did watch the miniseries as I was finishing the book and it was fun to have some visuals to compare to the story (the miniseries is odd but also kind of cool as they have decent actors playing the major stars in the book while including real video footage from the 1977 to make it more realistic).

If you are not familiar with the book or miniseries, both take on the crazy year of 1977 in New York City. While the miniseries is nearly all focused on the Yankees story line of Reggie Jackson feuding with manger Billy Martin, the book covers far more areas of interest. While the baseball story line still dominates the book, there are also fascinating stories about the mayoral election which included 4 fascinating candidates, the Son of Sam killer who had been terrorizing the city for more than a year, and some other interesting storylines (disco dying and punk music coming, a momentous blackout which led to massive looting, and newspapers changing to tabloids).

In general, the book is engaging and the writing is crisp and interesting. As someone not alive nor informed about many of these events, the stories presented are notably diverse but fascinating. Most interesting are the personalities involved. All intelligent in their own way, how they move forward to meet their goals, and how that often conflicted with other's goals, makes a great story.

As my father would say about a book of this type, it's a real "slice of life" (which, after Googling, I realize my dad did not invent, but took from the observation of literature/theater - but still a great term, nonetheless). With a decent length and many memorable details, this book really puts you in NYC during the crazy year of 1977. I love books/movies/TV of this type - ones that take a real deep dive into something so the reader/viewer can see the nuance in a deeper way. If you like the same, do take a look at this book!