Diane Kelly's 3 favorite reads in 2023

I’m a big fan of Saturday Night Live and sketch comedy, and I once took a stand-up comedy class for fun, so this book was right up my alley.

This book features a female writer for a sketch comedy show, and provides many interesting insights about the goings-on behind the scenes. I laughed many times at the main character’s sometimes irreverent sense of humor. Her struggles with how best to deal with annoying coworkers, a competitive and sometimes sexist work environment, and finding love and satisfaction were relatable.

I liked that the show’s guest host – a popular singer – could see the value in a woman who might not be the usual eye candy celebrities tend to date. The book was funny, relatable, and insightful. 

Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors, so when I saw that he’d written a book it immediately caught my eye.

Like my number-one favorite book, it provides a behind-the-scenes look at how a show is made, in this case a movie being shot on location. There’s much more drama going on behind the camera than in front of it! The pacing is not frantic, however. The cast of characters is wonderfully varied, and I enjoyed seeing how they related to each other and grew as people – or didn’t.

I especially liked that Tom Hanks also narrated the book. When an author narrates their own work, you experience it exactly like they intended, with the inflection on certain words, etc.

I’ve been a fan of Dave Barry’s humor since reading his columns in the newspaper all those years ago.

He finds the funny in everyday life, and the ridiculousness in people, and spins a wonderful yarn with these elements. This book had lots of hilarious hijinks and over-the-top characters, but also some real-life situations that kept it relatable and believable enough to enjoy. I laughed out loud many times while listening to the book while walking my dogs. My neighbors must think I’m nuts!