A Carnival of Snackery, David Sedaris
A Carnival of Snackery, David Sedaris
28 Rating(s)
List: $38.99 | Sale: $27.30
Club: $19.49

A Carnival of Snackery
Diaries (2003-2020)

Bestseller

Author: David Sedaris

Narrator: David Sedaris, Tracey Ullman

Unabridged: 17 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/05/2021


Synopsis

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Finalist for the Audie Award in Humor

There’s no right way to keep a diary, but if there’s an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mas­tered it.
 
If it’s navel-gazing you’re after, you’ve come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination. Rather, his observations turn outward: a fight between two men on a bus, a fight between two men on the street, pedestrians being whacked over the head or gathering to watch as a man considers leap­ing to his death. There’s a dirty joke shared at a book signing, then a dirtier one told at a dinner party—lots of jokes here. Plenty of laughs.
 
These diaries remind you that you once really hated George W. Bush, and that not too long ago, Donald Trump was just a harm­less laughingstock, at least on French TV. Time marches on, and Sedaris, at his desk or on planes, in hotel dining rooms and odd Japanese inns, records it. The entries here reflect an ever-changing background—new administrations, new restrictions on speech and conduct. What you can say at the start of the book, you can’t by the end. At its best, A Carnival of Snackery is a sort of sampler: the bitter and the sweet. Some entries are just what you wanted. Others you might want to spit discreetly into a napkin.

About David Sedaris

American comedian, David Sedaris, decided to put his good humor and social critiques to pen and has we authored several books and short essays that slice through cultural inadequacies and political correctness. He has been deemed a master of satire and an expert observer of the current human condition. He was born in 1956, and has many titles......humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He gives credit to radio host, Ira Glass, for discovering him in a Chicago club and giving him the invaluable opportunity to appear on his weekly radio program. He said it was life changing.

One of his most important accomplishments would be receiving a Grammy nomination for his audio version of, Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls. There are over ten million copies of his books, and they have been translated into 25 languages.

In collaboration with his sister, Amy Sedaris, David has written six plays that have been produced at such places as LA Mama, Lincoln Center, and The Drama Department in New York City. Three have been nominated for Grammys for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. A recent work is David Sedaris: Live for Your Listening Pleasure. He has also had a film adaptation of his story C. O.G., which was presented at Sundance Film Festival. The various books about him and by him are numerous. Calypso, a book of essays, was punished in 2018, and a second volume of diaries is expected in summer of 2019.

His older Santaland Diaries was a huge success for listeners, so much so, that the New York Times dubbed him "a minor phenomenon".


Reviews

Goodreads review by Regina on November 18, 2021

A Carnival of Snackery takes its name from a sampler offering on a menu David Sedaris once perused. It’s a fitting title, because what he’s offering readers of his latest book is essentially a feast of little word snacks. Unlike his essay collections, this is 576 pages / 17 hours of short and seemin......more

Goodreads review by Angie on November 08, 2021

I love listening to David Sedaris. I love reading his essays, too, but to me, listening to him read his own essays is just a different experience altogether. I love how honest he is in these diaries, saying things that sometimes make me cringe. I know this is ridiculous, but it makes me feel closer......more

Goodreads review by Arienna on October 17, 2021

David Sedaris touches on this in his last chapter but I think he's aging out of this game. He doesn't understand the modern world well enough to make witty observations about it and his life is so privileged just observing his own world has gotten a bit uninteresting. I still bought the book and mod......more

Goodreads review by Krista on October 31, 2021

Frank and Scott went to an Indian restaurant the other night and took a picture of the menu, which offered what it called “a carnival of snackery.” Carnival of Snackery is about as random and shallow as that opening quote suggests: Covering the years 2003-2020, David Sedaris returns with the seco......more


Quotes

Praise for A Carnival of Snackery:

“Sedaris is a singularly talented humorist who lands acerbic zingers with the calculating precision of a kamikaze pilot… Throughout the colorful, caustic yarns that fill his best-selling essay and story collections, he’s maintained league-of-his-own status by staying light on his feet: Just when you’re expecting a wry jab, he clocks you with a poignant gut punch.”—Rachel Rosenblit, Washington Post

“Deeply satisfying… the diaries are as clear, direct and funny as his essays… [Sedaris] has such a gift for illuminating small things.”—Liana Finck, New York Times Book Review

“Uproarious… a must for Sedaris fans.”—Lesley Kennedy, CNN

“Mesmerizing and jolting… Sedaris’ shrewdly sketched world travelogue, hilarious anecdotes, and frank reflections on loved ones, and life's myriad absurdities and cruelties major and minor, make for a delectably sardonic, rueful, and provocative chronicle… fans don't want to miss a word.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist

“A rich trove for hardcore Sedaris fans.”—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Theft by Finding:

“Sedaris is no ordinary diarist. He’s more like a private detective, sneaking around and capturing his subjects in moments when they think no one is looking.”—Fiona Maazel, O, The Oprah Magazine

“Finding meaning and humor in life’s interstices… is Sedaris’s unique genius as a writer… What is fascinating about this book is that narrative coherence is not apparent from one sentence or paragraph to the next but emerges through the sequence of entries over many years.”—David Takami, Seattle Times

“Sedaris fans will thrill to this opportunity to poke around in the writer’s personal diaries, which he has faithfully kept for four decades and used as raw material for his hilarious nonfiction as well as his performances.”—Paul S. Makishima, Boston Globe

“Perhaps his most intimate book… Sedaris has become a reigning master of crystalline social commentary and blisteringly humorous self-reflection.”—Lauren Christensen, Los Angeles Times

“Randomly open to any page and you’ll find a gem… Sedaris’s gift is to make you stop and think one moment and laugh out loud the next.”—Rob Merrill, Associated Press