David Sedaris, who regularly appears on NPR, isfun, satirical and brazen. A wonderful collection of his greatest work.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Previously released in 2002 as a 14-CD set containing Sedaris's Naked, Holidays on Ice, Barrel Fever and Other Stories and Me Talk Pretty One Day, this updated 20-CD box set adds his latest two Grammy-nominated audios (his single-disc live concert at Carnegie Hall and the unabridged Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim). Twenty-two hours of Sedaris in one box should be nirvana to his legion of fans. This collection allows listeners to witness Sedaris's growth as a writer. He never stops being funny but by Dress Your Family, his essays exhibit the memoirist more than the humorist, and his ability to walk a razor's edge between hilarity and heartbreak (without bathos) is breathtaking. His essays are written to be read aloud, and he performs them flawlessly. Considering the long gestation of this collection, it's surprising that the interior packaging is so dismal. The discs are housed in blank, black slipcases with no illustrations or track listings (which is especially distressing because Barrel Fever, Naked and Holidays don't have track listings on their discs and there is no track listing on the outer package). (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Author
David Sedaris is a playwright and a regular commentator for National Public Radio. He is also the author of the bestselling Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. He travels extensively though Europe and the United States on lecture tours and lives in France
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America 's pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.David Sedaris is the author of the bestsellers Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, as well as collections of personal essays, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, each of which became immediate bestsellers. There are a total of seven million copies of his books in print and they have been translated into 25 languages. He is the editor of an anthology of stories, , Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories. His essays appear regularly in Esquire and The New Yorker. Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name "The Talent Family" and have written several plays which have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center , and The Drama Department in New York City . These plays include Stump the Host, Stitches, One Woman Shoe, which received an Obie Award, Incident at Cobbler's Knob, and The Book of Liz, which was published in book form by Dramatist's Play Service. His recent collection of essays, titled When You Are Engulfed in Flames, was published in June 2008.David Sedaris's original radio pieces can often be heard on This American Life, distributed nationally by Public Radio International and produced by WBEZ. In 2001, David Sedaris became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He was named by Time magazine as "Humorist of the Year" in 2001. David Sedaris was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album ("Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim") and Best Comedy Album ("David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall"). In 2008 the audio version of When You Are Engulfed in Flames was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Spoken Word category.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
121 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth it if you don't have any of the pieces but poor packaging and no track listings (but here they are anyway),
By
This review is from: The Ultimate David Sedaris Box Set (Audio CD)
This is a great collection whether you are a long-term Sedaris fan or are just beginning to discover him. It's a pretty good deal if you don't have any of his audio books yet. While I don't usually go for audio books, I find that I am not only hooked on the writing but also on Sedaris's hilarious delivery. The "live" performances are best.
As rightly pointed out by another reviewer, the packaging is the biggest disappointment. At $100 retail, one would expect (1) a sturdier and more elegant outer case, (2) individual packaging of each set inside the outer case (the current split into 4 inner booklets does not adhere to the component volumes), and (3) track listings. Of these, #2 is the most glaring shortcoming: the four inner booklets are too thick, have too much cardboard, are unwieldy and inconsistently organized, and have no artwork or even any labeling at all: you have to open each booklet to find a particular disc or set. In fact, the only writing on each booklet is a US Patent number (why this idiotic design was ever patented and why they feel the need to stress that is beyond me). I could easily have designed a nicer, slimmer, and more ergonomic packaging (anyone from Hachette reading this? Feel free to contact me next time.) Finally, here are the track listings, since there are none in the whole bulky package. Note that the longer segments are divided in multiple tracks: the first track of such segments is listed below. *** Barrel Fever: Disc 1 *** 01. Intro & Drag 03. Giantess 05. The Curly Kind 07. You Can't Kill the Rooster 10. Parade 14. The Last You'll Hear from Me *** Barrel Fever: Disc 2 *** 01. Glen's Homophobia News Letter Vol. 3, No. 2 05. Barrel Fever *** Barrel Fever: Disc 3 *** 01. Don's Story 05. Golden Moments 08. Tattle Tale 12. Credits *** Holidays on Ice: Disc 1 *** 01. SantaLand Diaries *** Holidays on Ice: Disc 2 *** 01. Based Upon a True Story 07. Season's Greetings *** Holidays on Ice: Disc 3 *** 01. Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol 03. Dinah, the Christmas [...] 09. Christmas Means Giving 13. Credits *** Naked: Disc 1 *** 01. A Plague of Tics 06. Get Your Ya-Ya's Out 11. Next Of Kin *** Naked: Disc 2 *** 01. Cyclops 04. True Detectives 09. The Drama Bug 12. I Like Guys *** Naked: Disc 3 *** 01. Ashes 07. Naked 14. Credits *** Live at Carnegie Hall *** 01. Thanks 02. Repeat after Me 05. Why Them? [Introduction to NPR's Ira Glass and Terry Gross Show] 06. Who's the Chef? 08. The Feminine Mistake 09. With a Pal like This You Don't Need an Enemy 10. Six to Eight Black Men 13. Q & A 14. Credits *** Me Talk Pretty One Day: Disc 1 *** 01. Go Carolina 06. Giants Dreams, Midget Abilities 11. The Youth in Asia *** Me Talk Pretty One Day: Disc 2 *** 01. Twelve Moments in the Life of the Artist 13. The Learning Curve 17. Today's Special 18. City Of Angels *** Me Talk Pretty One Day: Disc 3 *** 01. A Shiner like A Diamond 04. [...] 07. See You Again Yesterday 12. Me Talk Pretty One Day 15. Jesus Shaves *** Me Talk Pretty One Day: Disc 4 *** 01. The Tape Worm Is In 03. Make That a Double 05. Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa 08. 21 Down 09. The City Of Light in the Dark 11. I Pledge Allegiance to the Bag 14. Picka Pocketoni *** Me Talk Pretty One Day: Disc 5 *** 01. I Almost Saw This Girl Get Killed 05. I'll Eat What He's Wearing (Live) 08. Bend Over and Say "Ah" (Live) 10. Precious Moments (Live) 19. Poems about Dogs (Live) 20. A Million Bubbles (Live) 21. Credits *** Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim: Disc 1 *** 01. Introduction 02. Us and Them 05. Let It Snow 06. The Ship Shape 10. Full House 13. Consider the Stars *** Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: Disc 2 *** 01. Monie Changes Everything 07. The Change in Me 11. Hejira 12. Slumus Lordicus *** Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: Disc 3 *** 01. The Girl Next Door 07. Blood Work 11. The End of the Affair 12. Repeat after Me *** Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: Disc 4 *** 01. Six To Eight Black Men 04. Rooster at the Hitchin' Post 09. Possession 11. Put a Lid on It *** Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: Disc 5 *** 01. A Can Of Worms 03. Chicken in the Henhouse 08. Who's the Chef? 10. Baby Einstein 14. Nuit of the Living Dead 18. Credits
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Packaging stinks, but material is great,
By
This review is from: The Ultimate David Sedaris Box Set (Audio CD)
I agree that the packaging is awful-half of the CDs have no listing of tracks anywhere in the packaging; the other half have listings on the CDs themselves (which makes it difficult to find a certain track). And the awful, cheap cardboard sleeves, which all look alike, doesn't help you to find the CD you're looking for. But if you're just putting them on your MP3 player anyway, what difference does it really make?
The material is hysterical. My favorite tracks are from "Me Talk Pretty One Day"-the self titled chapter and "Jesus Shaves." The live stuff is great too, especially the Carnegie Hall track "With a Pal like this, you don't need an enemy" (a live version of him reading this on Letterman can be found on YouTube-good stuff!). This was one of my favorite Christmas gifts, the other one being David's sister Amy's new book "I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence." If you're not familiar with "Strangers With Candy," you'll know her as the sister that loves to dress up and impersonate people. The one with the fat suit.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cheap repackaging of all works to date (2006),
By ChrisWN (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ultimate David Sedaris Box Set (Audio CD)
I first heard David Sedaris read The Santa Land Diaries on NPR a decade ago & became addicted to not only his stories, but his delivery too. I've picked up most of his books (even getting a few autographed), but never got around to actually getting them read by David himself. This CD set contains the exact same discs from all of the individual audio CD books that he has released up to 2006. If you don't have any of them & already know you enjoy both the stories and the way he reads his own stories, this is a pretty good deal to pick them all up at once. I won't go into a review of the content, since you can go into the individual books to read others' comments on them. I would give this set 5 stars, except that I docked a star for the packaging. It's as bare-bones as it gets. No literature or artwork to accompany it. Just a thin cardboard box containing 4 thin cardboard booklets, containing 5 CDs each. The booklets could have been designed better. They hold the disc vertically so you have to slide them up along the cardboard (scratching them in the process) to get them out. The last leaf holds 2 (one on top of the other) is particularly annoying since they don't fit very well and you have to get the top out to get to the one below. While it's nice to have so many discs fit into a small space, it would have been nicer to have a little bit sturdier and more scratch-proof packaging. The only information (besides the description on the outside of the box) on these is the label on the discs, so you have to pull out the cheap black booklets from the box (which has to be opened to pull out and is likely to fall apart from multiple uses) and pull out the cd's to see which book you are getting a cd from. There's also no guide to which story is on which disc of each individual book.
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