Life among the Lutherans, Garrion Keillor

As we approach the holiday season, it's time to indugent in a few sweets. Garrison Keillor's newest books, "Life among the Lutherans" definitely falls in the "sweet" category of easy reading.

Poking gentle fun at the mid-west American breed of Lutherans -- no hugging allowed except perhaps a sideways hug, but only after 30 years of friendship -- Garrison shares slices of daily life for Pastor Ingqvist and his flock.

Life for the Lutherans in Lake Wobegon is not without its ups and downs, but Garrison coats it all with a gentle soothing self-depracating humour. I enjoyed the first few stories the most, but by the end I was getting little drowsy.

Anyway, it's a fun read for a quiet afternoon.

True Porn Clerk Stories, by Ali Davis

Everyone has to work somewhere and sometimes you take what you can get. For Ali Davis, an artist and writer, working in a video store that rents porn is just a golden opportunity to diversify her life's experiences.

With a wry sense of humour, Davis ruminations on the clientele who favor porn and the incidental disgusting bits, like "spooge" (semen) blobs on returned videos tell a tale not often heard in polite society.

Who rents porn? The lonely, the disenfranchised, the disturbed? Or merely the curious? Have a great read with this one - Ali's writing is to the point, honest and real.