Back to four volumes this month, my minimal commitment for retirement-era book consumption.

Three of the four came from our collection of Folio Society books (which has grown past 700 titles this month, thanks to eBay).

But first, a just-released heart-wrenching memoir caught my eye. The title is so disturbing I can’t even bring myself to type the words.

Book 1: a memoir by Jennette McCurdy

I remember so well watching iCarly on TV with James. The character of Sam, played by Jennette McCurdy, was quirky and delightful. But after reading her memoir, I realize she wasn’t living her dream, she was living her sick mother’s dream.

There are laws to protect child actors, their time on set, their education, their paychecks. But there were no laws to protect Jennette from her mother, and later, from herself. Despite the subject matter, Jennette writes with a witty flair.

Book 2: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

I wish I could remember where I first heard this story as a kid. It was on television, I think, in the ’60s.

A quick check on YouTube, and this movie trailer from 1939 stirred up memories (especially Gabby, the understandably frantic town crier):

… oh, but the book isn’t exactly the same.

For one thing, Gulliver takes four journeys. The first is the well-known Voyage to Lilliput.

Gulliver finally makes it home to his family, but the call of the sea takes him back out. This time, it’s to a land where he experiences the opposite of Lilliput, and is tiny. Throughout his tale, Irish author Jonathan Swift leans on satire to criticize government and religion. He was quoted as saying he wrote this classic: “to vex the world rather than divert it.”

Book 3: Beyond the Pale & Other Stories by William Trevor

Irishman William Trevor got me every time. His short stories are beautifully written and pure pleasure to read. But just as I got caught up in each situation and set of characters, the end would come. And let’s just leave it at this: There’s never a happy ending. Oh, the Irish!

Just for the heck of it, I looked up the origin of the idiom “beyond the pale,” which means unacceptable. It centers around the word “pale,” which is a boundary-marking wooden fence. The thought is if you move past the pale, your action is downright uncivilized.

Book 4: The Best of Dorothy Parker

American wit Dorothy Parker didn’t just write theater reviews (“She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B”) and biting quips (“Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone”). She didn’t just have an incredible talent in turning a phrase (“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy”). She also wrote poetry and short stories.

Her chatty short stories just go to prove how silly Ms. Parker felt women were. Men, too. So maybe it was more that she meant to disparage the well-off in New York who spent their lives bickering, making up, and being snooty.

Oh, and by the way … the actress she critiqued so harshly? The one and only Katharine Hepburn.

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