The Second Coming, plus an addition to my Must List

I will admit that I am terrible about declaring a book amazing and wonderful based on a good first chapter or so. Oftentimes the rest of the book doesn't merit the gushing I did about the beginning, and I feel bad about recommending it to everyone I know. However, I refuse to believe that this is the case with Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You. Holy crap, this book is amazing. The way Tropper writes is better than just about anything I have ever encountered. Of course, I am only on page 44, but I don't think I've ever read a better 44 pages. I've heard critics describe a book as searing, but I've never thought that myself until I read Tropper's description of Judd Foxman walking in on his wife in bed with his boss. The entire chapter is wrenching and heartbreaking, but also laugh-out-loud funny in places. Chapter 3 begins, "My marriage ended the way these things do: with paramedics and cheesecake." Please read it so you can find out the purpose for the cheesecake (heartbreaking) and where it ended up (hilarious). Also: flaming testicles. What more can I say?

[Here's what more I can say: Judd's brother is described as "the Paul McCartney of our family: better-looking than the rest of us, always facing a different direction in pictures, and occasionally rumored to be dead" (Tropper 4).]

Oh, and my Must List: I have to add Hoyt from True Blood. On a show that often goes too far for me (Bill and Lorena's '20s tryst? Gag, vomit, shudder), his sweet manner with Jessica is a nice counterbalance. His relationship with his wicked-witch mother is great, too. I loved the scene in the last episode in which he goes through the laundry list of everyone she hates: "You hate African Americans!" "Shh! That's a secret!" I almost fell off the couch.