Holly wood Animal: A memior by Joe Eszterhaus

Basic Instinct writer Eszterhaus stars in his own life history, a life divided between his two children and wife he was steadily growing apart from, and Hollywood, where he ruled the roost by producing hot script after hot script. I preferred reading about his time in the movie business, which seemed to consist of hanging out with Don Simpson, living next door to Bob Dylan in Malibu and taking meetings with studio execs dressed in shorts and flip flops (all the better to tell those lousy suits to go fuck themselves), and not the lengthy, messy breakup with his wife. He started a second family with his current wife, survived a cancer scare, moved back to his hometown Cleavland and  and, according to Wikipedia, is now a born again catholic. Recommended.

The Discomfort Zone – Jonathan Franzen

This series of autobiographical essays reads like The Corrections’ DVD extras. Franzen’s warm prose examines Charlie Brown, selling his deceased parents’ house, church youth groups and bird watching. Recommended.