Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth: And Other Pop Culture Correspondences by John MoeWhen I came across this title, the cover drew me in. As author Jacqueline Navin once wrote in a novel, "I adore correspondence. When a letter arrives from a friend it is like getting a small present." Jim Gaffigan also is quoted on the front as saying, "I loved everything about this book." Mr. Gaffigan is one of my favorite comedians, so I thought I would give this book a go.
When it arrived in the mail, the format threw me off. I thought this book would be more like a little coffee table book or one made of collages. The books that came to my mind include the Post Secret series and À la Cart: The Secret Lives of Grocery Shoppers. (Especially, the À la Cart book.) The format is a paperback in black, white, and gray. The correspondences vary from notes to letters to chalkboards. The fonts also are changed up a bit, but nothing too dramatic, so it is all legible.
Unfortunately, I was left with the feeling of "meh." I picked out the letters I could relate to the most and gave them more of my attention than others. It was more skim reading than detailed reading for me. I think my top choices that made me smile were Dora the Explorer's mother, the man with the yellow hat, and Gunther from Friends. Author Moe is clever and offers lots of new background ideas, but his humor is a bit off-putting for me. The pieces that I read turned sarcastic and snarky. Sometimes the language turned me off. I don't enjoy coarse language, so when it gets thrown into a book I don't always feel compelled to continue with it.
If readers enjoy pop culture and the ridiculous, I would recommend this title to them. It is a humor piece written with adults in mind.
I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.
