Extreme Vinyl Cafe

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Stuart McLean
Format: Hardcover (others available)
Pages: 265
Rating: 6 out of 10

Summary (via Goodreads): If you ask them, Dave and Morley's friends will tell you that no matter how long you've known people, they can still surprise you.

After all, no one expects to see a grown man dive into the trunk of his car to chase a rat. And despite what they may claim, few people are actually prepared to have their backyard, never mind their twelve-year-old son, shoot to stardom on YouTube's Most Watched Videos. And yes the sight of an 87-year-old bungee-jumping off a cruise ship is...unusual. But well-wishers at the Vinyl Cafe will advise you to be philosophical about such things.

No matter who sends a volley of nails through your truck window, which mannequin is disrobed or how green your skin turns when your mom leaves town, life marches on. In Extreme Vinyl Cafe bestselling author Stuart McLean regales us with the wild impulses, and extreme behaviours of Canada's favourite characters at the Vinyl Cafe. 

My Thoughts: At first, I wasn't really into this book. I had no idea where it came from or how it ended up on my shelf. I'm still not sure. I think it just materialized there one night while I was asleep but never noticed. Anyway, I thought that it was short enough that I should just suck it up and finally read it. I'm sad to say that I'm not a fan of short stories. I like to get with my characters and stick with me. I was happy to find out that this uses most of the same characters. I was sooooooo glad I didn't have to keep learning new characters; my mind can't take that. I was also excited to find out that most of the stories were pretty funny. Some of the short stories in this book had me laughing so hard and others had me face palming because, really, who gets into these kinds of messes? My favourite story might have been the one about planning funerals because something like what happened in the story would happen in my family. 

This book was easy to pick up and put down. It was okay that I had to stop reading to do my homework because they were short stories and I could easily keep up with what was happening. I found that I became quickly interested in each story once I started to read it. 

Something else that was good was that the author was answering fan mail (all of these letters were hilarious). It taking place in Canada was something nice too; it doesn't happen very often.

Final Thoughts: You will enjoy this book more if you already enjoy short stories or if you only have small blocks of time to kill. If you enjoy making fun of people that do stupid things then this book may give you a few good chuckles. I will not be buying the other books in this series but I can see myself returning to this one whenever I feel like having a laugh. I thought that it was more for a grown up audience though and it's quite different than the YA I normally read. 

P.S. What kind of music do you want at your funeral?