I don’t remember how exactly I stumbled onto the Vinyl Cafe series but grateful that I did. Since then I have been foraging around to collect all the books in this series which are stunning with their humour.

Title: Vinyl Café Series

Author:  Stuart Mclean

Genre:  Humour

Publication: Riverhead Books

 

Stuart Mclean was a well-known Radio broadcaster with CBC radio. He won several accolades for his humour and wit in telling stories of ordinary people through serious and embarrassing situations but in a fun way. Mclean won the ACTRA award for the best Radio documentary in 1979. He is known as the bestselling author of both fictional and non-fictional works. The Vinyl Café is a series of essays compiled in a number of books which have been widely published in US, UK, Canada and Australia.

Synopsis:

Vinyl café follows the life of a fictional family but with very real characteristics. There is Dave the head of the family who runs a Vinyl store, his wife Morley and the kids Sam and Stephanie. Then there is their elderly neighbour Eugene, Dave’s pal Kenny Wong, an eccentric cat named Galaway and of course the family mutt Arthur. Each character is facing the challenges of a modern life and coping up with it as best as they can.

Stories:

There are tricky situations and embarrassing moments that lead from a set of dentures being stuck on a cob of corn while still being attached to the diner’s mouth; to Dave accidentally spiking the children’s punch bowl at a Christmas Party with hilarious results.

Sam decides to learn to knit but is terrified of his school mates finding out and making fun of him.

Morley gets hooked onto a video game of an egg hatching into a chick which needs feeding every hour.

A simple project of fix-it job at home ends up in setting fire to the house.

It’s normal to try to potty train an eccentric cat who learns to flush the toilet, unbeknown to the family who is mystified by the late night flushing sounds.

Its but natural to create mass hysteria and pandemonium at a school concert.

Have you ever swallowed a fly and then used a light bulb to try to entice it out of your mouth?

What do you do when your neighbour leaves his sour bread starter dough with you to babysit it and you end up killing it?

Dave is making fun of his snooty neighbour Mary Turlington only to realise he leaves it as a message on her machine; the inner workings of his mind lead him to break into her house to erase the message with rib tickling events.

The stories entertain you with its perfect comic timing and leave you in genuine tears of laughter. Each situation is absurd and unique on its own. And there are several with a warm and cosy ending that perk up the softie in you.

Lasting Impression on me:

Needless to say this is one book that I pick up on a day I am in dire need of cheering up. The sense of humour is amazing and tickles the funny bone in places you never knew it could be tickled at. The tongue-in-cheek wit makes the ordinary extraordinary and leaves you wondering if you might not be a part of this world too where absurdities is the way of life.

The telling of the tale is kept simple yet the character sketches are vivid and quite real. One could imagine having such a family living right next door to you.

My Rating:

The Vinyl Café series has given me bags of laughter and I would recommend it to any and every kind of reader.*****

* This post contains affiliate links and if you click to buy from here, I will earn some referral fee amount *

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If you are in need of a good dose of laughter, this is one book series you must not miss to pick out.

P.S: 

I am on a no-book-buying pact as I am pretty much broke; not to mention that I am running out of space as well!! But in case anyone wants to trade their books or send me gifts, please do check out my Wishlist on Amazon & Want to read on Goodreads.

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For the uninitiated, AtoZ challenge is a blogging challenge wherein one has to write on every alphabet from A to Z and post on all days of April, except Sundays. Usually it’s better to devise a theme as it makes it easy to write the posts. Plus readers have a reason to stay hooked too.

The A to Z Challenge is created by  Arlee Bird of Tossing it Out
and co-hosted by

Alex J. Cavanaugh of Alex J. Cavanaugh

Jeremy Hawkins of Hollywood Nuts

Heather M. Gardner of  The Waiting is the Hardest Part
Zalka Csenge Virág of The Multicolored Diary

John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing

J Lenni Dorner of  Blog of J. Lenni Dorner

Some of my previous  posts you might be interested in catching up on

• Theme Reveal 2017
• Theme Reveal 2018
• [V] 2017