This book, written with the participation of the full cast and crew, has received excellent reviews from members on the website Goodreads.com, including some devoted "Modern Family" viewers.

Sicily first entered my consciousness as a teen, through movies like "The Godfather" and the eponymous style of pizza. As I grew older, I learned that an enormous number of early-20th century Italian immigrants came from this island, a region which has been raided, plundered, and ultimately neglected and left to fend for itself by the government in Rome following the unification of Italy in the mid-1800s. Since visiting for the first time in 2013 and falling in love - a love which has not been entirely reciprocated (lost luggage, missed flights, a broken toe) - I've returned almost every year, and I've taken Ms. Prose's book with me on several of these trips. It is not a guidebook to the island, but it could be. Her love of Sicily is passionate and evident on every page.

One of many excellent books about comedy, this one is specifically devoted to the L.A. scene of the 1970s. Much of the action is centered around Mitzi Shore's legendary Comedy Store club. David Letterman, Elaine Boosler, Jay Leno, Richard Pryor, Andy Kauffman, and others are here either in the narrative or in actual interviews. Probably the most gripping part of the book is the attempt by some of the comedians - whom Mitzi Shore did not pay and whom she appears to have exploited in other ways - to form a union. It's not all laughs, and the tragic fate of the comedian Steve Lubetkin is only the most graphic example of the ensuing fall-out. Later made into a series on Showtime.