Blurb for the back cover:
"Fantastic coffee table book"

What can you tell about a person from their shopping list? From my shopping list you might conclude that I am worried about scurvy and that, like all good pirates, I enjoy a rum and coke every now and again. In Hillary Carlip ‘s book a la Cart she takes judging people based on their shopping lists one step further and becomes these people. Having collected discarded shopping lists for a long time, Carlip has quiet the collection. She has selected some of her favorites and personified the person who wrote it. This book features photographs of the shoppers but the kicker is that they are all Hillary. Dominie Till who did her make-up and hair styles did a fantastic job. Accompanying the photographs are are brief stories that give the reader a little inside in to the life of the shopper. There is Sally the eleven year old girl who has a habit of spending her mother’s change to the disturbed Derrick whose list is made of up three items: Mouse Traps, Cheese, Mouse. I think this book is a fantastic coffee table book because it’s not too serious but enjoyable to flip through.

This is Hillary Carlip ‘s second book. Her first book a memoir entitled Queen of the Oddballs was published in 2006. I gave Queen of the Oddballs to my mother as a gift and she loved it. I, however, had a hard time fully enjoying the book because it chronicles that odd place in time known as the 60′s. You’d probably enjoy this book if you, unlike me, knew who Carly Simon is and what The Gong Show was.

Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 4:39 pm.
Filed under: Book Review, Thoughts on Books.