Connections
Angela's Picks:
       The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood

From the Inside Flap ...This is the story of the greatest love, ever. An outlandish claim, outrageous perhaps, but trust me...

And so begins the enchanting, unforgettable tale of J.J. Smith, Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records, an ordinary man searching for the extraordinary. J.J. has clocked the world’s longest continuous kiss, 30 hours and 45 minutes. He has verified the lengthiest single unbroken apple peel, 172 feet 4 inches. He has measured the farthest flight of a champagne cork from an untreated, unheated bottle, 177 feet 9 inches. He has tasted the world’s largest menu item, whole-roasted Bedouin camel.

But in all his adventures from Australia to Zanzibar, J.J. has never witnessed great love until he comes upon a tiny windswept town in the heartland of America, where folks still talk about family, faith and crops. Here, where he least expects it, J.J. discovers a world record attempt like no other: Piece by piece, a farmer is eating a Boeing 747 to prove his love for a woman.

In this vast landscape of cornfields and lightning storms, J.J. is doubly astounded to be struck by love for the same woman, Willa Wyatt of the honey eyes and wild blonde hair. It is a feeling beyond measure, throwing J.J.’s carefully ordered world upside down, proving that hearts, like world records, can be broken, and the greatest wonders in life cannot be quantified.

Richly romantic, whimsical, and uplifting, The Man Who Ate the 747 is a flight of fancy from start to finish. It stretches imagination, bends physics and biology, but believe it just a little and you may find yourself reaching for your own world records, the kind that really count. Written with tenderness, originality, and insight, filled with old-fashioned warmth and newfangled humor, it is an extraordinary novel, a found treasure that marks the emergence of a major storytelling talent.

From the Back Cover "This winsome, perceptive and often hilarious comedy is not sparing in its deployment of superlatives. First-time novelist Sherwood, an NBC executive, has produced a heartwarming, gently humorous tale that could set records of its own."

"I laughed all the way through this book—Ben Sherwood is a modern-day Mark Twain who writes of small-town America with love, affection and with a definite twinkle in his eye. A delightful and surprising book from start to finish." —Fannie Flagg (bestselling author of Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!)

"Ben Sherwood has given us a modern American fable. It is smart, funny, touching and quirky—a wonderful love story." —Tom Brokaw

"A genial fable that illuminates the extremes which people are willing to go to in the name of passion." —Francine Prose, US Weekly, Three Stars.

"A salubrious return to a more innocent America, a laugh-out-loud funny romp and a tender love story all rolled into one slim volume...The Man Who Ate the 747 is a rarity—a tale that tickles your funny bone and tugs at your heart."       —Milwaukee Journal.