Hodgman, a stone-faced comedian well known from his stints on the Daily Show and doing ads for Apple where he played the PC and now a columnist in the NYT Sunday Magazine, has written a very funny book of essays about his vacations and homes.  Brooklyn, a small town in the Pioneer Valley, and a home on the Maine Coast (probably in Blue Hill, the home of E.B. White), provide the settings for Hodgman’s endless insecurities to manifest themselves.  His essay about buying a Jimmy Steele handmade peapod boat and then trying to get it into the water are hysterical.  Shades of Woody Allen.   Funny and a welcome break from the more serious recent reading.