Humor Books

Dave Barry's "Complete Guide to Guys" is at once one of the funniest and fact-filled books I have ever read. I had the good fortune to be a little sister to two big brothers growing up, then married a guy, and have spent my career in fields wherein I was the only female professional on a staff of at least 35 or so males, and needed to maintain my femininity while being accepted as "one of the guys."

Dave's book was a Godsend in terms of understanding the "guyness" in my beloved husband and the men and guys with whom I worked. While being ENORMOUSLY entertaining, it contains so many nuggets of truth that will save a multitude of fights in a marriage (and thus, if the woman doesn't bug her husband about his guy stuff, he won't get on her case about her "girly-girl" stuff, which HE doesn't get, but unfortunately to which there is no guide). Ladies, this book will make you look like such a heroine at home and work, because almost NO women "get it" when it comes to the "guyness" in men, and constantly berate them when they're simply doing their "guy thing."

All Mothers should give a copy to their daughters as soon as possible when they're growing up, and I am not exaggerating here, since the guy thing sets in very early in a boy's life. You'll be giving your daughter the advantage of understanding this concept as soon as she possibly can, and maybe get along better with her male classmates at school, and not, as I did, think they were complete, shall we say politely, "jerks."

Anyway, I have never taken the time to write a book review before, but in the case of Dave Barry's "Complete Guide to Guys," I just had to, since it is one of my all-time favorite books (and I am an avid reader). Over the years since its publication, I have bought many copies of it and given them away to cool women who I thought would appreciate knowing the wealth of very useful information about their husbands, sons, boyfriends, colleagues, clients, neighbors, and any other males in their lives. Can't recommend it enough.

As a guy, it is hard not to like something that is clearly written by another guy trying to explain to the rest of the world why we're wired the way we are.

As Barry says, "Woman have always wondered, 'just what are guys thinking?' ... and the answer is, of course, 'not very much'". It's true! Guys are simple creatures -- give a guy a beer and a steak, and he gets happy. Turn off his TV during a game and he becomes unhappy. Cause and effect. None of those inexplicable mind games or multiple levels of reasoning and analysis other genders tend to display; what you see is what you get.

And all jest aside, I think that this is a key message that really needs to get across more so that women everywhere learn to adjust expectations accordingly. A forgotten anniversary is just that -- stupid forgetfulness -- not a sign that he's secretly begun loathing her and now fired the first shot in a battle that will last years and eventually lead to a bitter divorce. A dirty sock on the kitchen counter is not a demonstration of his disrespect for your mother. And yes, that 49ers game really IS more important than your coworker's baby shower.

Of course, this is a humor book so expect at least three laughs per page -- par for the course in Dave Barry reading. So you have a great time PLUS you can use it to make others gain a better understanding when you're done with it. If I ever get married, I'll make sure to strategically leave this book out and "available" -- chances are I just might save myself a ton of grief.

So funny and so on the mark I have bought at least a dozen copies since it came out -- to give to friends. We used to read it at dinner parties, wait until the eating is over, you would otherwise choke!! Laugh so hard you will cry... and smile with recognition. Men and women LOVE this book!

My daughter -- in her late teens -- is experiencing her first Venus vs. Mars misunderstandings with her boyfriend. I am about to buy her a copy of "Guide To Guys" of her own. I expect she'll laugh out loud. Or cry even louder.

This is without a doubt the funniest book I have ever read. Period. And I read a LOT of books.

I love starting the day with this, eveyone wants my old ones when I finish. I think Dilbert seems to relate to every office.

This daily comic helps to relieve the stress and tension in my office. Scott seems to have his finger firmly planted on the pulse of corporate America with Dilbert, Asok, the "pointy-haired guy", Dogbert the evil HR guy, Catbert and more. If you need a therapeutic laugh to make it through your sometimes insane days at work, this is the calendar for you.

You'd think Scott Adams would run out of material. Sadly, today's workplace seems to provide plenty of fodder. Good calendar.

i look forward to getting to the office a little early, tearing off yesterday's sheet, reading today's calendar sheet, and laughing out loud. i use the old sheets to write notes for colleagues (instead of stick-it notes), which usually are apropros to the office goings on that day. i love adams' creativity - the ironies and utter stupidity are something that we all can really relate to at work! for the amount of laughter that this calendar has given me and my colleagues, it was well worth the price and i'm destined to purchase it again next year!

I've had this on my desk the last 3 or so years. This time around I ordered the desk diary by mistake.
I tried to persuade myself that I could use that one, and do without the daily, but I caved in, and ordered this again. Makes the working day get off to a routinely funny start, always a chuckle. A great gift too.

I can't fault it.

Picked this book up when looking for fodder to help sort through a number of issues of mine relating to "growing up" and accepting change. This book is particularly good because it deals with the difficulty an otherwise jaded & skeptical person can experience when faced with accepting something truely positive for their life ... like a relationship that actually works!

Given the nature of the topic, it's length was about right ... but still, I was a little disappointed that I finished reading it so quickly (only ~2 hours, and I am a slow reader!).

Overall, I like Anita's perspective and I appreciate her means of expressing it ... even if I find her to be more than a tad solipsistic. Actually, the fact that she apparently revels in her egocentrism and makes no apologies for it almost makes it acceptible.

An angry poet and performer meets the perfect man, falls in love, and struggles to escape a strange state of bliss in How to Stay Bitter Through The Happiest Times of Your Life, which uses blog entries, poems, to-do lists and more to explore her changed life. While it's difficult to neatly peg this title - it's part memoir, part humor, part psychology - it's something any public library collection should put on its display shelves, and is especially recommended for New Yorkers who will readily recognize the caustic humor.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

You know how sometimes you love the first book an author wrote so much that you're afraid to read their next one for fear of being disappointed? There's nothing to fear here. Anita's follow up to her hilarious debut "How to Heal the Hurt by Hating" is just as insightful and entertaining. Do yourself a favor and add it to your cart immediately. Oh, and you might want to buy two because this is not one you're going to want to lend to your friends.

Oh my gosh - once again Anita Liberty KICKS [...]!! Her books are hysterical and so funny that you just laugh out loud (caution to those of you who read in unfunny places). If you've been through a break up, good one or bad, her books are a MUST. You'll relate to everything she says and has the nerve to do. If you haven't been through a break-up, good for you but read the book anyway. So, if you are reading this review to see if you should buy this book - DO IT NOW and get How To Heal The Hurt By Hating while you're at it - now GO!!

It's hard to stay grounded when you fall in love - and it's even harder to keep a sense of humor and reality once you become engaged and begin planning a wedding. The experience of falling in love to getting married is both amazing and overwhelming. However, somewhere in between the dress shopping, the registry, the diet, the guest lists and the family drama, a woman can forget who she is and who she was before the entire process began. This is where Anita Liberty steps in and slaps every intelligent, independent and accomplished woman who is going through (or has gone through) this process and reminds them that who they were before the engagement will inform who they'll be after the engagement and during the marriage. Anita's poetry is inspiring, funny, and real. In one poem, she admits that she doesn't want to get engaged, for fear of losing her independence, but also acknowledges that some other part of her really wants to be married and is dissappointed when an engagement doesn't come sooner. To me, this poem echoed what so many women I know go through as they fall in love - they want to be with that person entirely, but they don't want to lose who they are completely in the process. And I think that within the pages of Anita's book, any person can identify with the contradicting feelings she has, the inner struggles, and even the surrender to a Vera gown (despite a desire for simplicity). The book is about saying goodbye to ex-lovers, saying hello to one's future, and embracing who you are as an individual going forward. I laughed, I cried and I re-read it the same day I finished it. I really hope you consider buying this for yourself or for your friend/sister/cousin because it's more therapeutic than that hour massage you planned on buying her at the local spa.

One of the funniest books I've read, even for a bit of a hypochondriac like myself. FULL of the most fear-inducing information that one shouldn't take on board- like the chapter on ordinary body quirks that could meant the most catastrophic of illnesses. Particularly amusing (for me) was the chapter where the author interviews a Proctologist. Hilarious, with insane little footnotes, and illustrations. Be prepared for a rather sobering finale. Great book.

Despite the macabre subject matter, this is a hilarious book. I laughed out loud many, many times. And while it may, indeed, feed a true hypochondriac's neurosis, it can also show just how obnoxiously far you can take it. I will admit that even I (not so much a hypochondriac) took a few of the `tests' presented in the book. I evidently have about a half-dozen serious medical conditions...

If you like Dave Barry, you'll like this book.

Warning... this is not for the paranoid, for those that read every bad bio-terrorisim book out there then wonder if they've contracted Ebola, or for those who call emergency when they've stubbed their toe thinking it's fleah eating cancer....
Great book full of witty looks at all the medical disasters that can kill ya...
It is well written, funny, well organised and lends itself to reading to friends and relatives who enjoy combining a lack of medical background with pure paranoia. Keep a copy around for flu season...

Several laugh out loud moments. Weingarten's newspaper column is funnier than this book. I love the column. The book isn't bad.

If you truly want to sample Weingarten at his best read his column.

Gene Weingarten used to be Dave Barry's editor at The Miami Herald. Enough said.

After each email ended, I was faced with a conundrum: keep reading on or stop and save the rest for later, savoring each email like a piece of fine chocolate. I wanted to keep reading on, but didn't want this book to end!

I stumbled across this book as I searched for books with the same themes as mine (humor, education). The book preview was enough to convince me to buy the book--I liked the author's style of humor and the writing was good.

This book is hilarious! I especially like how the author uses references from previous chapters in subsequent ones, adding to the comedy by making the reader feel like a story insider.

I have so many favorite lines, but I think "Calls me Ishmaels" takes the cake! I hope this author writes more in the future!

John Pearson's quick wit and descriptive storytelling made for great reading in between grading papers. Some of his chapters/emails almost made the paste I was eating shoot out my nose. Although the semi-autobiographical Learn Me Good details John's first year as a elementary school teacher, I found that it resonated with me as a middle school teacher as well.

Good stuff...

With the holidays just around the corner, this book is the perfect stocking stuffer or gift for anyone who has ever attended or worked in a public school (so that's just about everyone). Learn Me Good is funny, insightful and a quick read. The format (the story is told through emails) is creative and allows those of us with busy schedules to be able to read the book on the go and not miss a funny beat. I highly recommend putting this book on your Christmas list.

Learn Me Good tracks the weekly correspondence sent between Jack Woodson and his former co-worker, Fred Bommerson. Having been laid off by Heat Pumps Unlimited, a thermal design firm in Texas, Jack pursues a new career path, spurred mainly by the enjoyment he's always derived from working with kids. With a natural knack for math & science, he becomes a third-grade teacher, embarking upon new adventures in the field of public education - the magnitude of which he can only imagine.

Jack quickly adapts to his new responsibilities, even quipping to Fred about the status report he'll soon send to the Alumni Office at his alma mater, Duke University:

"Jack M. Woodson (Duke engineering, class of `95) is currently living and working in Dallas, TX. He has forty children, and all of them have different mothers."

Thus begins Pearson's tale, an engaging study in the real education that goes on in the classroom, outside of textbooks, hall passes, and morning announcements. With its subtle cynicism, biting wit, and endless allusions to pop culture, Learn Me Good draws you in with just how easily Jack's everyday experiences with eight- and nine-year-old children parallels that which we experience with full-grown adults on the job, at home, and everywhere else.

Without apology, Pearson takes jabs at every aspect of what passes for normalcy among today's childrearing practices. He even pulls off this commentary on the conduct of a school district representative assigned to check the students' eyesight with sardonic aplomb:

"She felt that some kids may not WANT to wear glasses, so she made her pitch, and I quote: 'I think glasses are SEXY!'...Should you really use the word 'sexy' around eight- and nine-year-olds? It's like airing a commercial for Bacardi rum in the middle of an episode of Sesame Street (Today's episode is brought to you by the letter B and the number 151!)"

And consider this assessment of the real priorities of today's youth:

"Chassity had been caught writing a note to one of the other girls. The gist of the note was basically 'You're a witch. Who's a witch? You are, you witch.' And on, and on. Only, she didn't use the word 'witch,' instead preferring a more socially unacceptable rhyming word. Kelly and I had joked about the fact that nearly all of the words in the note were misspelled EXCEPT for that one word."

Pearson tramps the hallowed ground of public education with piercing wit and unrelenting irreverence, giving it a not-so-good-natured - but much needed - ribbing. He even takes a fair swipe at the current presidential approach to education:

"No Child Left Behind? No Child Left Untested Till He's Blue In The Face is more like it"

It's not always fun and games, though. Throughout his narrative, Pearson does an effective job of pointing out the various nuances of public education that rarely bring about smiles and laughter. Chief among these is the concept of mobility rate: the tendency of students to enroll and withdraw at the school at an alarming frequency. He even goes so far as to make the point that merely weeks into the new school year some teachers could have an entirely different class of students, which often makes them ruefully aware of the attachments that come and go:

"Why can't the good ones stay?? I know, I'm being selfish, I'll admit it. I'm just afraid when a good kid leaves, because it just opens a hole for another Mark Peter to come in."

Considering the fact that Mark Peter routinely steals teachers' items and physically terrorizes other students, one can hardly blame Jack for this sentiment.

Timely, insightful, and absolutely hilarious, Learn Me Good needs to be required reading for anyone considering teaching as a profession. Much like the crip notes for War & Peace, it's an indispensable guide to all the real training you'll never formally get.

Really enjoyed this quick read. Laughed out loud throughout the book. I highly recommend it to teachers and non-teachers!

The fact that I've been searching for this book for several years is testimonial to its timeless charm. I read this book 25 years ago and have wanted to own it for quite sometime. Now that I finally found it on Amazon, I'm delighted that I can share it with my high school children who have heard so much about the book from me over the years. The book kept me in fits of laughter and I've never viewed Shakespeare's plays the same way again. Besides being funny, the stories actually convey the real plot though presenting them in an irreverent light. There are also a lot of unnecessary footnotes included. A must read for ages 13 and above.

I read Twisted Tales many years ago and loved it. Richard Armour has made the Shakespeare plays a hilarious read. When my daughter was in the second grade, she mentioned something about Shakespeare and I said I had a very funny book about his plays which I would give to her when she was older. She insisted on reading the book then anyway, loved it and goes back to it frequently. She is now 16 and recently asked for the book again!
I actually came to the Amazon website to look for more books by Richard Armour. We definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves puns, jokes and great humor, all at the expense of the great Shakespeare plays. You can even follow all the plot twists and characters in Midsummer Nights Dream.

I read Armour's books over and over again when I was younger, they are *so* hysterical and brilliant, and I was so happy to read that there are others who remember and love his books, I felt as if I was among long-lost friends...the books must be published again!

Even my favorite bookstore can't find me this one. I hadn't thought of this book in years; my 14-year-old son had an assignment to rewrite the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, and it reminded me of this book. I must find it for him. I have always loved Shakespeare and deplore what passes for literature these days, so my recommendation for this book may seem odd, but this book is a must-read for all Shakespeare lovers. Let down your hair and enjoy it!

If you've ever enjoyed reading and/or seeing Shakespeare, or if you feel you've suffered terribly studying his plays in school, this book is for you. Going through several plays scene by scene (sometimes line by line), Armour finds humor even in the Bard's most serious moments. He also writes short introductory pieces to each play and a wonderful introduction. This book, along with Armour's "The Classics Reclassified," should be back in print to be enjoyed by the new generation and the ones that preceded it.

Henry isn't sure why at age 15 he bought the John Denver album. He continues, "Let's chalk it up to raging pubescent hormones, psychotropic drugs at too early an age, too many Herman Hesse books, a compromised decision making capacity, and a general absence of free will."

Well, I don't know why I think it's so funny when he makes fun of John Denver, especially since I've always liked his music, but it is funny. Pubescent hormones? Yes, neurobiology tells us they'll make us crazy...psychotropic drugs at an age perhaps earlier than 15?...whew...too many Herman Hesse books? Well, I read them all in my mid-twenties, and several of Louis Lamour's, but the Hesse entry does work nicely. The last one - general absence of free will - blew me away! - one side of an ever current philosophical enigmatic question thrown in following a bunch of unrelated one-liners which strangely enough make a coherent and hilarious sentence.

To a conservative political pundit, Panky says, "Darling Ann, my winsome hyena, how I yearn to slip the tough leather straps over your slavering muzzle and ride you like a gaucho through the befouled and slippery charnel house of your political desires." Wow! This sentence paints quite a picture for a guy like me who doesn't really understand poetry. Continuing..."Your saccharine sophistries reek (italics) of an utterly Faustian and silver-tongued sodomy of the human spirit." I don't think he likes her.

Tongue in cheek he deprecates himself: "Even utter strangers naturally sense my Ivy League roots. Those lustrous days spent upon the mountain peak of academe, bathed in the brilliant light of reason, breathing in the high, Rocky mountain spring water of purest intellect, have imbued a certain effulgent je ne sais quoi (italics) deep into my very marrow. It's who I am. You might as well try to hide the Koih-noor diamond under a cheap thrift store merkin."

Well, okay, I have to keep the English and French dictionaries handy, and several trivia books. When I understand most of the servings, I feel proud. By the way, these examples from the book weren't exactly cherry-picked. When I came across the "free will" comment, I decided I had to write a review. The other 2 selections were just short enough, had not been mentioned in other reviews, and were found in the next 7 pages.

This book is an introduction to a new way of perceiving our world, the Hank E. Panky way. If you are tired of the same old mundane books...if you have memorized the self-help book by your commode...Try a little Hank E. Panky, and I predict a satisfied customer. I can't wait to get my hands on his next book.

I first fell in love with Henry Panky on his web site. I would have willingly had his baby had it not been for the onset of menopause, the fact I was already married, lived 2000 miles away and hate inconvenience. I was aware of his sick obsession with Meg Ryan and even Renee Zellwegger, but it didn't stop my heart from beating wildly. Brilliant comedic writers have always been my weakness. When the book came out, I devoured it like a dingo at a turkey farm. Stay away from me Henry, this is too big for the both of us!! I'll always have your book to keep me warm and giggly.

Moments of pure brilliance shine through the deluge of self-important information, conspiracy, smut, self-help, sales, scams and spam that is the neon strip of the world wide web where I first encountered Henry Panky. If you don't recognise yourself in this portrait you're delusional! The mercilessly self-depricating, perpetually puffed up, deflated, flatulent, moaning, crowing character that is Henry Panky crossed over the hazy line to where he began building his own magnificent legend. It is a delight to share his excruciating pain. Dear sir: thank you for your wonderfull, ridiculous comedy. I laughed til I cried. It is a deranged world we live in and these 173 pages of lunacy helped me face tomorrow laughing. This is one #$@!!! funny book!

Henry E. Panky, Associate of Arts (candidate) is the insane alter ego of author Patrick Carlisle, though several disclaimers try to convince readers otherwise. Why use your alter ego to write a book of assorted rants? If you published an essay titled "The Crisis in Pubic Hair" would you want your name attached to it?

Unfair & Unbalanced lives up to its title, though it is more unbalanced (in a mental sense) than unfair. Panky does everything from proclaiming a sick love for Meg Ryan to trying his hand at mystery writing, and all of it is hilarious. Some of it even makes sense, and that is worrisome.

Carlisle, as Panky, knows how to make people laugh. Whether he's fumbling a review for an old movie he saw years ago (but just got around to writing about), or trying to explain his mandago bag , he is tuned into the world's humor ley lines. Not everyone will appreciate his efforts or even get it, but who cares?. He's doing this for the sinners, intellectuals, welfare cheats and politicians of the world, and they're the ones who most need to read this work of brilliance. -- Doug Brunell for the FEARLESS REVIEWS

Unfair & Unbalanced: The Lunatic Magniloquence of Henry E. Panky by Patrick M. Carlisle is a wry and captivatingly hysterical look at the baffling contradictions of modern life. Holding no hypocricy sacred, chapters such as "O' Foreskin, Where Art Thou?" and "The Crisis in Pubic Hair" do not hestiate to push the envelope on human sexuality, while "Letter to Dave Barry", "The Insatiable Meat Cleaver of Bette Davis", and "Letter to Ann Coulter" challenge other public figures in an eye-popping manner. Unfair & Unbalanced spares no effort to be hysterically funny, perhaps at the price of good taste but what is that, really? No fewer than four separate disclaimers lead into the hilarity, and the whetted observations within require it, for they are at least four times as cutting-edge as the leading "fair and balanced" commentary.

Wonder Woman: The Complete History is a delightful book for fans of the character, even if you only know her from the old TV show. The background of her creation by a clinical psychologist was very enlightening.

The illustrations throughout are excellent and all in all, it's terrific book, exceptionally well written by Les Daniels.

I have always enjoyed Les Daniels and his carefully researched books of comics history, but everyone has a blind spot. Wonder Woman is obviously his. This book, beautifully designed as it is, fails to capture what has made Wonder Woman such an enduring character and icon. It's clear on almost every page, Daniels is unimpressed by her. It's fine if he doesn't like her -- no one character can be everyone's favorite -- but it does make for a frustrating read at times when one wishes to celebrate Wonder Woman's unique place in comics history. His fascination with her creator is evident to the point that it seems clear Daniels would much rather write about Marston than Diana. His heavy emphasis on the bondage subtext of the Golden Age incarnation undercuts the more postive surface elements of those stories. Indeed, he sneers at Gloria Steinem's endorsement of those early years, casting great disbelief that there could be anything of substance taken from them.

Also, as another reviewer points out, Daniels gives short shrift to George Perez's post-Crisis revamp. Widely acknowledged by fans as the high point of her modern career, it's strange to see Daniels blandly note the support Perez got from female collegues in overhauling Wonder Woman's character and deride it by calling the later issues akin to ADVENTURES OF MENOPAUSAL MOM (I'm paraphrasing but only slightly). Daniels here suffers from the same fanboy syndrome that infuses the industry these days -- the idea that if HE doesn't appreciate it, it must be terrible. Meanwhile, Mike Deodato's art is viewed favorably, despite that being universely considered a lower point in the post-Crisis stories.

At the end of the book, it really seems as if Daniels only reluctantly churned it out because of a contractual obligation. His Superman and Batman books are excellent and filled with total respect for the characters and their appeal. If only he could've retained enough objectivity for the Wonder Woman assignment. Despite it all, it is a beautiful book and the history is thorough and still fascinating if somewhat subjective. Good for historical nuts, not so good for WW fans.

Not only do you get hte nostalgic book with the history of this heroine, you get the figurine that you can display and become the envy of all your friends! The statue is of classic Wonder Woman, the one from the 50's. She's still wearing the skirt.

This is truly rare. It's fantastic for all collectors and a MUST-HAVE for all die-hard fans!

First off, loved the book. It was nice to read the comments from Lynda Carter and see the multitude of changes that WW has gone through. But I did notice two things, the actress that played Wonder Woman's mother in that tiny demo in the 60's was named Maudie Pricket and the photo of Ms. Carter's costume says it is from the first season and it's not, it's from the CBS years as are the bracelets and tiara on the following page. I know Ms. Carter preferred the CBS years updated costume but the original on worn while fighting Nazis in the more humorous years will always be my absolute favorite! Thanx...

Les Daniels' Wonder Woman: The Complete History is the third book in a 3-volume series (the first two addressed Superman and Batman). While not without its flaws, it's overall a well-researched and enjoyable treatment of the character.

Wonder Woman first appeared in 1941, the brainchild of Dr. William Moulton Marston (writing under the pen name Charles Moulton), by any standard a bit of a weirdo who's remembered today for two things: (1) he invented the polygraph, (2) Wonder Woman, of course.

I could pick a few nits with Daniels' text. In places he does reveal an ignorance on certain topics. For instance, when speaking of Marston's World War I U.S. Army service, he states Marston "rose to the rank of second lieutenant." False. No officer (and I can't imagine someone of Marston's high educational level ever being an enlisted man) "rises" to Second Lieutenant because that's the absolute lowest officer rank.

Daniels is extremely opinionated. How much space is allocated to any of Wonder Woman's creative teams over the decades is very much controlled by how much Daniels likes their work. Obviously the Marston stories, with artwork by Harry G. Peters, are his favorites thus receive the most attention, though he devotes surprising time and positive comment to the generally despised stories written by Robert Kanigher. This is fine. Half the fun of a book like this is getting the writer's likes and dislikes on the character and her creators. Where I part company with Daniels is his low opinion of the George Perez stories of the mid-1980s thru early '90s. Daniels devotes an entire chapter to Kanigher's creation of such fascinating (hah!) characters as Glop (a "shapeless mass of grinning goo from outer space [which] absorbed everything in its path including 100 rock 'n' roll records"), Wonder Tot ("Mommy be proud to see me now!"), and Egg Fu (a Chinese Communist agent inexplicably shaped like an egg the size of a house, who used his mustaches as weapons and had a Charlie Chan speech pattern). After that, it was more than a little disappointing to have the Perez stories, considered by many Wonder Woman fans including myself the character's finest hour (especially the stories on which Perez did the artwork in addition to scripting) dealt with in a mere seven text pages, much of that explaining how they weren't really all that hot.

The only truly major flaw in this book involves its layout. These days, book publishers are terrified of the Internet. And well they should be. However, instead of focusing their efforts on what books do better that the 'net - provide one, continuous, uninterrupted stream of information - publishers' response has been to make their book pages look as much as possible like web pages. Lots of bright colors, lots of sidebars. I hate sidebars. I don't appreciate having to flip back and forth between pages, sometimes reading blocks of text in four or five different locations, to get all the info. More to the point in this particular book, choice of color on some of the sidebars is extremely poor, so much so it's difficult to read the text. Black lettering against a dark blue or dark red background just doesn't make it.

With those few negatives out of the way, this book is a delight. It's all here: a biography of Marston, on to the creation of Wonder Woman, all the creative teams of note and their storylines up til this book's publication date (2000), the Cathy Lee Crosby made-for-television movie, the Lynda Carter TV show, Wonder Woman merchandise, her appearance on the cover of Ms. magazine's first issue, etc. This book is a must-have for fans of one of the 20th/21st Century's most fascinating fictional creations.

This book is so funny!!! I bought it because I wanted something funny to read and try to find out what is in a man's head when he is getting ready for a date, getting engaged, etc. 2 Funny!! I'm sure that all the accounts in the book are right on for most bachelors today! I read this in one evening, then shared it with my Dad, my brother, my friends. I don't really know who has it now, but everybody wants to read it.

I really enjoyed this. It relates back to real-life situations many of us have seen. Lots of good chuckles, and some really good laughs. Highly recommended. Thanks, Larry.

I find it odd that the bulk of the high praise comes from the Seattle Washington area, but since the author is from the same area perhaps not that odd at all. It's good to support your friends but let us not skew the facts.
I thought what the hey I'll give it a read might get a laugh, it was readable, I snickered a time or two. I find it falls far short of 5 stars. I mean let's be real it's a nice short read with no real revolations. Pretty much part of the ebay 15 minutes of fame ride from the wedding dress auction.
Read it if you want it's mildly entertaining book I'd give it 2 1/2 stars at best, but out of kindness and the fact that Amazon doesn't have a 2 1/2 rating it gets 3.

Very fun book to read. Everyone will be able to relate to the things described, not just for bitter old men. Well written and worth your time and money. Easy and enjoyable to read.

Funny, hilarious, crazy!! Larry Star is great! Lessons we should all use in life! Thanks Larry for a great read and hilarious if not true lessons in dating and relationships!

CDB! (Stories to Go!)

I was very excited to find this book for my grandbaby. We had great fun with it when her aunts were small. Who would have thought back then that William Stieg invented 'text speak'. I even stumped my youngest daughter with NQ!

I ordered this since my sister received it and thought it was a great book. Unfortunately, this copy does not come with the answers. Look for the hard cover version, that has the answers in the back.

This book is as intriguing and entertaining was it was 25+ years ago when I read it to my children. As an educator, I discovered this book to be a source of entertainment and challenge to my children as well as a wonderful tool to help my students as they struggle with reading skills. I recently purchased it again for my grandchildren since my copy was misplaced over the years...and they love it as their mother when she was their age.
Buy it and use...it will help dust off the gray matter and delay alzehemier. :)

smart! adorable! unexpected! (the book, not my kids...)
This book really has us rolling in laughter. My sons (ages 4 and 6) and I have been playing with an electronic toy: push a letter and the thing says the letter's name. We had been using it to make word sounds -- pressing U R A Q T for "you are a cutie" and so forth. When I saw this book I just had to get it. It is amazingly clever -- and to think it was written in 1968. It's fresh, not at all dated. My sons are very good readers for their respective ages, but it is definitely appropriate for them. I had to explain a phrase or two (they didn't know the word "ecstacy" when they saw X-T-C) but otherwise it was totally on their level. I still crack up reading it, and I've read it at least ten times. The watercolor illustrations are perfect. Stieg conveys a lot of emotion and expression with just a few brush strokes. When a boy sees someone with a lollipop and tells him "I N-V U," you can see the envy.
I won't mind if my kids want to read this one again and again. I M N X-T-C 2!

This book helped me learn to read when i was 3 years old. As long as you know the alphabet you can read this book, which makes it perfect for children who are learning to read.