Humor Books

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.

Is it possible that just 20 years ago that Calvin and Hobbes - - one of the finest comics strips ever created - - was fresh and poignant every day in the paper?

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us," says Calvin, looking at the chain-sawn stump of a tree, in 'Weirdos from Another Planet' by Bill Watterson. The demise of Calvin and Hobbes is reason enough not to contact Earthlings.

Doonesbury by Gary Trudeau is sometimes still incisive, with the same brilliance in political observations as when it was new and Richard Nixon was newly president. But brilliance is boring after 40 years of repetition. Doonesbury is dated. Nixon is long disgraced, dead and gone.

Calvin remains relevant, because like Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' he dealt with the universal human condition - - - as it applies to small boys and to the grown men they become without ever losing their small-boy outlook on olife.

"Do you believe our destinies are shaped by the stars?" Calvin asks Hobbes.

Ever the logical one, Hobbes replies, "Nah."

Calvin counters with words as relevant today as in 1988, because, "Life's a lot more fun when you're not responsible for your actions."

How do we greet strangers? Calvin went to Mars and, after mugging for the Viking Lander "to blow some circuits at NASA" he met a live Martian. Hobbes thought the Martian must be as scared of them as they are of the Martian. Like many of us when meeting a foreign culture, Calvin explains, "We're just ordinary Earthlings, not weirdos from another plsanet, like HE is."

Doonesbury was similarly brilliant in portraying Nixon as a weirdo; but, Nixon nostalgia remains firmly Nixon. "Weirdos from another planet" is sadly reminiscent of the usual reaction to the current resident of the White House, and most likely The-President-to-Be.

Calvin's Dad isn't all that slow either, as when he sets him up in the first three panels of one daily strip by asking, "Hey, Calvin! Guess what time it is!"

"Why? What time is it?

"It's a very special time!

"Oh boy, oh boy! What time is it?

"Do you really want to know?

"Yes, Yes! Tell me! Tell me! Quick! Please! Yes!

"IT'S YOUR BATHTIME! OH BOY!!

Gettting Calin into a bath is about the same agony as pilling a cat. In the final panel, a dejected Calvin is up to his nose in sudsy water and commenting, "You know how old people always write to Dear Abby, complaining that their kids never write,call or visit? Those letters really crack me up."

Calvin had his own four-panel approach to homework, "When I grow up, I want to be an inventor. First I will invent a time machine. Then I'll come back to yesterday, and take myself to tomorrow, and skip this dumb assignment."

Personally, for me, it was lima beans. Any time lima beans appeared, it was lima beans or no desert. Calvin and his Mom had more imagination; Calvin looked at his bowl of soup and horrified, "Hey! What's this stuff in my soup? Yeccch! Is this rice? It had better NOT be!"

His Mom was very worried, "Rice? Let me see!"

Calvin was insistent, "Look! These little white things! See, there's rice in my soup. I hate rice!"

His Mom looked closely and explained, "I didn't put any rice in. These are maggots."

Calvin was delighted, explaining, "Gosh, wait till I tell everyone at school what WE had for dinner.".

His Dad lamented, "Another lovely meal at home with my family. I wish my job required more travel."

Evolution? As Calvin explains, "Just think, Earth was a cloud of dust 4.5 billion years ago . . . 3 billion years ago, the first bacteria appeared, then came sea life, dinosaurs, birds, mammals, and finally, a million uears ago, man. Now, in 1988, there's me. The acme of evolutuion."

Hobbes, rolling his eyes, responds, "Oh, PLEASE."

Even Richard Feynman can't come up with better answers. Trudeau is always wordy, as Watterson was at times. But the genius of Watterson was the ability to draw a 14-panel Sunday strip showing Calvin filling a water balloon and sneaking up on Hobbes . . . . panel after panel. Only one dialoguie panel was needed, when Hobbes drily explains, just before he was otherwise to be doused, "As if life isn't short enough."

It ends with a thoroughly frustrated Calvin resting beside Hobbes.

This is the Master.

Calvin and Hobbes has always been a great read. This was the first one in book form that I read and thoroughly enjoyed.

The book has many good strips and quite a lot of Sunday strips as well. The aliens show up towards the end and there is a good many strips on that series where he explores the Martian surface and rightly is told by Hobbes that if one is not potty trained would you invite them to your home? So of course after damaging Earth, men need not expect a welcome from the Martians or anyone else.

There is a lot of wisdom and good humour in the book. The opening splash page itself is attractive about why intelligent life hasn't contacted us - with a picture of deforestation.

Other favourites are of course being a tiger, or the tiger's welcome to the kid coming home from school, Dad's approval ratings in the election, the family outing, room service for the ill kid, etc.

The parents are delightfully tolerant of the crazy nutty Calvin. The family outing to the woods is a riot. Calvin wonders what kind of vacation is it if he has to be with his parents, LOLz. Even Calvin's vulnerability is explored when he panics after breaking Dad's binoculars.

This book is cute as hell - and especially a great gift to pretty young girls who thank me endless for making their day. You won't ever be disappointed, probably not with any Calvin & Hobbes collection - they are a gem, a treasure, a laugh riot, a piece of modern art and culture.

Beware of Captain Spiff, the T-Rex, the paleontologist, the incredible comic strip from the best graphic art has to offer.

I am a Calvin and Hobbes fan. And this book did not dissapoint me.

I love all Calvin and Hobbes books, but this collection has a few of my favorites that never cease to make me laugh out loud, including:

"The Disembodied Hand That Strangled People" (I snicker just writing it)

The trip to Mars ("We're going in the wagon?" "Of course! What did YOU want to do? Flap your arms?" "I guess I hadn't thought about that part."
"Obviously."

Calvin is the kind of child that we all dread when they are a child and would admire and pay money for when they are an adult. His life and the life of his parents are summed up in the cartoon on page 77 when Calvin says, "Golly, I'd hate to have a kid like me." He is destructive, uncooperative, mean to his parents and extremely imaginative. Clearly, if he were to ever grow up, the quality of the entertainment that he would produce would be outstanding.
Fortunately, Calvin and his stuffed Tiger friend Hobbs are cartoon characters so they don't have to grow up. Cartoonist Watterson can keep them this age as long as he wants so that we can continue to be entertained by their antics. This collection of cartoons is funny, imaginative and is an exaggerated view of the life of a child. There is no question in my mind that Watterson was an imaginative child and probably got in a lot of serious trouble during that time. We should be grateful for that, as he grew up to be an outstanding cartoonist and this book is an existence proof of that.

I loved deep thoughts ever since I saw them on Saturday Night Live. This book is worth every penny!

Don't let the small size of this book let you think it a light weight in the world of books on deep thoughts.What I'm really trying to say is that when something is really thought out ,it doesn' take a volumous manuscript to get the message across. Take Moses,for example,he could have filled 50 volumes explaining God's instructions.He took two stones,and in 10 Commandments,got the message across clear and simple.
When Handley set out to explain deep thinking,he managed to do it in so few pages ,he didn't even have to number them.Not only that,most of the page is a simple picture.
Most of the reviewers talk about how funny this book is.What he really makes us laugh so hard ; is how complicated we make the thoughts on living for ourselves.The great Philosophers have tried over the ages to give us great thoughts to live by.You know what? It ain't that difficult.
For instant,much has been written on the meaning of life.Handey tells us to think deep.
"Life is a constant battle between the heart and the brain.
But guess who wins. The skeleton."
Or how about this;
"You might think that the favorite plant of the porcupine is
the cactus,but it's thinking like that that almost ruined
this country."
Then his thoughts on afterlife;
"In my next life,I hope I come back as a parrot,because I
already know quite a few words."
And finally a deep thought in case we are invaded by Aliens;
"Warning to all outer-spage guys: You can capture me and put me
in your "space zoo" if you like,but I will sit way in the
back of my cage,where it's hard to see me.And when I do come
out,I won't be wearing any pants."
Now,how about that; Deep thoughts or what? Yeah,and it'll
make you laugh,too.

If you have any sort of a sense of humor whatsoever, you must get this book. Jack Handey is one of the most hilarious people alive! You may already be familiar with Handey's work, his work was featured on Saturday Night Live some years back. These are great to memorize and randomly quote throughout the day. I love this book, I've read it a bunch of times, and it's always funny.

A great break from school-related/work-related readings. Jack Handey is a genius and he will take you away from your problems--whatever they may be. I always read this book when I am upset about anything...I post the quotes around my house too. Funnier than comics.

If I were a rich gal, I would buy everyone in the world a copy of this book, because inside are some of the funniest thoughts ever produced! Each page holds a different "deep thought"; some immediately bring out the laughter, while others take a sec or two to sink in. Then you grin and want to immediately share it with someone. I think this would make a wonderful coffee table book. Put it out there at your next get-together and watch people chuckle, roar, giggle, snort, whoop, guffaw, howl, snicker, crack up, or whatever they do when they've just read something hilarious.

Patti Lawson examines her own life with honesty and gives the readers an insightful view of her metamorphosis from stress and unhappiness to the joy of living through the loving and caring for her beloved dog, Sadie. In so many ways I identified with the emptiness an accomplished life cannot fill and the error in thinking that food can. Patti found the answers to regaining her health and inner peace and shares with us a sustainable path to a healthier life, physically and emotionally. She gives us a positive uncomplicated approach to caring for ourselves in good times and bad, simple, tasteful and healthy options to our toxic eating patterns and a warm and humerous story of how a small dog caused so much disorder she adapted to survive and found herself thriving. Any dog lover will appreciate her story and commitment but the life lessons and suggestions are for us all and I highly reccommend it. This is also a book I'm giving as gifts to those "hard to buy for" and no one has been disappointed.

This is one of the best books I've read recently. It has you rolling in the floor laughing and might even bring a tear as you connect with the writer and Sadie. I challenge any dog lover or someone who has tried to lose weight not to love this book. It is wonderful!

This a very cute book regarding a professional woman who after two bad relationships decides to get a dog. She adopts a dog from a shelter and it really changes her life for the better. The author tells how the dog helped her lose weight, by changing her eating habits and making her exercise more. The dog not only helps her lose weight, but also lose weight in a fun manner. The author has a very humorous style of writing. I found this book very enjoyable to read and I highly recommend it. Besides for a humorous read, this book also has some good diet and exercise tips.

If you liked John Grogan's "Marley and Me" about a man, his family and their 'bad' but lovable dog, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this book. However, like Grogan's chronicle, this is NOT about how to raise a dog. For that sort of book, you'd do much better to check out something along the line of Cesar Milan's book, and/or watch him as "The Dog Whisperer" on the National Geographic channel. (This is especially true if you are looking at rescue dogs or at acquiring a male dog from a dominant breed--Rottweiler, Doberman, German Shepherd, etc.)

That said, Patti Lawson makes some excellent points about dogs, how they view life and what they can teach us. She catalogs her own story of how her relationship with a pup took her on a journey from self-involvement to being present in the world, with a new appreciation for everything from smells to simply being in the present moment. Her description of standing at a buffet of Indian food and smelling it appreciatively is one that I will remember for a long time.

I enjoyed her story and the summary boxes within it about the lessons she learned.

I loved this book! I really enjoyed reading it and I got some great dieting ideas (and life perspectives). For example, I am now implementing her idea of having a salad box. Actually, I have two of them that are about the size of shoeboxes that I bought for $1 each at the 99cent store.

Now, as soon as I buy my salad veggies, I clean them, chop or remove whatever leaves I need to, and put them in the salad boxes with a paper towel on top...and turn the box upside down (to let the extra moisture go into the paper towel).

Since I eat salads (with sprouts) every day, this has really helped me save time. Also, I find that I am throwing out less wilted lettuce and spinach or other salad veggies. So I am not wasting food and I am saving money.

This sweet book also shows how important animals can be in our lives...and that instead of complaining about having to clean up after them or take care of them...to realize...amoung other things...that you are burning more calories taking care of your pets...ha!

Thanks Patti for your inspiring book.

"The Four-Story Mistake" is the second book in the Melendy quartet, and it's my favorite of the four. In a complete change of scene, Elizabeth Enright moves the Melendys out of their New York City brownstone and transports them to a marvelous old house in the country that has so much character, it seems like a personality in its own right.

Picking up from the early autumn after the summer that ends "The Saturdays", when the story opens, the three oldest Melendy children are desolated because their father has bought a house in the country without so much as a hint to any of them. After a rainy, boring train ride to the country, they take a taxi from the station to their new home, and what they find wins them over almost immediately. Enright describes a house any child would love to live in, big and white and square with a mansard roof, fireplaces and window seats, deep dormer windows and a cupola on top, a little square glass tower with four floor-to-ceiling windows, one facing in each direction. The house is called the Four-Story Mistake because the builder inadvertently left off a story while constructing it, and stuck the cupola up on top to compensate.

Once they're settled in their new home, adventures abound: Rush discovers they have a brook with a waterfall running through their property. Mrs. Oliphant, their devoted family friend, donates her ancient automobile called "the Motor" for transportation to school, and surprises them with four bicycles in the back seat. Randy manages to ride her new bike into the back of a bus, is taken to the traffic cop's home to recuperate, and finds the policeman and his wife have a pet alligator in their bathtub. Rush builds a treehouse and gets trapped in it in the middle of a howling thunderstorm. The children discover a secret room nailed up on the top floor of their home, furnished only with a life-size portrait of a mysterious young girl named Clarinda. They give a Christmas show for their friends and neighbors, to which Mrs. Oliphant brings five guests, one of them a radio producer; he's so impressed with Mona's acting talent that she's offered a part in a radio serial. Randy improbably discovers a diamond stuck to a caddis house in the brook. And Mona attends her first dance at school. Who wouldn't want to be part of this family?

The children are engaging characters, totally alive and doing every waking minute. When they're not physically active, they're reading, studying, drawing, painting, writing poems and plays, playing the piano, composing music and just thinking. Like all children, they get into trouble from time to time, but they care deeply for each other and their caretakers. In a preface to her book, Enright says somewhat wistfully that the Melendys are the family she would have like to have had. Perhaps that's what makes them seem so completely believable. We almost wish they were ours as well.

Enright is a born storyteller; her writing style is refreshingly free of preaching and moralizing. She respects her readers and never talks down to them. She tells her story mostly through Randy's eyes, but all of the children get equal play in the book. The adults in the family, Father, Cuffy and the handyman Willie Sloper, are benevolent authority figures who encourage the children to learn and explore, while imposing reasonable limits when necessary. Enright was a talented illustrator, and her pen-and-ink drawings, usually one full page drawing for most chapters, bring out each child's characteristics. We see Mona dressing up for her part in the show, Rush climbing down a tree, Randy in the cupola, her favorite room in the house, and placid Oliver, lost in a pile of old books he's just discovered in the cellar.

"The Four-Story Mistake" is highly recommended for youngsters between 9 and 12, as much for its fun and adventures as for its simple and timeless values of close-knit family life.

Judy Lind

A warm, endearing story set during the time of World War II. The characters are well developed and the story is a reaffirmation of the good in people. A simple, yet memorable tale.

I don't how Hollywood missed this as excellent material for a movie. Disney, are you reading?

While at a garage sale this summer with my granddaughter, we came across some of the early Trixie Belden books, and I bought them for my g/d, after she promised to lend them to me when she was finished. I enjoyed them so much, even tho' they were "children's" books, that I started browsing Amazon for other books I had enjoyed in grade school.
The Four Story Mistake was one of them, and sure enough, Amazon had it available. I ordered it, got it in 3 days, and read it that night. Gosh, the memories that brings back. Very fun story. I intend to order the other books in this series, and continue browsing for other childhood favorites. It kinda varies the reading experience, plus is a nice walk down memory lane.

The series of stories starring the Mellandys was one of my faves as a child and now my daughter loves it as well!

This is Enright's second book in the Melendy family quartet, after The Saturdays. In this installment, the Melendy family (Mona, Rush, Randy, Oliver, Father, Cuffy, Willy Sloper, and dog Isaac) move from New York to a big house in the country called the Four-Story Mistake. Times are a bit tough, because World War II is going on, and they don't have a lot of money. But the house, and the 30 acre grounds, and the local village, prove to be paradise for kids.

One of the things I like best about Elizabeth Enright's books is that she knows what kids will find fun and cool, and she sprinkles her books liberally with the right stuff: caves and hollow trees, a window-lined cupola on the roof, brooks, ice skates, secret rooms, picnics, and tree-houses, to name a few highlights.

The other thing that strikes me on re-reading The Four-Story Mistake is Elizabeth Enright's wonderful writing. She offers paragraph after paragraph filled with dead-on little truths and humorous moments. She shares characters who feel like real people. Randy, the younger Melendy daughter, is my favorite (and one of my cool girls) but the rest of the family is lovable, too. I can especially identify with Randy's joy in finding out that her new bedroom has a window seat, where she can "curl up and read, just like a girl in a bookplate." Here's an example of the dialog from Chapter One:

""That suitcase looks as if it were laughing out loud," Randy said.
"Oh, stop being whimsical," snapped Rush."

I also love Oliver who, at seven, thinks that a damp basement room filled with old books is paradise, and knows that it will be more special if he keeps it a secret. He's this sturdy, determined little kid. When he learns to skate or ride a bike he just plods on through, trying until he can accomplish his new task. Rush, the older brother, is a boy's boy, always wanting to be outdoors, running with his dog, building tree-houses. But he's a piano prodigy, too, and a vigilant watcher of his sister Mona (a budding actress), making sure that she doesn't get a swelled head. Mona is a bit too overtly feminine for my taste, but she still shows moments of coolness. Near the end of the book, Mona is the one to suggest a late night summer visit to the brook with Randy and Rush.

There's not much of a plot to this book. It's more a series of small adventures, and the story of a family adjusting to a new home. But there are dozens of perfect little scenes that bring a smile, or a tear, to your eye. Oliver's exploration of the basement, and Enright's description of the basement's smell and atmosphere, reminded me exactly of the garage basement in my childhood home. The Christmas chapter made me cry. The family is just so happy! There's snow and carols and anticipation and making gifts for each other, and being okay with having fewer presents this year because of the war, and knowing that they're lucky to be together. I can't explain it, exactly. Soppy sentimentalism, I guess. But it made me cry. In a good way.

I'm so glad that I spent this time re-visiting the Melendy family. I loved them when I was a child, and I'm happy to report that, if anything, I love them even more now. If you have a couple of hours to spare, and you could use some laughter and warmth, I highly recommend this series. But start with the first book, The Saturdays.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on June 16th, 2006.

I often play with Nigerian scammers though not to the extent that the author does. Some of his responses to the scammers email are really funny. A lot like the annals of "The Porcine Princess".

There are some hilarious pages in this book, some that had me crying and unable to speak. If the author had a little more variety it would have been a great book, but it did seem to repeat its formula in the responses to the email scams after a while.

A laugh-riot from start to finish--the funniest book I've read in years.

This was one of the funniest books I have enjoyed in a long, long time. The content is fun and light and makes for an easy read. There were times I had tears in my eyes and pain in my stomach from laughing so hard. It's an excellent book for when you need a break from this mad, mad, world.

It's one of those purchases you won't regret.

Highly recommended!

The Publishers Weekly review above is on the money, in that this book is gleefully offensive.

I'm fine with that.

If you're fine with that as well, this book will make you snort with laughter at inappropriate times. Do not read while sitting in bed next to your sleeping spouse. She will eventually punch you in the chest for waking her up.

It'll be worth the bruise.

This book is a presentation of the contributing factors in society and governments which helped shape the Reformation.

This is an outstanding short book on the history of the Reformation. This is the first book by Belloc I have read, but if this book is any indication, he was a master of thematic history. This is not just a list of dates and events, blandly shared. Rather, Belloc gives us a riveting book that is concerned with the historical forces and personalities at the heart of the great religious revolt that has so shaped Western Civilization for the last 500 years.

One could successfully devour this book in the span of two days. But even with its brevity, it is a quite thorough look at the themes and personalities that make up the reformation.

A must read.

Belloc's view of the Reformation is both original and penetrating as he challenges the conventional views of that religious revolt from the perspective of a committed Roman Catholic. The overview of history is not necessarily exhaustive for a 300 page book, but it tends to be a bit repetitive, although when one considers the points that Belloc is trying to emphasize, the repetition is understandable. Basically, he assumes the stance that the Reformation was not originally a religious contest but a political and financial one, and that the nobles and rulers of Europe took advantage of the reformers fever to dissemble the universal Catholic church and distribute their wealth amongst themselves.
Although I agree with Belloc's theory and feel that the breakup of Catholic Christendom was essentially a disaster, I felt that his bias against the Reformation dismissed much of the spiritual sincerity of the Reformers, which is unfortunate. Overall though, it is a great read and one that will challenge those with an open mind. For a companion piece, one should read Novalis' Christendom or Europe, which is found in Novalis: Philosophical Writings published by SUNY Press (1997).Novalis: Philosophical Writings

Mr. Belloc does not give us a detailed history with references to primary sources. Instead, he notes the major currents of thought that shaped history and the missed opportunities that might have deflected those currents from creating the reformation. His history is a macro-history covering the currents created by such factors as the Black Death, rising nationalism, corruption of morals, and more. He asserts, convincingly I believe, that the Protestant reformation was based on the lie that each individual was his own judge of what was right thinking (see more on this in Great Heresies). Further, he asserts, this heresy of man as his own arbiter of truth likely would have failed had it not been for the focus provided in John Calvin's systematic theology.

Whether Protestant or Catholic or Orthodox, it is important to understand the historical currents and the waves that brought about the world as we know it today. America, in particular, with all that is good or bad in it, is a creation of those currents. The cold reasoning that rejects all that is mystical and intangible in modern thinking is also a creation of those currents. It is the fall of man all over again which rejects any authority outside one's self. Protestant and Catholic alike decry this disunity. It is in our interest to understand the causes and effects. Mr. Belloc gives us the broad thinking approach to see the root cause which so many other historians have missed getting lost in the details.

Mr. Belloc is one of the greatest Catholic historians of our time. He provides a compelling Catholic perspective to the tragedy that was the Protestant Reformation that secular (and "official") historians miss. He wrote this book in 1928 and his dire predictions regarding the fruit of the reformation for Western Civilization are, sadly, coming true.

OMG! Run, click, crawl, whatever it takes and BUY this book! Hillary has outdone herself and exceeded her hilarious "Queen of the Oddballs" book. I've read this a couple of times now and keep getting drawn back to these INCREDIBLE characters she has created from mere found grocery lists. Each character is so well drawn out that you feel like you're getting an actualy slice of their lives on each page. I've laughed, cried and been utterly amazed at this collection of personalities. I know what everyone on my list is getting for birthdays, Hanukkah, Christmas...heck, even for Flag Day!! Thank you Hillary for sharing your absolute comedic genius with us.

I've never seen a book like this before. The concept is pure genius, and the execution is nothing short of fascinating. I find myself pulling this book off the shelf again and again to stare at the photographs in amazement, and in reading the descriptions, I feel as if I know all these people!

Hillary has been collecting shopping lists for a lifetime. Now, that collection is expressed in a series of hilarious essays (and most of the lists are funny all by themselves!) But for me the photographs are the true wonder of this book: they're astounding, nearly unbelievable.

A great book as a gift (Mother's Day!) and to pass around at a party. You need to buy this book!

Seriously, who doesn't write shopping lists? Maybe Britney Spears or somebody like that, but any normal person would love this book!

My favorite was this guy Woody whose list was "oreos and beer." Of course in Hillary's interpretation he turns out to be a total waste product guy who honestly thinks he looks like Steven Tyler.

Woody wishes!

Anyway, even when the people are weird like Woody, somehow it seems like she's not mean to them. It's like, she writes about them with real affection, and you just cannot believe that every photo in this gorgeous book is the same woman!

It's like an Eddie Murphy movie, but with a girl as the star.

I'm so giving this to my mom for mother's day this year, whose shopping lists are pretty crazy. If there's a sequel I'm sending Hillary one of her nutty lists with weight watchers bread, diet coke and large size bag of M and M's.

It's like that!

Great, great book.

And so much more. It's hilariously heartbreaking. My favorite character is "Deb." Her grocery list and personal statement actually brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my mouth. But every person (yes, they are all very real) touches a nerve. You won't be able to put it down.

Hillary Carlip is first and foremost a comedienne as her previous 'autobiographical' book QUEEN OF THE ODDBALLS confirmed. But at the heart of comedy is tragedy, something every fine writer of comedy understands, and it is that turn of words that makes a potentially tragic story the seed of comedy. In her newest book A LA CART: THE SECRET LIVES OF GROCERY SHOPPERS Carlip has selected the idea of exploring the creators of random shopping lists found in markets, parking lots, and other unlikely places and from these tidbits of notations she has created the persons who wrote them - which turns out to be twenty six individuals whose lives become the matrix for Carlip to bring to the performance stage of this book. Each character is imagined with insight and sensitivity and then physically transformed into a 'real person' by the actress Carlip and her crew of makeup artist, costume designer, and, very importantly, her photographer, Barbara Green.

In this very well-designed book are images of the found lists, the 'characters' who wrote them as impersonated by Carlip and photographed by Green in the marketplaces the characters might have used, accompanied by a short story about each person, written with great skill and humor and pathos by Carlip. It is a 'compleat' experience as we are allowed to meet each of the 26 list writers, people who range from hookers, to porn stars, to teenagers, to coupon clipping ex-quilter Helen, a street person, a therapist who is clearly out of joint, to Latinas with oddly utilized cafés or frustrated careers as airline hostesses, Latinos of varying sexual persuasion - the list is so varied that it includes men and women whose lives at first seem comical, but whose emotional states are at times in tatters.

Carlip never fails to entertain with her multiple personalities, but she also follows the rule of comedy in sharing the humanity beneath the façade that allows us to laugh while we empathize with the potential sadness each character suggests. This is a beautiful little book, a delight to read, but one that offers some rich lessons in sociology and humanity. Hillary Carlip continues to prove that she is one of the more important messengers of comedy at work today! Grady Harp, April 08

Cindy Guidry lives in Neverland. Living and working in Los Angeles is difficult enough; try dating there. Guidry is a smart, funny, sexy woman who is trying to get in touch with her own power as she approaches 40. She's knows it's in there, somewhere. But it's hard to feel powerful when you live in a town where everyone is judged by appearances, and most of those are plastic.

I really enjoyed Cindy's voice. This is a book written by a clever woman who realizes that most of the men she meets are bombarded with too many choices on a daily basis. They can no longer make a decision about anything, especially the most important one of all, the decision of commit to a mate.

Guidry takes her readers on an enjoyable ride through Hollywood as she starts to put the pieces of her life together (accompanied by a Dave Matthews soundtrack) all the while feeling like she's the Last Single Woman in America.

She may get stuck with the easy "chick-lit" label, but Cindy Guidry has written a book filled with enormous humor, wit and poignancy -- and a well-earned understanding of relationships between men and women. Her trenchant observations -- on her own life, the men in it, her career, her family -- take no prisoners, including herself. More importantly, I loved her voice: the one of that smart, way-funny girlfriend who always tells the truth, no matter how uncomfortable, and god bless her. Men will be pleasantly surprised by their un-chick-lit treatment here, if they ever read it (mine have, and responded overwhelmingly positively -- "She gets it!"). Definitely a worthy read.

If you're a guy and you cringe that this might be another MEN SUCK book written for only women to read and rally together around the flagpole of self inflicted injustice, this is the book for you. Although she has her complaints about men, this is a refreshingly fair-handed, often sympathetic book about both men and women and their attempts to find and understand each other in this isolating cyber-world. While there are bestsellers as well as entire television networks dedicated to the proposition that MEN SUCK, Guidry offers the possibility of individual empowerment and an unflagging belief in Love, all the while making you laugh out loud about waxing and nail polish and cats and other things men don't generally care about. Men really do want to know what women think, and Guidry tells us in a way both entertaining and enlightening.

I have never found a book in which the writer (and narrator in this instance) seemingly gave forth so many of my own thoughts. I always considered myself to be a little too jaded, cynical, or critical, and am now glad to see there is a whole generation of us. Cindy Guidry shows there is really nothing too depressing about not knowing what you want to be when you grow up and, guess what?, there are lots of us out there. To heck with Generation X, it's Generation Cindy Guidry all the way!!!

Having been a former lover and devout follower of the series "Sex in the City" and having had to settle for vacuous attempts to fill that time slot or reruns on TBS ever since, I am looking forward to seeing this book and the idea behind it coming to life on HBO.

You get it all here..answers to the dating Universe and some.. I laughed, i cried and i was shocked at the honesty..very refreshing indeed!
.. highly recommended from this Goddess (and not just a chick read guys).

Thoroughly enjoyable! The daily grind and politics of work-life are portrayed here in a very well-written and fun fashion.

Management By Vice is full of razor-sharp, satiric humor. You'll find no boring, longwinded analyses of the characters and the fictitious Company's history, though there is enough exposure of human nature to fill a work psychology manual! I like the way the book stays focused on a series of sprightly, humorous episodes, which show various aspects of interactions between managers and technical staff. I have seen and experienced them in the workplace for many years, so I fully agree that Management By Vice is in every way a true-to-life rendition of what takes place in many companies. The writing style is appealing too with witty, short verses that relect the content of each episode. Management By Vice is head and shoulders above the 1st grade reading primer level of many unrealistic, silly humor books about management and the workplace. The repartee between the characters, such as the managers and technical staff, is also very real and entertaining. What can be done about the less-than-satisfactory management described in The Company? Any bright reader will see this type of management must be replaced for the sake of The Company's survival. In fact, the

Most of the satiritical episodes in CB Don's book entitled " Management by Vice" are quite familiar scenes in both commercial and government settings. "Gettting ahead" at the expense of one's integrity as well as colleagues' future is the only means for some people. Greed often blinds ambitious management. A quick promotion and fat bonouses are the driving forces for these managers. Hence, short-term goals, say 3 to 5 years, are all thay care about at present, regardless of the future of the organization. Cooperation mergers are too common a way to survive and getting ahead than collisons on the highway, and lay-off is only a part of the evolutionary process, in the commercial world, where survival of those who are most vocal, but are deficient in both technical skills and vision, seems to be the rule. I thoroughly enjoyed reading CB Don's book. It is humorous, yet candid. I highly recommend it to the current managers and those who are old enough to drink....

Mr. R. K. MSc., Supervisory Civil Engineer, from Michigan, USA.
I find this to be a most delightful book. If you have ever worked in an office, design or R&D outfit, you can really relate to the adventures portrayed therein. I spent 35 years in the egg-laying part of the duck and found the barbed lampoons a titillating reflection of my own adventures. There's also a pleasant sprinkling of cartoons and verse the summarize each fo the 11 episodes. The heroine survives a cliffhanger for those of you that relish a bit of adventure. It's one of those "once you pick it up, you can't put it down" pieces that are a fast read and leave you satisfied like a good pastrami sandwich. For you managers, the Scots have an appropriate saying, "would some power the great giver give us to see ourselves as others see us". Give it a go!!

Its a sarcastic view of management from the point of R&D scientists. From the point of view of the R&D scientists you get to see some of the underhanded and self serving behavior of incompetent management at the fictional company and how it is tolerated by senior members of management. Unfortunately the book does not explore how "The Company" which was once an R&D powerhouse, got to be in this dysfunctional state. Also the book offers very little hope for dealing with a company in this type of state, short of the company being acquired or getting lucky and having unintended benefits during a passive/aggressive power struggle amongst management. If you were attracted to reading this book by the title "Management by Vice" I would recommend skipping this one and instead read The Below-the-Belt Manager by Eric Broder which I found to be more Humorous than this book.