Parodies Books

After our son was born we started really reading the old nursery rhymes we'd grown up with and were disappointed by the often harsh and callous messages. The New Adventures of Mother Goose is such a welcome relief! It full of the characters we recognize but they're so much happier than we remember them. For instance, the three KIND mice take out their cheese and cut her (the farmer's wife) a slice. How much better than getting their tails chopped off! Most importantly, it's our son's favorite book and he's starting to complete the rhymes himself. We feel good about having him repeat happy rhymes.

My kids enjoyed this book so much they have most of the poems memorized. This is a much more enjoyable version to read than the original Mother Goose. I received the book as a shower gift and have since bought three copies as gifts for other children.

My son loves this book and seemed unimpressed with the original Mother Goose when they were read to him weeks after getting this book. This book is much more entertaining for any age at any time. Warm, positive, and funny.

As a Destination Imagination team manager, I highly recommend this book for its potential as an improv tool. Teams can create an assortment of wild scenarios and enact the scenes, improving their ability to improvise. With 27,000 possible scenarios, it is a resource that will last teams for years!

Kris Bordessa, author
**Team Challenges: Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication and Creativity

The Official Movie Plot Generator is an engaging means to generate 27,000 admittedly cliche movie plot possibilities. Not an ordinary book, The Official Movie Plot Generator is spiral-bound and divided into three segments that can be mix-and-match flipped to put together a number of familiar movie hero styles with two possible yet predictible sidekicks, plot twists, or other features. Sample phrases to mix and match including "A cop who doesn't play by the rules" / "fights crime" / "with a mischievous orangutan" and "a fraternity of lovable slobs, misfits, and drunks" / "indulges in beer bashes, toga parties, and an assortment of ill-advised high jinks" / "despite being admonished by a crusty old dean", and many more. A fun and entertaining sourcebook for linking retreaded popular themes into hilarious combinations.

You can literally spend hours flicking through this book, and it never gets old! It's really good fun, and had my entire family begging for more. I would highly recommend it, both for your own entertainment and as a gift for almost any occasion. Highly addictive!

The only thing I have to add to Labradorman's review is that the social commentary in The Onion never crosses over into meanspiritedness (in case anyone was wondering). But its writers have an unerring eye in spotting and reporting the ridiculous wherever it may be found. The stories aren't real but most of them contain more than a grain of truth about our society.

My favorite Onion features are the regular columns written by fictitious characters who are part of The Onion's "Community Voices" - particularly the "gansta" Accounts Receivable manager Herbert Kornfeld and slacker Craig Anchower.

The Onion levels its aim at everything from pro sports teams to the loss of a "perfect" eBay feedback rating. It's a gem.

The Onion is by far one of the best publications out there today. I really don't have much else to say other than this package is a deal and will provide many hours of entertainment and biting social commentary.

For those of us who have long chuckled at the wry and winsome humor of the collective effort at the "Onion" website, this compilation of several earlier collections into one effort is a treasure trove of biting satire and clever use of modern language. Somehow the writers manage to tickle our funny bones as they educate and entertain us with their insight and insider's understanding of the madness know as politics, social farce, and correct cultural thinking. They most often approach the subject at hand via parody, and some of the finest I have ever read have been within their pages. They are almost monotonously brilliant, nearly uniformly informative, and best of all, universally irreverent. This is one to take to a trip to the rest room, folks, for it will have you enjoying life's most personal moments with tears of laughter the unavoidable net result.

The editors and writers at the Onion website, one of the most often visited such sites on the web; routinely attack the most sacred shibboleths and taboos of society, ranging from abortion to homophobia, from sexism to animal rights, and from racism to the dangers of cloning. One of my favorites is a tongue-in-cheek examination of the Canadians as though they were nothing more than closet Americans trying to rebel against the monolithic forces of our culture. To be sure, the humor that results is by its very nature often tasteless and even a little but crude, so if you have a delicate stomach or a fragile disposition this collection of satiric pieces culled from three previous collections may not be something you would enjoy. But those of us with a taste for such bawdy fare will read the pieces again and again, until the whole book gets a little dog-eared. Nice to have all this stuff in print and available for instant replay. Enjoy!

This book filled me up like a heaping plate of spaghetti and meatballs. I've always been curious about the mafia, and Pasta Fazool absolutely hit the spot. The "life lessons" are hidden under piles of wiseguy attitude just waiting to be eaten up. It certainly isn't your standard "for the Soul" book, and that's just the way I like it. Grazie!

Since CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL came out (followed immediately by dozens more books), I've been intrigued by the various topics and phases of life you could give chicken soup for. I've been likewise intrigued why it always has to be chicken soup. But the self-help and motivational industry has been sparked into establishing a whole new wing (chicken, anyone?) of publishing.

I've watched these books roll out with regularity and fading interest. It seems that chicken soup can cure any ailment and passage of life. Who knew? Not to knock those books because they're filled with wonderful stories.

However, there appeared to be nothing new under the sun. Until now.

Writer/editor Brian M. Thomsen throws the whole Chicken Soup franchise a hanging curve ball that catches the outside corner of the plate with an eagle-eyed umpire in attendance. PASTA FAZOOL FOR THE WISEGUY'S SOUL is an irreverent send up of the GODFATHER, home cooking, and the whole give-me-guidance fad. But Thomsen delivers his delightful concoction with tongue firmly planted in cheek and in a narrative that is just as believable as it is hilarious.

According to Thomsen, he met an elderly Italian gentleman in a small restaurant on a slow night and ended up sharing a table and a meal. During the quiet evening, the old man - call him Don Minestrone - served up a delectable cornucopia of tales, wisdom, colorful characters, street justice, and irony.

I loved the set-up and didn't know if the author could pull off what he'd promised. I suspected that the entries might be heavy on the cheese (another specialty of Italian cooking). Instead, the stories sound just like they'd come from the Old Neighborhood where everyone knew what the Mafia was but no one ever mentioned it.

I settled in, expecting to read a few stories to relax for a bit after dinner, then ended up blazing through the whole book. I had to laugh out loud when Thomsen lampooned the Mafia and current crime TV when he relayed "Minestrone's" thoughts on wives, mistresses, and girlfriends, and took shots (what else can you expect from a book about Mafia types?) at Mafia guys in the news. One of my favorite stories was about the movie script that got sold over and over again to New York Publishers. The punch line came out of left field and made perfect sense.

Other stories include how a long-time waiter at a favorite restaurant was given a retirement plan that worked out for everybody, how boosters (professional thieves) cut out middle man (fence), and started selling things on eBay, and how Mrs. Santini got a trip to the "old country." Thomsen is a natural storyteller, the old don not withstanding, and the tales tumble off the page and into the reader's mind with grace and guffaws.

I loved how Thomsen and Minestrone introduced characters, then pulled them back into other stories. They weren't just throwaways. I got the feeling that all of these stories happened (incredibly!) at one time or another.

PASTA FAZOOL FOR THE WISEGUY'S SOUL is a perfect book for the airport, the beach, or while waiting in doctor's offices. And with a title like that, you're sure to attract the attention of people around you. Be warned, though. You might not put this one down until you finish it. However, this is definitely a book you'll want to re-read and share.

I wanted to read only a few pages at my first setting, but I got instantly hooked and read half the book. I finished it at the next setting two days later. There are so many marvelous little tales in the book. Thoroughly enjoying.

If you like parodies and you don't take life too seriously this is the book for you. I've laughed 'til I cried sometimes while reading it, so I'm glad I bought this book.

Simply a triumph! The satirical wit of this collection has an uncanny knack of hitting the nail directly and solidly over the head with blows that only appear random. A must read for anyone who is, or who ever plans to be a woman. The dieting advice alone will keep the reader rolling in mirth, "Join the Fatkins Revolution!" takes dieting to a level of entirely unholy glee rarely experienced by the diet conscious.

This is a fantastic book! It's hilarious - I highly recommend it to anyone!

I was truly blessed at an early age to have this and Gymkhana in my room when I first began to ride. This is a marvelous and loving look at children and horseback riding. Any parent with a child, particularly a daughter, beginning Enlgish riding instruction ought to make every effort to find this book. Like my tattered copy, it will become an heirloom. PCK, NJ.

Everything you ever experienced at a riding academy with a chuckle on every page. Or if you've never been to a riding academy, you'll want to after looking this over. Angie Lohman

This is one of my favorite books from childhood. A tongue-in-cheek riding instruction manual, it is filled with cartoons about the antics of girls and their sometimes-naughty ponies. Add subtle British humor to the mix, and it's a must for girls in that "horsey" stage . . . my 10-year-old adores it!

I thought I'd reviewed this years ago, but maybe it was elsewhere. I love this book. I've been a fan of the late Al Hirschfeld for years, but here's a relatively new artist from New York who captures a little of that style but yet has his own. Well, the cover says it all! If you can look at the cover and not laugh, well, you're dead. The back cover will blow away any Diana Ross fan, as well. His caricature style is such that if you follow pop culture at all, you don't need to look at the index to see whom is who. Well, for me there were a couple that were unfamiliar. I thought he missed the mark with Michael Jordan, but nobody's perfect! The book is divided into TV, Style, Music, Thinkers, Film, Scandals, Media, Sports, Theater, and Politics. Nobody seems to be off limits with Risko. His artwork is just beautifully done on a technical level, and still there's humor in a lot of it. There's one piece in particular of singer Al Jarreau that's stunning--it's part Hirschfeld and part Picasso! It's hard to explain, really. If you've never seen a Risko, you just have to experience it for yourself. Buy this book! I can't say enough about this artist, and I can't wait for Volume Two!

Found this book to be an amazing collection of illustrations by one of the most talented artists in our time. His work has matured over the years to a fine point of perfection.

Outstanding collection of extremely witty and winsome caricatures of entertainment and political figures from the 1970's through today. Most of the work previously graced the covers and feature articles of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Interview, and Rolling Stone and therefore will be familiar to the reader.

There is much excellent cultural and political commentary (in illustration form) collected in this one book by an outstanding illustrator of the 20th century.

Great for Christmas giving, the book is beautifully printed and guaranteed to bring miles of smiles to the reader.

I bought this book after an introduction to Sandra Shamas' work in Anthology of Canadian Humor (Will Ferguson). A Trilogy of Performances is very, very funny. I found myself giggling and laughing out loud as I read the book from cover to cover. Since it is a compilation of several of her stand-up performances it is loaded with funny stories and honest but humorous observations. I wood characterize Shamas' humor as adult, feminist, and humanist. Not Lenny Bruce adult, but the work is a bit raw and if you have problems with expressions like ski-jump tits then maybe this work is not for you.

Sandra Shamas is a rare, one-of-a-kind talent who can capture everyday life experiences with hilarity, high-fun and humility. I can't believe she isn't a COLOSSAL, HUGE, HUGE hit in the U.S. yet (though I understand it's of her own choosing). Her book will brighten your day or make a dark, dreary night seem like a trip to the circus, but if you get a chance to see her show live, YOU MUST GO! I guarantee you will laugh until food comes out of your nose (Yuk!), and you will reminisce about her shows for years to come. Take a good friend with you -- you'll have the time of your life!

Years ago a friend and I went to see Sandra Shamas perform 'My Boyfriend's Back and There's Gonna Be Laundry'. We still talk about it to this day. It was one of those rare evenings in which the two of us sat staring up at Sandra, hanging on her every word, tears of laughter streaming down our faces which were permanently contorted into a big open mouthed laugh - we're talking sore face and belly muscles at the end of it all kind of laughter. Since then we've been desperate to see more of Sandra's work but were never able to - Until now! Thank you for writing it all down Sandra. This book is a real gift. Read it and weep!

Lynn Phillips' new book is so witty and sharp in its observations. It's laugh-out-loud heady. I particularly enjoyed the range of references, from the highbrow to the lowbrow and everywhere between. It's a great tonic
compared to so many of the self-congratulating self-help books.
Wayne Lavender, Psychologist

Lynn Phillips is one of the funniest, creative, and savvy living writers out there. Her Kitty Lyons piece in nerve was one of the sexiest, intelligent columns out there. 'Self Loathing' is a hilarious take on self help books- tackling all things for which we beat ourself up for: diet, relationships, porn...
Great gift & great read!


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the apple sisters

An invaluable contribution to the canon of self-help books that drive us all to despair. Finally someone gets it. So Beginners and experts alike - Get it. Share it with others who suffer from self doubt or should. We should start a campaign to get it into the hands of most of the 24 hour news agencies and FOX. They have not begun to tap into the self-loathing they ought to be feeling.

This book is imaginative with vivid illustrations. I would recommend it to any cat lover.

"So this is the infamous Pit Bull Pass, Jonathan thought even as he felt his tail fluffing out in alarm. He dug his claws into the leaves and began to sing in order to ward off his fear. But just as another long howl rang out almost beside him and the last rays of the sun vanished beneath the treetops, there was a loud rattle of chains and an oddly hollow clucking noise. Out of the blackness appeared a dark carriage drawn by two pale chickens and driven by a rat." - From the book

If you're familiar with the work of Karen Mahony and Alex Ukolov--the creative force behind Prague's baba studio--you know how expertly these geniuses combine wicked wit, arresting images, and incisive observations (about either cats or humans).

In the macabre but oh so engrossing 92-page book Shadow of the Vampuss, Karen and Alex take us on a wild ride brimming with brooding atmosphere, vampiric sensuality, and gothic madness.

Beautiful costumes, shadowed corridors, gorgeous scenery, lavish illustrations, and anthropomorphic feline expressions make Shadow of the Vampuss a truly special book. Masterfully re-crafting the classic horror tale, Karen's Count Scratchula both intrigues and horrifies. I simply could NOT put this book down!

I'm not one to have nightmares (in fact, I can't think of the last time I had one), but after reading Shadow of the Vampuss--I had a nightmarish dream inhabited by vampiric cats! Ack!

Bloodlust, melodrama, and bizarre goings on--as the book cover says, this tale is not for under-age kittens!

However, fans of baba studio, cats, graphic novels, vampires, or classic horror, Shadow of the Vampuss does not disappoint, providing anxious amusement, a bit of dread, and an utterly fulfilling scary story.

And the story's ending? Purrrfect! (I want a sequel!)

(To visit the Vampuss, visit http://www.vampuss.com/ Check out the cool animated version of this tale!)

Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present (coming Fall 2008 from Hampton Roads Publishing)

This is the perfect gift for the cat-obsessed, whether that's you or someone else. Guaranteed, your gift won't be run-of-the-mill, no matter what your favorite cat lover has already collected!

SHADOW OF THE VAMPUSS follows, with wit and truly unique artwork, the classic tale of Count Dracula... rewritten to substitute cats for the humans of the original work. As an example, here's an early excerpt: "But Jonathan's ears lowered slightly as he added, `Unfortunately I must leave for Transylvania tomorrow morning.' He took a letter from his jacket. `Mr. Slaughter has asked me to renegotiate a contract on the old Whiskers Manor, right here in Kitby.'"

Some of the artwork is uncanny; for instance, the shrewd expression of Count Scratchula on page 84 is spot-on, and that goes for both human and felines. On page 74, the pose of Van Helsing is just so, from the point of his toe on the stair to the calculated curve of his tail... and page 26 captures perfectly the tilt of a feline head in every wrinkle. This may sound bizarre until you take a look at the artwork yourself--you'll see what I mean.

The publisher didn't stint on quality. Although the cover is a bit glossy, fine details abound: a scored spine prevents cracking, and there's a thick cover stock, a paper bookplate adhered to the inside of the front cover, smooth and substantial interior paper stock, full bleeds, and vivid color throughout.

If you're looking for a gift for your family member or friend who has everything and he/she loves cats, collecting unusual books, or a certain sly sense of humor, you're golden! It would also work marvelously as a book for older children. (And if you're a fan of both cats and the metaphysical, judging from a sample card included with the book, this publisher also produces some exquisitely detailed tarot cards--you guessed it, also featuring cats.)

I feel very confident giving this book five stars for creativity and a high-quality execution. I know my mother-in-law is going to love her gift--and since she's an elementary school schoolteacher, I'm pretty sure her students each year are going to enjoy it as well!