Satire Books

This book is so wonderfully written. While the subject matter is incredibly disturbing (US nuclear subs in Canadian waters, rain forest clear cuts, etc) the authors inject a steady stream of humour which makes the book an easy and exciting read. I was glued to the book and wanted more when I got to the end. The Raging Grannies are an inspiration to all ages, and they are so brave !

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the abc's of activism, to those who are burned out from being "awake" and need inspiration, and to anyone approaching mid-life so they can start thinking about becoming a Raging Granny.

I also think this book should be required reading in the Canadian school system. Its important that Canadian children know that their future is being fought for by these wonderful women.

When I grow up, I'm going to be a Raging Granny !!

This book is so wonderfully written. While the subject matter is
incredibly disturbing (US nuclear subs in Canadian waters, rain forest
clear cuts, etc) the authors inject a steady stream of humour which makes
the book an easy and exciting read. I was glued to the book and wanted
more when I got to the end. The Raging Grannies are an inspiration to all
ages, and they are so brave !
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the abc's of activism,
to those who are burned out from being "awake" and need inspiration, and
to anyone approaching mid-life so they can start thinking about becoming a
Raging Granny.

I also think this book should be required reading in the Canadian school
system. Its important that Canadian children know that their future is
being fought for by these wonderful women.

When I grow up, I'm going to be a Raging Granny !!

'Off Our Rockers and Into Trouble' describes the formation of the first Raging Grannies group, in Victoria, B.C. Written by two founding members, with Anne Moon, a more recent member, this book shows through personal experience and reflection what the Raging Grannies is about. Easy to read, informative, accurate, funny, honest, provocative... these brave women, all activists within the peace and environment movement before becoming Raging Grannies, tell about their optimism and sharp learning curve as they take on super-powers at a local level. Simply by protesting the presence of U.S. nuclear submarines in their harbour, they start an action which becomes a world-wide movement. This inspiring account makes the Grannies human, not just the performance-grabbing radicals that popular media loves or hates. An important book for activists and should be required reading for granny wannabes. Not the only book about the Raging Grannies, but it's about the first group, so very important. Beware: Reading it could challenge your complacency and passivity.

What an inspiring, enlightening, and delightful book this is! I am old enough to recall the Gray Panthers movement and Caprow's "happenings;" the raging grannies appear to manifest the best of both. They show us how to work for peace and social justice by abdicating our stereotypical roles as nice, invisibile older women, by using courage, creativity, and outrageousness to get results. I bought this book because I am doing a Ph.D. dissertation on older women as agents of social change, and expect to quote it frequently.

Never doubt that a small group of little old ladies CAN change the world! This book will leave you holding your sides with laughter while shaking your head in amazement that just a few women, armed with nothing more than facts, "chutzpah" -- and a sense of humor -- can successfully challenge the powers that be. "Off Our Rockers" provides an intimate look into the lives of twelve feisty women who joined together to become "The Raging Grannies," never imagining that they would spawn a world-wide movement to save the world. This is one book that I will read again and again, and then pass on to my granddaughter!

If you are looking for a fun, quirky and thoroughly entertaining summer read--this one is for you! A lot of humor, a little mystery and an astonishing cast of characters. All of us "working girls" can relate to the bigger than life antics that surround the Big Top in "One Clown Short". Enjoy!

Anyone who has ever labored with co-workers, served under supervisors, and been the recipient of inexplicable memos from upper management will appreciate Linda C. Wright's superbly written novel "One Clown Short". Mandy Maloney needed a job and wanted a change from her former occupation of flipping burgers at a fast food joint. Looking through newspaper want ads she lands just such employment as a sales trainee at a circus supply company. This is a dream job complete with great pay and benefits. Unfortunately it also come equipped with a sexist boss and a cast of characters as co-workers. Her on-the-job training plunges Mandy into a very strange world that is more than just a little sinister! Drawing upon her more than thirty years of experience working in corporate America, talented author Linda Wright has crafted a truly entertaining novel as her first venture into fiction. "One Clown Short" is an energetic, entertaining, thoroughly engaging read from beginning to end, and will prove to be a welcome addition to any personal reading list or community library contemporary fiction collection.

This is a fun and quick read, and when you need to fill that empty space between flights, this book fits the bill. While the book is pure fiction, if you've spent any amount of time in the bedrock of corporate America, you are sure to recognize a few characters or scenes that ring true for you. If a 3-ring circus is something spectacular, tumultuous, entertaining, or full of confused action, you'll enjoy this book.

If you have ever worked in corporate America and thought "I'm working in a circus!" you'll get a kick out of this book. Mandy finds herself at Big Top Supplies that takes the circus theme to its ultimate, complete with employee clown uniforms for special occasions and piped in caliope music. You'll relate to the managers who speak only in Pig Latin and the staff meetings where no one is allowed to speak at all. After Mandy uncovers corporate corruption, it becomes clear that beyond the humor and the satire "One Clown Short" is a look at the reality of big business at more than just the circus.

If you have ever worked for a big corporation and wonder how they stay in business with the dim-witted decisions the upper management makes this book will provide you with a funny insight into the "clowns" that run businesses. You will find yourself saying, "Hey, we have that clown working for us, too!" This book is a quick read and is perfect for those who need a bit of laughter in their day. My only question is, why are circus peanuts orange?

Avid Penny Arcade Reader here, and gotta say all their books are a must have!

I love Penny Arcade. The thing I enjoyed most about their books is the commentary that goes along with each comic. This is a must for Penny Arcade fans.

The book was a Christmas present and it came in beautiful condition. Thanks!

Though the entire Penny Arcade archive is available on their website, the extras contained in the print versions make them well worth the purchase. In this second collection, witty commentary accompanies each comic, as well as artwork from the Penny Arcade card game and a "boneyard" of aborted or half finished ideas. Surely the humor contained therein is not to everyones taste, but to those who love it, Epic Legends of the Sword Kings will make a fine addition to your library.

Penny Arcade is a comic that has been around for almost a full decade now, so it is nice that this year they are finally releasing a series of books that bring the comics into our homes without the need for a computer and internet, excluding how you buy the book itself.
This contains the second volume of the series, or all the comics done in 2001 + bonus art and attempts for other webcomics, and it nicely fills out the 150 page book. All the comics are funny start to finish, with plenty of classics filling the book.
I highly recommend the book for readers of any form of comics, and I also recommend it for people who love video games, though my bet is that they cant read this due to playing something like WOW right now.

I had read Penny Arcade now and then in the past, but didn't follow it on a regular basis - then while browsing the comics and manga section of the bookstore, the title of this volume just jumped out at me, as I am a cockatiel owner who loves birds in all their weirdness.

The title of this book (even though the contents have little to do with birds :) ), plus my passing interest in Penny Arcade, and great love of video games made me decide I needed this book. And I enjoyed it thoroughly. I love the art, I love the gamer humour, I love Gabe's Appendix... in short this book is a lot of fun. Highly recommended for fans of gaming and Internet culture. I plan on collecting the rest of the volumes in the very near future!

This collection of the Penny Arcade comics covers an entire year of their work. While they don't do story arcs very often, the work included is still fantastic, and introduces some of there newer repeat characters.

This book was great! Jerry Holkines never lets up on the wit factor. Laugh out loud!

As with the last three volumes, this book delivers exactly what it promises: a year's worth of side-splitting, laugh-out-loud comics. Holkins' writing is, as always, uncompromisingly witty, and Krahulik's art improves every year.

The only noticeable improvement to the compilation would be a little extra material in the rear of book. The full color, full page art included in the previous volume blew me away, and it would be nice to have something that breathtaking in all of their publications.

The fourth, full-color collection of strips from the popular webcomic series Penny Arcade, Birds Are Weird continues the tradition of utterly irreverent, largely video game-themed humor. Due to severe cursing and the occasional phallic reference, Penny Arcade is not a comic for young children or the easily offended; and yet its humor has that irresistible effect. Bonus sketches, short text vignettes and a paragraph of extra commentary for virtually every strip enhance this anthology, offering new insights into Penny Arcade's random madness even for readers who have already seen the strip's archive online. "'Yeah, so I was looking at iPods today. I thought about you.' 'Oh yeah? Pretty great huh?' 'Oh yeah, real good. Then I got it up to the register, came to my senses, and bought a thirty dollar discman instead.' 'Yeah but the iPod doesn't skip.' 'Neither does this. It's cushioned by about three hundred and eighty dollars in cash.'" A sidesplitting collection and great gag gift, especially for the technogeek generation.

This is a good book. It is real. Buy it, read it, believe it.

Dear Ron:
I finally got around to reading PENUCQUEM SPEAKS, and find it totally fascinating, unlike anything else I've ever read. I don't know of anyone who has had the unique experience you have had, of living in two cultures, and therefore being in a position to learn from that. Quite an amazing trajectory, from Vietnam to Blackfeet culture. And your analysis of Whiteman thinking, Whiteman culture, fundamentalism, the difference between Jesus and Paul -- all very interesting to me. You bring us back to what Indian culture cherished, the equality of women, the preservation of nature, everything that "progress" and "civilization" have corrupted.
Thanks so much for letting me have your book.

Howard Zinn

Over the last 200 years Ron West is one of the few whites to get an unfettered inside view of the Native American world. He does not look in from the outside, but was directly taught by widely known and respected healers. He became a part of it. His transition from western civilization to the ancient Oral Tradition Indian world allowed him to acquire a unique knowledge. You discover the outcome in this book, a deep insight into this world from the Native perspective. The attentive reader will find information unavailable to this time because westerners were not allowed this knowledge, forbidden to outsiders. Dr. Karl Schlesier mentions in his foreword the chapter on the Stick Game divination is the best ever written in literature. Why has this happened now? You may find the answer in the very first sentences of the book, in Medicine Man Pat Kennedy's words:" I want the whole world to know". These words invite the reader to see and understand. With much Indian humor and sharp words of truth, westerners should bear in mind this is not only a book to explain the Indian worldview. You're also going to see your own civilization from the Indian eyes. This is sometimes a painful thing, even to the open minded. To those who are deeply rooted in western society and believe ours is the only road to walk, it could be a hazard to read this book.
Be that as it may, let's go on a journey with Strawberry (my favorite chapter) and keep in mind everybody is welcome to become the 23rd generation.

Ron West has written a compelling book that will plunge you into Indian culture told from a very powerful, instightful voice. Hunter Thompson-esque, this great piece of work. From the first draft I had the privilege to review, I was impressed with his unique voice and edgy humor. Ron's important work is a must read.

Ron's work is a true landmark!

The book provides a striking balance between cultural ethnography, personal confessional, and mythic parable all rolled into one. You will be entertained by West's singular humor, frankness, and perspective regarding life at the intersection of two distinct worlds. Its a book that's hard to put down in its unflinching look at life in Indian Country, within the context of modern America.

There is a subtle presence that lives within this book, with powerful truths both concealed and revealed throughout its pages, in layers of meaning and insight waiting to be revealed to the right eyes and ears.

Ron West is also an investigative journalist and legal historian who has chronicled to unparalled depths the true story of Indian-American affairs and the unfortunate deceits of history.

Much wisdom and mirth lies in these pages!

Extremely clever cartoons -this parqdody on human life brings laughter from deep in the soul !

always a pleasure to revisit sherman and his lagoon family and friends.

It is only fair that, since we're killing off sharks at an alarming rate with, of course, total disregard for the health of the oceans - that we should be called "lunch".

This book is so cute. It is well drawn and funny, and of course true to the funny papers it comes from. I got the book as a gift for my dad because since he stared reading sherman's lagoon he calls all people at the beach "hairless beach apes" I think it would be better if it came in hardback, but other than that it's a great buy.

I am a huge Sheman's Lagoon fan. Jim Toomey's delightful and hilarious collection of marine critters continues their saga in this 11th book. I found myself laughing myself to tears as Hawthorne (a hermit crab) plan another get rich scheme that invariable ends in tragedy, I frowned at poor Filmore's (sea turtle)rejections at Ascention Island, and of course the star of the series, Sherman (a shark), who spends his days lazily watching TV, prowling the shallows for a tasty morsel of Hairless Beach Ape (humans), and looking to thwart Capt. Quigley (a sea food restaurant owner).

Rick and Bubba have done it yet again with another outstanding literary masterpiece. They are the tops of their business, and they aren't ashamed of who they are, and where they stand. They have numerous good ideas for our country, and they truly "care" about our wonderful country, and how they could change it, and help do their part to get things back to the way God Almighty intended. Our country will be in shambled politically when we choose our new administration, so choose Rick and Bubba, and get the book. It is a winner.

the book is so down to earth and real thinking. would love for them to be the presidents B U T ...... then we wouldn't have them on radio and their families would probably torn apart because of the stupid people "we the people" have allowed in congress and the other decision makers under the President. so i perfer them being on radio so i can enjoy them & hopdfully also they will get back on t v

If your laying on the beach with nothing to fuel your brain, I can heartily recommend this book as the funnest light read written by two jolly DJ's I've read this year!!!!
Tho they studiestly avoided quoting any of their illustrious interviewees, these two minds have found their twin in one another.
Please read. They must need the money or why write so many books!?!

I haven't finished this book yet, but have had some great chuckles so far. These guys are right on about the situation this country is in, and have some great ideas on how to make things better!! I had never heard of them before seeing a blurb on the internet about them. They are great, and I will purchase more books they have written.

after reading this book, there is no doubt in my mind that Rick & Bubba are the best candidates for president. if you are a true conservative, and you read this book, after you wipe the tears from your eyes from laughing so hard, it hits you that what they are saying is simply right on target. however funny they are, they also tell it like it is.

This a wonderful story with finely drawn characters (although I disagree with other reviewers on the bird) with lots of style, wit, and panache. The descriptions of post-war rural Southern life are full of life and light, the characters jump out of the page and are people that you wish you could meet, and the narrative just keeps on revealing more about everyone's lives. Hayes has a winning novel here that will draw you in and satisfy many readers.

Hope to see more from Stan Hayes; this is truly sophisticated, sexy, Southern-fried fun, with a sneaky aftertaste of spookery. What's with dat bird, man?

Anyway, I played ball at an SEC school, and the episode about the Sugar Bowl tickets reminded me of my red-shirt days and strgglin' to make ends meet. Trouble is, I had no playmate remotely like Maybelle of the Red Austin-Healey! Way to go, Hayes; now sex on a hotel roof's on my checklist of things to do before I die. Yeah, THAT kind of sex!

What a case of bottom english! Ex-Abwehr agent steals millions, has his postwar flight to Cuba interrupted when his Buick limo breaks down in cracker country. Porque? Why, for the oldest reason in the chronicles of humankind; a fine, fine woman who's grossly misunderstood, and, naturally, underappreciated.

I'm convinced that Mr. Hayes either grew up in a town like Bisque, or drank a lot with someone who did. His place descriptions, characterizations and ear for dialect are just too spot-on for this reviewer to believe otherwise.

Bring it on, Stan; we need more of Bisque and Hamm County, which bids fair to be appreciated as nothing less than Yoknapatawpha East!

This story has quite a few memorable characters, not the least of whom is Flx the Goshawk. Befriending Jack on the first day that he's separated from his Father, he remains his supernatural sounding board- or is he an alter ego?... throughout the years of his growing up. On whichever side of this question you may decide to come down, I'll bet that you end up wishing that you'd had a Flx of your own to guide you through the pitfalls of growing up, to say nothing of the mentoring of a resourceful ex-Nazi spy!

Hayes doesn't exactly hit you over the head with his message, as DeLillo or Pynchon are wont to do, but it comes through loud and clear if you look closely at what this blockbuster-sized book has to say. To wit, sex is a deadly sort of fun, God is a fig newton of far too many people's imaginations, and life's too short to pussyfoot around. I write this having just reread The Rough English Equivalent's 600+ pages to make sure that I'd really "gotten it," and it was so much fun that I'll probably do it again before the summer's out. As a woman, I found myself applauding Rini's independence and wishing that I were as tough as Diana, the kick-ass psychic nympho twin. And if you're a pilot, as I am, you'll get a kick out of flying the J-3 Cub and the old Grumman F3F fighter with Jack, Moses and Gene Debs!

This is, excuse my French, a hell of a book; to that point, I can't give it five stars because I'm at odds with Mr. Hayes' atheistic subtext. I suppose that's akin to a feminist downing the cromagnon philosophy of John Wayne, which I do, and still admiring his Sgt. Stryker of Sands of Iwo Jima, which one must. If I could, I'd give the book 4 1/2 stars, but since I can't, it gets a very enthusiastic FOUR!

Having chanced across this book's web site during a Google search, I bought it on the strength of Thomas Mcguane's endorsement. His off-center humor's been a longtime addiction of mine, and I figured that if he got "hours of amusement" from it, so would I. Well, I didn't know what I was getting myself into; this guy Hayes' mind certainly shares a quirk or two with McGuane's, but they definitely feed in different pastures. The Rough English Equivalent shares tones of alienation and rebellion with McGuane's work, especially the early books, but its humor's at once darker and more hopeful than the wide-open-space bleakness of which McGuane is the master. This novel, which I think is Hayes's first, has a decidedly urban cast, with airplanes and motorcycles serving in the roles of McGuane's beloved horseflesh.

Enough comparisons; what we have here is a bordering-on-black comedy set in post-World War II Bisque, Georgia, hard by the Savannah River Project plutonium plant. The Rough English Equivalent spans a decade in the lives of Serena, the striking, sensual, estranged wife of Manhattan Project scientist and a Bisque bigwig's daughter, who's itching to trade motherhood and the live-in management of her father's hotel for a sculptor's loft in New York. Jack, her ferociously apt son, puberty just around the corner, is shadowed by a Goshawk that only he can see. Having only sporadic contact with his father, he grows up in Hotel Bisque under the iconoclastic tutelage of burly Jewish entrepreneur Moses, who's actually Peter, a onetime Luftwaffe pilot, late of German intelligence, who sat out the war in Baltimore after walking away with three million bucks earmarked for Roosevelt's and Churchill's 1941 IRA assassination aboard USS Augusta. Stranded en route to Cuba by a ruptured radiator, he gets a load of Serena and drops anchor.

As they craft a modus viviendi, these characters smite Bisque's small-town sensibilities hip and thigh, careening down a collision course with destiny. Probing their psyches and the circumstances that shaped them, Hayes cracks the citadel of Bisque's bigoted bourgeoisie, delivering episodes that include Moses adjourning a Klan cross-burning with bazooka fire, Serena swapping his 1950 Buick's hood ornament for a replica sporting a slickly-chromed penis modeled by the sculptor from life, Jack seduced at 16 by Moses' old lover's daughter aboard a sailboat in New York Harbor and, last but not least, the Bishop sisters, psychic twins possessed by Tourette Syndrome and nymphomania, using Moses' old white limousine to stalk him, driving him nuts with implications that they know who he really is.

Increasingly restless in his Bisque sojourn, Moses fakes his death in a plane crash off the Georgia coast, goes to Havana, and all too soon joins his old Mafia cronies in flight from the Castro revolution. Jack and Moses reunite in Miami's Coconut Grove, awash in CIA types and Cuban exiles, notably Howard Hunt and Bernard Barker, gearing up for the Bay of Pigs.

This is a rich, rich piece of work. The web site quotes a reviewer as saying that it's a cross between John Irving and Louis Grizzard, and I guess I could agree with that. I could also go on, but recalling McGuane's verdict that The Rough English Equivalent's "...funny and wonderfully energetic," I'll close this out by telling you just one more thing. It's an Altman movie screaming to be made!

This cartoon compilation is an entertaining expression of various perspectives on the world to which I happen to agree, at a level deeper than discussed amongst polite company. If you want a one-page commentary on the essence of our existence, just take a look at page 68. Then when the message soaks in, go out and do something that makes you say "yee haw". 'nuff said.

Rationalization and self-delusion help us avoid embarrassing truths about ourselves, enable us to fake ourselves out as we all live through everyday dramas that seem terribly important at the time.

Wheeler goes straight for the jugular, skewering himself and ourselves, as he targets our dark secrets, revealing them to be the human condition rather than as the unmentionable neuroses we imagine them to be. I found myself laughing on every page, laughing at the author and laughing at myself as I realized, "It's not just me, but even better, it's FUNNY!"

Having followed Mr. Wheeler's career since his early collection Children With Glue, I had high hopes for this collection. And I must say it has surpassed all my hopes. I am loving this one. And would say that it is his best yet. Which given how great all collections of his work are - is high praise.

Actually, this is probably my favorite Shannon Wheeler book. Insightful, cutting, charming and as funny as anything else out there. Well worth it.

In the two decades that Shannon Wheeler has been publishing comics, he's always been able to put his finger on the pulse of the world surrounding him and his audience. From the snarky Children with Glue to shining a light on the underbelly of the counter culture movement with Too Much Coffee Man to the politically astute work of How To Be Happy, Shannon's evolution as an artist and an American Zeitgeistian prophet continues in Screw Heaven.

Artistically, he's moved towards a simpler, yet more expressive style, while the dialog and character interaction has become significantly more nuanced and well crafted. This volume graces both the coffee table and deserves a spot on the shelves of anyone who is a serious comics collector.

When I first picked up SHAKESPEARE CATS by the British artist Susan Herbert, I was struck by the cute and colorful illustrations showing cats, my favorite animals, as Shakespearean characters. I bought the book, and as I went through it page by page I found it educational, too. Herbert has accompanied each one of her drawings -- works of art in themselves -- with a short synopsis and the relevant quotation from the play. The trouble with cats, however, is that it is not always possible to do much more than suggest emotions in their faces, which are fairly "blank." This poses a problem with the more extreme emotions in Shakespeare: Herbert's Othello (a black cat) does not look enraged nor her Macbeth (a red-orange tabby) particularly horrified. Additionally, Herbert depicts mostly tabby (striped) cats, which will probably disappoint readers who like other kinds of cats. But if these are drawbacks, they are minor ones; Herbert is a gifted artist. Her scene-composition and her bright color-choices make each illustration a feast for the eyes. There are some subtly clever facial expressions, too, like Malvolio's (TWELFTH NIGHT) self-satisfied grin or Jacques (AS YOU LIKE IT) cynical smirk. And art enthusiasts will see Herbert's drawings of Romeo leaving Juliet's balcony or the sleeping princes from RICHARD III as homages to celebrated paintings by the nineteenth century artists Dicksee and Northcote; her crazed Ophelia (with tongue hanging out) might stand beside the famous depictions of that heroine by Waterhouse or Millais! I am happy to have discovered SHAKESPEARE CATS and Herbert and will seek out more of her books.

I hoped this was a story, but I will find a way to use the pretty pictures. The book isn't constructed in a way that I can encourage its use as a picture book for young children. I do like the fact that there is a passage beside each picture. That will be of some use.

I love this book, it's so adorable and beautiful, Susan Herbert is a great artist, I admire her a lot. You see wonderful pictures of cats playing roles of some of Shakespeare plays. It's a great book for kids and also for adult too.:) If you love cats your going to love this book.

Shakespeare people also tend to be cat people: why is that? In this case, Susan Herbert has created a beautiful book for cat fans and Bard fans alike. I have all of Herbert's books, and "Shakespeare Cats" is definitely my favorite. It depicts famous moments from many of Shakespeare's plays with intricate detail, and the cats look like they're in the most natural settings in the world! It's hard to pick out my favorite illustrations, but the "Midsummer Night's Dream" picture stands out, as does the humorous painting from "The Taming of the Shrew." All of the paintings are wonderful, and this is an adorable book that you will treasure forever.

Susan Herbert is, first and foremost, a truly gifted artist. Her style, talent, color choices, all show a mastery of skill. Aside from that, though, she's also an imaginative woman who tryle appreciates the feline, as evidenced by her series of wonderful illustrated cat books.

This book, "Shakespeare Cats", functions firstly as simply an enjoyable coffee-table book for frequent perusal. On another level, though, Herbert has cleverly illustrated 32 of Shakespeare's works, and with detail. The setting of each piece, the costumes, the detail of scene-setting -- all of this shows that in addition to being a cat-lover and an artist, Herbert is also not too shabby as a Shakespearean scholar as well.