Satire Books

I received this book from the wife of a client. He gave this to me just before we had dinner at my house. We were in the midst of a serious business discussion when I started flipping through the book and chanced on "The Thigh Retainer", "the Buttock Fluffer Upper", the "Mammary Sling" and the "Abs Inducer". I was rolling on the floor laughing. I showed the book to my client and he laughed... it was the beginning of a really great dinner, full of laughter, very relaxed and very productive!
A WONDERFUL gift to a great friend- am giving this to all my gang for christmas!

I'll be brief. This was a Valentine's Day gift for friend who turned 50 this past fall. The book is fall down funny. (Parts are more than a little risque, however, so don't let the youngsters get to it first.)

This book is by far the best gift I have ever received! From the second I opened it and began reading the introduction, I started laughing out loud and never stopped. Ever since, it holds "La place d'honeur" on my coffee table and every woman (and man too) who sits down and picks it up, starts laughing and says.."Listen to this" and reads a paragraph out loud and inevitably gathers a laughing crowd around her/him.

Marilyn Miller's style of comedic writng is so unique, high end, literate and at the same time easy and fun-to-read. Makes you wonder: Where has this author been all my life?

It is a kind of semi- coffee table book that is rich in hilarious text as well as photos. I savored every word just as happily, curled up in my big "reading" chair laughing out loud alone, as well as when I was sitting in the living room and it passed the big test by reading it out loud to my husband while he was watching football and he clicked "mute" on the remote and listened and belly laughed right along with me.

I can't wait to read Ms. Miller's next Middle-Aged Babe book.

As the founding "Father" of a group of at-home-dads I'm always on the hunt for any kind of helpful resource to pass on to my Dads. This book has proven to be one of the most well received. As any of you that have read my other reviews know, I RARELY give 5 stars. This book is just that well put together.

The book doesn't dwell on the fact that Fatherhood is just now coming into it's own. Instead, it presents basic Dad-stuff info in an easily digestible and accurate fashion in combination with some pretty humorously drawn pix.

Each topic, from tying shoes to riding a bike to tying a tie (roughly) takes about a page or so and presents it's information fairly in depth, but still very easily read. Imagine this as the little yellow book you got for your driver's test; there's 10,000 other things you'll need to know also, but this will help you pass the tests that tend to show up every few months after the age of 4.

I highly recommend this book for any new Dad; At-home or not!!

You might buy this book as kind of a gag gift for new dads, but it is loaded with actual content. How to skip a rock across a pond. How to teach a kid to ride a bike. Etc. The kinds of things you really admired your dad for because he could do them; the kinds of things you would like your kid to remember you for. It's funny and light-hearteded but years later you will still be sneaking a peak at it for a refresher course (even moms will!)

This book makes a great gift for expectant or new fathers. It offers instructions on everything from teaching how to tie knots to teaching a child how to ride a bike! Humor and good instructions help the new dad as they grow with their child.

I carried a tattered copy of this book with me from Cape Cod to New York to Paris to Berlin to Athens and back for 6 years. I can't urge you strongly enough to take this magical journey with Ludwig Bemelmans through a Europe entirely lost to us -- a world which he captures as no one else -- not Scott Fitzgerald nor any of his sort -- could have hoped or dared to. You'll never tire of slumming your way across Europe under an assumed (Royal) identity, eating and drinking the very best that France has to offer -- all courtesy of Monsieur Le Comte de St. Cucuface, an aging, comically cash-poor French Count who was long ago reduced to feeding off the extravagant banquet tables of the "Continental Set". "How To Travel Incognito" is a wildly engaging adventure penned by a brilliant writer and world-class personality. Buy this book!

Thanks to the review of C. Carey Astrakhan, I decided to send for HOW TO TRAVEL INCOGNITO when I was looking for a way to lighten up life after the agonies of Sept. 11th. For me this book had just the right combination of elegant wit and breezy charm. It was refreshing to return to the calmness of 1950's Europe and to roam the world in a Rolls Royce, visiting castles, costume balls, casinos, and the tonier restaurants. The author, who wrote the MADELINE books for children, spent his early years working in a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and knew firsthand the ways of the aristocrats and spoiled rich. He saw their flaws, enjoyed their company, and commented on them with gentle astringency. One character tells another, for instance, that a wealthy woman had a cigarette case made specially for him so that she could have the pleasure of dictating to a jeweller. Ah, yes.

Thanks to the review of C. Carey Astrakhan, I decided to send for HOW TO TRAVEL INCOGNITO when I was looking for a way to lighten up life after the agonies of Sept. 11th. For me this book had just the right combination of elegant wit and breezy charm. It was refreshing to return to the calmness of 1950's Europe and to roam the world in a Rolls Royce, visiting castles, costume balls, casinos, and the tonier restaurants. The author, who wrote the MADELINE books for children, spent his early years working in a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and knew firsthand the ways of the aristocrats and spoiled rich. He saw their flaws, enjoyed their company, and commented on them with gentle astringency. One character tells another, for instance, that a wealthy woman had a cigarette case made specially for him so that she could have the pleasure of dictating to a jeweller. Ah, yes.

i love indigo animal. I picked this up at the Dia Center in Beacon, NY, in hopes that the 2hour car trip home wouldn't be as hellish as the ride up (thanks, infrequent-car-riding children!) While the six-year-old is especially lacking in the life experience to understand what it's like to feel a passionate attachment to something that the fashionable crowd has deemed laughable and pas-a-la-mode, even he could get behind Indigo's need for sanctuary, for something meaningful.

I'll bet Indigo is the sort who picks up broken shells. A tender hearted creature. Still waters, running deep, seldom visited. The antithesis of television, video games, and dare I say, the internet.

Indigo made me think of friends I haven't seen since college.

A lovely, shady book.

Aside from being the most visually charming "graphic novel"
ever produced, Indigo Animal is vital literature. Literature that conveys meaning through the power of feeling that it delivers to the reader. You could sit with your five year old and read it aloud, you could read it to your shrink or your clergyman or your grandparents, and each of them would respond to Indigo's joy of search and discovery.

What is to be done with a four-footed creature, apparently mammal, of an unknown age, of unspecified gender who reads Epictitus and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius?

Before you read that next book of Dogen, Chodron, Tolle or Dr. Phil, do yourself a splendid favor and pick up a copy of Indigo Animal. It does not matter how many Sanskrit texts you have personally translated or how many Lotus Feet you have kissed, if you have not met Indigo you are at great risk of spiritual illiteracy.

The sequel to "Indigo Animal", Indigo Animal and the Lawn Statuary Research Institute is a delightful, full-color picturebook for all ages. Unlike most picturebooks, which tend to be very brief in length, Indigo Animal and the Lawn Statuary Research Institute is quite lengthy, though each page contains only a sentence or two at most of text. Following the wanderings of the "overly serious" indigo animal past works of great art, about a most unusual campus, Indigo Animal and the Lawn Statuary Research Institute blends an appreciation for artistic creations, good- natured humor, and the thirst for knowledge into an engaging and original read-aloud story. There is some mild nudity present in Indigo Animal and the Lawn Statuary Research Institute, in the illustration's portrayal of a classical work of female Greco-Roman sculpture, all quite tastefully done. Highly recommended.

This book was truly inspiring. It was wonderful to see how you can relate shoes and "soles" to the emotional experiences of individuals. It was a true test of the human spirit. This is book is a must have.

This book was a pleasant surprise. I love shoes just as much as the next girl, but I'm happy to say that it's so much more than a book with pretty pictures (although happily there are plenty of those). This is a book with wonderfully told stories and morals that we can all relate to with a smile, a laugh, and loads of understanding. One of my favorites was the fabulously dressed and maybe slightly superior woman crossing her legs with the Marshall's tag on the bottom of one of her shoes. I loved it and I highly recommend it. This book is a keeper.

Wonderful little book with awesome photos. The stories are sweet and the ideas in the back are great. I really love all the different perspectives! Makes a great gift for Mom, sister, Aunts... any woman in your life!

Hilarious reviews of B-Movies done in Joe Bob's initimable style - guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.

Not for the sexually repressed (he often rates movies by the number of "boobs" that are visible), this series of reviews from the Movie Channel's "Drive In Theatre" host's syndicated newspaper column preaches the Drive-In gospel.

Actually, the author is a very sharp man who realized the way to get maximum attention was to adopt a beer guzzling, trailer park living Good Ol' Boy White Trash persona.

The funniest film reviews I've ever read - get this and his first book of reviews "Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In" (what/where else?!)

Joe Bob's second (to date) collection of drive-in movie reviews is equally as funny as his first. He picks up from the infamous "We Are the Weird" column, which got him tossed off the Dallas Slimes-Herald and out of the El Lay Slimes Syndicate, then goes into his next weekly column (he was picked up by Universal Press Syndicate without ever missing a column). The reviews are often far more entertaining than the films, and his hilarious slice-o'-life segments are some of the best humor pieces out there. This one's a real winner for drive-in fans and people who just like to LAUGH alike!

Joe Bob Briggs is an awesome character. His reviews of "B" movies are usually dead-on accurate and to the point. (He is the only critic next to Ebert that isn't ashamed to like so-called "trashy" flicks. Ths collection of reviews from his newspaper columns is a must read for fans of good ol' drive-in type movies. It also contains Briggs' hysterical monologues on life in Grapevine, TX , as well as his opinions on life.

This book had me laughing out loud. She touches on all the things that happen to women as we grow older but still feel young. I especially loved the essay on visiting her college alma mater. When she ran in to the young man and he called her ma'am, I could relate. This is a book to read on those days that you are feeling fat, blue or just generally depressed. You won't be depressed long, you'll be laughing so much that you won't want to put it down. I look forward to more books from this talented author.

I really enjoyed this book. It's light, funny, and the kind of book that makes you glance over your shoulder hoping that no one realizes that you do the same silly things the author just wrote about. And just when you're rolling in the aisles... then she hits you with one of those moments that makes you feel all warm inside. Buy this book - for yourself, and for everyone you know who only goes to the health club when they've forgotten how bad the last time was, or who hides their Barry Manilow records.

Where has this woman been all my life? She's hilarious and pens the definitive book on the perils of Mid-Life. I never laughed so hard since Erma Bombeck. Anyone who has struggled over this hill will love her quirky take on life. And how refreshing to read such wonderful, creative humor that's also from the heart. You'll cry too. Christee Atwood, give us some more!!! Please!

Funny look at golfing. One has to have a sense of humor to
play the game anyway and these cartoons show the humorous
truisms associated with the "game."

This is a great little golf book with a great group of golf cartoons covering just about every aspect of the game. I produce a newsletter for our local club and I intend to use some of the material in the book in our monthly publication. Neat book and really good price.

This book "Just Fore Laughs" is filled with delightful cartoons about the world of golf. I think everybody that plays the game of golf will find him/her self in one or more sections of the book. The quotations that go with cartoons are cute and appropriate for the cartoon ... for example, the section on Seniors shows Beetle Bailey's General Halftrack leaping out of bed and proclaiming that he feels young and strong and that nothing will stop him from succeeding on this day while his wife stays in bed and says "You're playing golf, right?" The quotation accompanying the cartoon is by Michael de Montaigne and says "Let us take care that age does not make more wrinkles on our spirit than on our face." Another cartoon is Jeff MacNelly's Shoe hitting his ball into a water hazard while his fiend says his swing is instant bogey ... just add water. The accompanying quotation is from Henry Wassworth Longfellow .. "From the waterfall he named her, Minnehaha, Laughing Water." This is a gift type book and it's pretty thick for its' type with more that 150 pages and a lot or golf cartoons. It's priced very well at $14.95 so it makes a great gift for anybody that plays golf and realizes how absurd the game can be sometimes.

Speed Bump is the next best thing to The Far Side - it is one of those smart and funny comics that make you think and laugh all at the same time. If you're the kind of person that cuts out comics and sticks them up at the office, this is your type of comic.

Coverly has the book broken up into themes and has a little introduction (one written by Rick Kirkman, the guy who draws "Baby Blues.") These are all clever (especially the one in which he describes a typical cartoonist's day).

Well, you'll have to excuse me now, I'm off to the scanner to make a few copies of some cartoons for the office!

Dave Coverly is one of the most underrated cartoonists out there. I competely agree with the previous review, in that he shares the same creative writing style as Larson, but his illustrations are superior.

The puns are numerous and outrageous... and will have you actually laughing out loud. Dave's brilliant artwork fits the subject matter perfectly. I have a number of comic collections in my library and this one now resides in my favorites section. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up. Better yet, call your local paper and demand that they run Speed Bump.

Are you a fan of "The Far Side?" Do you wish that Gary Larson was still doing that comic? I'm sad that he's gone too, but he sure produced a host of people to carry the load. Some have nowhere near the amount of imagination that Larson did, but one person definitely does. That's Dave Coverly, author of "Speed Bump." I just read through one of his latest collections, called Just One %$#@ Speed Bump After Another... and it's yet another winner.

Coverly is the closest I have seen to Larson's creativity in the one-panel (or sometimes small multi-panel) comic strip, bringing his characters to life and making wonderful jokes. Sometimes, Coverly will take a familiar phrase, and give it just one twist to the left to make you laugh out loud (such as one comic in this book where one baby sitting on a park bench tells another baby not to worry. "We *all* get thrown out with the bathwater from time to time.") Other panels have plays on words that sometimes make you groan, but always make you laugh (the head of a thesaurus publishing company telling an employee "Bob, you're fired, axed, canned, sacked, booted, dismissed, terminated and let go.")

This is the first collection I've read, so I don't know if the layout's the same in all of them, but this one is divided into sections regarding children, animals, gender differences in society, work, the meaning of life, and then a hodge-podge of unrelated subjects. The jokes are always clever, pop culture references abound ("Diane's date with a Headline News Anchor: 'Weird...didn't we just have this conversation half an hour ago, Tom?'") and even the introductions to the chapters are quite witty. The chapter regarding workplace comics begins with him describing a typical day on the comic creation assembly line, catching a bus with some lesser cartoonists while some (like Scott Adams) drive by in limos. Coverly doesn't avoid philosophy either, with one panel having God tell an angel "C'mon, it'll be fun! I'll throw on some stars, pop in a few planets, drum up a life form or two, and this place will be hoppin'!" The caption is, of course, "The Big Shebang Theory."

As for the artwork, Coverly's work is quite distinctive. He doesn't have any set "characters" like Larson did; instead all of them look quite different. Some have big noses that jut from their faces, while others have little ones. The eyes are different, heck even the body shapes are quite unique. Even the inevitable James Earl Jones comic (you can probably guess along what lines it runs) actually has him look vaguely like James Earl Jones!

This is a great collection of strips from the last couple of years. It was published in late 2005, and contains the winner of last book's caption contest, where you get to write the punchline! This year's deadline was April 7, 2006, so I missed it, but the winner will appear in the newspaper sometime during the year. "Speed Bump" is one of the funniest one-panel comics around these days, and Gary Larson's legacy is well in hand. Pick this one up today.

This is a wonderfully designed news strip reprint book - hefty, formidable, aesthetically pleasing in every regard. I've been a Krazy Kat fan for many, many years, and I couldn't be happier with this purchase. (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain)

Often the unexpected makes life worth living. Day by day, we roll along acquiescing in the eternal routine that inexorably mashes down time like a rolling pin over muffin dough. Then suddenly a protrusion. Wham! Something interrupts the seemingly unimpediable passage of the inevitable. Pull back the dough. A diamond. A multi-karatted glittering sparkler. Endorphins rush to pleasure centers. Eyes bulge. Tongue wags. Hopefully a full stomach maintains consciousness. If not, then plop and give in to the ecstasy. Such an event doesn't occur often. Something from nowhere has disrupted harsh workaday realities. Hope! Meaning! Such startling events probably filled the lives of Krazy Kat Konnoiseurs the nanosecond their retinas processed this sumptuous delectable volume of Golden Fleece daily strips. And who can blame them? This enormous hardcover coffee table sized miracle delights with every page. And who knew? Fantagraphics spread no rumors about printing dailies, perhaps to keep fans from vaporizing into submissive joy. The cover itself is an aesthetic wonder well worth a few million eye scans. But the strips inside, laid out like billboards two to a page, emblazoned almost in original size, might make some feel like they didn't pay enough for this shock to the system.

Krazy Kat dailies of any kind remain elusive. A few sparse collections exist compliments of Stinging Monkey (who apparently have more installments planned) and Pacific Comics club. Fans of George Herriman's Kat can hope with collective ferocious zeal that this volume presages infinite follow-ups.

Though the subtitle of this collection, stamped across the cover marquee-style, reads "The Panoramic Dailies of 1920," the strips actually date from 1911 to 1921. Three sections trisect the book: "The Emancipated Kat" includes early strips from subterranean Dingbat-era excursions. These reveal a very different Kat and mouse than later evolutions. "The Liberated Kat" jumps to 1914 when Krazy received the blessing of a solo strip extricated from "The Family Upstairs. Basement no more. I am Kat, hear me roar. These pun-filled often self-referential strips display the development of Herriman's new favorite characters. The final section of strips, "Flights of Fanciful Freedom," dives right into the panoramic strips advertised up front. They represent comic eye candy of the highest order. As luscious as the Sundays, only smaller, they reveal the strip in almost full stride. Surrealism and off-frame references abound. Among the works is the much discussed "Poor poor Injin" strip from May 24, 1920. Once again puns and linguistic peregrinations emanate from the text. Ignatz's ubiquitous brick appears with stunning and symbolic frequency. Offisa Pupp and his jail have not yet become mainstays, as they did in the 1930s and 1940s, but themes point in that direction. The quality never staggers. Krazy Kat's reputation heightens with each flop of the sometimes unwieldy pages (prepare ample space for gazing). And if that wasn't enough, a final section reprints the masterful 1922 program of the Krazy Kat jazz pantomime. Given vast space, Herriman's artwork reveals all its subtle beauty and charm. Prepare to be overwhelmed.

So did "The Kat Who Walked in Beauty" interrupt Fantagraphics's ongoing printing of the Krazy Kat Sunday pages? If so, it was worth it. To have numerous dailies spread out like gorgeous landscapes begging for repeated visits will cull any drooling anticipations for Sundays. Let's hope Fantagraphics plans more volumes of amazing Krazy Kat daily strips.

This large format book provides Krazy Kat dailies in nearly newspaper size print. After buying the Fantagraphics sunday series that are available it is interesting to view and read these larger format cartoons. The larger size adds an additional "dimension" that you don't get from the smaller format books. The majority of the book is derived from the series published over 9 months in 1920 with smaller sections from very early days. This is a different Kat than the Krazy Kat of 1920 and later but it helps to show how the cartoon character evolved. Reading this makes me hope Fantagraphics continues to put out more.