Parody Books

I Didn't think Waldo could top his first book, "The Tao of Meow" but he has. It is bright and witty, lots of charm and the wisdom of the first book is all there. But it has something else. It's hard to describe. I'll try. I like to read The Ruby Cat after a nasty day. A day when you get run over by demanding people. Waldo puts things in proper perspective as he resolves the duality of More and Less. He cleverly juggles these ideas and makes you think. You can review your day then from some different angles. Perhaps make less of what seemed before so important and troubling. Waldo instructs, he reminds, and he does so entertainingly, lightly. But I also found in The Ruby Cat a quality that gets seldom expressed by others in the day. Waldo loves the world, he loves Rose, and curling up in Rose's lap. Then he dies and a white kitty replaces him in Rose's lap, he loves that cat too. These passages can make me cry. They are beautifully written, they move, they inspire. Waldo can change my outlook and I love reading his books.

This book is full of short one liners that will make you laugh out loud. Definitely a must for every cat lover who knows what it is like to live in a house where the cat rules.

This book is great! Very funny. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It was a total joy to read. All dog lovers will enjoy this book. Although you may not want your dog to read it, it will sure get your funny bone. Very skillfully written in a dogs view. GREAT BOOK!!

Excellent humourous book. I originally purchased it for a friend who was going through chemotherapy treatments to keep her spirits up. She shared it with others in our workplace and it's now so beat up that I am purchasing a second copy. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to have a good laugh without having to read the entire book at one time.

This book made me laugh out loud more times than I could count. Wonderful illustrations and poingant observations of "bulldog-do: the way of the bulldog". Having recently lost a bulldog companion I was delighted to be reminded with such touching humor of all the wonders of the "way of the bulldog". The book covers the arts of war and peace, for example Bulldog Zen, "coming when called", "the leash of no leash", and techniques of meditation. The arts of war include such tactics as "the mysterious assault of the foul wind", "making your own body into a bobby trap" and "the flurry of flying drool" all beautifully illustrated by J.C Brown, a calligrapher and illustrater living in Tokyo, whose other work includes "Zen for Cats". The book itself is translated from the Japanese by Jeff Hunter, a translator specializing in Buddhism and literature, and master to the Samurai Bulldog Chibibusuka Dogizaemon, the soon to be famous author. Do yourself a favor and buy this book it will make you laugh and possibly cry. It might even make you laugh till you cry.

Anyone who has ever read one of the countless "how to" screenwriting books will apreciate this scathing parody. The book may be a bit too inside at times for non Hollywood industry readers, but there is enough humor to appeal to all. This is truly one of the funniest books on the subject, whose humor is dead on. The book never overstays its welcome at a slim 130 pages. I believe writers (and even some film executives) will know many friends they can buy this book for. It's hilarious!

this book os great man.its full of superb stunning ideas on how 2 take revenge on those ppl who u REALLY HATE~! all of it really makes sense n worth 100% if u really WANT SOME REVENGE.

A truly remarkable book that although it's intent is humorous, provides a deep look at the whys and wherefores of peoples hunger for power and fortune. Having applied some of Chokya's laws, I have already become a wealthier, more forceful bastard and I feel good about it. This is a keeper.

Jack Tracy was a bit of a mystery himself -- publisher of books on Sherlock Holmes, he even owned by a press in my current residence of Bloomington, Indiana, called Gaslight, dedicated to keeping the Sherlock Holmes legacy alive. Tracy himself died under mysterious circumstances a few years after his mother also died under questionable circumstances -- there was no Holmes to put all the things together into the package needed to find and convict the criminal in the latter case; Tracy left Bloomington for Las Vegas and died there a few years later. So ended a strange career, one that was nonetheless a significant one in the annals of Sherlock Holmes scholarship.

Sherlock Holmes is one of the best known detectives in the world -- so famous in fact, that 221B Baker Street in London continues to get mail adddressed to this fictional character almost a century after he would have died had he been a real person. There are groups of people -- Sherlockians and Holmesians, the distinction between which is rather subtle -- who delight in retelling the tales; it has become somewhat traditional to try to fill in the gaps, things left out of the 'canonical' stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- 56 short stories and 4 novels. The official tales allude to happenings beyond them -- some authors take up the point there, and others create fanciful tales altogether.

In this volume, 'Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha', Tracy has edited several works beyond the canonical 60 that were actually penned (or at least outlined and inspired) by Conan Doyle himself -- hence the term 'apocrypha'. These are not parodies or pastiches as such, but rather the product of the original author himself, which, for various reasons, are not part of the main corpus.

One great inclusion in this text is the play, 'Sherlock Holmes', perhaps one of the greatest vehicles for Holmes' early success in America - the authorship credits go both to Conan Doyle and William Gillette, who played Holmes a remarkable 1300 times on the stage. There is a shorter piece included here by Gillette himself, after he received a famous message from Conan Doyle that, with regard to Holmes, he can 'Marry him, Murder him, or do whatever you want with him.' Conan Doyle himself developed Holmes as drama; two are included here -- a dramatic version of 'The Speckled Band', and 'The Crown Diamond', later made into short-story form as a 'The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone', considered by some (including Tracy) as the worst of the official Holmes stories.

There are some parodies of the Holmes style that Conan Doyle penned himself, as well as one by J.M. Barrie included here. There are two 'legitimate' short stories that involve an unnamed 'amateur reasoner' -- 'The Man with the Watches' and 'The Lost Special', which some have argued should be included in the official canon. The very short 'How Watson Learned the Trick' was written specifically for the Queen's Dollhouse (1920), in which small, handwritten books appropriate to the size of a doll hosue were made by the greatest living authors of the age. Rather than contribute an already-published extract, Conan Doyle penned this little delightful piece.

There is also a 'fake' Holmes story, at one time believed to be (and passed off as) original to Conan Doyle. Tracy recounts in his introduction the details of the case surrounding 'The Case of the Man Who Was Wanted', declaring it as good as many Conan Doyle stories, even better than some.

This is a worthy volume for any Holmes fan.

This book like all the ones that I have read of Jeff MacNelly has great material. This book however is on the short side. Although if you're a Cubs fan or a Baseball fan it probably will be more sentimental to you, for it seems to capture the Joy that baseball brings along with the frustrations and false hopes. But over all I believe that for how short it is the material is strong enough to hold its own.