Parody Books

i have had this book for a few years now and i have read it six times- its that good. it is a great read. the book is funny and has very slight social comments that poke at the modern world. i cannot recommend this book highly enough.
just buy it

Max Brooks has created a survival guide that can answer nearly any question you may have about how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Thing I never would have considered were covered in detail, and were surprisingly funny. A great weekend read.

The book is a one-stop guide for any zombie-movie lover, or anyone who thinks that "Z-Day" might ever happen.

A should-read for any zombie fan. Any horror fan. Any fiction fan in general!

I taught I was going to be entertained by this book. It felt like I was reading a textbook instead of a novel. I know I should have expected it due to the title, but still.

husband says its not as tongue & cheek as he'd like, but its somewhat amusing, NOT laugh out loud funny or anything

I have been meaning to read this book for years, because it sounded so funny. When I finally ordered a copy, I was a bit let down.
I expected a funny take on being a southern woman, with a lot of teasing about being an improper southern belle ("fallen").
What I found was a lot of cliches and stereotyping---not of the female southerner, but more sitcom-style. The author relies heavily on traits that we females supposedly tend toward, but I don't find most of them to be true. I also don't see the behavior of the Queens as very funny--mostly snarky to their aquaintances, rude to outsiders, condescending to men, and uncreative. I also don't get the heavy reliance on sexual jokes and innuendo. My friends and I don't talk like that, yet we are not prudes.
It would be funny if the author didn't appear to belive in her own dogma, but she says she does, so I guess I'll have to take her at her word. No matter, I've got this one up for swap and won't finish it.

Fun take on life from a woman's perspective, great recipes and the straight skinny on how to get men to behave. If you haven't read the Sweet Potato Queens you are missing out on a good time and some great advice on men and life in general.

There are a lot of interesting things in this book, but it is not laugh-out-loud funny. It is a great reminder that being a woman is fun and empowering.

How many self-help books have we read as women trying to work on our self-esteem, body image, etc? This was the MOST HELPFUL ONE I have ever read, and it is NOT a self-help book. Might sound a little nuts compared to the other reviews, but it is completely empowering to read about a group of women who are "queens" just because they SAY SO! And, who embrace their "flaws" (meaning they are not Kate Moss on the cover of Vogue) and even flaunt them.

All this is done with comedy, but with a certain universal truth that runs through the novel, right down to near the end of the book where the advice is, if you are down or taking yourself too seriously or need a laugh to put on some trashy lingerie and some really ugly fake teeth (Dr. Bukk's Teef). The book states, "You can wear your Bukk teef and your high heels and your trashy lingerie to the grocery store if you want to, or you can just prance around in them at home and enjoy being a goose all by yourself...We're not interested in an altered state; we're after our True State--unbridled joy." See what I mean?

If you want to read an uproariously funny book - this is it! We can dress as outrageously as we like - bouffant hair, sequined dress and all. Have a great time, be wild and crazy. The book to read when you want to give your daughter life advice.

there was a wad of chewed gum stuck to the top of the pages, and the book as a whole was shrink wrapped. I am still disgusted.

It sounds so incredibly good that you don't know sometimes if what they are saying is true or false. You really need a strong background in the subject on some of the information to get it.

The bathroom reader.
He did enjoy this book. Especially the short entries.

I've read several of The Onion's books, and this one stands out as the funniest. A few of my favorite headlines: "Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons,"; "Stalin Announces Five-Year 'Everybody Dies' Plan"; and "World's Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg". Hopefully we can all learn something from The Onion's version of history, or we'll be condemned to repeat it!

Smaller than a 3X5 card, it has a big book price. Hardbound, it'll last a while. History of the last 100 years. Cute gift idea. Decent read. Nothing extra special about it. Kind of gimmicky.

Had a rough day? Stressed about the looming Apocalypse and your dwindling bank balance? You need James Lileks. You need The Gallery of Regrettable Food -- actual food illustrations and photography from the Depression through the swinging 70s. There are a few recipes, but the focus is on the unappetizing pictures and Lileks's delicious commentary. Imagine the mind that could dream up hot dogs in aspic. No, don't. Not if you're eating. Or about to eat. Or ever want to eat again.

Most of the content in Lileks's books is no longer on the website, but truly they are worth buying. He describes a loaf of mottled red meat sludge in aspic as "a core sample from a mass grave." He tells the hidden stories of the people in those illustrations. Truly, he is the MST3K of old advertisements -- and his wit is as sharp as his eye.

The effect of reading anything by Lileks is, first, laughter, tinged with horror. Then, as you read on, uncontrollable spasms of laughter. Then choking, screaming convulsions of something that might be laughter or agony, garnished by tears. Then full-fledged hysteria. It's absolutely guaranteed, and it's one of the best ways I know for dealing with a horrible day.

Why yes, I had a . . . regrettable day. Any day in which one's automobile, freshly emerged from the shelter of a warranty period, demands repairs that will cost almost a month's rent (which, incidentally, has just been raised again), that day cries out for Official Cheer.

(It worked, too.)

People think of the era covered by Lileks book as "recent history" because we have television and film from this era, but really, it's not very recent at all. Sure, there are some people alive now who were alive then, but the cultural upheavals and historical lava flows that have occurred since then make them more like visitors from a foreign country than people of our time.

Lileks answers the burning question: what nameless horrors did Wally Cleaver eat, that made him think becoming a hippy and destroying Western Civilization was a good idea? This book shows some of these culinary atrocities. It was the last era where corporations were seen as more or less benign entities. You can see where Wally Cleaver got the other idea: I mean, food made with 7-up? All those marshmallows? The twinkie defense was invented not long afterwords. After reading the book, you can understand why the kids were so angry in the 1960s. They'd been eating sinister marshmallow covered 7-up roasts prepared by their moms in the 1950s. Sure, they railed against sexism and racism and colonialism, but considering what the same people did in the 70s and 80s, perhaps it was just indigestion.

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read, and it gets funnier upon being revisited. It is a treasured piece that conjures up feelings of nostalgia similar to those one might get from watching "A Christmas Story".

I have the feeling that Lileks could write about garden grubs with the same caustic wit and humor. It's really all about his writing in my opinion. I couldn't stop laughing through the whole book, but you either appreciate this kind of thing, or not. I would love to see Lileks and Lewis Black on stage together - major insightful irreverance.

At first this seems like simple recycling; take some old recipe books from the age of streamlining and World's Fairs, and assemble them into a condescending look back at how primitive our parents were. But Lileks does much more--his running commentary made me laugh so hard my eyes watered. You can read two pages or twenty, and not regret a moment of your time. If you were ever confronted by Campbell's Mushroom Soup poured over something, you will enjoy this book immensely. And there's no calories or guilt!

I really enjoy Terry Pratchett's series about DiscWorld. This is one of the better books in the series. However, you need to have read some of the series in order to get all the little things about the different characters. The only bad thing about this book is that I don't really like the whole time travel concept of it. I liked seeing the characters when Sam Vimes is just starting out and is young and impressionable, but I didn't like having to go back in time and pretend to be someone else to do it. I love how Mr. Pratchett takes what's going on in our world today and gets his characters to make fun of and make statements about it. I really loved his social commentary about rebellions and political changes, not to mention how when a new man comes into an organization and slowly takes it over. I just find his series revealing about how others may see us and how we do what we do. How funny it really sounds to others. I would highly recommend this book to others who have read the series. If you haven't started the series then you definitely need to get on it.

This is my favorite book in the City Watch book and quite possibly my favorite book in the entire Discworld series. It gives you a little more background on some of the main characters(Vimes, Colon, Nobby, and even Vetinari)and makes for a thrilling read. Read it! I command you!

Having enjoyed Going Postal, my first Terry Pratchett, I jumped on "Night Watch" with a Christmas gift certificate and started reading it right away. Somewhat inexplicably, the book took me nearly a month to finish. Pratchett parodies modern societal infrastructure in his books (communications in "Going Postal"; law enforcement in "Night Watch"). Perhaps I'm just not clued in enough to police work to get all the jokes.

The story blends elements of "The Time Machine" (as protagonist Sam Vimes is accidentally thrown about 30 years into then past), Les Misérables (Signet Classics) (a citizens' revolt involving heavy use of barricades makes up much of the action) and The Streets of San Francisco - Season 1, Vol. 2, but with a time-twist as the veteran Vimes (the Karl Malden character) trains a young Vimes (the Michael Douglas character) thirty years in the past. I expect that there's a British TV version of this old cop/young cop story (without the time-shifting, of course).

But it doesn't work out as wackily as it sounds. Slowing down the fun, Pratchett devotes many pages to the drudgery of night policing (the "night watch" of the title) and to the inner workings of a precinct house. Sectioning the book into more chapters might have also helped the story flow better. I will say that the ending came together well, if a little on the sentimental side.

Though I didn't enjoy "Night Watch" (3 stars) as much as "Going Postal" (4 stars), I still plan to read more Pratchett. I'm told that some of the earliest books in the Discworld series have more of the jocularity that charmed me in "Postal".

Being a prison guard (no, not like the ones in this book, a REAL one) I find great comfort in Sam Vimes. Moralistic humor, nice twisty view of the world, yet always trying to do right - even to himself. This book has gotten me through hard times when I needed to be reminded to be true to myself, to do what I know is right, to look to the greater picture. I adore Terry Pratchett's view and agree wholeheartedly with it. Acceptance that people are who they are, but we need to be who we need to be also. I believe all his books are quite readable, enjoyable. I am currently in the process of reading the entire discworld series in chronological order and am impressed to watch not only the characters grow, but the author also. Thank you sooooo much Mr. Pratchett! Not only are your books entertaining, but provide the view more of us need to see the world through.

I tried to read this novel as my first Discworld novel many moons ago. I couldn't get into it. Having now read all of its precursors the book is FABULOUS. It will stand up as probably one of my favorite all time Discworld books (and let's face it they are my favorite books period). I love Vimes and the City Watch so that helps. This is, in addition to the standard humor, a really touching story. (yes, I used that description about a Discworld novel. really.) The lead up to the end is not quite satisfactory, but I've realized that when humor is the primary purpose the plot will, unfortunately, have to serve the humor rather than itself... and anyone complaining about holes in a story about a world revolving on the back of a turtle (not forgetting about the elephants as well) probably needs to take a harder look at their expectations.

Entertaining and weird. Just like the Onion. This stuff must be as fun to write as it is to read.

I got this for my boyfriend's birthday gift. He loves the Onion "News" site, and was a Geography major in college (perfect, right?) I don't think there was a moment, until he was finished, that he wasn't carrying the thing around with him. He loved it, and I have to admit, I liked what he read out loud, too. It's great.

Mine never came with the "Free Globe Inside" promised on the cover, but I bet it was stolen from my copy which I borrowed from the library. It's a challenge to take on around two hundred countries, maps, flags, and funny little photos and keep you not only amused but educated-- at your own ethnocentricity, ignorance, half-baked notions of everywhere else outside a hundred miles from where you live, and those hazy regions where what passes here for fact actually makes sort of sense. Madagascar's ruled by lemurs; Taiwanese labor under a perpetual sense of second-class diligence; Western Sahara's Africa's success story thanks to its inhabitability; Andorra's a giant retail outlet. Uruguay could be Paraguay, Chile's too skinny, and Delaware stays a state only to warn the Federal government not to make that mistake again.

It's best to peruse this a few pages at a time, then to give it a rest. Like reading "The Onion" itself, the humor's certainly unrelenting, but the snarky, ironic, and half-erudite, half-idiotic tone verges both on brilliance and sarcasm in copious amounts of one-liners, cartographic captions, and haughty, sophomoric text. It's instructive to have your own lack of education and information overload tossed back at you, from places you barely know on real maps, and as ignored footnotes in textbooks. You'll find such reading habits excoriated when you get to San Marino!

My ancestral land, I found, after centuries of British subjugation, "has at last managed to beat the stereotype of the poor, drunken, fighting Irishman to a bloody pulp." (141) Across the Northern border, I can attest to the veracity of this claim: the people there "are envied for their beautiful accent, a lyrical brogue that reminds many listeners of an aggressive, expletive-ridden poem." (140) Meanwhile the "Leading Cause of Death" remains, post-ceasefire, apparently "going to the pub."

Elsewhere, in my home state, "at least it's sunny." I agree with what the experts here say. San Francisco's the "alternative-lifestyle capital" where you find thousands of young men "living openly off trust-fund money wherever you look." My hometown "is home to some of the kindest and most outgoing people in the world until they realize you're not an agent." If you break into showbiz, you face "the biggest acting role" of your life: "pretending like nothing is wrong while everything around you turns to" #$*%. (022)

Mexico's frontier's charted, where "dozens of Americans" can be found "crossing the border in hopes of escaping work." (025) Hungary's "porn name" is "Gary Hung," while a student can be found mapped fantasizing about his hot teacher "giving legitimate algebra lesson for once." (171) It's better in these places than Africa. The map of Senegal shows where "major imports are peanuts and pretzels" may lead to unrest. Neighboring Gambia's migration pattern similarly causes challenges: "More citizens leave the shallow end as they get older." (104) Lesotho's history's pithy: the original inhabitants "are now dead." (064) The Democratic Rep. of the Congo does track the abyss where humor collapses into misery, and even the writers pale at what they find in the "Home to the world's most horrifying ventriloquist act." (069)

This clash of pampered Western sensibilities and Third World pain makes the atlas, in this section, less lighthearted and more Swiftian in its take on human frailty and geopolitical savagery. Niger's "only available form of birth control remains pregnancy." (097) Malaysia finds the spot where a "Muslim environmentalist" can be tracked "chaining wife to tree." (223) Vietnam hosts a "POW who still thinks U.S. lost the war." (219) But, there's a 20-square-mile "Impossible-to-Satirize Zone." Iraq does not have one yet, but you can plot their "Coalition Troops Welcome-Back Center." (123)

India's introduced as a place where "they fix slow Internet connections while standing waist-deep in sewage, reassure anxious customers that everything will be fine with their hard drive between cholera-induced fainting spells, and listen to iPod-related complaints while fending off giant football-sized rodents." The next page shows the place where you may meet a "librarian with dislocated hip filing Kama Sutra under fiction." (109) Out of such contrasts, indeed, humor and satire and insight into where Wests and Easts, Norths and Souths meet but fail to connect enriches this book, which rewards the browser with thought-provoking cleverness as well as insipid puns, sublime comedy, and lots more flag-related quips than you or I could have come up in a thousand all-nighters in a dorm room or campus watering hole.

Perhaps a better title for this book would be "Our Tragic World." Very few of the topics discussed here are dumb or funny. For instance, the Balkan section shows Croatia as the country of land mines. "Where all roads lead to serious injury." Bosnia is the country of war crimes. "Everyone is guilty of a genocide or two." Serbia is the country of ethnic cleansing. "Guy with Croat still stuck to sole of his boot." Is this funny? Really? Come on.

My fiancé was born in the Balkans and raised in Croatia. Several of his friends fought in the war on both the Serbian and Bosnian sides. Two of his Bosnian friends from Sarajevo were forced to fight. So reading "everyone is guilty of a genocide or two" is really not funny. Not when someone you know has gone through it.

The worst part is The Onion doesn't get the facts right. Effective satire gets all the facts right and then sarcastically alters how the subject is approached. In "Our Dumb World" some of the cities are located in the wrong place or spelled wrong. At the very least, the info should be accurate.

I do understand The Onion's humor. I own 2 of their books Dispatches from the Tenth Circle and Our Dumb Century and they are hilarious. I recommend buying one of those 2 books, but not this one. They have written about war and poverty before and done a brilliant job of it. A good example is when they wrote about a Barnes & Noble in Cambodia. They managed to denounce the tragic things going on in Cambodia, while at the same time pointing out our ridiculous comforts in America. That was true satire and it was done well.

However there is a fine line between witty satire and insensitivity. This book crosses the line in an unfortunate way every time. Instead, I recommend one of the other 2 Onion books I mentioned.

This is at times an extremely funny book. Unfortunately, while its authors can find humour in Balinese nightclub bombings, the Holocaust, Sudanese genocide, Aids in southern Africa etc, it avoids making fun of major US calamities like the 9/11 attacks and high school/college massacres. Lighten up, Americans. If it's funny in Juba, it's also funny in Manhattan.

Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book

You will love this book; rather far out fantasy art, thinking. I cannot wait to read the other Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy books.

Like collectors of pressed flowers, this book presents itself as a collection of "pressed fairies". Very creative, completed in watercolours, this book is wonderful to view and certainly worth owning. The art is fantastic, a must of lovers of art and lovers of fairies, not to mention those prone to flights of fancy.
The book is wonderfully presented, with a large soft padded cover it is both beautiful inside and out. Makes a great gift too!

A "must have" for children and for those young at heart...very creative, thoughtfull, funny and charming...sure to make anyone smile!

I don't know, I usually love books about fairies, as a matter of fact I collect them, but this is definatley not my favorite book about fairies. I think the plot is kind of sick, but I must say the illustrations are amazing. I enjoyed when the narrator was young, but once she got older the book turned form cute and gross to just plain gross.

"Pressed Fairy Book? What the...?" This was my initial reaction when I first laid eyes on this crazy book when I worked at B. Dalton a few years back. The title itself is enough to immediately draw your attention, "Pressed Fairy Book." It sparks your curiosity doesn't it?
This book is filled from cover to cover of beautifully drawn illustrations of smashed fairies, sounds a bit morbid but I assure you there were no fairies intentionally harmed, I'd rather say the fairies were all voluntarily smashed. This book starts out like a journal of a little girl written in that sloppy writing we all had at seven years old. The little girl explains how as she was sitting in her garden writing in her journal she has these bugs (which she later found out were fairies) flying all around her head and she used her book to smash one and oops! It was a fairy, but oddly the fairy was making faces as it was smashed in her book, almost like it though it to be fun or a game. Through out the years the little girl collects any fairy she runs across in her book; catch many different varieties of fairies.
This book has throughout the years been my favorite book, and I often give it as a Christmas gift because it is most decorative and amusing for everyone who lays their eyes on it. This book is exceptionally rare and becoming increasingly hard to




Find at many book stores, which is an even better reason to give this as a gift to the art or fairy lover in your family. It serves as a great coffee table book and will entertain even the grumpiest of in-laws visiting your home. I give this book a rating of Five Stars in illustrations, four stars in story line, and Three stars in availability. I recommend this book for all ages, and highly recommend this book as a gift. You can find this book at WWW.AMAZON.COM . This book price ranges from $[...] - $[...], there are also many alternatives to the book its self there is a calendar, pocket book and a new version of this book called "Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters" which gives you additional hilarious illustrations of smashed fairies. This author and illustrator really know how to put a smile on anyone's face.


Overall rating: 5 stars
Based on 5 star rating scale

"Dave Barry Does Japan" is funny. I caught myself laughing out loud. Dave's approach tells a lot about Japan from an American perspective, though I am not sure I'd recommend it to my Japanese friends. It is a little irreverent.

I'm not a big book-reader, and I never thought a book could be laugh out loud funny until I found Dave Barry. You'll find yourself bursting out with laughter... and then realizing that everyone around you is staring at you, wondering what was is so funny.

One of the best Dave Barry books, and one of the funniest books ever. Short, but amazing. I know nothing about Japan and I'm not planning on going there ever, but it was just great. As with most Dave Barry books, what you'll actually learn from the book is pretty limited.

I also recommend Dave Barry's greatest hits, a compilation of his best articles that he's written for the Miami Herald.

I got this as an audiobook for a long drive (South Florida to MD) and it was an excellent choice. Some 'place-related' humor can only be appreciated if you have traveled to that place... but Dave Barry's stories of unfamiliar foods and trying to find an address in a city with no street names... those were stand-alone hilarious! I only wish that parts of it did not have "R-rated" language, because I would love to share it with my sons. If you like Dave Barry's style of humor, you will not be disappointed.

... but at least he admits he's being lazy!

Dave Barry has always struck me as the 'guy' version of Erma Bombeck. You always know when the twist / joke is coming, and a little goes a long way.

If you've ever lived in Japan, like I have, you will find this a bit too light. It was good for a giggle, but that's all. Nothing to take too seriously. I think I finished it in a day or two.

My cousin was feeling down after a house fire, and requested this book. It was her first good laugh in a long time. Well worth the money!

I laughed at this book..it has the biting sarcasm that Jimmy Fallon is really good at, that not everyone understands. I liked a lot of the phrases in here..but I wish it was longer. The pages have about one sentence per page..so the price is kind of high for it. (I still bought it...but..) this is a book mainly for the fans-or someone who wants a quick laugh. If you don't like Jimmy..save your money.

Totally not worth the money. The book is marginally amusing and not worth even the two minutes it takes to read through it. Save your money or buy it for a dime at my next garage sale.

Seriously, somebody is padding these reviews, because there is no way that anybody in their right mind would be happy about paying $8+ for this book.
I adore Jimmy Fallon, so I really wanted to like this book, but it's just a completely unfunny version of Jack Handy's thoughts. At half the price, I might have given it 2 stars.

This was a great book and would recommend it to anyone who likes Jimmy Fallon. I love his style of humor and it is evident on every hilarious page. I just wish the book was longer!

I purchased this book to use as a prize for actors at our Haunted House. It was perfect for all ages.

We gave this as a gift to a family member who is a therapist. He absolutely loved it. We sat around and looked at it together and got lots of laughs out of it. The unique perspective of the artist, portraying anything from clowns to germy bathrooms (don't worry, the toilet isn't TOOOO gross if you know what I mean....) There is one page that makes you feel as if you are standing on top of a very tall building........it's very macabre, very hilarious, very intelligent, and yet not the least bit disrespectful of those who actually have the fears. There's one that opens up to a microphone and an audience all staring at you. On the podium is a "to do" list that has everything checked off EXCEPT "write speech." Absolutely hilarious. A must-give gift for anyone you know in the psych. profession.

This book is a lot of fun! It's short but entertaining and the spider one really creeped me out!

The work is not as clever as one might expect. If you are a pop up fan this one will not impress you with the engineering. The artwork is not very clever either. I love pop up books and regret spending the money for this one

This book is really cool. That's the best way to describe it, I think. The images are clear and the pop-ups are fairly intricate. I really enjoyed the interpretations of the phobias.

I did not like the quality of the construction of the book, however. The brand new copy I purchased began to fall apart during the first reading. The binding is not very good and the cleverly done pop-ups simply won't hold up with any sort of regular use. I was also disappointed that the book was so short.

In the end, the book was nifty and makes a good gift. Just don't expect it to last.