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Category: Comic

Review: MWF Seeks BFF by Rachel Bertsche

[ 2 ] April 28, 2012

Reviewed by Ann Liu

If Carrie Bradshaw, from Sex and the City, and Mr. Big left New York with her three girlfriends behind, what would she do without them? MWF Seeking BFF is a true story of Rachel Bertsche, a writer herself, who moves to Chicago with her husband, on the search for new friends.

MWF Seeking BFF, or Married White Female Seeking Best Friend Forever, is Rachel’s personal memoir of her yearlong search for a best friend. She dissects the friendship element and shares a lot of research toward understanding the psychological makeup of friends. According to Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist, the size of the brain determines the number of relationships we can maintain. The human brain can maintain 150 relationships. After calculating her social network of friends, families, and acquaintances, Rachel came up short 20 people. She decided to fill the 20 spots with a yearlong project to find a best friend that rivaled her best friends back home.

I found the story quite enjoyable, as Rachel describes the weekly dates and the friends she meets along the way.

Rachel writes in a captivating way, sharing some very humorous stories. The same way that dating is set up, she went on a friend date after friend date, with most dates fizzling out. 365 people is a lot of people to meet and toward the middle of the story, it was difficult to keep track of whom she has gone out with; all the people she met became a blur.

I ponder if the feelings of connections were mutual since the book was written from one perspective. If it had not been for the research and professional people she consulted with, the story would not have survived.

Dating is difficult enough but finding and bonding with friends is harder in this day and age with social networking and the internet. Without a friendship manual available, meeting friends after college becomes a difficult task. I can relate to a lot of what she experienced and commend her for going outside of the norm to find friends. I recommend this book to every female looking to connect with others and yearning to find that best friend.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Ann Liu loves to read women’s fiction, chick-lit, romance, and self help books. She lives in sunny Southern California, where she can enjoy her time reading outdoors.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Ballantine Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

[ 3 ] April 16, 2012

Reviewed by Marcus Hammond

Jenny Lawson is anxious, slightly dysfunctional, and, at times, tactless. She, however, is well aware of these characteristics. Her memoir, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, begins with a discussion of how stories are often exaggerated upon retelling, and that resounds in the reader’s mind as Lawson’s life is laid out in all its hilarity.

Lawson’s memoir moves from her childhood in rural Texas and continues to delve into her life as a wife, mother, and Internet blogger. Her stories include how she dealt with the chaos of everything from having a father with a wild animal obsession to events that showcase her own personal eccentricities.

One focus of the memoir deals with the relationship Lawson forms with her husband, Victor, and accentuates the concept that marriage is indelibly difficult but worth the trouble. A good example of Lawson’s narrative hilarity describes her anxiety with public situations. She describes a specific evening with Victor at a Halloween party for his company. After arriving at the party, Lawson begins to worry that she will embarrass her husband by telling an inappropriately strange story to cover up her anxiety. She dives right into a story that is exactly what she fears. She proclaims to the group, “One time I got stabbed in the face by a serial killer.” Fortunately, her cat had simply scratched her in her sleep. It is that kind of exaggerated dysfunction that makes Lawson hilarious.

Lawson’s narrative is very active and imaginative. She addresses the reader, and, occasionally, her editor as she pokes fun at her own exaggerations. The downside, however, is that some of her stories ramble to a point that halts the natural flow of her humor. Though funny, and at times touching the breaks in narrative flow and her graphic, crass, and conversational style will limit who enjoys it. Due to these characteristics, many people won’t connect to Lawson’s overall lesson, which is to be comfortable with oneself and one’s past.

Overall, I found Let’s Pretend This Never Happened entertaining. Lawson’s active narrative style captured my attention even when the stories led into feminine perspectives on topics like childbirth and female physiology. She portrays many everyday situations (e.g. group conversations, home maintenance) in such a ridiculous manner that it’s hard not to stop and think “yea, I’ve been there.” Her stories might be exaggerated, but I think she connects to the fact that sometimes we are all a little ridiculous.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

After obtaining a Masters in Liberal Arts and Literature Marcus has dedicated most of his time to teaching English Composition for a community college in the Midwest. In his down time, he spends time avidly reading an eclectic selection of books and doing freelance writing whenever he gets the chance. He lives in Kansas with his wife.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Ali in Wonderland by Ali Wentworth

[ 4 ] March 30, 2012

Reviewed by Jill Franclemont

Ali Wentworth has lived quite a life. I confess I didn’t know who she was at first. From the blurb I learned that she was married to George Stephanopoulos and is the daughter of Ronald Reagan’s White House Press Secretary. As a former resident of Washington, DC, how could I resist? I enjoy memoirs, love DC, and couldn’t imagine turning down a book with blurbs by Kathy Griffin, Jerry Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin AND the author’s mom… Plus the synopsis for Ali in Wonderland called it “addictively funny” and included a slew of adjectives I am quite fond of, like “off-the-wall”, “hilarious”, and “borderline insane”.

Will I never learn?

No book that is self-described as “hilarious” ever really is. I think it’s akin to real smart people talking about their own intelligence or real rich people about their own money – if you’ve got it, you know it, and you don’t have to tell everyone. That’s what happened here.

Sure, there are funny bits. Ali was a precocious child and got even more precocious as she grew up, so there are some very cute and very funny stories. Much of this is standard “poor little rich girl” fare, set against the backdrop of the DC political scene. She goes out of her way to shock, – again, fairly standard fare for a memoir of this type – but while she is occasionally over-the-top, it’s usually in a fairly predictable way.

She’s not exactly as outré as one would expect a former In Living Colour girl to be, but her stories are, for the most part, fun to read. As an added bonus, they’re not always entirely believable – a fact which I felt actually added to, rather than detracted from, their charm.

I know she’s a comic actress, and that “hilarious” is the type of adjective a publicist will always use in that context. But I will offer the same, unsolicited, advice I often do: be careful, oh mighty publicists and press agents, because over-billing may sell initial copies and drive initial interest, but it almost always guarantees a case of reviewer let-down.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

A former corporate attorney and government relations/health policy executive, Jill-Elizabeth walked away from that world (well, skipped actually) and toward a more literary life (equally challenging, but infinitely more enjoyable). If you enjoyed this review, please visit her at Jill-Elizabeth.com, the official home of All Things Jill-Elizabeth – that is, all of the teehees, musings, rants, book reviews, writing exercises, and witticisms of her burgeoning writing career.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Harper. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods by Caroline Taggart

[ 11 ] October 29, 2011

Reviewed by Jill Elizabeth

Today’s book review is a cute little trip through the garden of rhetoric.

The book for today is Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods? by Caroline Taggart. Well, does it? Who knows really – probably hunters, loggers, and zoologists. Oh yeah, and apparently Taggart, the author of this goofy little book about the answers to rhetorical questions.

Rhetorical questions, for those of you who are out of the intellectual loop, are questions that are asked – usually for dramatic oratorical effect or emphasis – for which no answer is expected. (This is my definition, not anyone else’s, hence the lack of attribution.) I love rhetorical questions – I rather love words, as I’ve pointed out before, and I think rhetoric is a fabulous way to play with language.

The book is an aggregation of a series of rhetorical questions from literature, music, and popular culture, with answers provided. Some of the answers are clever and designed to amuse, some contain actual information, and some are just plain silly. It’s a fun little book that will teach you a few fun little facts to trot out at cocktail parties or whenever else you might need small talk.

There is no author biography provided, but Taggart appears to be British from some of her linguistic choices, and the book is deliciously snarky a few times. I wish it had been snarkier, frankly – snark being one of my favorite components of any book that falls within the “trivia/humor” book category. It was a little too light and fluffy at times for my taste; I could have used less of the “well, that’s really up to the speaker to decide” type of answers (admittedly applicable to more than a few rhetorical questions, but neither particularly informative nor entertaining in a book intended to be humorous) and of the references to pop music and more of the historical/literary references with actual facts and information to explain their origins and meanings.

But that may just be me.

Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods? was cute though, and the premise was a clever and kitschy one – and I do enjoy clever and kitschy. Don’t expect to walk away with a profound understanding of the meaning of life, but you can expect to walk away with a grin and having giggled more than once. And really, isn’t that what humor/trivia is about?

Rating: 3/5

A former corporate attorney and government relations/health policy executive, Jill-Elizabeth walked away from that world (well, skipped actually) and toward a more literary life (equally challenging, but infinitely more enjoyable). If you enjoyed this review, please visit her at Jill-Elizabeth.com, the official home of All Things Jill-Elizabeth – that is, all of the teehees, musings, rants, book reviews, writing exercises, and witticisms of her burgeoning writing career.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Plume. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: God, No! by Penn Jillette

[ 5 ] September 24, 2011

Reviewed by Erin McKibbin

With just the same in-your-face (yet very well researched and documented) controversy as his 16 Emmy Award nominated television show, Penn & Teller’s Penn Jillette sets out to debunk religion as a whole in society and replace it with a brand of logical thinking that only a couple of Vegas Magicians/cultural sensations could provide. Penn has been an outspoken opponent of religion for many decades and much like the Richard Dawkins of the world, he is not afraid to use his fame and influence to “save” others from the clutches of what he considers to be the most destructive fairy tale ever invented: god. Using stories from his life and career as well as presenting his own “Penn Commandments,” Jillette conducts the reader through a fun ride of controversial issues and redemption.

Penn Jillette was raised in Greenfield, Massachusetts by a very devout family lead by his very spiritual father, yet, even at a young age Penn knew he could not buy into the dogma. As time went on, and the church his family belonged to offended his family’s sensibilities, Penn’s mother and sister eventually joined him in his denouncement of religion. Not having the power to give his family a paper cut, let alone tear it asunder, Penn learned the true meaning of family and that the foundation of it was not rooted in any god. As his commandment reads, “Be there for your family. Love your parents, your partner, and your children. (Love is deeper than honor, and parents matter, but so do spouse and children.)”

In God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales, Penn Jillette touches upon many events in his youth and in his career with Raymond Teller. In this book, you can witness the birth of a magical team inspired by Siegfried and Roy; read the much embarrassing (and cringing) hair dryer story; and experience an atheist communion. More importantly, you will be entertained and educated at the same time by the world’s most consummate debunking artist, Penn Jillette.

Rating: 5/5

Erin fell in love with the written word as a small child and subsequently spent most of her life happily devouring literature. She works as a freelance news, marketing, and technical writer as well as a full-time researcher/investigator in the sign industry. Erin lives just outside of Cleveland, Ohio enjoying the beauty of life with her children and grandchildren.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Simon & Schuster. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Maxims of Manhood: 100 Rules Every Real Man Must Live By by Jeff Wilser

[ 0 ] August 10, 2009

Reviewed by Al H.

The Maxims of Manhood: 100 Rules Every Real Man Must Live By is a humor/reference book delving into the very minds of real men everywhere. A map of the male thought processes. And yes, to all the women reading this, men do have thought processes.

Jeff Wilser, the author of this handbook to all things masculine, has broken the male mystique into 100 simple rules. Each rule consists of an explanation, an example (Maxim In Action) and any possible exceptions (Maxim Exceptions) and can be read during a single trip to the bathroom. A definite bonus. Few men are willing to slog through anything more complicated. We’ll miss the game!

The maxims are not laugh-out-loud funny. Instead, they’re a great tongue-in-cheek chucklefest. Another bonus. A real man will rarely show his emotions, and it’s never a good idea to laugh if you’re reading in the bathroom.

Wilser did omit and subsequently violate one vital maxim. During a number of the chapters, he spends an exorbitant amount of time apologizing for the way men act. He violated the one maxim that many men hold dear – “Maxim #0: Don’t apologize, ever!” (This maxim does not appear in the book.) In violating this maxim, he pushed the book away from a pure humor work to one that slides every so slightly into the realm of self-help. No real man wants to read that.

Fortunately, it’s only a minor push. Most men won’t even notice. The Maxims of Manhood: 100 Rules Every Real Man Must Live By is a fun read and one that will cause men to nod in agreement while women will groan in recognition. But, it’s not for everyone. Just almost everyone.

A real man will find the book useful. What’s a real man? Quite simply, he already lives his life according to the 100 maxims. When he goes to a public restroom, he instinctively knows which urinal he should take. He thinks a window treatment is a drive through medical procedure. This book will be a quick read to fill in some of the blanks in the real man’s store of knowledge. He’d never admit to any blanks.

Women who happen to know a real man will also find this book indispensable. Especially if the real man that they know happens to be a husband or boyfriend. The book will explain why a real man will drive for hours without asking for directions. And, why the real man would rather have a tooth extracted rather than say “I love you” to his wife or girlfriend although he’ll blurt out “I love you, man” to his buddies whenever he gets plastered.

Sadly, some men are too far gone to truly appreciate these maxims. “Sensitive” men who make granny shots, go to Yoga classes and travel with more than two pairs of shoes. This book isn’t for them. If asked, these men will say that Lavender is a plant or a color or, horrors, both. Real men know that Lavender is the stripper at Sugar Dolls who works the weekend shift.

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