2011, first edition, from Random House
Text by Patrick Baker
Cover and Interior Design by Danielle Deschenes
Senseless Sensibilities: Create Your Own Austen-Tatious Mash-Up!
Bought new for $10.99
Slightly worn paperback
C
This is basically Mad Libs for Austen fans. The problem is, Baker (in the female guise of Ima Hack) doesn't seem to know much about Jane Austen, as when he thinks Persuasion's Anne has a crush on Mr. Elliot. Also, the trend of most of these partially blanked out passages is towards the trendy and shallow, which gets old after awhile. Thirdly, come on, it's Mad Libs! The readers are doing at least half the work.
Of course, that means I can't rate this very low, since a clever reader and friends could conceivably indeed create austen-tatious mash-ups. So dead C sounds right.
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters [Volume 3]
2003, possibly first edition, from Simon & Schuster
Don Novello
From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters [Volume 3]
Bought newish for $10.95
Worn paperback
C
This is another slip in quality for the series, harmed by one, fewer responses; two, mostly bland responses when there are any; and less interesting letters to begin with. As always, the consumer stuff is more interesting than the political. (I must note that, despite the title, there isn't really much of George Bush the Elder.) Novello is now 70, young enough to do a Volume Four in the next few years, but maybe letter-writing being an increasingly anachronistic exercise is working against these. Perhaps next time he can do Toth's emails, or Facebook updates.
Don Novello
From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters [Volume 3]
Bought newish for $10.95
Worn paperback
C
This is another slip in quality for the series, harmed by one, fewer responses; two, mostly bland responses when there are any; and less interesting letters to begin with. As always, the consumer stuff is more interesting than the political. (I must note that, despite the title, there isn't really much of George Bush the Elder.) Novello is now 70, young enough to do a Volume Four in the next few years, but maybe letter-writing being an increasingly anachronistic exercise is working against these. Perhaps next time he can do Toth's emails, or Facebook updates.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Truer Than True Romance: Classic Love Comics Retold!
2001, first edition, from Watson-Guptill Publications
Jeanne Martinet
Truer Than True Romance: Classic Love Comics Retold!
Bought newish for $19.95
Slightly worn paperback
B
Martinet takes stories from romance comics, leaves the artwork intact, and makes up new, 21st-century dialogue. So, for instance, in "The Job From Hell!," part of the suffering is that the main character has to use a 1971 typewriter instead of a computer. I've read this book more often than most of my other books from its time (although the condition doesn't suggest this), so I didn't laugh out loud this round, but I still found it good solid parody, yes, especially after Maney's weakest. There's a LGBT element here as well, notably in "Loving Gay Men!" of course, but also in the Sapphic happy ending of "Psychic Matchmaker." With the latter story, it's hard to believe that the artwork is unchanged, and I sometimes wish that Martinet had reprinted the entire original stories, rather than just the splash pages and brief synopses.
Every story has something to enjoy, even the weakest one, "Carry-on Girl!", with the line "You know, you have very Ronald-Reagany hair." While I think it stands up to repeat readings, I recommend you just read a couple stories at a time, since it might feel a bit repetitive all in one go. Still, I thought Martinet does a good job of pointing out some of the craziness unique to each story, as well as things that appear in more than one, like entire panels in one color.
Jeanne Martinet
Truer Than True Romance: Classic Love Comics Retold!
Bought newish for $19.95
Slightly worn paperback
B
Martinet takes stories from romance comics, leaves the artwork intact, and makes up new, 21st-century dialogue. So, for instance, in "The Job From Hell!," part of the suffering is that the main character has to use a 1971 typewriter instead of a computer. I've read this book more often than most of my other books from its time (although the condition doesn't suggest this), so I didn't laugh out loud this round, but I still found it good solid parody, yes, especially after Maney's weakest. There's a LGBT element here as well, notably in "Loving Gay Men!" of course, but also in the Sapphic happy ending of "Psychic Matchmaker." With the latter story, it's hard to believe that the artwork is unchanged, and I sometimes wish that Martinet had reprinted the entire original stories, rather than just the splash pages and brief synopses.
Every story has something to enjoy, even the weakest one, "Carry-on Girl!", with the line "You know, you have very Ronald-Reagany hair." While I think it stands up to repeat readings, I recommend you just read a couple stories at a time, since it might feel a bit repetitive all in one go. Still, I thought Martinet does a good job of pointing out some of the craziness unique to each story, as well as things that appear in more than one, like entire panels in one color.
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy
2001, first edition, from HarperEntertainment
Mabel Maney
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy: An Original Jane Bond Parody
Bought newish for $14.00
Worn paperback
C-
I don't know if it's that I've never read a James Bond novel, and I think I've only seen one movie all the way through, but I didn't get much out of this book. On the other hand, I didn't grow up reading Nancy Drew or Cherry Ames, but I enjoyed Maney's earlier parodies. And, despite a plot to reinstate Edward VIII (in 1965), this has none of the loopy charm of Ted Mark's Here's Your O.R.G.Y. (1969). I liked only two of the characters, Jane's bookshop employer/chum and the cat-crazy old lady. Worst of all, there's none of the clip-art-on-acid like in the Nancy & Cherry series.
Only the sort of amusing names, like Lady Wooley-Booley and Bibi Gallini, and the fashion descriptions kept this from a D+, and even there, it felt fresher in Maney's '90s works.
Mabel Maney
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy: An Original Jane Bond Parody
Bought newish for $14.00
Worn paperback
C-
I don't know if it's that I've never read a James Bond novel, and I think I've only seen one movie all the way through, but I didn't get much out of this book. On the other hand, I didn't grow up reading Nancy Drew or Cherry Ames, but I enjoyed Maney's earlier parodies. And, despite a plot to reinstate Edward VIII (in 1965), this has none of the loopy charm of Ted Mark's Here's Your O.R.G.Y. (1969). I liked only two of the characters, Jane's bookshop employer/chum and the cat-crazy old lady. Worst of all, there's none of the clip-art-on-acid like in the Nancy & Cherry series.
Only the sort of amusing names, like Lady Wooley-Booley and Bibi Gallini, and the fashion descriptions kept this from a D+, and even there, it felt fresher in Maney's '90s works.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
"The Onion" Presents Our Dumb Century
1999, first edition, from Three Rivers Press
Edited by Scott Dikkers
The Onion Presents Our Dumb Century: 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source
Bought new for $15.00
Worn paperback
B-
The popular satirical website (and until last year print newspaper) The Onion here covers 1900 to 2000 with fake but almost believable headlines and news stories. Although there are pictures (including "photo-graphs"), it's a very slow read because the font is so small. My favorite aspect was the use of pop culture, as in the four stories inspired by It's a Wonderful Life, and the article "Henley, Frey Urge Nation to Take It Easy" in 1973. The best of these is probably the Little Rascals "gang" terror in 1932, with a young Spanky trying to look menacing in plaid knickers and matching hat.
This book won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. I laughed out loud a few times, but I didn't find it hilarious. It was actually most interesting from an admittedly skewed historical perspective, including a reference to Dick Cheney as Secretary of Defense, written at a time no one yet knew he'd become Vice-President.
Edited by Scott Dikkers
The Onion Presents Our Dumb Century: 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source
Bought new for $15.00
Worn paperback
B-
The popular satirical website (and until last year print newspaper) The Onion here covers 1900 to 2000 with fake but almost believable headlines and news stories. Although there are pictures (including "photo-graphs"), it's a very slow read because the font is so small. My favorite aspect was the use of pop culture, as in the four stories inspired by It's a Wonderful Life, and the article "Henley, Frey Urge Nation to Take It Easy" in 1973. The best of these is probably the Little Rascals "gang" terror in 1932, with a young Spanky trying to look menacing in plaid knickers and matching hat.
This book won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. I laughed out loud a few times, but I didn't find it hilarious. It was actually most interesting from an admittedly skewed historical perspective, including a reference to Dick Cheney as Secretary of Defense, written at a time no one yet knew he'd become Vice-President.
Monday, November 11, 2013
You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You
1998, first edition, from Random House
Molly Ivins
You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years
Possibly bought new for $23.00
Hardcover in good condition
C+
As the title suggests, this covers 1993 to '97, with the introduction addressing the Lewinsky scandal. As always, the focus is on both Texan and national politics, although those overlap at times, as when she writes about Ann Richards losing the governorship to George W. Bush. Ivins is critical of Clinton, although much less than Hightower was, partly because she feels the man faced enough criticism, from all sides. She's got a nifty piece on Nixon, happily speaking ill of the dead, because he deserved it. My favorite obituaries though were of her mother ("a combination of Sigmund Freud and Gracie Allen") and Jessica Mitford. I found the collection funnier than the last one, especially the thing about the boss who talked to a thermostat.
I've read but don't own 2000's Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush. (Yeah, talk about wishful thinking.) This is it for her among my books, and she died of cancer in 2007.
Molly Ivins
You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years
Possibly bought new for $23.00
Hardcover in good condition
C+
As the title suggests, this covers 1993 to '97, with the introduction addressing the Lewinsky scandal. As always, the focus is on both Texan and national politics, although those overlap at times, as when she writes about Ann Richards losing the governorship to George W. Bush. Ivins is critical of Clinton, although much less than Hightower was, partly because she feels the man faced enough criticism, from all sides. She's got a nifty piece on Nixon, happily speaking ill of the dead, because he deserved it. My favorite obituaries though were of her mother ("a combination of Sigmund Freud and Gracie Allen") and Jessica Mitford. I found the collection funnier than the last one, especially the thing about the boss who talked to a thermostat.
I've read but don't own 2000's Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush. (Yeah, talk about wishful thinking.) This is it for her among my books, and she died of cancer in 2007.
Friday, October 18, 2013
A Very Brady Guide to Life
1996, possibly first edition, from Rutledge Hill Press
Jennifer Briggs
A Very Brady Guide to Life: Groovy Solutions to Life's Most Puzzling Dilemmas
Bought new for $7.95
Worn paperback
D+
One of the times I've laughed really hard in a movie theater was at The Brady Bunch Movie (1995). The sequel from the next year wasn't as funny but had its moments (the Brady Kids parody in particular). So that this book has at least as much to do with the movie versions as the TV show (the photos are of the film cast) is not necessarily a bad thing.
Unfortunately, Briggs is often painfully unfunny. Even when she comes up with a joke that works, like about how the Bradys in one episode accidentally come home in a different car than they left in, she kills it by repeating it at least twice. The book has letters from ordinary people, as well as thinly disguised celebrities, e.g. "Knute, somewhere inside the Beltway," and a man who feels Mike's pain. Each Brady gives clueless advice in character, or at least the characters as presented in the movies. Many of the questions are sexual, often involving pregnancy or homosexuality, with no less than three same-sex writers hitting on Alice, Greg, and Peter. I couldn't decide if Briggs was homophobic, since she doesn't know how to tell a joke anyway. (Mike is presented as straight, with an interest in Beebe Gallini, although Robert Reed's death had outed him a few years before.)
Recommended only for the Brady completist.
Jennifer Briggs
A Very Brady Guide to Life: Groovy Solutions to Life's Most Puzzling Dilemmas
Bought new for $7.95
Worn paperback
D+
One of the times I've laughed really hard in a movie theater was at The Brady Bunch Movie (1995). The sequel from the next year wasn't as funny but had its moments (the Brady Kids parody in particular). So that this book has at least as much to do with the movie versions as the TV show (the photos are of the film cast) is not necessarily a bad thing.
Unfortunately, Briggs is often painfully unfunny. Even when she comes up with a joke that works, like about how the Bradys in one episode accidentally come home in a different car than they left in, she kills it by repeating it at least twice. The book has letters from ordinary people, as well as thinly disguised celebrities, e.g. "Knute, somewhere inside the Beltway," and a man who feels Mike's pain. Each Brady gives clueless advice in character, or at least the characters as presented in the movies. Many of the questions are sexual, often involving pregnancy or homosexuality, with no less than three same-sex writers hitting on Alice, Greg, and Peter. I couldn't decide if Briggs was homophobic, since she doesn't know how to tell a joke anyway. (Mike is presented as straight, with an interest in Beebe Gallini, although Robert Reed's death had outed him a few years before.)
Recommended only for the Brady completist.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
The Butches of Madison County
1995, possibly first edition, from Laugh Lines Press
Ellen Orleans
The Butches of Madison County
Bought new for $7.95
Slightly worn paperback
C+
I remember being bored by both the novel and the movie of Bridges of..., which this obviously is a lesbian parody of. I didn't find this book hilarious, but I did enjoy the skewing and skewering of the "tragic romance" and pseudo-intellectual pretentiousness. Notable for an early example of a man, the farmwife's husband, who lives more of his life online than in reality.
Ellen Orleans
The Butches of Madison County
Bought new for $7.95
Slightly worn paperback
C+
I remember being bored by both the novel and the movie of Bridges of..., which this obviously is a lesbian parody of. I didn't find this book hilarious, but I did enjoy the skewing and skewering of the "tragic romance" and pseudo-intellectual pretentiousness. Notable for an early example of a man, the farmwife's husband, who lives more of his life online than in reality.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
My Struggle
1995, first edition, from Boxtree
Paul Merton
My Struggle
Bought new for £7.99
Hardcover in good condition, with signatures from the Comedy Store Players of Spring 1996
B-
Comedian Merton was one of my favorite performers on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, so when I went to London to see live impro(visation) with the Comedy Store Players, I brought along this recently purchased book. I hoped to get his autograph, but the techie who took it backstage for me afterwards got every Player to sign: Paul, Josie Lawrence, Richard Vranch, Neil Mullarkey, Lee Simpson, and Jim Sweeney. The show was good, too.
As for the book itself, I think it starts out very well, with Merton adopting a persona of a show-biz vet (also named Paul Merton) who's nearly three decades older than his real self. (Merton was about 38 at the time.) The part about his ancestors being in show business, including how his father "attempted to enlist [in WW I] but was turned down on the medical grounds that he had sawdust in his blood," is very funny, as is the career of Baby Paul. Things become less interesting and less funny as Merton grows up. And while it might be amusing to have him kill one wife, if done creatively, four is a bit much.
I didn't find out until a few years after first reading, the title is a translation of Mein Kampf.
On that odd note, let me once again thank all of you've read at least some of this blog. I don't have dazzling stats, but they've been gradually increasing this summer.
And I've now completed another one hundred books. At the last count, three months ago, I had
1 F
4 F+s
2 D-s
5 D's
12 D+s
22 C-s
43 C's
146 C+s
246 B-s
164 B's
48 B+s
7 A-s
I've added only one each of D+ and C-. There are four new C's but 24 C+s. Nearly half of the new posts-- 48-- got B-. Nineteen B's, two B+s, and, yes, a new A- came along.
Paul Merton
My Struggle
Bought new for £7.99
Hardcover in good condition, with signatures from the Comedy Store Players of Spring 1996
B-
Comedian Merton was one of my favorite performers on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, so when I went to London to see live impro(visation) with the Comedy Store Players, I brought along this recently purchased book. I hoped to get his autograph, but the techie who took it backstage for me afterwards got every Player to sign: Paul, Josie Lawrence, Richard Vranch, Neil Mullarkey, Lee Simpson, and Jim Sweeney. The show was good, too.
As for the book itself, I think it starts out very well, with Merton adopting a persona of a show-biz vet (also named Paul Merton) who's nearly three decades older than his real self. (Merton was about 38 at the time.) The part about his ancestors being in show business, including how his father "attempted to enlist [in WW I] but was turned down on the medical grounds that he had sawdust in his blood," is very funny, as is the career of Baby Paul. Things become less interesting and less funny as Merton grows up. And while it might be amusing to have him kill one wife, if done creatively, four is a bit much.
I didn't find out until a few years after first reading, the title is a translation of Mein Kampf.
On that odd note, let me once again thank all of you've read at least some of this blog. I don't have dazzling stats, but they've been gradually increasing this summer.
And I've now completed another one hundred books. At the last count, three months ago, I had
1 F
4 F+s
2 D-s
5 D's
12 D+s
22 C-s
43 C's
146 C+s
246 B-s
164 B's
48 B+s
7 A-s
I've added only one each of D+ and C-. There are four new C's but 24 C+s. Nearly half of the new posts-- 48-- got B-. Nineteen B's, two B+s, and, yes, a new A- came along.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
A Ghost in the Closet
1995, undated second edition, from Cleis
Mabel Maney
A Ghost in the Closet
Bought newish for $14.95
Slightly worn paperback
B
OK, this is my favorite of the series. Not only do we have gay-male suggestiveness as well as lesbian, but the convoluted plot involving poodles, spies, astronauts, an insane asylum, and yes, a closet and a "ghost," is more intricate and interesting than anything in the first two books. Romance is of course still important, with "newlyweds" Midge & Velma working on their relationship, and Cherry finally choosing between Nancy and Jackie. Frank Hardly gets a boyfriend, too.
Even though this was the third book, I actually found some of the jokes improved by repetition, like how housekeeper Hannah is always described as being "like a mother to Nancy since the death of her real mother twenty-two years ago." And the clip-art-like pictures seem more random than ever, including a bugler, gladiators, skiers and bobsledders (it's still July), an abacus, and a suit of armor.
Maney went on to write a couple "Jane Bond" books, but I was disappointed in the first one and didn't continue. We'll see what I think of Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy when we get up to 2001....
Mabel Maney
A Ghost in the Closet
Bought newish for $14.95
Slightly worn paperback
B
OK, this is my favorite of the series. Not only do we have gay-male suggestiveness as well as lesbian, but the convoluted plot involving poodles, spies, astronauts, an insane asylum, and yes, a closet and a "ghost," is more intricate and interesting than anything in the first two books. Romance is of course still important, with "newlyweds" Midge & Velma working on their relationship, and Cherry finally choosing between Nancy and Jackie. Frank Hardly gets a boyfriend, too.
Even though this was the third book, I actually found some of the jokes improved by repetition, like how housekeeper Hannah is always described as being "like a mother to Nancy since the death of her real mother twenty-two years ago." And the clip-art-like pictures seem more random than ever, including a bugler, gladiators, skiers and bobsledders (it's still July), an abacus, and a suit of armor.
Maney went on to write a couple "Jane Bond" books, but I was disappointed in the first one and didn't continue. We'll see what I think of Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy when we get up to 2001....
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Female Problems: An Unhelpful Guide
1995, undated later edition, from Dell
Nicole Hollander
Female Problems: An Unhelpful Guide
Original price $9.95, purchase price 49 cents
Worn paperback
C+
This is not a guide as such. It's a mix of cartoons (some of them seeming to be left over from the '80s) and short humorous essays on, well, female problems. (The cartoon accompanying "Guys Who Are Almost Perfect," with the woman who has a vampire boyfriend, is now ironic considering the swooning of women in real life over Edward Cullen.) The book is very mildly amusing, nothing classic. And I don't own Hollander's more recent books, all apparently about cats, so another of my authors bids goodbye as of 1995.
Nicole Hollander
Female Problems: An Unhelpful Guide
Original price $9.95, purchase price 49 cents
Worn paperback
C+
This is not a guide as such. It's a mix of cartoons (some of them seeming to be left over from the '80s) and short humorous essays on, well, female problems. (The cartoon accompanying "Guys Who Are Almost Perfect," with the woman who has a vampire boyfriend, is now ironic considering the swooning of women in real life over Edward Cullen.) The book is very mildly amusing, nothing classic. And I don't own Hollander's more recent books, all apparently about cats, so another of my authors bids goodbye as of 1995.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Out, Loud, & Laughing: A Collection of Gay & Lesbian Humor
1995, undated later edition, from Doubleday
Edited by Charles Flowers
Out, Loud, & Laughing: A Collection of Gay & Lesbian Humor
Bought newish for $12.95
Worn paperback with dedication from my friend, "Seems like good advice on how to live life-- 'Out, Loud, & Laughing. Queerly, K____
B-
Since there are so many contributors and, as with (the then not yet out) Ellen DeGeneres, some humor doesn't work as well on the page, this is somewhat uneven. I most liked Jaffe Cohen's "My Life as a Heterosexual," although it was more like a mini-memoir of growing up closeted and Jewish in the Nixon era. Suzanne Westenhoefer and Lea DeLaria were probably the next best, with the latter bearing the dubious distinction of making the first mention in my book collection of the mullet, although not by that name.
Q: What's up with "the haircut"?
A: You've all seen "the haircut." It's short on top, long in the back. I call this cut "the mud flap." Only lesbians and Billy Ray Cyrus have this haircut. This haircut is an achy-breaky-big-mistakey.
It's ironic that there are two jokes about Sara Gilbert (or at least her character of Darlene Connor) being a lesbian, since Gilbert didn't actually come out till 2010 (just this week revealing that she realized her sexuality through dating her TV co-star Johnny Galecki).
I was disappointed in the rather flat contribution from David Sedaris, since I remember laughing out loud a few times at Me Talk Pretty One Day. We'll see how I feel about it when we get to 2000....
Edited by Charles Flowers
Out, Loud, & Laughing: A Collection of Gay & Lesbian Humor
Bought newish for $12.95
Worn paperback with dedication from my friend, "Seems like good advice on how to live life-- 'Out, Loud, & Laughing. Queerly, K____
B-
Since there are so many contributors and, as with (the then not yet out) Ellen DeGeneres, some humor doesn't work as well on the page, this is somewhat uneven. I most liked Jaffe Cohen's "My Life as a Heterosexual," although it was more like a mini-memoir of growing up closeted and Jewish in the Nixon era. Suzanne Westenhoefer and Lea DeLaria were probably the next best, with the latter bearing the dubious distinction of making the first mention in my book collection of the mullet, although not by that name.
Q: What's up with "the haircut"?
A: You've all seen "the haircut." It's short on top, long in the back. I call this cut "the mud flap." Only lesbians and Billy Ray Cyrus have this haircut. This haircut is an achy-breaky-big-mistakey.
It's ironic that there are two jokes about Sara Gilbert (or at least her character of Darlene Connor) being a lesbian, since Gilbert didn't actually come out till 2010 (just this week revealing that she realized her sexuality through dating her TV co-star Johnny Galecki).
I was disappointed in the rather flat contribution from David Sedaris, since I remember laughing out loud a few times at Me Talk Pretty One Day. We'll see how I feel about it when we get to 2000....
My Point...And I Do Have One
1995, 1996 Bantam edition
Ellen Degeneres
My Point...And I Do Have One
Original price $6.50, purchase price $3.25
Worn paperback
B-
This was published (ha, you thought I was gonna say "came out") soon after Ellen's sitcom started, and she does refer to it (named after Ellen Barkin), unlike Roseanne in her autobiography. This is not an autobiography as such, although some facts slip through, like her birthday, but mostly it's Ellen's wry goofy exaggeration. Sometimes her humor works and sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it works at first and then doesn't, and vice versa. Unlike Woody Allen's humor collections, which work or don't on the basis of wordplay, I think you need the comic's voice here, although the cartoons by Susan Rose (not credited on the cover, just on the copyright page) are cute and fit the book.
And, no, I don't own either of her later print collections, but I do have her '90s sitcom on DVD and enjoy what I see of her of her talk show on YouTube.
Ellen Degeneres
My Point...And I Do Have One
Original price $6.50, purchase price $3.25
Worn paperback
B-
This was published (ha, you thought I was gonna say "came out") soon after Ellen's sitcom started, and she does refer to it (named after Ellen Barkin), unlike Roseanne in her autobiography. This is not an autobiography as such, although some facts slip through, like her birthday, but mostly it's Ellen's wry goofy exaggeration. Sometimes her humor works and sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it works at first and then doesn't, and vice versa. Unlike Woody Allen's humor collections, which work or don't on the basis of wordplay, I think you need the comic's voice here, although the cartoons by Susan Rose (not credited on the cover, just on the copyright page) are cute and fit the book.
And, no, I don't own either of her later print collections, but I do have her '90s sitcom on DVD and enjoy what I see of her of her talk show on YouTube.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Oh My Goddess!
1994, undated later edition, from Penguin
Sally Swain
Oh My Goddess!
Bought newish for $11.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
Cute book with well-done art, slightly reminiscent of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party, only these look like paintings of plates of goddesses rather than stylized vulvas. Swain created modern goddesses, like Documentia, Goddess of Lists, and Acuppa, Goddess of Tea. (Swain is Australian.) Nothing brilliant here and it's a very quick read, but I like the different styles of art, and the multiculturalism. And I have to remind myself that Jokerman font wasn't so overused back then.
This thin book completes not only 1994, but the current bookshelf.
Sally Swain
Oh My Goddess!
Bought newish for $11.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
Cute book with well-done art, slightly reminiscent of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party, only these look like paintings of plates of goddesses rather than stylized vulvas. Swain created modern goddesses, like Documentia, Goddess of Lists, and Acuppa, Goddess of Tea. (Swain is Australian.) Nothing brilliant here and it's a very quick read, but I like the different styles of art, and the multiculturalism. And I have to remind myself that Jokerman font wasn't so overused back then.
This thin book completes not only 1994, but the current bookshelf.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend
1994, 1998 Cleis edition
Mabel Maney
The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend
Bought newish for $14.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
It turns out I like this about equally to the first "Cherry & Nancy" book. In this one, they and their friends take a road trip from Idaho to Illinois (with some time in Iowa as well), in order for Nancy to confess to the murder of her molesting father. Despite that, the tone is still pretty light and the focus is still on romance among the girls, with "perfect couple" Midge & Velma having a spat but ending up married (with Midge impersonating Frank Hardly). Meanwhile, Officer Jackie Jones falls for Cherry, after a fling with Cherry's boss. The funny thing is, only about two weeks have passed since the series started.
Next up, A Ghost in the Closet, with the Hardly Boys helping their chum Nancy, in 1995....
Mabel Maney
The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend
Bought newish for $14.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
It turns out I like this about equally to the first "Cherry & Nancy" book. In this one, they and their friends take a road trip from Idaho to Illinois (with some time in Iowa as well), in order for Nancy to confess to the murder of her molesting father. Despite that, the tone is still pretty light and the focus is still on romance among the girls, with "perfect couple" Midge & Velma having a spat but ending up married (with Midge impersonating Frank Hardly). Meanwhile, Officer Jackie Jones falls for Cherry, after a fling with Cherry's boss. The funny thing is, only about two weeks have passed since the series started.
Next up, A Ghost in the Closet, with the Hardly Boys helping their chum Nancy, in 1995....
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Nothin' But Good Times Ahead
1994, first Vintage Books edition, "Originally published in hardcover in slightly different form by Random House, Inc., New York in 1993"
Molly Ivins
Nothin' But Good Times Ahead
Original price $12.00, purchase price $3.95
Slightly worn paperback
C+
Despite the more optimistic title, this book not only didn't make me laugh, it didn't even make me grin like her 1991 collection, Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? This time, the approach is basically chronological (although different publications date their issues in different ways), most of the book set during the election year of 1992, with one-and-a-half Texans and an Arkansan running. Some of her insights on politics show a lot of common sense, but I didn't feel like I was reading much new. In fact, she repeats herself, not just from the earlier book, but within this collection. I realize that that's one of the hazards of being a columnist, and in many venues, but couldn't it have been edited when gathered in one spot? That said, her take on Camille Paglia was fun.
Her next collection will be in 1998, You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years....
Molly Ivins
Nothin' But Good Times Ahead
Original price $12.00, purchase price $3.95
Slightly worn paperback
C+
Despite the more optimistic title, this book not only didn't make me laugh, it didn't even make me grin like her 1991 collection, Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? This time, the approach is basically chronological (although different publications date their issues in different ways), most of the book set during the election year of 1992, with one-and-a-half Texans and an Arkansan running. Some of her insights on politics show a lot of common sense, but I didn't feel like I was reading much new. In fact, she repeats herself, not just from the earlier book, but within this collection. I realize that that's one of the hazards of being a columnist, and in many venues, but couldn't it have been edited when gathered in one spot? That said, her take on Camille Paglia was fun.
Her next collection will be in 1998, You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years....
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Man Bites Town: Notes of a Man Who Doesn't Take Notes
1993, possibly first edition, from St. Martin's Press
Harry Shearer
Man Bites Town: Notes of a Man Who Doesn't Take Notes
Possibly bought new for $18.95
Hardcover in good condition with torn dustjacket
B-
Native (Los) Angeleno Shearer writes about local and national issues with the wry humor he shows in everything from The Simpsons (which he'd just started voicing at the time of the first essays) to Spinal Tap. These are his columns from the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, from 1989 to the then present, although it seems like he gets up to 1991 (post-Gulf-War) awfully fast. As with Goodman, I suspect that reading many newspaper columns in a row isn't the best way to digest them, and he, too, has a personal style that can wear thin after awhile. Still, it is interesting to get a more local take than hers or Heimel's on, for instance, the LA Riots. (He uses "Rodney King" as a verb because LAPD brutality doesn't surprise him.) There's of course a lot about show biz in here, but I think I liked his thoughts on architecture best.
My other favorite thing is that he has a back-cover blurb from Merrill Markoe, who co-starred with him on the 1989-90 cable series Word of Mouth, which still makes me laugh when I watch my VHS tapes of it. It's nice to know that they still do projects together, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsFk763dcJY
Harry Shearer
Man Bites Town: Notes of a Man Who Doesn't Take Notes
Possibly bought new for $18.95
Hardcover in good condition with torn dustjacket
B-
Native (Los) Angeleno Shearer writes about local and national issues with the wry humor he shows in everything from The Simpsons (which he'd just started voicing at the time of the first essays) to Spinal Tap. These are his columns from the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, from 1989 to the then present, although it seems like he gets up to 1991 (post-Gulf-War) awfully fast. As with Goodman, I suspect that reading many newspaper columns in a row isn't the best way to digest them, and he, too, has a personal style that can wear thin after awhile. Still, it is interesting to get a more local take than hers or Heimel's on, for instance, the LA Riots. (He uses "Rodney King" as a verb because LAPD brutality doesn't surprise him.) There's of course a lot about show biz in here, but I think I liked his thoughts on architecture best.
My other favorite thing is that he has a back-cover blurb from Merrill Markoe, who co-starred with him on the 1989-90 cable series Word of Mouth, which still makes me laugh when I watch my VHS tapes of it. It's nice to know that they still do projects together, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsFk763dcJY
Friday, August 16, 2013
The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse
1993, first edition, from Cleis
Mabel Maney
The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse
Original price $9.95, purchase price $6.00
Worn paperback with stains
B-
Although this is a "Nancy Clue Mystery" (the first in a series of three), Nancy herself doesn't show up till fairly late in the story, and the main character is Cherry Aimless (a parody of the less-known-than-Nancy nurse/detective Cherry Ames). Sort of like in Bechdel's DtWoF world, nearly everyone here is gay, although since it's set in 1959, the word retains its "happy" meaning as well. I think the later books are better-- The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend is coming up in '94-- but this isn't a bad introduction to Cherry, Nancy, and their new friends. Maney is also an artist, so there are clip-art-looking little illustrations throughout, most of them having nothing to do with the text (a jellyfish, a dinosaur, a turnip, an accordionist, etc.).
Mabel Maney
The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse
Original price $9.95, purchase price $6.00
Worn paperback with stains
B-
Although this is a "Nancy Clue Mystery" (the first in a series of three), Nancy herself doesn't show up till fairly late in the story, and the main character is Cherry Aimless (a parody of the less-known-than-Nancy nurse/detective Cherry Ames). Sort of like in Bechdel's DtWoF world, nearly everyone here is gay, although since it's set in 1959, the word retains its "happy" meaning as well. I think the later books are better-- The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend is coming up in '94-- but this isn't a bad introduction to Cherry, Nancy, and their new friends. Maney is also an artist, so there are clip-art-looking little illustrations throughout, most of them having nothing to do with the text (a jellyfish, a dinosaur, a turnip, an accordionist, etc.).
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Get Your Tongue out of My Mouth, I'm Kissing You Good-Bye!
1993, first edition, from Atlantic Monthly Press
Cynthia Heimel
Get Your Tongue out of My Mouth, I'm Kissing You Good-Bye!
Original price $20.00, purchase price unknown
Hardcover in good condition
B-
This is sort of the rocker-chick version of Ellen Goodman's Value Judgments. Heimel is six years younger than Goodman and a lot wilder, less common-sensical. But they both write about feminism etc. and the time period covered here is similar. Heimel made me laugh more (from the pop-art cover onward), but she also made me shake my head more, from her disgust at lesbians' sexuality (despite her admiration of their confidence) to her belief that Mother Nature can't be a feminist because women are more attractive in their fertile 20s than their menopausal 40s. (Heimel was born in '47 and looks cute in a Laraine Newman sort of way in the author photograph.)
As with Goodman's book, I can see the beginnings of the current era, even in things like Jay Leno hosting The Tonight Show in his own right (He took over from Johnny Carson in '92, after years of guest-hosting.) But she's got to be kidding if she thinks that the Baby Boomers were in no way to blame for the '80s.
Cynthia Heimel
Get Your Tongue out of My Mouth, I'm Kissing You Good-Bye!
Original price $20.00, purchase price unknown
Hardcover in good condition
B-
This is sort of the rocker-chick version of Ellen Goodman's Value Judgments. Heimel is six years younger than Goodman and a lot wilder, less common-sensical. But they both write about feminism etc. and the time period covered here is similar. Heimel made me laugh more (from the pop-art cover onward), but she also made me shake my head more, from her disgust at lesbians' sexuality (despite her admiration of their confidence) to her belief that Mother Nature can't be a feminist because women are more attractive in their fertile 20s than their menopausal 40s. (Heimel was born in '47 and looks cute in a Laraine Newman sort of way in the author photograph.)
As with Goodman's book, I can see the beginnings of the current era, even in things like Jay Leno hosting The Tonight Show in his own right (He took over from Johnny Carson in '92, after years of guest-hosting.) But she's got to be kidding if she thinks that the Baby Boomers were in no way to blame for the '80s.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Dan Quayle: Airhead Apparent
1992, probably first edition, from Potatoe Press
Paul Slansky & Steve Radlauer
Dan Quayle: Airhead Apparent: A Fair, Unbiased Look at Our Nation's Most Dangerous Dimwit
Bought new for $4.95
Worn paperback
B
I was pleasantly but not strongly surprised to find that this book holds up well. Obviously, it's a product of its time, and it's delightful to see such names as Faludi, Blount, Ivins, Nader, Matt Groening, Douglas McGrath (a few years before writing and directing the Beckinsdale Emma), Pat Schroeder (the representative who coined the term Teflon President), and at least three early SNL writers (Rosie Shuster, Neil Levy, and a macabre as ever Michael O'Donoghue). They all have great quotes, as does, in his own twisted way, Dan Quayle himself. If I have to narrow it down, I choose Quayle's "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is," and this one from an ordinary Newsweek reader, in response to the cover question, "Is He a Lightweight--Or Smarter Than You Think?": "Quayle could be much smarter than I think and still be a lightweight." I think of that comment fairly often actually, when faced with unsatisfactory either/or's.
Slansky and Radlauer aren't just stringing together quotes like Ducovny's Perfectly Clear, or analyzing Reagan and Bush's quotes, like Green & MacColl and Brady & Solomon respectively. They also examine his political record, in Congress, Senate, and Vice-Presidency. It's clearly not a fair or unbiased look (or meant to be) but it's much more intelligent and funnier than Hendra's Bush book.
Paul Slansky & Steve Radlauer
Dan Quayle: Airhead Apparent: A Fair, Unbiased Look at Our Nation's Most Dangerous Dimwit
Bought new for $4.95
Worn paperback
B
I was pleasantly but not strongly surprised to find that this book holds up well. Obviously, it's a product of its time, and it's delightful to see such names as Faludi, Blount, Ivins, Nader, Matt Groening, Douglas McGrath (a few years before writing and directing the Beckinsdale Emma), Pat Schroeder (the representative who coined the term Teflon President), and at least three early SNL writers (Rosie Shuster, Neil Levy, and a macabre as ever Michael O'Donoghue). They all have great quotes, as does, in his own twisted way, Dan Quayle himself. If I have to narrow it down, I choose Quayle's "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is," and this one from an ordinary Newsweek reader, in response to the cover question, "Is He a Lightweight--Or Smarter Than You Think?": "Quayle could be much smarter than I think and still be a lightweight." I think of that comment fairly often actually, when faced with unsatisfactory either/or's.
Slansky and Radlauer aren't just stringing together quotes like Ducovny's Perfectly Clear, or analyzing Reagan and Bush's quotes, like Green & MacColl and Brady & Solomon respectively. They also examine his political record, in Congress, Senate, and Vice-Presidency. It's clearly not a fair or unbiased look (or meant to be) but it's much more intelligent and funnier than Hendra's Bush book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)