Humor Books - Page 6

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Christopher Moore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 501 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Hylarious and moving story of Jesus 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is one great book, just freaking hilarious while also being pretty useful to me.

Lamb gives me context where I hadn't completely understood before.

Christopher tells the story of Christ from birth. While he talks about his life after he comes out and begins preaching openly, he focus much more on Christ's formative years, everything from an interest in sin to learning the ways of the Buddha.

This is, of course, a complete work of fiction. Everything is made of from the author's mind. While he stuck to historical documents to keep some of it accurate, he certainly stretched a lot to make the story fun and fill in gaps which no one knew about.

I can't really explain the book in one post, though I'm always happy to talk about it. Needless to say, I got to live alongside Jesus as he grew up and was shaped by the world around him. I really gained a deeper understanding of the place of Jews within Roman rule as well as what the heck the difference between a Pharisee and a Sadducee was.

The best quotes I got from the first reading of the book were.

Joshua's ministry was three years of preaching, sometimes three times a day, and although there were some high and low points, I could never remember the sermons word for word, but here's the gist of almost every sermon I heard Joshua give.

"You should be nice to people, even creeps.
And if you:
a) believed that Joshua was the Don of God (and)
b) he had come to save you from sin (and)
c) acknowledged the Holy Spirit within you (became as a little child, he would say) (and)
d) didn't blaspheme the Holy Ghost (see c),
then you would:
e) live forever
f) someplace nice
g) probably heaven.
However, if you:
h) sinned (and/or)
i) were a hypocrite (and/or)
j) valued things over people (and)
k) didn't do a, b, c, and d,
then you were:
l) fu***d

Awesome summation of Jesus' teachings. Oh yeah, did I mention there was some swearing?

Then there was this conversation between Biff and Maggie (Mary Magdalene)

"When we were in India, we saw a festival in the city of their goddess Kali. She's a goddess of destruction, Maggie. It was the bloodiest thing I've ever seen, thousands of animals slaughtered, hundreds of men beheaded. The whole world seemed slick with blood. Joshua and I saved some children from being flayed alive, but when it was over, Joshua kept saying, no more sacrifices. No more.

Maggie looked at me as if she expected more. So? It was horrible, what did you expect him to say?

He wasn't talking to me, Maggie. He was talking to God. And I don't think he was making a request.

Are you saying that he thinks his father wants to kill him for trying to change things, so he can't avoid it because it's the will of God?

No, I'm saying that he's going to allow himself to be killed to show his father that things need to be changed. He's not going to try to avoid it at all."

Another great conversation which helped me better see Jesus' relationship with His father.

Definitely pick this book up. It'll definitely ruffle some feathers with the stuff he made up, like Jesus learning the ways of the Buddha and such. It's a work of fiction, get over it.

The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln

James C. Humes

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: Gramercy Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $4.45

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This was a Xmas gift to a Abe Lincoln fan. She was absolutely thrilled. Highly Recommend.

'Pocket Lincoln' 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

As a US History teacher, this small and inexpensive book brings personality and life to one of our most beloved Presidents. An excellent value and one that is more likely to be read and enjoyed than larger, more in depth works. Middle School kids get a kick out of the quotes.

Nice Work & Collection of Quotes 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book is divided nicely into categories and is a good book that doesn't need long periods of time for reading. You will enjoy many of the stories and quotations from Mr. Lincoln. A nice compilation.

Very Entertaining 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Reading this book gives insight as to the person Lincoln was. His wit and humor, his suffering and astute personality. You will get to know this great person simply by reading his own thoughts put forth in his own words.

Editorial Review:

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves." Rather than the dour soul he sometimes appeared to be, Abraham Lincoln enjoyed a fine, often barbed sense of humor as this lively collection of his salty stories, anecdotes, quotes and speech excerpts proves. Also included in this treasury are his famous addresses, a Lincoln time-line, and sections on Lincoln Lore, Gettysburg Gems and Assassination Secrets.

Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays

David Foster Wallace

List Price: $24.98 By: Hachette Audio Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $7.47

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Smart, eclectic, and hilariously funny. 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Full disclosure: I have a major intellectual crush on David Foster Wallace. Yes, yes, I know about his weaknesses - the digressions, the rampant footnote abuse, the flaunting of his amazing erudition, the mess that is 'Infinite Jest'. I know all this, and I don't care. Because when he is in top form, there's nobody else I would rather read. The man is hilarious; I think he's a mensch, and I don't believe he parades his erudition just to prove how smart he is. I think he can't help himself - it's a consequence of his wide-ranging curiosity. At heart he's a geek, but a charming, hyper-articulate geek. Who is almost frighteningly intelligent.

The pieces in "Consider the Lobster" have appeared previously in Rolling Stone, The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Observer, the Philadelphia Enquirer, Harper's, Gourmet, and Premiere magazines. Among them are short meditations on Updike's `Toward the end of Time', on Dostoyevsky, on Kafka's humor, and on the `breathtakingly insipid autobiography' of tennis player Tracy Austin. An intermediate length piece describes Foster Wallace's (eminently sane) reaction to the attacks of September 11th. Each of these shorter essays is interesting, but the meat and potatoes of the book is in the remaining five, considerably longer, pieces. They are:

Big Red Son: a report on the 1998 Adult Video News awards (the Oscars of porn) in Las Vegas.
Consider the Lobster: a report on a visit to the annual Maine Lobster Festival (for Gourmet magazine).
Host: a report on conservative talk radio, based on extensive interviews conducted with John Ziegler, host of "Live and Local" on Southern California's KFI.
Up Simba: an account of seven days on the campaign trail with John McCain in his 2000 presidential bid (for Rolling Stone).
Authority and American Usage: a review of Bryan Garner's "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage" , which serves as a springboard for a terrific exegesis of usage questions and controversies.

Here's what I like about David Foster Wallace's writing: I know of nobody else who writes as thoughtfully and intelligently. That he manages to write so informatively, with humor and genuine wit, on almost any subject under the sun is mind-blowing - it's also why I am willing to forgive his occasional stylistic excesses. (Can you spell `footnote'?) You may not have a strong interest in lobsters or pornography, but the essays in question are terrific. The reporting on Ziegler and McCain is amazingly good, heartbreakingly so, because it makes the relative shallowness of most reporting painfully evident. Finally, the article on usage is a tour de force - when it first appeared in Harper's, upon finishing it, I was immediately moved to go online and order a copy of Garner's book (which is just as good as DFW promised).

How can you not enjoy an essay that begins as follows?

"Did you know that probing the seamy underbelly of US lexicography reveals ideological strife and controversy and intrigue and nastiness and fervor on a near Lewinskian scale?

....... (several other rhetorical questions) ......

Did you know that US lexicography even *had* a seamy underbelly?"

And which later contains sentences such as:
"Teachers who do this are dumb."
"This argument is not quite the barrel of drugged trout that Methodological Descriptivism was, but it's still vulnerable to objections."
and - my personal favorite -
"This is so stupid it practically drools."

Not everyone will give this collection 5 stars, but I do.

Editorial Review:

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of a vicious presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

Thomas Cathcart, Daniel Klein

Amazon Price: $9.60 List Price: $12.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $6.05

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 125 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Horrible both philosophically and comedically 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I'm a Ph.D. student in philosophy and I bought this to see whether any of it was worth using in an Intro to Philosophy course. None of it is worth using for that purpose. It does every topic an injustice: usually false or misleading; at best superficial. Nor is it funny; although I agree with Wittgenstein that good, serious philosophy could be written consisting entirely of jokes.

James Grindeland
Department of Philosophy
University of Georgia

Editorial Review:

This New York Times bestseller is the hilarious philosophy course everyone wishes they’d had in school

Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors—and born vaudevillians—Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar . . . is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism (What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?) to Logic (Sherlock Holmes never deduced anything). Philosophy 101 for those who like to take the heavy stuff lightly, this is a joy to read—and finally, it all makes sense!

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

David Foster Wallace

List Price: $23.95 By: Little, Brown Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $14.08

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 94 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Wallace on a Cruise Ship? 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

There are some great essays in the late(tragically) Prof. Wallace's book but the winner is the eponymous " A Supposedly Fun Thing----". OMG! He goes on a seven day luxury Caribbean Cruise--not his idea of course but an assignment from a magazine. I know I would rather die than go on a cruise but to be reminded in this hilarious essay just why that is the case was a delightful experience Do not miss it! The book, I mean, not the cruise---

Confusion Mistaken for Genius 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Critics often cry "genius" when they don't understand something, especially when it is presented in such a serious academic way, it can't possibly be trash. It must be so good, we're just not on the same level to appreciate it.

Right after I finished this book, I read the Rolling Stone article on his death by hanging, where almost from the first thing he wrote, he was declared the voice of his generation. Alas, a very hard thing to live with. How do you go anywhere but down after that?

I tried to read every essay in this book, but some of them were just so dense with nothingness disguised in tight cocoons of words, I couldn't fight through it. It's no surprise he has a fascination with David Lynch, the subject of one of his essays and another "genius" I don't appreciate. The essay which lends itself to the book's title, the long discourse on his luxury cruise, is the most accessible. The State Fair essay is the second most accessible. But it seems that Wallace's overall theme is that all people are stupid, and woe on him for being mentally superior to everyone else, and thus, a lonely stranger in a strange land.

But in a way, I understand that since I sometimes feel that way myself. And yeah, it leads to the noose because the stupid people turn out to be the happiest ones.

Reading Wallace is like being adrift at sea on a raft, and debris keeps passing by, and you're supposed to be able to tell from each piece of debris the story behind it and where it came from, even though most of the time you will have no idea. It's just debris. Yet if Wallace were on your raft, he would provide the history of each piece of debris, he just wouldn't tell you.

Editorial Review:

Revealing a lively curiosity and sharp, ironic sense of humor, a collection of keen observations, witty analyses, and essays--which includes the acclaimed ""A Ticket to the Fair""--exposes the fault lines in today's society. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo. Tour.

The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy

Vicki Iovine

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Total reviews: 1060 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Your Girlfriends, of course -- at least, the ones who've been through the exhilaration and exhaustion, the agony and ecstasy of pregnancy. Four-time delivery room veteran Vicki Iovine, "the Carrie Bradshaw of pregnancy" (Wall Street Journal), talks to you the way only a best friend can -- in the book that will go the whole nine months for every mother-to-be. Now, in this newly revised and updated edition, get the lowdown on all those little things that are too strange or embarrassing to ask, practical tips, and hilarious takes on everything pregnant.

What Really Happens to Your Body -- from morning sickness and gas to eating everything in sight -- and what it's like to go from being a babe to having one.

The Many Moods of Pregnancy -- why you're so irritable/distracted/ tired/light-headed (or at least more than usual).

Plus, the latest scoop on . . .

Staying Stylish -- You may be pregnant, but you can still be the fashionista you've always been (or at least you don't have to look like a walking beach ball) -- wearing the hippest designers and proudly showing off your bump.

Pregnancy Is Down to a Science -- from in vitro fertilization to scheduled C-section, the latest technology provides so many options, alternatives, and tests, it can all be downright confusing.

. . . and much more! For a reassuring voice or just a few good belly laughs, turn to this straight-talking guide on what to really expect when you're expecting.

1984 (Signet Classics)

George Orwell

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $9.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: New American Library Amazon Marketplace: 322 new & used starting at $1.64

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1363 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Warning, A Prediction...A Terrifying Truth 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

First off, this book is incredible. At 13 years old, I didn't understand every aspect of it, but in a whole, everything made perfect, clear sense.
I'm very interested in socialist governments(no, I don't like communist views; I'm a die-hard patriot at 13!), and I consider myself well-informed on up-to-date politics and such. And so, upon reading this book which was recommended to me by one of my teachers, I was horrified at the resemblances that Oceania and the direction our government is headed shared. The foresight of Orwell was shocking, and he kept the book very interesting.
But a good portion of the middle was....awkward. Like, mature-content awkward (most teachers gave me girl-are-you-crazy? looks when they saw I was reading it. Later, I realized why). I almost didn't finish the book, but knowing its importance to my knowledge, I finished it. I definitely do not recommend it to anyone my age....-shudders-
But its imperative that we as Americans read it. Remembering the mistakes of the past (and, in this case, the future) is imperative to keeping our nation a democracy. If we heed most of Orwell's warnings, we will be better equipped to save the future, and in doing so saving the past.

Editorial Review:

George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision of "Negative Utopia" is timelier than ever-and its warnings more powerful.

The Screwtape Letters

C. S. Lewis

List Price: $11.95 By: MacMillan Publishing Company. Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $3.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 369 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Enlightening read for committed (and thinking) Christians 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I don't know how well this great book translates to agnostic readers, but for me it was a very enlightening and concrete way to understand what it means to try to be a good man in a world of temptation.

In keeping with the time period, I believe it was Winston Churchill who said "All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing". In the Screwtape Letters the senior tempter, tells his apprentice, it is just as affective to get a man to stare into a fire until it turns to ash, as to get him to commit some great sin, because either keeps him from doing what he should. I wonder what Mr. Lewis would have thought of digital cable television? I am as guilty as anyone of staring at that box instead of doing good.

So here's the deal.

This is an excellent book for any believer from High School on up, that wants to be good and avoid evil.

But that's just me.

Editorial Review:

Now available unabridged on cassette and CD--C.S. Lewis’ classic Screwtape Letters--the engaging correspondence between two devils. Read by Joss Ackland.

Holidays on Ice

David Sedaris

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Little, Brown and Company Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $9.64

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Hilarious! The new stories are a welcome addition! 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I read the original version of this collection a few years ago and really enjoyed it so I jumped at the chance of reading the stories again and the new additional stories! The new stories are definitely a welcome addition!

Of the original stories, The SantaLand Diaries starts the collection off on a hilarious note. You get to read bout the inner workings of being a department store Christmas elf. The crazy santas, elves and customers! Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!! starts off innocently enough as a family holiday letter and quickly takes a turn for the hilariously insane, like a lot of Sedaris's stories.

Of the new stories, Jesus Shaves is by far my favorite. It had me crying from laughing so hard. I don't want to give anything away, so just trust me, it's hilarious. Six to Eight Black Men was also hilarious along the same line. Definitely learned things I didn't know about how other countries celebrate to holidays.

I wasn't totally fond of The Monster Mash, about a trip to a medical examiner's office, it spoke to my weak stomach and my stomach said no thank you. But it still had it's funny moments.

All in all this is a hilarious holiday collection and the new stories are a welcome addition helping add additional holidays to this collection.

Editorial Review:

David Sedaris's beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favoritesas the diaries of a Macy's elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris's tales of tardy trick-or-treaters ("Us and Them"); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French ("Jesus Shaves"); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm ("Let It Snow"); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations ("Six to Eight Black Men"); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like ("The Monster Mash"); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry ("Cow and Turkey").

No matter what your favorite holiday, you won't want to miss celebrating it with the author who has been called "one of the funniest writers alive" (Economist).

The Best Book of Useless Information Ever

Noel Botham

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Perigee Trade Amazon Marketplace: 57 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the creators of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Useless Information comes another enlightening, entertaining, and ultimately useless assortment of trivia.

If you find yourself transfixed by the most trivial of trivia, or mesmerized by the most minor of minutiae, The Useless Information Society's latest findings can satisfy your every need. This wide-ranging collection will fill every nook and cranny of your brain with information you'll surely never need, but will enjoy learning anyway!

Did you know...

- that penguins can jump six feet out of the water?
- that everyone is color-blind at birth?

Would you care to know...

- what the first meal eaten on the moon was?
- what country drinks the most Coca-Cola? (Hint: It's not the United States.)

In 1995, a secret society was formed comprising Britain's foremost thinkers, writers, and artists to trade and share in useless information (or, as founding member Keith Waterhouse, playwright and journalist, would have it, "totally bloody useless").