General Books - Page 12

The Crass Menagerie: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury

Stephan Pastis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Pearls is the hottest comic in the newspaper business these days." --Raleigh News amd Observer

Named Best Comic Strip of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society in 2004 and 2007, Pearls Before Swine is regarded by fans and critics alike as a thoughtful commentary on humanity's pitiable plight.

Stephan Pastis sketches this nuanced comic strip tale, which features the arrogant, self-centered, and totally hilarious Rat, who leads his four-legged friends through misadventure after misadventure. Joining him for the journey are Pig, the slow but good-hearted conscience of the strip; Goat, the voice of reason that often goes unheard; and Zebra and the eternally inept Crocodiles who pursue him. Together this mindful menagerie mocks the flaws and shortcomings of human nature through Pastis's cynically biting wit.

• The third Pearls Before Swine treasury, this book combines all the cartoons from Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eata and The Sopratos, along with annotations by Pastis.
• From courtroom antics to references of other cartoon strips, Pastis's strip is a fresh presence on the comic pages.

Me of Little Faith

Lewis Black

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the hilariously mad-as-hell Daily Show regular and New York Times–bestselling author comes a ferociously funny exploration of religion and faith.

What do we believe? And in God’s name why?

Lewis Black has the answers. Or at least his answers. He survived Hebrew school and a bar mitzvah (barely), was a sixties college student who saw the parallels between religious rapture and drug-induced visions (even if none of his friends did), explored the self-actualization movement of the seventies (and the self-indulgence it engendered), and turned a cynical eye toward politicians who don the cloak of religious rectitude to cover up their own hypocrisy.

What he learned about the inconsistencies and peculiarities of religion infuriated Black, and in Me of Little Faith they get his full comic attention. In a series of comedic inquiries, Black explores how the rules and constraints of religion have affected his life and the lives of us all. Hilarious experiences with rabbis, Mormons, gurus, psychics, and even the joy of a perfect round of golf give Black the chance to expound upon what we believe and why—in the language of a shock jock and with the heart of an iconoclast.

Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

Bill Mauldin

Amazon Price: $40.95 List Price: $65.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fantagraphics Books Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $34.20

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Presenting the complete WWII cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation.

"The real war," said Walt Whitman, "will never get in the books." During WW II, the closest most Americans ever came to the "real war" was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army. Here, for the first time, Fantagraphics Books brings together Mauldin's complete works from 1940 through the end of the war. This collection of over 600 cartoons, most never before reprinted, is more than the record of a great artist: it is an essential chronicle of America's citizen-soldiers from peace through war to victory.

Bill Mauldin knew war because he was in it. He had created his characters, Willie and Joe, at age 18, before Pearl Harbor, while training with the 45th Infantry Division and cartooning part-time for the camp newspaper. His brilliant send-ups of officers were pure infantry, and the men loved it.

After wading ashore with his division on the first of its four beach invasions in July 1943, Mauldin and his men changed—and Mauldin's cartoons changed accordingly. Months of miserable weather, bad food, and tedium interrupted by the terror of intense bombing and artillery fire took its toll. By the year's end, virtually every man in Mauldin's original rifle company was killed, wounded, or captured.

The wrinkles in Willie's and Joe's uniforms deepened, the bristle on their faces grew, and the eyes—"too old for those young bodies," as Mauldin put it—betrayed a weariness that would remain the entire war. With their heavy brush lines, detailed battlescapes, and pidgin of army slang and slum dialect, Mauldin's cartoons and captions recreated on paper the fully realized world of the American combat soldier. Their dark, often insubordinate humor sparked controversy among army brass and incensed General George S. Patton, Jr.

This is first of several volumes publishing the best of Bill Mauldin's single panel strips from 1940 to 1991 (when he stopped drawing). His Willie & Joe cartoons will be presented in a deluxe, beautifully designed two-volume slipcased edition of over 600 pages. The series is edited by Todd DePastino, whose Mauldin scholarship will be on full display in a biography of the artist coming in February 2008 from W. W. Norton. Willie & Joe will contain an introduction and running commentary by DePastino, providing context for the drawings, pertinent biographical details of Mauldin's life, and occasional background on specific cartoons (such as the ones that made Patton howl).

Happy Endings: The Tales of a Meaty-Breasted Zilch

Jim Norton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 167 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Jim Norton is a pervert

in the truest sense of the word. The physical equivalent of a tall slug, he pays top dollar for massages with happy endings and is fascinated by shitty sitcoms and fat girls. He is also, at times, racially offensive and morally repugnant. He spares no one in his comedy -- least of all himself.

Now, in this outrageous, blisteringly funny collection of essays, Norton tackles the topics that are near and dear to his heart: from public events like the legendary Voyeur Bus incident on the Opie and Anthony Show, which culminated in all involved being taken to jail, or seeking a hug from his childhood idol Gene Simmons, to deeply private moments, including a teenage Jim's embarrassing poetry-writing attempts while in rehab, and his inexpensive sexual experience with an unwashed MILF (a Monolith I'd Like to Forget). His stories are raw, searingly honest in their attention to detail, and most of all, hilarious.

Filled with personal photos and nearly fifty candid and uncompromising essays, Happy Endings is one of a kind...and probably best read on an empty stomach.

Weirdos from Another Planet!

Bill Watterson

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Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Comic Strips -> Calvin and Hobbes

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

One of my favorites 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I love all Calvin and Hobbes books, but this collection has a few of my favorites that never cease to make me laugh out loud, including:

"The Disembodied Hand That Strangled People" (I snicker just writing it)

The trip to Mars ("We're going in the wagon?" "Of course! What did YOU want to do? Flap your arms?" "I guess I hadn't thought about that part."
"Obviously."

Laugh after Laugh 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I am a Calvin and Hobbes fan. And this book did not dissapoint me.

Life on this Weird Planet 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Calvin and Hobbes has always been a great read. This was the first one in book form that I read and thoroughly enjoyed.

The book has many good strips and quite a lot of Sunday strips as well. The aliens show up towards the end and there is a good many strips on that series where he explores the Martian surface and rightly is told by Hobbes that if one is not potty trained would you invite them to your home? So of course after damaging Earth, men need not expect a welcome from the Martians or anyone else.

There is a lot of wisdom and good humour in the book. The opening splash page itself is attractive about why intelligent life hasn't contacted us - with a picture of deforestation.

Other favourites are of course being a tiger, or the tiger's welcome to the kid coming home from school, Dad's approval ratings in the election, the family outing, room service for the ill kid, etc.

The parents are delightfully tolerant of the crazy nutty Calvin. The family outing to the woods is a riot. Calvin wonders what kind of vacation is it if he has to be with his parents, LOLz. Even Calvin's vulnerability is explored when he panics after breaking Dad's binoculars.

This book is cute as hell - and especially a great gift to pretty young girls who thank me endless for making their day. You won't ever be disappointed, probably not with any Calvin & Hobbes collection - they are a gem, a treasure, a laugh riot, a piece of modern art and culture.

Beware of Captain Spiff, the T-Rex, the paleontologist, the incredible comic strip from the best graphic art has to offer.

Editorial Review:

Wonder, merriment, and orneriness abound in this collection full of Watterson's superior artwork and keen ability to depict the inner hopes, joys, fears, and devilishness of the ever-enterprising Calvin and his sidekick, Hobbes.

Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington

Thomas Cathcart, Daniel Klein

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Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, authors of the national bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, aren’t falling for any election year claptrap—and they don’t want their readers to either! In Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, our two favorite philosopher-comedians return just in time to save us from the double-speak, flim-flam, and alternate reality of politics in America.

Deploying jokes and cartoon as well as the occasional insight from Aristotle and his peers, Cathcart and Klein explain what politicos are up to when they state: “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” (Donald Rumsfeld), “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” (Bill Clinton), or even, “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” (Thomas Jefferson, et al).

Drawing from the pronouncements of everyone from Caesar to Condoleeza Rice, Genghis Kahn to Hillary Clinton, and Adolf Hitler to Al Sharpton. Cathcart and Klein help us learn to identify tricks such as “The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy” (non causa pro causa) and the “The Fallacy Fallacy” (argumentum and logicam). Aristotle and an Aardvark is for anyone who ever felt like the politicos and pundits were speaking Greek. At least Cathcart and Klein provide the Latin name for it (raudatio publica)!

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

Bill Watterson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 50 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Calvin and Hobbes are ready to pounce back on bestseller lists everywhere with this all-new collection of daily and color Sunday cartoons. Reprising the wide-open landscape format of last year's collection, The Days Are Just Packed, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat chronicles another segment of the multifarious adventures of this wild child and his faithful, but skeptical, friend. If the best cartoons compel readers to identify themselves within the funny frames, then all who enjoy Calvin and Hobbes are creative, imaginative, and ... bad, bad, bad! Calvin, the irascible little boy with the stuffed tiger who comes to life are a pair bound for trouble. Boring school lessons become occasions for death-defying alien air battles, speeding snow sled descents elecit philosophical discussions on the meaning of life, and Hobbe's natural inclination to pounce on his little friend wreaks havoc on Calvin's sense of security. Calvin's the kid we all wish we'd been. Sassy, imaginative, far more verbal than his parents can manage, Calvin is the quintessential bad boy - and the boy we love to see. He terrorizes little Susie, offers "Candid Opinions" from a neighborhood stand, and questions his parents' authority. "What assurance do I have that your parenting isn't screwing me up?" he demands. Calvin and Hobbes manages to say what needs to be said about childhood and life: "Eww, mud," says Calvin. "Look at this gooshy, dirty, slimy, thick, wet mud... Bleecch... Talk about a kid magnet!" Created by Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes has quickly become a favorite in more than 2,300 daily and Sunday newspapers. Recent readership polls show the strip as No. 1 in the Kansas City Star, Salt Lake City Deseret News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dallas Morning News, Akron Beacon Journal, and Schedectady Daily Gazette.

RULES OF THUMB PA (Rules of Thumb)

Tom Parker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A mix of folk wisdom, common sense, shared experience, the advice of experts, and the kind of group think that's made websites like Wikipedia so vital, Rules of Thumb is the impulsive compendium of 1,000 general principles that apply to every facet of life. Collected by Tom Parker for over 25 years, these are rules that are practical, quirky, and as entertaining to read as they are relevant to the reader.

There's a rule of thumb for just about every subject imaginable— money, marriage, cooking, health, weather, cars, gardening, restaurants, travel. This is the priceless knowledge that's accumulated not from reading, but from living. Tempted by a string of pearls at a yard sale? Rub them against your teeth: The rule of thumb, as your grandmother might have told you, is that a genuine pearl will grate. Not sure how to choose a puppy? Pick one whose tail wags in sync with its walk—a sign of calmness. To win at blackjack, assume that any unseen card is an eight. And remember, a rule of thumb works four out of five times (including this one).

Hot Chicks with Douchebags

Jay Louis

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Greasy foreheads. Spiky frosted hair. Oiled-up faces dripping with Tag Body Shot spray. Armani Exchange T-shirts and rank cologne wafting off their backs like fetid pollen clouds as they pump their fists and attempt to grind into any hotties nearby. Young beauties oblivious to the hulking monstrosity clutching at their butts like snapping turtles on Red Bull.

From sea to douchey sea, ours is a culture plagued by this festering blight. By the dark forces of über-douchebaggery.

How did this happen? What can we do to confront the douchebag/hottie plague that rots our collective souls like boils sent by a wrathful and angry God? And how can you recover if you or your loved one is 'bag?

Now, for the first time, there is an answer to those questions that haunt our collective will and sap our culture of any claim to societal advance: Why hottie/douchebaggery? Why now? And why are douche-faces so silly? In this book we dissect, analyze, contemplate and mock the rank douchescrotes that pollute our country's hottie supply on a daily basis. Every branch of the douche-tree will be examined. Every corner of our cultural rot will be exposed.

And if we can lust after their hotties along the way, then all the better.

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (Bathroom Readers)

Bathroom Readers' Hysterical Society

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts combines the most intriguing, enlightening material from nine previous Bathroom Reader favorites into one concise volume. Flush with delightfully useless — and sometimes even useful — information about sports, movies, music, politics, American and world history, and much more, the book is the most extensive reference guide in the series to date. Contained within this handy, portable tome are the fascinating narratives, terrific trivia, and easy-to-read lists that fans have come to delight in, as well as quotes, facts, findings, and historical tidbits. Weird and wonderful factoid footers on the bottom of each page are perfect for super-quick trips, while quizzes and puzzles enliven lengthier stays. Arranged for simple and speedy reference, the book is the perfect companion for trivia buffs and knowledge junkies who need a quick, fun read not just “at the office,” but in airports, waiting rooms, while traveling, or for any other moments that would otherwise be wasted.