Blogcritics Category: Books: Humor

Book Review - You Idiot: The First Book by Nate Gangelhoff

Alyse Wax — Sat, 3 Jan 2009 19:04:57 EST

A reprint of some not-too-old zines, full of bizarre and irreverent product reviews.
Once upon a time, in the magical land of the 1990s, there was a DIY trend towards zines (independently-published booklets have been around for decades, but came into their own on the 1970s punk scene – the movement was popularized as the years went on). Zines were (and still are, to a lesser extent) small, independently-published magazines...

Book Review: Dilbert 2.0 - 20 Years of Dilbert by Scott Adams

Wesley Mead — Sat, 3 Jan 2009 18:50:17 EST

Two decades of office satire, subversion and surreality.
Dilbert is one of the most successful comic strips of all time. It's syndicated in a mind-boggling 2000 newspapers spread across 65 countries. It's now been running a stunning 20 years. And - shock horror - it's actually brilliant.In popular culture, the cream of the crop rarely rises to the top. Reality shows dominate the TV ratings....

Book Review: I Believe In Yesterday by Tim Moore

James Carson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:18:36 EST

The author steps joins Roman re-enactors and Viking retromaniacs, and discovers they're not just playing for time.
Modern life getting you down? Feel like getting away from it all? Perhaps a week as a Roman legionary will put the colour back in your cheeks. Or maybe you'd prefer to pillage a village in the company of rampaging Vikings. Historical re-enactments may not be the most relaxing form of relaxation, but for many time travel beats Benidorm on all...

Book Review: The Ghost and the Femme Fatale by Alice Kimberly

Mel Odom — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:55:30 EST

Pen McClure and the ghost of PI Jack Shepard confront a twisted mystery spanning 60 years and offering certain death.
Alice Kimberly’s Haunted Bookshop Mystery series is a treat for cozy mystery readers. The conceit of having a single mom team up with a ghost of a private eye from the late 1940s might not, on the surface, seem like it would work, but Kimberly has done a swell (to use the 1940s lingo) job over her last four books. The fifth book is due out...

Manga Review: Iron Wok Jan - Volume 27 by Shinji Saijyo

Bill Sherman — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:48:55 EST

The popular Japanese cooking comedy comes to a calculatedly frustrating finish.
"No hugging, no lessons learned." I thought of this Seinfeld writing credo as I belatedly finished the final episode of Shinji Saijyo's Iron Wok Jan! (DrMaster) recently. Twenty-seven volumes of our comic anti-hero obnoxiously lording it over his culinary inferiors -- and the little bastard never grows or changes. When the final...

Book Review: White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Vivek Sharma — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:06:35 EST

While White Tiger reveals the dark matter in the cosmos of Indian reality, its exposition and complexity requires understanding and humanity absent in this novel.
White Tiger by Aravind Adiga has already won the Man Booker Prize, and is being hailed universally by the critics for its virtues in presenting a narrative quite different from the Bollywood capers and the modern Indian English fiction. In the wake of some well-deserved praise, my biased review might appear like an afterthought examining a foregone...

Graphic Fiction Review: The Soddyssey and Other Tales of Supernatural Law by Batton Lash

Bill Sherman — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:45:03 EST

A reissued collection of comic stories blends monsters and legal dramedy to humorous and satiric effect.
Now that Boston Legal has officially closed its offices, where can the lover of ludicrous legal dramedy go for their fix of outrageous cases and sophistic arguments? Allow me to recommend Batton Lash's Supernatural Law. A long-running indy humor comic and current webcomic, Lash's series centers on an unlikely pair of lawyers, Alanna Wolff...

Book Review: Don't Stop Believin' - How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life by Brian Raftery

Glen Boyd — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 04:38:02 EST

A great gift for that friend of yours prone to singing badly at parties and other forms of lampshade wearing fun.
Go on admit it. You love Karaoke. No? Well okay, but you've at least done it. Everybody has at least once, right?There is just something inherently irresistible about the opportunity to play rock star for one night in front of a room full of your mostly drunken friends. Can't sing? No problem. As Brian Raftery points out in Don't Stop Believin':...

Book Review: Why the Long Face - a Collection of Stories by Ron MacLean

Mary K. Williams — Mon, 8 Dec 2008 19:00:42 EST

The common thread in each story is the reality of human action and emotion.
This weekend I attended my third craft fair of the season. I do love these events, although what I love is not necessarily the same faux bayberry and pine wreathes that I might have bought seven years ago, or even the oh-so-adorable lampshade cover that I bought last year. Don’t get me wrong, those items – along with the doll clothes,...

Interview with J.L. Miles, Author of Divorcing Dwayne

Dorothy Thompson — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 18:22:41 EST

"Never make career decisions while waiting on a man with a knitting needle who intends to stab you in the mouth with it."
J.L. Miles is represented by the interviewer's Pump Up Your Book Promotion, a public relations agency specializing in online book promotion. J.L. Miles (Jackie Lee), a resident of Georgia for over 30 years, hails from Wisconsin via South Dakota. She considers herself “a northern girl with a southern heart”. Her paternal...