Book Reviews News

10:20 AM
20-November
2009 "Nightlight: A Parody" by The Harvard Lampoon (**1/2)With any world-wide cultural phenomenon, there always needs to be people willing to take it down a peg. And so, along comes "Nightlight: A Parody." Teenager Belle Goose is unsure what to expect when she moves from her mother's house in Phoenix to live with her father in the northwestern Oregon town of Switchblade - but don't bother trying to find it on a map, as cartographers don't care enough to include it.
Topics: Book Reviews

6:05 AM
20-October
2009 "Heroes And Villains: Essays On Music, Movies, Comics, And Culture" by David Hajdu (**1/2)David Hajdu, who previously wrote "Lush Life," a biography on Jazz composer Billy Strayhorn, and "Positively 4th Street," which chronicled the lives of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, among others, assembles his first collection of essays in "Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Comics, and Culture." The essays, which were nearly all published in The New Republic and The New York Review of Books among other places, all only share one thing common: music. The essays range from a piece on Rodgers & Hart, whose career took off in the 1920's, to names like Taylor Swift, who's currently topping charts.
Topics: Book Reviews

11:32 AM
19-October
2009 "What To Expect When You're Expected" by David Javerbaum (***)Who better to write a book about what to expect while you are a fetus than a former embryo himself? Emmy-winning comedian and former executive producer of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," author David Javerbaum takes a hilarious look from a growing fetus's point-of-view in his new book, "What to Expect When You're Expected: A Fetus's Guide to the First Three Trimesters." This laugh-out-loud parody of the popular "What to Expect" series for expectant mothers is the perfect book for those who need a little humor and a lot of patience in preparation to get through their nine-months of love, labor, and pain.
Topics: Book Reviews

11:47 AM
5-October
2009 "How To Leave Hialeah" by Jennine Capó Crucet (***1/2)Jennine Capó Crucet paints what's sure to be an awfully familiar portrait to South Florida residents in her book, "How To Leave Hialeah," and for others, its a true guide to the culture in Miami that Lonely Planet can't cover in their books. Instead, "How To Leave Hialeah" is a loosely connected group of chapters that chronicle the Cuban-American author's experiences in the Hispanic-filled neighborhoods of the city.
Topics: Book Reviews

2:03 PM
30-September
2009 "High On Arrival" by Mackenzie Phillips (**)For a quick financial fix, many forgotten names of yesterday's celebrities flex their rumba skills on "Dancing With The Stars" while others take on small parts on long-time running television shows, do a few charity events here and there, and even make the talk-show circuit rounds promoting whatever new, obscure series they may have on a channel no where near the first 100 channels of your cablevision lineup. Former child actress Mackenzie Phillips, on the other hand and for one reason or another, decided to retell her life story up to her present moment - detailing her rapes, arrests, drug abuse, drug overdoses, lost childhood and overall instability - in a new book that proves to be as shocking as the claims she makes that her father John Phillips, of the Mamas and Papas raped her and later had a consensual 10 year sexual relationship with his daughter.
Topics: Book Reviews

   

2:11 PM
29-September
2009 "I Hate People" By Jonathan Littman And Marc Hershon (**)The "Stop Sign," the "Minute Man," and the "Know-It-None." All people we know and deal with daily during our 9 to 5 jobs, but if we had our way, could live without them. If there existed a company office where all cubicle-sharing employees understood and worked well with one another and strived for the same unified goal, then it is an office unbeknownst to mankind. Authors Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon delve a little further to explain to us why we simply dislike our co-workers in their new book, "I Hate People: Kick Loose from the Overbearing and Underhanded Jerks at Work and Get What You Want Out of Your Job."
Topics: Book Reviews

12:16 PM
28-September
2009 Lonely Planet's "Switzerland" by Nicola Williams (**)If you are a traveler wanting to visit several different European countries but can only find time for one, Switzerland might be your answer. What better way of getting a taste of France, Italy, and Germany all in one trip by visiting this chic, richly entertaining country nestled in the heart of Western Europe.
Topics: Book Reviews

4:00 PM
25-September
2009 "Skinny Bastard" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin (***1/2)From the creators of the hit "Skinny Bitch" series, which has been telling women for years what to do and what not to do in regards to food, health and fitness in a way only the self-proclaimed "bitches" can, comes "Skinny Bastard," their new book for men.
Topics: Book Reviews

11:18 AM
25-September
2009 "Hell Is Other Parents: And Other Tales Of Maternal Combustion" by Deborah Copaken Kogan (**1/2)Deborah Copaken Kogan tells us what we've been thinking all along: it's not your children's friends that are the problem, it's their parents. A humorous yet poignant tale of her struggles as a big-city mother, who along with her husband, try to juggle raising three children in their small Manhattan apartment on a barely-there freelancing income all the while zooming from one playdate to the next on her Vespa with her kids in tow, tells us how it is, minus the milk and cookies.
Topics: Book Reviews

4:32 PM
24-September
2009 "Ladies Listen Up!" by Stephanie Rockey (***)Author Stephanie Rockey is your friend, if only because she might tell you things your real friends won't in her new book, "Ladies Listen Up!" Described as "straight talk on men, sex, career, family and loving relationships," Rockey hits all the most important topics in her concise 100-page book of what's sure to be hard truths for some.
Topics: Book Reviews