Ad Nauseum: A Survivor's Guide... by Carrie McClaren and Jason Torchinsky

As it started out, this book was very interesting, but it got a little dull towards the middle, especially the mock debate between two separate viewpoints on the merits and problems with advertising, represented by one Sut Jhally and James Twitchell. I think its more geared towards someone who is more of a student of marketing and advertising than someone who has a passing interest in the field.

I can't give it more than 4 stars.

¡Ask A Mexican! by Gustavo Arellano

Why do Mexicans wear clothes when they go swimming? And what's up with those monuments to dead people on the windows of their cars? And, by the way, what is it about the word illegal that mexicans don't understand?

These are the kinds of questions that the author gets all the time for his syndicated column, ¡Ask A Mexican!, and answers them in said column each week. He does so with some panache and a little bit of humor, helping gabachos and wabs alike. (Look them up in the beginning of the book if you don't know what they mean; the author graciously tells you there, as well as several times in the text to whom he is referring with those slang words.)

Occasionally, the author gets a little long-winded on some subject, (in particular, the article on Mexican infatuation with singer Morrissey), but for the most part, these are short concise answers to inquisitive and sometimes antagonistic questions. I leave it to the author to either verify or dispute whether these are the actual questions he received for his column, since some of them seem made-up to me, especially the sometimes funny, sometimes unbelievable psuedonyms that the alleged letter writers use to sign their queries.

But don't let that dissuade you from reading a pretty good book in its own right. Just go into it with an open mind. I rate this one 6 stars.

The Rocklopedia Fakebandica by T. Mike Childs

An encyclopedia dedicated to all the fake bands that appeared in movies and TV over the years, while not inclusive, is still a hoot to read. The author acknowledges that he may have missed some (and I noted a few myself, such as Billy Wayne and Bobby Shelton from the movie Oh God, You Devil).

Its highly unlikely you will have heard of all of these fake singers and musical groups, although with some, you would have either had to just been born within the past few years, or lived in seclusion your whole life. In which case, the book will hold no interest for you.

The book is laid out like an encyclopedia (hence the name), with entries for hundreds of fictional bands that either appeared on screen, with either real musicians posing as the band, or in the case of some, characters from the movie or TV show pretending they can sing.

Of course you get the obvious ones like Spinal Tap, The Archies, Josie and the Pussycats and others that are immediately recognizable names. But you also get the names of bands that appear in both well-known movies and obscure ones, which makes it all the more challenging to track down if you have your interest peaked by the entry.

The author's sarcastic wit may wear you down at times, but I think the subject matter definitely is worth wading through it. I give this one 7 stars.

Why We Make Mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan

No that's not a copying error. The most intersting part of this book is the cover, which is actually skewed like the picture to add some light-heartedness (or maybe just to be cute) to the book.

I found some of the material to be interesting, but to be honest, the author's writing style did not capture my interest, despite the fact that I was actually interested in the subject.

I didn't make it far enough into the book to give a fair rating, so I'll leave that part of the review out.

365 Four-Star Videos You (Probably) Haven't Seen by Leslie Hamilton.

Well, as it turns out, more like "200 Four-star Videos" in my case, since quite a number of them I had seen. And some of those were among my list of favorite movies, so apparently I have good taste. Or at least, have the same taste in movies as the author.

What you get here is an interesting collection of potential Saturday night time wasters (or whichever day of the week you prefer). There is a short synopsis as well as interesting tidbits throughout the book. Included in a sidebar for each pick is a suggestion for another movie to go along with the pick as a second feature. And, just in case you have seen the movie in question, and alternative that is along similar lines, although that line is tenuous in some of the entries if you ask me.

Added as an afterthought for each entry is a trivia question related to either the movie or one of the actors or even the director which you can have fun trying to answer, as well as look up the answer (the answers are interspersed on other pages, rather than conveniently located at the end)

Interesting reading, whether you are just ooking up one idea for a movie for the night, or are reading the entire book for entertainment. 7 stars.

The Pessimist's Handbook: A Guide to Despair and The Optimist's Handbook: A Guide to Hope by Niall Edworthy and Petra Cramsie

I originally picked this book up because it was displayed at the library with the back cover up. The Pessimist's Handbook is printed upside down at the back of the book. You get both in one volume. I thought, how neat, a book designed for someone like me. (I am the pessimist's pessimist. Pessimism means never having to say you're disappointed.)

Essentially, what I found, is an entertaining collection of quotes on a variety of subjects. And on the opposite side is a collection of optistically flavored quotes on the same subjects. The subjects range over the spectrum, from Advice to Boredom to Smoking (you can be optimistic about smoking?) and about 2 dozen others.

It's not high class literature, just a quick breezy jaunt into some of the best quotes out there from people dating back to ancient Rome up to the near present. Only good as a reference book, but still not entirely bad.

I give it 6 stars.

Reduced Shakespeare by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor

An irreverent look at Shakespeare by the founders of the Reduced Shakespeare Theater Company, this is quite funny as well as quite informative. The life of Shakespeare is boring if you read what your teachers give you to read. But here, its not only interesting, but entertaining.

And Cliff Notes has nothing on brevity for the bard's plays that these guys do. Hamlet: Poop or get of the pot. There's a section on the sonnets which even entertained me, and I usually skip the chapter(s) on the sonnets in most of the Shakespeare books I've read.

And last, but definitely not least, the authors recommend film versions for most of the plays, including a few that are not the plays themselves but based on one of them.

I give it 7½ stars

1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die by Tom Moon

Crank up your ghetto blaster and prepare to be seduced by the cacophony of rap music, or pull out the old Victrola and get ready for the sugary strings of baroque classical music. Whether you binge on hard-drive of thrash metal or you are more into the boot-scooting twang of country, there are some choices here to please you.

When one picks up a musical compendium like this, it is likely that he/she will, as I did, thumb through it briefly to find out if your favorites are listed. First crack out of the box, no Rush. Hmmm. Van Halen? Nope. Maybe a different category... How about Waylon Jennings? Not here, either.

Well, I guess Rush and Van Halen and Waylon had to be scrapped in favor of having 6 (count'em, 6) Beatles albums. Of course, there had to be the ubiquitous Sgt. Pepper's... and Abbey Road. (No list ever seems to be without them. I bet even a list of greatest country albums would manage to sneak them in somehow.) But then there are 4 more.

I do congratulate the author for not being entirely focused in favor of one genre over the rest, though. It is an eclectic mix, with samplings from, as near as I can tell, all genres of music. And I am no elitist when it comes to music, myself. I have some of these same recodings in my CD shuffler, classical, rock, jazz or what have you.

I did especially like the endcap for each entry. TMoon not only gives you the essentials, such as which tracks to especially note on the recordings, but gives you helpful suggestions such as other notable recordings by the artist, as well as Next Stop, which sends you on to similar stylings by other artists.

All in all, its a nice introduction into some styles of music you may have overlooked, as well as increasing your range of music in your favorite styles.

I give it 7 stars.

Heroes among Us: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Choices by john Quiñones

Do you have what it takes to be a hero? Author John Quiñones makes a case that even the weakest and most timid of us can have the potential to be a hero under the right conditions. Across the board we learn heroic tales, and not just of people who run into burning buildings and drag out helpless children. There are also tales of people who sacrifice time and money to help out those in need. these are also heroes in Quiñones' eyes.

It's not an easy book to read at times. I defy you to be able to read the whole thing without shedding a tear or two. The story of the Barrios family's efforts to help the young alleged killer of their matriarch, Viola Barrios. So is the memorial to Christa Macauliffe, the teacher who was one of the victims of the explosion of the space shuttle Discovery in 1986.

But death is not the outcome that makes people heroes throughout this book, otherwise it would be an extremely depressing book indeed. There is also the stories of two former Marines who were significant in the rescue of two victims buried under the rubble of the towers after 9/11. And one of the resue of a busload of children on a bus that happened to be in the middle of the 9340 Bridge when it collapsed in 2007.

And that too is not the only way to be a hero. Although tragedy is a central point in many of the stories, there are ones where every day people just do the right thing, such as the wealthy businessman who organized a food drive, and personally handed out sandwiches to the homeless.

Every story in here is inspiring, and makes you feel good. It might even lead you to do something heroic on your own, or at least to not ignore that homeless man next time you pass him on the street.

I give this one 9 stars.

Napoleons Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped by Tony Perrottet

For your you prurient perusal, this provacative publication is presented. You thought history was boring? Not so, says Perrottet and he proceeds to disprove that theory.

Did you ever see the movie Cabaret? Let me tell you, it was Disneyesque compared to the real story of Weimar Berlin's decadence. And the French aristocrats of the 1700's were just as bad as those wacky sex-crazed emperors of Ancient Rome.

Who discovered the clitorus? Which popes exercised their papal priveleges in ways not condoned to the masses? And just how did the condom come into being? These questions and many more are answered within the confines of this book. Not for the faint-hearted, but if you have an open mind and a curiosity, then it is a book you can enjoy, as well as garner tidbits of information to bring up at parties.

I'm giving this one 8½ stars.

It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass off Crap as News by Dan Curtis

Is Your Next-Door Neighbor A Terrorist? This headline causes people to immediately perk up and read the rest of the article. What is actually in the article is a story about an interview with one of the neighbors who, for a time, lived next door to one of the terrorist cells that attacked the World Trade Center. No need to get out your lie detector and shotgun and force your neighbor to take the test. This is just a made-up example on my part, but it epitomises fearmongering.

Fearmongering is just one the cases where non-news is reported as news , according to Drew Curtis, who is the founder of fark.com, a site devoted to pointing out ridiculous non-news stories. In this book, he points out the different ways that media spices up stories, changes headline content, or just outright invention of so-called news, all in the effort to raise ratings 9for TV news) or sell papers.

One of my favorite chapters was the one on how celebrity quotes were mangled to mean something entirely different from what they actually meant. Case in point Sharon Stone believes kids should have more oral sex. What really was said by Stone was that she tells young people that she believes oral sex is much safer than vaginal sex. Not so shocking is it? Unless you are a pude, I mean.

The interesting thing is how blatant some of these media people are to get a story out, even resorting to witnesses, who are not really witnesses at all. The chapter entitled "Equal Time for Nutjobs". Here whackjob theories are supported by interviews with whackjob "experts". And this is in turn reported as news.

Eye-opening, maybe, but definitely entrtaining, this book is for someone who is tired of all the time he or she has wasted reading an article or watching a news broadcast only to find that the story has nothing to do with the hype that preceeded it.

I give it 6½ stars

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip by Steve Dublanica

I have never been, nor have I ever had the desire to be, a waiter. My personality is strongly in direct conflict with the self-righteous, self-centered attitude that I percieve sometimes from my surrounding patrons on the occasions that I do go out to eat. How people are able to deal with that on a daily basis has always been a mystery to me. And that is even despite having a good rapport with a couple of wait personnel at a couple of establishments.

This is an eye opening book into that world, not only as the waiter deals directly with customers, but also a view into the back room world between waiters and the support staff in the kitchen. You may dive into this one not giving a damn about the author himself, but by the end, you may find that you too, have become a compadre to the cares and woes of him.

This is a book that is at times amusing, and again at other times makes you want to strangle someone. Included at the back, for those who are clueless as to how to act in a public restaurant (as opposed to a place where there is a kid at the counter asking you if "you want fries with that"). Most of these, you may already know and abide by, if you are among the 80% of customers the author says are normal good customers. But it is good to give them a glance, just in case.

I rate this one 9 stars

Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga by Ian Christe

Most (I say most, not necessarily all) Van Halen fans fall into one of two categories. Either they loved the David Lee Roth era VH, and either hated or were at least ambivalent about the "Van Hagar" recreation of the late 80's - 90's, with Sammy Hagar taking the reins as the frontman, or they thought the addition of the red Rocker was a vast improvement. ( I sincerely doubt there were very many who thought that Gary Cherone as the third incarnation leader was the best, or there would have been more than one album from that stage.)

I state at the outset that I fall into that first category. Needless to say, I enjoyed the first third of the book better than the other two. But that's not saying much. To a person who wants to delve into the behind-the scenes story, this is not really the book you want. I don't know for sure if Christe ever wrote for Circus or Hit Parader (two heavy metal magazines that were around in the 80's) but if he did, those slapdash magazine articles are probably where he developed his style, and it hasn't grown up since.

It's not that the author doesn't have anything to say, its just that he has nothing to say that is of any interest, even to a die hard Van Halen (Roth-era, but still...) fan. I found myself struggling to just slog through this piece of junk.

If you really care about rehashing how the tracks were laid for a Van halen album, you couldn't go wrong here. If you want to read about the band in a boring and attention-losing style, step right up. But if you want to be entertained, I suggest you try a different book.

I'll be nice and not give it 1 star, how about 1½ for the effort?

Rose Bowl Dreams by Adam Jones

I first picked up this book because I thought it centered on the championship season of the 2005 University Of Texas Longhorns. That is, after all, the championship team in the foreground, and the Rose Bowl was where it all came to fruition. If I had read the dust cover blurb, i would have dissauded of this notion, but I didn't.

The book, rather, is about the trials and travails of one man and his family, with attention given to the ups and downs of the Texas Longhorns over a period of about 20 years as sort of a side note. it is in essence an autobiography, not that that is a bad thing in and of itself, but since before picking up the book I had never ecen heard of the author, I didn't really care about him or his family.

That said, I did find the book intriguing enough to read all the way through and found it entertaining to a point. Getting to the last two chapters (which actually deal with two games played during that season, the last one recording his feelings during that Rose Bowl) was at times a rough row to hoe. If you are looking for a sports history look elsewhere, but if you are the kind of fan who can commisserate with a fellow fan through your own lives, you might check it out.

My personal rating for this one is 6 stars.

Comedy at the Edge by Richard Zoglin

Fittingly, I finished reading this book the day before George Carlin died. I had a lot of respect for Carlin as an innovater in the world of comedy, and it was a pleasure to read about his beginnings on the comedy circuit in the '70's here.

Although I do not agree that the subtitle "How Stand-Up in the 1970's Changed America" is a suitable one. Simply because I don't think the way the author lays out the text that he sufficiently makes a case for America to have changed as a result of the genre of stand-up played out its role. With one exception, the acceptance of harsher language that got predecessors such as Lenny Bruce in trouble became more accepted with the rise of George Carlin and Richard Pryor.

I do like the fact that the author centers on one particular person in each chapter (Carlin in chapter 1, Pryor in chapter 2) rather than just ramble over a particular subject and play it out through several comedians. Not every chapter is devoted to a comedian, however. One or two are devoted to behind-the-scenes people, including the comedy theater owners of the day.

If you are an afficianado of comedy from the time, you will enjoy some of the reminiscing that will be elicited from this work.

I rate this one 7½ stars.

No-Man's Land by Scott Huler

I have never read Homer's Odyssey, although I know most of the story by way of either movies, or in discussions in grade school/high school, or vicariously through other writings in which author's have referred to it. Some of the story, thus, is news to me because I don't know the whole story.

Huler seems to have had the same story that I have, although, as he states early on, he always thought it was true when he claimed he had read the story. The initiation of the tale here is that, after finding out that he had indeed never read it, upon reading the story, he got the wild hair to actually try to retrace the journey that Ulysses did in The Odyssey.

At the outset he is hampered by the fact that he wants to spend time planning it out, but recieves word from his wife that she is pregnant. Of couse, if he scrapped plans entirely, we wouldn't have a book. Instead, he decides to try the epic journey on the fly. Using a variety of resources, and sometimes just sheer intuition, Huler makes the journey to the Mediterranean, and tries retracing the trip.

Notwithstanding that approxiamately ¾ of the book takes place in obviously mythological places, Huler nonetheless tries to approxiamate the places with real places. He often does this on the fly, and succeeds for the most part. You get a sense of the frustration that he has in trying to complete the journey, though, and it parralels quite well with how one might imagine Odysseus' frustration with trying to get home to Ithaca.

Overall, this journey/travelogue reads quite well. I rate it 7½ stars. Perhaps I ought to make reading The Odyssey a future project now.

Two For the Price of One: The Official Razzie Movie Guide by John Wilson and Bad Movies We Love by Edward Marguiles et. al.

There's just something fun about watching a bad movie, especially if you make fun of it. Witness the popularity (at least for the period it was on TV) of Mystery Science Theater 300o, also known as MST3K. I know this from a personal P.O.V., because I've seen many of the movies in these two books on a first run basis.

John Wilson, the founder of the now famous Razzie Awards is well suited to the task as bad movie maven. And he does a very excellent job in telling us about 100 or so movies here in The Official Razzie Movie Guide. Although his coverage is only about half of what the authors of Bad Movies We Love. Not to worry though, because that gives him plenty of space to delve deep into his selections.

Given that, of course, you have to have a higher standard of the level of bad if you are going to fine tune it like that. I don't agree with a couple of the selections, and due to the fact that the Razzies have only been around since 1980, and some of these selections are pre-1980, therefore not officially Razzies. But I found Wilson's book the better of the two.

Not that Bad Movies we Love was a sub-par effort. But the wit that kept me turning the pages in The Official Razzie Movie Guide was not in evidence in the second selection. Still, if you are looking for suggestions for the next movie to get for movie night at the Comedy Cafe, you can't go wrong here.

Give The Official...Guide 8 stars.
Give Bad Movies 6½ stars.

101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived by Allan Lazar, et. al.

The essence of this book is that it is supposed to be the most influential fictional characters from a variety of sources including the movies, television, mythology and fiction (both novels and short stories). It's hard not to dispute the ranking system, although there was supposedly a system by which the three decided on the final ranking. (They devote a chapter to explain, but I can't make heads or tails of it.

For one thing, ranking Santa Claus below Big Brother and the Marlboro Man is questionable. For that matter, ranking The Marlboro Man as number one is up to debate. That and the fact that they get a little preachy about it. I don't care if the three are virulent anti-smokers or not, the book is not the place for a diatribe against smoking. Save it for a book that is devoted to that.

The cast of characters presernted here are convincingly presented as to the impact on our culture, but what is telling is the short appendx at the end listinf the "also-rans" who didn't make it, notably among them Bugs Bunny, Mother Goose, Uncle Remus and Homer Simpson. Are there some included in the list who might be less deserving thanthese? The answer will depend on the individual reader. For me, I thought tha having 4 (or 5 if you count Romeo and Juliet separately) Shakespearean characters was a bit excessive. And there is at least one on the list that only people over the age of 40 will probably have even heard of; Elmer Gantry. And one that doesn't even make the also-ran list which I would have thought would have rated even being included was "The Fonz".

Outside of disputes over the choices to be included, though, I found the book fairly entertaining. Included among the artcles are occasionally references to other books you might go read to garner more information. Not all, though as some of the resources are fairly obvious.

Because of issues of the numerical listing choices, I rate the book 6 stars, but easily can be increased to 7 just for its entertainment value.

Carnival Undercover by Bret Witter

If you've ever been to a carnival, you've seen the denizens of the midway. You've ridden the rides. Maybe even been taken in by the seemingly easy games of chance. Even if you've been living under a rock and never even heard of a carnival though, you can find something in this book interesting.

Whether its a discussion of the history of roller coasters, or ranking them by various ratings such as the highest or fastest, or if it's a thumbnail sketch of the freak show in history, Witter makes it all appealing.

Plus, there is section detailing how you can increase the odds of you're getting that giant-sized stuffed giraffe for your significant other, while impressing her/him with your skill. All the while frustrating the carny whose original goal was to get you to waste your money on the game.

And, included in this book is a section on how you can make your favorite carnival treats in your own home, thus saving you the cash to waste on those games of chance, in case you skipped over that section. A treat in more ways than one.

Rate this one 7 stars.

Father Knows Less by Wendell Jamieson

This book is a combination of two different texts. On the one hand are the seemingly innocent questions that kids ask, and on the other hand is an insight into the life of the author, both as a child himself, and as a father to a young son. The questions are ones that his son, as well as he as a child, asked. Included are questions that other kids have asked that he culled from his own journalistic files.

The insights into his life, apropos of seemingly nothing sometimes, gets a little tiresome. I'm sure there is a correlation in the author's mind, but sometimes I failed to see it. And this being someone whom I had never even heard of prior to picking up the book, it hardly intrigued me.

Ignoring that, the questions are fun and insightful. The author goes to great lenghths sometimes to find the correct answers to these kids' questions. As a self-styled trivia maven, I found this to be an extremely helpful as well as entertaining book.

Rate the biographical portion 5 stars, but give the question and answer section 8 stars.