Hairy Hunks
Lucy Porter
Abrams Image
Street: 10.01.09
I have no idea what possessed me to agree to review this fine bit of literature, but I’m already regretting it.  It’s a comedy book for the bathroom or coffee table about celebrity guys with lots of hair.  Hairy Hunks is full of the winning combination of ridiculous pictures, horrible puns and a surprisingly deep vocabulary of words that all mean “hairy motherfucker.”  Just look up hirsute, flocculent, lanate or piliferous if you don’t believe me.   I don’t really need to  describe it any further to you, the book is maybe 300 words at best, so let me instead leave you with some of my favorite lines.  Enjoy.
“Alec Baldwin: He wasn’t born, he was knitted,” “Patrick Swayze: Dirty Glancing,” “Will Smith: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Hair” and my personal favorite: “Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Comb.” Obviously, these are too awesome for me to have made up.  Good stuff. –Jesse Hawlish

Revolutions: For Fun And Profit
Ryan Shattuck
Bullshattuck Publishing
Street: 09.22.09
What reads like a joke ultimately is one. From the first turn of the page it’s clear that this is the point of Revolutions. Each chapter looks like textbook gone wrong––complete with drawings, charts and even neat tables. Funny one-liners, like famous quotes by Thomas Jefferson mixed with Poison lyrics, are sprinkled throughout the reading. At times they do a nice job of getting a laugh, but ultimately a better job of taking the reader out of the moment. A lot of the facts I would find interesting are fouled up when they get paired with a joke lamer than something your history teacher would have said. It may just be me, but a book with section reviews, quizzes and little games in it is a workbook. And workbooks, unless paired with a juice box and some Nilla Wafers, are no fun.  –Jemie Sprankle

Who’s To Say What’s Obscene?
Paul Krassner
City Lights Publishers
Street: 07.01.09
What the hell has happened to us?  This is basically what Paul Krassner is getting at in this book by taking a close look at how, as a society, we have muddled up what is important to us, how we interpret what is happening to us, and who we let tell us what we are doing.  Krassner very blatantly points out how, through a carefully staged smoke and mirror routine, our priorities are being manipulated by politicians, media, and the filthy rich.  By pointing a big angry moral arrow at comedians using crass language, it is easy to distract people from caring about actual issues that warrant concern.  Ignore anything that is actually newsworthy and focus on Bono dropping the F bomb on TV or Janet Jackson’s nip slip during the super bowl.  What is truly obscene: all content that we enjoy as entertainment being controlled by a very small group of wealthy businessmen, or Tommy Chong selling a few bongs over state lines? –Ben Trentelman