potty-mouthed silly patriots ... and oh yeah, a Canadian too.
America: the Book (A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction) -- Jon Stewart and staff of The Daily Show
genre: political satire
Sight gags and jokes form the bulk of this book, a faux high-school textbook of American history and primer on elections and geopolitics. At times Stewart and company are hilarious, and their trademark mix of fact, absurdist fiction, and snide opinion usually hits the mark -- but overall America drags on a bit too long. With a better editor to pare down some of the self-indulgent, "Okay, now we're just going on to make ourselves laugh harder" bits, it wouldn't have taken me anywhere near 15 hours to read through -- and I'd probably be giving it a high, not a middling, rating.
rating: &&1/2
2004 books total: 60
genre: political satire
Sight gags and jokes form the bulk of this book, a faux high-school textbook of American history and primer on elections and geopolitics. At times Stewart and company are hilarious, and their trademark mix of fact, absurdist fiction, and snide opinion usually hits the mark -- but overall America drags on a bit too long. With a better editor to pare down some of the self-indulgent, "Okay, now we're just going on to make ourselves laugh harder" bits, it wouldn't have taken me anywhere near 15 hours to read through -- and I'd probably be giving it a high, not a middling, rating.
rating: &&1/2
2004 books total: 60