The Portable Curmudgeon (Plume) Review

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(More customer reviews)What is so admirable about a curmudgeon? I suppose that one answer is to ask what isn't so admirable about non-curmudgeons: People whose advise may reassure them more than you. After all, don't worry, be happy.
Sometimes just acknowledging the cranky, bilious soul is more effective than drowning it in bland sweetisms. This book recognizes your (or someone else's) bad self, and implicitly encourages you to go with it. Perhaps it's the mix that makes us more human.
This very funny collection of sarcastic, witty, cynical, caustic, and sometimes just downright... quotes will "speak" to you like the blues. Quotes are arranged alphabetically by topic, so that you can look up "G' for gratitude, and plagiarize Rochefoucauld: "Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors." Cynical--of course--but perhaps containing a grain of wisdom. This topical organization doesn't work that well; the categories are too fine grained (who would think of "dinner theatre?").
The best feature are the multi-page sections devoted to one of the masters: W.C. Fields, Oscar Wilde, George S. Kaufman, Dorothy Parker, Quentin Crisp, Oscar Levant, and others. These sometimes take the form of interviews, biographies, and/or several pages of quotes. However, sprinkled liberally throughout its 299 pages are gems ("If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me." -- Alice Roosevelt Longworth) by such notables as Marx (Groucho), Mencken, Bierce, and Twain and contemporaries such as Vidal, Woody Allen, and Rita Mae Brown.
Oh--in case you were wondering--it was Paul Fussell who said the following about dinner theatre:"...a way of positively guaranteeing that both food and theatre will be amateur and mediocre, which means unthreatening and therefore desirable."
To its credit, the book stays away from most sexist and all racist "jokes," it doesn't confuse humor with stupid attack. Still, you may need a thick skin for some of the acidity here. Recommended for its humor and eclecticism.

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The world's greatest cynics, critics, and grouches--from H. L. Mencken to Groucho Marx--use their wit to cut down every subject under the sun in a compendium of quips, barbs, profiles, and interviews. Reprint. 75,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

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The Book of Poisonous Quotes Review

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(More customer reviews)There's a lot of material here that you won't find in, say, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. And some of it is surprising, some of it is delightful, a lot is funny, and some of it useful for cribbing. (Take the structure of an insult aimed at x, rearrange a word or two, and aim it at y.) For example, Mark Twain is quoted on the cover as saying, "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself." (Incidentally this gem is not in Bartlett's, at least not in the sixteenth edition, which I have.) Teachers, for example, can then say, "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were an administrator, but I repeat myself." For those of you in the business world, just plug in "CEO," etc.
Also not found in Bartlett's (alas there's a lot unavoidably not found in Bartlett's, but that's another review), is this on critics from Marilyn Monroe: "I've always felt those articles somehow reveal more about the writers than they do about me." Dumb blonde?--troubled, but not dumb.
Compiler Colin Jarman organizes the verbal swordplay into chapters by category, beginning with "Critics and Criticism" in chapter one, followed by "The Creative Arts"...through literature, drama, film, music...religion, etc., ending with "Insults, Retorts, and Self-Criticism" in which the quoted get to insult themselves, e.g., "I'm as pure as the driven slush" -Tallulah Bankhead. There's an Index by name referencing both the speaker and the target.
The quality of the insults and ironic misspeakings is very high. I read this through in one setting some years ago, compulsively, and had many a chuckle and some outright belly laughs, and then I read it again a couple of years later and laughed anew. Looking through it once again, I have to say, there was a lot I underappreciated.
Bottom line: worth both the candle and the plastic.

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A wickedly entertaining collection of caustic quips and witty criticisms.

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Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Greatest Investor Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are interested in reading about Buffett and his investment approach, this book is useless. This is a very short collection of quotes, most of which you will run into anyway.
If interested in Buffett as an investor, one good book is The Essays of Warren Buffett. If you want to save money even on this one, without missing out on the content, just download the letters to shareholders Buffett has written over the years and posted on Berkshire Hathaway's website, for free of course.

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The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: An A-Z Compendium of Quotes from the Most Eloquent of American Presidents (Meridian) Review

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(More customer reviews)Abraham Lincoln showed a talent for sensing the future in the course of economic policy way back in 1863. Lincoln said then: "The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy."
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed," Lincoln said.

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Quotable Quotes Review

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(More customer reviews)I washt expecting this little book to be that good . I have bought other similar books in the past and i thought to try this one as well and i have not regret it . This book covers so many topics like relationships , self-help , nature of life , virtues etc . Let me give you some of my favorite quotes included in this book : -There's one thing worse than being alone:wishing you were . -Know yourself . Dont accept your dog's admiration as a conclusive evidence that you are wonderful .
-Often we change jobs , friends and spouses , instead of ourselves . -A man cant ride your back unless its bent. -We all live under the same sky but we dont have the same horizon .
Good money value . 5 star rating no doubt .

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A collection of words of wisdom, wry witticisms, provocative opinions, and inspiring reflections-from Benjamin Franklin to Colin Powell, Abraham Lincoln to Mother Teresa, Margaret Mead to Garrison Keillor. From one of the most popular features of Reader's Digest magazine.

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