Category: Reviews

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Book Review: Maybe We’ll Have You Back: The Life of a Perennial TV Guest Star by Fred Stoller

Fred Stoller’s primary passion in life seems to be self pity. Entire chapters of Maybe We’ll Have You Back are dedicated to the minor disappointments of: 1. Meeting a famous director at a mall, setting up that he would send her a demo reel of himself, sending it and nothing coming of it. 2. Eating breakfast with Quentin Tarantino among a big group and having to deal with Tarantino not recognizing him or saying he wanted to work with him some day. These kinds of …
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Blog, Reviews, Tim's Blog

Book Review: The Pusher by Ed McBain

Ed McBain writes with intensity and ambition. He goes so big that at times it could easily come off as pretentious or even “purple,” but the material is so blue collar that it balances things out and somehow works. The Pusher is the third book in the seemingly never-ending 87th precinct series. Both in plot and writing, McBain falls a little flat here, especially compared to the first book in the series, Cop Hater, as well as the first book in the Matthew Hope series, …
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Book Review: In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks by Adam Carolla

On one hand, I can pay In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks one of the best compliments you can pay a comedy book: While reading before bed, I kept waking up the person next to me because I was laughing. On the other hand, I might like Adam Carolla slightly less after reading this. For a book that, based on the title, is supposed to be manly or whatever, he sure comes off as a whiner. I know his frustration and outrage with …
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Blog, Reviews, Tim's Blog

Book Review: Bossypants by Tina Fey

As I was reading Bossypants, I commented to a friend, “Tina Fey seems a lot colder in text. Almost mean. She’s funny, but she seems like the kind of person that wouldn’t like animals or something.” What does she say toward the end of the book? You guessed it: “And I have no affinity for animals. I don’t hate animals and I would never hurt an animal; I just don’t actively care about them. When a coworker shows me cute pictures of her dog, …
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Blog, Reviews, Tim's Blog

Book Review: Life Itself by Roger Ebert

As a movie critic, Roger Ebert’s writing was always thoughtful without being pretentious and charming without being manipulative. In just a few words he could get across big concepts and a lot of personality, but, though he was a great entertainer, he was always honest and never pandered to his audience. His memoir continued this tradition. The early portion of Life Itself gave a very thorough account of his childhood. While the level of detail he recalled in portraying his perspective of the world as …
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