Fun fact: Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor and one of his breakout roles was in the Goosebumps TV series, which was mostly filmed in Canada, specifically the "Say Cheese and Die" episode. His career sure has blown up since then. I know he's been involved with a lot of really famous movies and his bedroom eyes and approachable face have made him quite popular with the ladies. Even-- dare I say, especially-- the feminist ladies.
And because of that, he has become a meme.
I actually knew about the feminist Ryan Gosling memes. They became so popular, they even spawned merch. At one point, Target was selling "Hey Girl" notebooks with his face on them (I actually own some of them). But I didn't know that they were being created by a specific lady on her website, inspired by her work in Gender Studies. What surprised me even more is that I actually already owned two other books by this author, THE UGLY CRY and SELFISH, SHALLOW, AND SELF-ABSORBED (to which she was a contributing essayist).
Some of these blog-to-book novelty publications don't always pan out. The way that this was formatted was a little iffy but it wasn't too bad in ebook and I thought that the jokes paired with the photos were fun. The author said in the foreword that her website has actually gotten people interested in feminism and feminist theory who were hooked in by the jokes, and I love that. In terms of what it offers on an intellectual level, I'd say it's a lot like MEN TO AVOID IN ART AND LIFE. It's a novelty book with intellectual aspirations but it's also not meant to be taken too seriously, either.
People often tell me that they follow me because they literally have no idea what I'm going to read next. Which is not an exaggeration, by the way. One day I might be reading an erotica about shape-shifters who can turn into balloon animals, the next, I might be reading Paris Hilton's 2004 memoir, CONFESSIONS OF AN HEIRESS. Basically the only consistency in what I read is that it's usually in bad taste. So naturally, a book like REGRETSY is perfectly on brand for me.
REGRESTY is one of those blog-to-books that was so trendy in the late 2000s, before the internet really became the gigantic meme that it is today. Memes used to be hard to find, believe it or not. In the days of the dinosaurs, you had to know the right people to meme. Regresty is apparently a blog where the creator of this book, April Winchell, shared some of the best of the worst of Etsy, including everything from reusable menstrual pads with vampire hunks printed on the crotch to photographs of doll heads posed with Brussels sprouts.
This is a pretty funny book. It's very similar to CAKE WRECKS, although I feel like the humor in this one is trying a little too hard. It's very nicely curated though and I think the author did a pretty good job cultivating items that were WTF-y but also intriguing enough that you could envision a universe where someone might want to buy these items. I especially liked that she allowed the creators to post a little rejoinder. Most of them were very good sports. My favorite was the seller who said that they didn't want to live in a world where everyone was too polite to say what they really thought. I agree.
I wouldn't say that this is a keeper but if you can find a copy for not too much, it's great for a laugh. My curiosity has been thoroughly satisfied.
I've been so busy lately that I've just been like, "What even is reading? Books? I don't know her." So when I noticed a whole bunch of Chronicle Books were on sale in the Kindle store I was like YAAAASS. Because everyone knows that the best thing to get you back into reading are easy books with lots of pictures.
MEN TO AVOID IN ART AND LIFE is a comical art/coffee table book consisting of classical works of art that have been captioned to make fun of mansplainers. The concept is pretty played out by the time you get to the end of the book but I felt like for 95% of it, the humor was totally on point, and I found myself giggling out loud more than once. I also liked how a list of the paintings used and where they were sourced is included at the end, in case you find one that tickles your fancy and want to see more.
I think people who love feminism and art will enjoy this. As far as feminism goes, this is strictly playing in the shallow waters, but it still got a smile or two and it was exactly what I needed at the time.
After reading and reviewing the book UNDERWATER PUPPIES earlier this week (squee), it seemed only fair that I turn my attention to cats. Specifically LOLcats. I love memes. I love cats. When their powers combine, magic happens. Plus, I recently watched this Vox video called The reason every meme uses that one font, which is about the history of the Impact typeface and its use in memes.
I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER is this crowd-sourced meme dumping site where people submit pics of cats and can vote for their favorites (and yes, they mostly use Impact). I used to spend hours browsing the site - some of them are incredibly funny. (One of my favorites was the "crazy cat lady starter kit.") I guess the site was popular enough that the creators landed book deals, kind of like the LOOK AT THIS FUCKING HIPSTER guy, or the minds behind THE PEOPLE OF WALMART website and their book.
I've read several of these blog-to-book deals, and for the most part, I've found them lacking. I think it's because a lot of these blogs are crowd-sourced, so there's a lot of edgy humor (which comes from being anonymous). The people who publish the books aren't anonymous and they're trying to appeal to as many people as possible, so what often happens is that the jokes inside are very tame and inoffensive, in order to keep the books "family friendly." My brother got me a Grumpy Cat book a few years ago and it was the same issue - Grumpy's sass was dialed way down. She went from Give-No-F*cks Granny to mopey teenager, and, well, it just wasn't very funny.
In I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? it was like the curators purposely chose the most bland and inoffensive memes they could find, and a lot of them were the kinds I'd skim over without a thought. There's a handful of genuinely funny pictures in here, but for the most part it's just things like "Invisible Treadmill" or "Insert Cheezburger Here." Comedy thrives on edginess and the unexpected, and when you take that away, you get bland, forced humor that your five-year-old might clap at if nothing better is on.
I bought this book when I was in college and hipster/scene culture was at an all time high. I loved to sneer about hipsters, and I think that was probably because I was a hipster. I had about six flannel shirts in my closet and would make "pixel art" of 8-bit video game characters out of Post-It notes on my wall (and when I posted the pictures to Facebook, my parents yelled at me for wasting the Post-Its). I would go to record stores and buy CDs of 90s indie bands like Sixpence None the Richer and The Innocence Mission. I wore these thick-framed black glasses similar to the one that the dude on the cover of the book is wearing, and took "artistic" selfies in front of the poster of a Japanese woodblock printing I had in my dorm, or against the 8-bit video game Post-It art. I wouldn't go to a coffee store unless it was "independent."
I was, in other words, a basic AF hipster.
Reading this book is pretty hilarious because it's basically a retrospective ode to the early-to-mid 2000s. Some of the clothes in here are more emo than hipster, particularly the chunky side-swept bangs with the striped extensions. That's, like, classic emo/scene fashion. I was reading the reviews for this book and it looks like the biggest problem that people have with this book is that it not only isn't nice, it's also not PC. I would agree with that. A lot of the captions are definitely mean-spirited, and some border on ageist, racist, and homophobic. But then, a lot of humor toes the line of what's OK to say, and what it ultimately comes down to is intent. I don't think this guy who created this blog (and this book) is a bigot: I think he's a snarky dude who embraces the anonymity of the internet to make people laugh with his off-color brand of humor. Enough people liked it that he ended up getting a book deal (and in the intro to this book he seems as mystified about that as everyone else). I like it, because it captures the zeitgeist of the 2000s, including hipster, emo, and party/raunch culture. I may not agree with it personally, but it is an accurate reflection of my time in high school and college.
Also, that Beans guy at the end was kind of hilarious. He seems like such a great guy. People were posting unflattering pics of him dressed funny at concerts, and instead of getting offended, he was delighted when the creator of this book contacted him and asked him to do an exclusive photo shoot. Which he did. (I hope he got paid, or something, but maybe Beans is a pro-bono kinda dude who doesn't believe in selling out, in which case, rock on, Beans.)
In the meantime, I'm going to keep drinking my fancy cocktails with bitters, reading my hardbound copies of old classics salvaged from thrift stores, and listening to my OK Go and my Arcade Fire and my Rilo Kiley, while living it up in San Francisco, Hipster Capital of the West Coast (well, apart from Portland). You can laugh at us all you like, but we have artisinal salads, flourless vegan chocolate cake, and cute shoes with cats on them.
Hello! My name is Mrs. Crackles, Queen of the Potatoes and inventor of the cheese nugget. With this informative guide, I am going to teach you how to read this book, HOW TO APPEAR NORMAL AT SOCIAL EVENTS.
1. Pick up the book.
2. Carefully remove the book from your mouth.
3. Is it out of your mouth?
4. Is it?
5. No.
6. Take the book out of your mouth.
7. Look at the images.
8. Read the words.
9. Shred the book and dip it in marshmallow fluff.
10. Massage yourself with the marshmallow-covered pages and have a Roman orgy in your living room.
11. Subcontract the review to your sentient pet octopus, Mr. Suckers.
12. Frolic.
When I saw this book on Netgalley, I thought it was going to be like the Sarah's Scribbles comics, a series of delightful vignettes told in comic book form about social awkwardness and introversion. However, when I went to go read some of the preliminary reviews on Netgalley, I was surprised to see that this book had a rather dismal 1.67-average rating.
Now that I've "read" this book, I can see why. This "Lord Birthday" person is apparently an Instagram artist of some renown who has 100k+ followers. Some of his illustrations are charming, but his humor is definitely one note. If you ever dabbled in fanfic as a preteen, you're probably familiar with the term "crack-fic", but if you aren't, it's basically a fic written with the purpose of being utterly random. This is the book equivalent of that. It makes no sense and is proud of it.
If you enjoy random humor where the punchline is nonsense, then this is your book, and I'm sure it will greatly assist you in your battles against the nefarious Spinach King (just, for the love of God, take the book out of your mouth, first). If that kind of "humor" doesn't appeal to you, set the book aside and step out into the daylight. Turn your back on the book, lest it consume you.
When LIFE IN THE SLOTH LANE showed up on Netgalley, I immediately Tweeted at my sloth-loving friends and said, "Hey guys, look at this! Your moment has come!"
This book is really cute. It features gorgeous, high-quality photos of two- and three-toed sloths in various poses of contentment or laziness. There are baby sloths, fully grown sloths, happy sloths, sleepy sloths, baby sloths. What, I said baby sloths already? Well, it's worth mentioning again. Baby sloths are really freaking cute.
Paired with each photo is a quote about taking life as it comes, pacing yourself, or appreciating cozy comforts, like sleeping in. Occasionally, there will be some sloth trivia thrown in. It's a very cozy book with very cute pictures. There isn't a lot of substance to it, but if you enjoy sloths and want a cute book for your coffee table that will make you feel good about yourself, this is a great pick.
Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!
This is one of those books where I didn't even read the summary before volunteering to review it; for all I knew, it could have been a biography about Sarah Palin sneaked between two bright pink covers with a unicorn that looked as though it was drawn on MS Paint. Luckily, it was not a biography about Sarah Palin: it is actually a book on positivity involving unicorns & methods on living life to the fullest.
I'm apparently a sucker for badly-drawn unicorns. This is not high art, but the simple, accessible style reminded me of Allie Brosh's work, and damn if I couldn't stop smiling at that ridiculous unicorn as he tried on bikinis, snarfed dark chocolate, and bathed in his own eau du stink (seriously).
This is not really "a book" in the sense that it's something you sit down and read for an extended period of time. This is the type of book you receive as a gift from a well-meaning individual who doesn't know you very well, or that you sneak-read in Barnes and Noble while waiting in line to ring up your other purchases. It's one of those novelty books that belongs on a coffee table, or on your desk at the office. Is it cute? Yes. Fun? Yes. Substantive? No.
Even so, I would definitely recommend this book. It was super cute and just what I needed to pull me out of my Outlander-induced funk (no, I'm still not over the trainwreck that was the last 200 pages of OUTLANDER - Jamie, Jamie, poor Jamie, whyyyy). If you're into positivity, unicorns, or some combination thereof (or if, like me, you're also traumatized by Outlander), you should read this book!
Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!
Fond of calligraphy? Big fan of swearing? I bet you never thought your hobbies would intersect like this. (Or maybe you did. After all, arts-and-crafts get PG-13 all the time with winners like GO F*CK YOURSELF, I'M COLORING and STITCH 'N BITCH.) All I know is, after taking one look at that title I was sold.
PLEASE DON'T DO COKE IN THE BATHROOM surprised me, though, in the sense that it is actually a guide for fancy fonts...sort of. It starts out with an alphabet of swear words and crude phrases, from A all the way to Z, and every other page has space for you to practice.
The end of the book is a collection of hipstery stylized quotations - you know, the kind you see in boutique dessert shops in Los Angeles, or inked onto painted wooden squares in Etsy stores for like $20, except these say things like "Your cat is kind of an asshole" and "wash your hands (they smell like shit)."
I thought this was fun. I'm not sure how useful it is, or how sincere it is (is it a craft book? a parody? both?), but for the right person, I suppose it would be a fun gift. (You know, that one friend who goes into Forever 21 stores just to bitch about the stuff that's printed on the t-shirts...) All I know is, I picked it up because of the title and I imagine plenty of other people will do the same.
Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!
This is one of those books that you can find in gift shops & the like. I think they're called "novelty books" and they don't really serve any purpose beyond giving as gifts and/or keeping on a coffee table as a cute conversation starter.
HEDGEHOG WISDOM features two African pygmy hedgehogs, one gray and one white. Interspersed with the various hedgehog glamor shots are feel-good quotes that are designed to be either comforting or inspirational.
I thought this was a pretty good book for what it was. I've read a lot of books like this, and it was no better or worse than any of the others I've read! Some of the quote parts missed the mark, but the pictures were cute. I love hedgehogs.
Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!
This is yet another one of those "let's make an internet meme into a book" sorts of deals, which I always have mixed feelings about because it takes several years to publish something so by the time the meme book gets published, the meme itself usually isn't popular anymore or is on the wane. It actually took me a moment to remember what Be Like Bill was referring to. In case you forget, too, a couple years ago, Be Like Bill reached critical mass. It was an ideal tool for calling people out in a socially acceptable way on the internet, and lord knows, we are always demanding new ways of doing that, because for as long as there is an internet, people will use it for calling out.
BE LIKE BILL is better than most meme books I've read, although like most meme books, the user generated ones are better (probably because you have a greater number of people contributing to the pool, so the ideas are more likely to be fresh). I'm not sure if the two authors generated all these memes, but most of them felt pretty safe and boring, and a couple just seemed petty (but then, we've all got our pet-peeves, so I'm not here to judge). Only one made me laugh out loud:
This is Bill.
Bill wakes up and sees it's snowing outside.
Bill doesn't feel the urge to post a status about it on Facebook because he knows his friends also have windows.
Bill is not a douche.
Be like Bill (6).
I feel like it would have been better if the authors had done a "best of" compilation, curating some of Bill's greatest hits from the Facebook pages they manage (and maybe giving the users credit at the bottom with their permission). This was just sort of bland, and while a couple were amusing and had me going, "Preach!" the vast majority of the collection barely warranted a smile. Still, it was nice to revisit an old meme that I'd half-forgotten and get a few chuckles out of it.
Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!
Emoji are like emoticons 2.0. Some people find them annoying. Some people, charming. I think it depends on how and how often you use them. HOW TO SPEAK EMOJI doesn't really cover this, though - it's not an etiquette book.
Rather, HOW TO SPEAK EMOJI briefly discusses some of the most popular emoji and then offers possible uses for them, whether it's a song title, the name of the TV show you're watching, or what that bad Chinese food did to your colon (running man + toilet + poop).
Some of the ideas in here were very clever but many felt forced. Especially some of the pop culture references. Don't pick up this book expecting anything too serious. I think it was written to be silly and fun. It would be a great coffee table or novelty book, but wouldn't be useful for too much else.
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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