Humorist and Morning Joe co-host Geist teams with writing partner McDonnell to produce funny new book all about the Benjamins.
Neither the authors nor Bill Richter and Bill Lachey—the fictional financial gurus they tap to help boost their bottom line—know a thing about high finance. So what? The cockamamie “Dollar Bills” are flush with attitude—or ’tude as the deluded duo might say. According to these bankrupt buffoons, all you need to get rich is to look rich. Their strategy starts out simply: Get a Bluetooth and brand-new cigarette boat with a mermaid painted on the side and Boom!, you’re off. Plenty of harebrained get-rich tips follow, such as showing up at a job interview in a horse-drawn carriage or building a golf course in Afghanistan. The Dollar Bills’ “Plain English to Confusing Financial Terms” glossary and faux transcripts of their Internet-only call-in show keep the uninitiated up to speed while reminding everyone who wants to get rich to lease a Picasso as quick as you can. Don’t sweat those scary predatory loans, the Dollar Bills advise. In their whacked-out world, predatory loans are just money given to cheetahs, crocodiles and jacked dudes with brass knuckles. It’s all very amusing in small doses, but ultimately, it feels like a so-so Saturday Night Live skit that goes on a little too long. You might already be in the poorhouse pining for the long-lost American Dream, but at least the Dollar Bills provide some absurd laughs while you’re there.
Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-64153-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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