A blog by any other name is still a blog.
A series of random, lighthearted anecdotes from a professional economist and family man.
The book consists of 78 entries from Carrick’s personal blog, tackling everything from family life, to being Canadian, to general observations about the world’s eccentricities. Though the author definitely has writing chops and an easygoing, likable style, his subject matter may interest only a very limited northern audience. Chapters such as “The Curious Meanings of Some Canadian Place Names” and “Reasons to Want to be Governor of the Bank of Canada” will solely be humorous to a Canadian reader. A remark like, “Québec is Up, Ontario is Down and the Prairies are Flat” may be amusing to the author, but many will be left out of the joke. Some chapters are no more than retellings of mundane conversations with a schtick spin, as in “My Wife and I Argue Over a Plant.” Readers will be left feeling that “you had to be there” to get the humor. Other entries are simply dated–the chapter “Only One, the Governor of New York,” about Eliot Spitzer’s woes, might have been funny when it was originally published in March 2008 but it’s now a stale bit. When Carrick does attempt fiction, such as in “The Best Valentine’s Day Present Ever,” with its anagram punch line, or “Spartacus the Kite”–in which the author imagines himself in the titular role–his efforts fall flat. The book works better when he takes on more universal ideas, such as “Which Letter of the Alphabet is the Funniest?,” which only requires that the reader speak English and not be familiar with, say, the obscure habits of Canadian bachelors (see the chapter titled “Canadian Male Pick-up Lines.”) Certainly Northerners who know the author personally will thoroughly enjoy “Two Scoops” Is Just Right, but for the rest of us it’s not nearly enough.
A blog by any other name is still a blog.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-5392-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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