A sensible, readable, and, above all, forgiving overview of modern dating.
A series of anecdotes and advice from a veteran of many, many dates.
“Dating for decades isn’t something that people usually tout,” Klein notes at the beginning of her humorous and defiantly upbeat new book. “But why not? Isn’t it better to wait to meet the right partner than to divorce the wrong one?” Such sound logic is a recurring feature of this work, which consists of several tales—some harsh, some infuriating, almost all funny—drawn from her time in the dating world. “Dating takeaway tips” after each story provide postgame analysis, as it were: what went right, what went wrong, what lessons can be learned. No matter what aspect of the dating experience readers love or hate the most, they’ll likely find it somewhere in these accounts. There are endless restaurant dinners with their attendant anxieties and unwanted discoveries, and there are awkward confessions, strained silences, and often bumbling attempts to come up with mutually interesting things to do. But along the way, Klein appealingly offers hard-won wisdom from her own experience, weighing in on such issues as who should pay (“if by not doing ‘the reach’ you find yourself in a ‘check standoff,’ you will have learned something about him”) and what to do when one is stood up (“The best antidote to a bad date, or a no-show, is quality time with a girlfriend, a BFF, a family member, or someone else who cares about you”). Readers will likely come to this book for the intriguing stories, but they’ll stay for the supportive common sense that the author dispenses, and they’ll appreciate her compassionate tone throughout.
A sensible, readable, and, above all, forgiving overview of modern dating.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64-742185-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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
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