An outspoken wordsmith offers more intelligent, humorous and against-the-grain perspectives.
Jillette (God, No!, 2011, etc.) nails holidays with sarcasm and sensibility.
When the author’s opening chapter skewers the Christmas classic “Joy to the World” as a schlocky, joyless yuletide anthem, readers will recognize who and what they’re reading. What follows are chapters of mixed-focus essays; some are rambling, some are supremely anecdotal, and others acerbically mock Christian beliefs and steamroll religious politicians. Jillette allows readers a glimpse into his personal life with side chapters on a Houdini-influenced upbringing in Massachusetts, a quirky bath-taking obsession in his 20s, the rise of Penn & Teller from high school buddies to internationally popular stage magicians, and some rather bloated narration about an extortion attempt. Additionally, there’s insider commentary of his time on The Celebrity Apprentice (“junior high with a better brand of acne cover up”), an in-depth discussion on his atheistic orientation, lessons learned from an acrimonious interview with Piers Morgan and thoughtful ruminations on gay rights and his two children. Jillette is strongest when poking fun at his own foibles and in a touching, posthumous nod to friendships with author Christopher Hitchens and rock drummer Tommy Ardolino. As an unrepentant nonbeliever in organized religion, Jillette’s message may come off as snide and profane, but to the open-minded, his words are funny, dignified and make perfect sense.
An outspoken wordsmith offers more intelligent, humorous and against-the-grain perspectives.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-399-16156-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
In traditional Jewish ritual, men are usually the primary subjects or objects: They are circumcised, they take a woman in marriage, they say kaddish over the death of a loved one. Recently, Jewish women have been plumbing the tradition in an attempt to become the subjects of their own ritual lives. Bat mitzvahs were only the beginning: In recent years, Jewish women have created new, or revised, ceremonies to mark all the joyous, and sad, transitions in their lives, from birth to becoming a parent to aging. Here, Rabbi Orenstein, who teaches at the Univ. of Judaism, provides a compendium of these rituals. Rabbi Einat Ramon explains how she and her husband, also a rabbi, wrote an egalitarian ketubbah, or marriage contract. Rabbi Amy Eilberg adapts traditional mourning ceremonies to mark the grief of a miscarriage. Barbara D. Holender offers a ceremony on turning 65. A useful resource for the paradoxically ever-evolving tradition of Judaism.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-879045-14-1
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Jewish Lights
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
This chronologically arranged collection of speeches, writings, and letters by Nobelist Desmond Tutu, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, offers some gripping primary source material from the battle against apartheid. In the first selection of the volume, a letter dated May 6, 1976, Tutu, then dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg, asks Prime Minister John Vorster, ``How long can a people, do you think, bear such blatant injustice and suffering?'' The book ends with a prayer given by Tutu at Nelson Mandela's inauguration as the South African president on May 10, 1994. What emerges is a documentary history (albeit in only one voice) of the protracted death of apartheid and an affirmation of nonracial democracy by a man whose political acts are emphatically motivated by his Christian faith.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-47546-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
