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SH*T MY PRESIDENT SAYS

Name: SH*T MY PRESIDENT SAYS
Author: Shannon Wheeler
ISBN: 978-1-60309-410-8

THE ILLUSTRATED TWEETS OF DONALD J. TRUMP

written and illustrated by Shannon Wheeler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 2017

Wheeler seems a little shell-shocked by his material, but who could blame him? At least he gives us reason to snicker rather...

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An edifying distillation of the Orange One’s oeuvre, with pictures.

Claiming to have read more than 30,000 of Trump’s notorious infodumps (“my bad dreams started around the 10,000th”), Wheeler (I Told You So, 2012, etc.)—an Eisner Award–winning cartoonist who created Too Much Coffee Man and contributes to the New Yorker, the Onion, MAD, and other publications—extracts a redolent selection that frames the current president not as an ogre but a child, albeit, to be sure, “a petulant, misunderstood, self-absorbed, self-righteous, narcissistic, spoiled brat.” And so the cartoonist draws him, with stubby limbs, tiny hands (natch), and clothing that is a size or two too large. Beginning with his first self-promotional warble in 2009 and continuing to diverse paeans sung in March 2017, the tweets are presented one per page or in brief sequences—e.g., a string of variations on “Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart. She cheated on him like a dog & will do it again—just watch,” capped with a “Happy Birthday” to Ms. Stewart—for dismayed readers to contemplate. From a wry view of The Don quixotically tilting at a row of repeatedly scorned wind turbines to a toilet over a chirp touting the fragrance “Success,” and, in an even more mocking vein, Trump ogling a pin-up calendar paired to a platitude about International Women’s Day, the accompanying line drawings make the load a little more bearable. Previous similar harvests, not to mention new utterances nearly every day, already prove the tweets hardly need glossing—and that the author’s subject is never going to grow up or learn to show even the most basic sense of decency.

Wheeler seems a little shell-shocked by his material, but who could blame him? At least he gives us reason to snicker rather than cry.

Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-60309-410-8

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Top Shelf Productions

Review Posted Online: July 2, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.