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Review: The United States of Absurdity

The United States of Absurdity: Untold Stories from American History by Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds

The duo from The Dollop podcast have written a book full of the odd, the outrageous and all the funny stories that never made it into the history books.

This was a laugh out loud funny take on some of the lesser well-known stories that make up the fabric of our history. The presidential cheese story made me chuckle (What. A. Legend.) and the Lobotomobile story was outrageous, but the best story, and the reason I wanted to read this book, was the Kentucky Meat Shower story.

Meat.  Meat rained down all over Crouch’s property.  The meat dropped to the ground in varying sizes.  Some pieces were small.  Some were big.  It was raining meat; Hallelujah, it was raining meat!  The happiest creature was Crouch’s cat, who walked around eating the sky meat like it had won the feline lottery.

The stories are indeed hilarious and absurd, but not necessarily untold. I’ve seen a few of the stories in other places, and Reddit is full of Action Park stories (and even has its own subreddit, /r/actionpark, or check out these commercials of seemingly innocuous Action Park rides on Youtube.)

Overall, The United States of Absurdity is a short and funny look at US history,  great as a time-waster, side-splitting funny and a must-read for trivia fans and history buffs.

The United States of Absurdity is available at book retailers or onine at Amazon  | Barnes & Noble

Thank you to Ten Speed Press and NetGalley, who provided an advance copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Rating:★★★★✰ 4 stars Publisher: Ten Speed Press Publication Date: May 9, 2017 Language: English Formats: Kindle/ePub/Hardcover

ISBN: 9780399578755 ASIN: B01KE61LUC Genre: History Reviewer: Tam (Mystereity Reviews)

Review: Quirky Essays for Quirky People: The Complete Collection

Quirky Essays for Quirky People by Barbara Venkataraman

Humorous, entertaining and witty, Quirky Essays for Quirky People has 24 essays/short stories about life, family, and the perfection of life as an imperfect person.

I’m a big fan of the author’s cozy mystery series, so I expected this to be just as laugh out loud funny and it was! The story about her cooking disaster made me laugh until I cried.  I related to so many of the stories! As a lazy bones procrastinator who can sniff out candy a mile away, I saw myself on quite a few of those pages. The author’s stories about her family were heartwarming and sweet, they sound like wonderful people to be around. I loved the story about losing power after a hurricane.  I have lived in Florida and the trauma of losing power after a storm.  If there is a God, he has a seriously mean sense of humor to make hurricane season during the already hot and sweaty summer months.  I have to say, though, that I now live in Amish country and I can tell you they’re not as disconnected from the modern world as people believe. For example, I was in Walmart recently and watched an Amish woman wheeling a cart through the store.  There was only one item in the cart: a big, electric box fan.  Hmmm…….

Guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, Quirky Essays for Quirky People is a hilarious look into life and the perfect book to curl up with when trying to avoid doing something else.

Quirky Essays for Quirky People is available on Amazon

 

Rating: ★★★★★ 5 stars Publication Date: May 13, 2014 Genre: Non-Fiction, Humor Formats: Kindle

Language: English ASIN: B00KC7BNNY Reviewer: Tam (Mystereity Reviews)