Humorist and Morning Joe co-host Geist teams with writing partner McDonnell to produce funny new book all about the Benjamins.
Neither the authors nor Bill Richter and Bill Lachey—the fictional financial gurus they tap to help boost their bottom line—know a thing about high finance. So what? The cockamamie “Dollar Bills” are flush with attitude—or ’tude as the deluded duo might say. According to these bankrupt buffoons, all you need to get rich is to look rich. Their strategy starts out simply: Get a Bluetooth and brand-new cigarette boat with a mermaid painted on the side and Boom!, you’re off. Plenty of harebrained get-rich tips follow, such as showing up at a job interview in a horse-drawn carriage or building a golf course in Afghanistan. The Dollar Bills’ “Plain English to Confusing Financial Terms” glossary and faux transcripts of their Internet-only call-in show keep the uninitiated up to speed while reminding everyone who wants to get rich to lease a Picasso as quick as you can. Don’t sweat those scary predatory loans, the Dollar Bills advise. In their whacked-out world, predatory loans are just money given to cheetahs, crocodiles and jacked dudes with brass knuckles. It’s all very amusing in small doses, but ultimately, it feels like a so-so Saturday Night Live skit that goes on a little too long. You might already be in the poorhouse pining for the long-lost American Dream, but at least the Dollar Bills provide some absurd laughs while you’re there.
Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-64153-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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