Queenan Country

Author : Joe Queenan
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1429900822
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Queenan Country written by Joe Queenan and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this hilarious romp through England, one of America's preeminent humorists seeks the answer to an eternal question: What makes the Brits tick? One semitropical Fourth of July, Joe Queenan's English wife suggested that the family might like a chicken vindaloo in lieu of the customary barbecue. It was this pitiless act of gastronomic cultural oppression, coupled with dread of the fearsome Christmas pudding that awaited him for dessert, that inspired the author to make a solitary pilgrimage to Great Britain. Freed from the obligation to visit an unending procession of Aunty Margarets and Cousin Robins, as he had done for the first twenty-six years of their marriage, Queenan decided that he would not come back from Albion until he had finally penetrated the limey heart of darkness. His trip was not in vain. Crisscrossing Old Blighty like Cromwell hunting Papists, Queenan finally came to terms with the choochiness, squiffiness, ponciness, and sticky wicketness that lie at the heart of the British character. Here he is trying to find out whose idea it was to impale King Edward II on a red-hot poker-and what this says about English sexual politics. Here he is in an Edinburgh pub foolishly trying to defend Paul McCartney's "Ebony and Ivory." And here he is, trapped in a concert hall with a Coventry-based all-Brit Eagles tribute band named Talon who resent that they are nowhere near as famous as their evil nemeses, the Illegal Eagles. At the end of his epic adventure, the author returns chastened, none the wiser, but encouraged that his wife is actually as sane as she is, in light of her fellow countrymen.

Author : Joe Queenan
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101032561
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Closing Time written by Joe Queenan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-04-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An affecting memoir from one of America's most provocative humorists Over the past two decades, Joe Queenan has established himself as a scourge of everything that is half-baked, half-witted, and halfhearted in American culture. In Closing Time, Queenan turns his sights on a more serious and a more personal topic: his childhood in a Philadelphia housing project in the early 1960s. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Closing Time recounts Queenan's Irish Catholic upbringing in a family dominated by his erratic, alcoholic father, and his long flight away from the dismal confines of his neighborhood into the greater, wide world. A story about salvation and escape, Closing Time has at its heart the makings of a classic American autobiography.

Author : Joe Queenan
Publisher : Running Press Book Publishers
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 1062 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Malcontents written by Joe Queenan and published by Running Press Book Publishers. This book was released on 2004-03-03 with total page 1062 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's no surprise that, as he claims in his thoughtful and witty introduction, humorist Queenan (Balsamic Dreams) relished the opportunity to pore over and select the hilarious and sometimes disturbing works in this anthology. As he points out, "One of the great pleasures in reading books that are hundreds and even thousands of years old is in discovering how little the targets of the satirist have changed over the centuries." The buffoonery and sometimes depravity of such targets are on full display in this volume, which features 30 works by 19 authors and includes such classics as "A Modest Proposal," Candide, and shorter pieces by Mark Twain and Flann O'Brien. Gargantua and Pantagruel and Don Quixote rollick through brief selections as well. Queenan makes a good case for the less obvious choices rounding out the collection, notably Machiavelli's The Prince and de Sade's Justine, but he fails to link the ancient with the contemporary: the last half-century of bitter and cynical writing goes disappointingly ignored. And yet, though heavily weighted toward "classic satire," this anthology is likely the best of its kind to date. Recommended for all libraries.

Author : Joe Queenan
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780312420826
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.2X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Balsamic Dreams written by Joe Queenan and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-06 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " ... how a generation with so much promise lost its way ... a hilarious work of incisive social commentary."--Jacket.

Author : Joe Queenan
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101601191
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book One for the Books written by Joe Queenan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of America’s leading humorists and author of the bestseller Closing Time examines his own obsession with books Joe Queenan became a voracious reader as a means of escape from a joyless childhood in a Philadelphia housing project. In the years since then he has dedicated himself to an assortment of idiosyncratic reading challenges: spending a year reading only short books, spending a year reading books he always suspected he would hate, spending a year reading books he picked with his eyes closed. In One for the Books, Queenan tries to come to terms with his own eccentric reading style—how many more books will he have time to read in his lifetime? Why does he refuse to read books hailed by reviewers as “astonishing”? Why does he refuse to lend out books? Will he ever buy an e-book? Why does he habitually read thirty to forty books simultaneously? Why are there so many people to whom the above questions do not even matter—and what do they read? Acerbically funny yet passionate and oddly affectionate, One for the Books is a reading experience that true book lovers will find unforgettable.

Author : Joe Queenan
Publisher : Hyperion
ISBN 13 : 9780786863327
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Red Lobster, White Trash, & the Blue Lagoon written by Joe Queenan and published by Hyperion. This book was released on 1998 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of "The Unkindest Cut", whose popular column appears weekly in "TV Guide", sets off in search of the Holy Grail of Horridness--and encounters some surprisingly non-terrible phenomena--in this riotously funny, razor-sharp indictment of our cultural wasteland.

Author : A. J. Jacobs
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743250621
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Know-It-All written by A. J. Jacobs and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-10-10 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the efforts of an NPR contributor to read the "Encyclopedia Britannica" from A to Z, sharing the humorous mishaps that occurred as a result of the endeavor, from changed family relationships to his efforts to join Mensa.

Author : Edward Klein
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101217774
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Truth About Hillary written by Edward Klein and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-06-21 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most polarizing figure in American politics. Love her or hate her, everyone has a strong opinion about the former first lady turned senator who is almost certainly going to run for president in 2008. Despite more than a dozen years in the national spotlight and more than a dozen unauthorized books about her, she has managed to keep many secrets from the public especially about her turbulent marriage and its impact on her career. There have been plenty of rumors about what Hillary and Bill Clinton did behind closed doors, but never a definitive book that exposes the truth. Bestselling author Edward Klein draws on rare access to inside sources to reveal what Hillary knew and when she knew it during her years as first lady, especially during her husband’s impeachment. Klein’s book, embargoed until publication, will break news about the choices and calculations she has made over the years. It will also prove that she lied to America in her bestselling autobiography Living History. When she was just a little girl, Hillary Rodham dreamed of becoming the first female president, and her lifelong dream is almost within reach. But just as the swift boat veterans convinced millions of voters that John Kerry lacked the character to be president, Klein’s book will influence everyone who is sizing up the character of Hillary Clinton.

Author : Toni Summers Hargis
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1429905190
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rules, Britannia written by Toni Summers Hargis and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do you respond to a dinner invitation that says "Eight for eight thirty"? What might induce you to get off a London train at a place called Mud Chute? When is it okay to drive over a sleeping policeman? And why do teh Brits keep saying "Who's she, the cat's mother"? Rules, Britannia is an invaluable resource for Americans who want to make a smooth transition when visiting or relocating to the UK. This entertaining and practical insider's guide contains scores of established do's and dont's that only a Brit would know. Most of us know that an elevator is called a "lifet," a toilet is a "loo," and the trunk of your car is the "boot," but who would have a clue about a "sprog" or a "gobsmacked berk"? These phrases are part of daily conservation in the UK, and leave many visiting Americans as baffled as if they listening to a foreign language. Covering such essential topics as vocabulary, house- or "flat"-hunting, business culture, child rearing, and even relationship etiqutte, Rules, Britannia will ease the anxiety that comes with a transatlantic move or extended visit, and is sure to make any old Yank feel like a regular Joe Bloggs.

Author : Bill Thompson
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 1611174430
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Art and Craft written by Bill Thompson and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2015-01-12 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art and Craft presents the hand-picked fruit of Bill Thompson’s three decades covering writers and writing as book review editor of Charleston, South Carolina’s Post and Courier. Beginning with a foreword by Charleston novelist Josephine Humphreys, this collection is a compendium of interviews featuring some of the most distinguished novelists and nonfiction writers in America and abroad, including Tom Wolfe, Pat Conroy, Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Bragg, and Anthony Bourdain, as well as many South Carolinians. With ten thematic chapters ranging from the Southern Renaissance, literature, biography, and travel writing to crime fiction and Civil War history, Art and Craft also includes a sampling of Thompson’s reviews. Featuring: Jack Bass, Rick Bragg, Roy Blount, Jr., Robin Cook, Pat Conroy, Patricia Cornwell, Dorothea Benton Frank, Herb Frazier, Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaasen, Sue Monk Kidd, Brian Lamb, Bret Lott, Jill McCorkle, James McPherson, Mary Alice Monroe, Joyce Carol Oates, Carl Reiner, Dori Sanders, Charles Seabrook, Anne Rivers Siddons, Lee Smith, Mickey Spillane, Paul Theroux, Tom Wolfe