The Story

After a five-year sojourn in Japan, Canadian humour author Will Ferguson moves back to Canada. And once back here, he suffers a huge amount of culture shock – especially regarding to Canadian’s images of ourselves. Why I Hate Canadians explores Fegurson’s musings, revelations, and the like from when he returned to Canada.

The Response

What I love about Ferguson’s stuff is that while it is educational and informative, it is still absolutely hilarious. This one, however, seemed a lot more bitter than his other books. And while it seems like he is taking a dig at Canada and Canadians, being spiteful, and such, well… the way it’s written, it’s obvious that he would have had the same attitude towards any other nationality that he was writing about.

In this book, like the majority of the others, Ferguson takes a look at difference facets of Canadian life – everything from the mighty beaver, to the history between the French and English Canadians, to the Native Canadians, etc etc. Instead of focusing on touristy things to see, or how to be a Canadian, Ferguson this time focuses on how all of these aspects have formed who we are as a nation.

I think the chapter I enjoyed the most was the one on comic books. Now, Ferguson throws a little hissy fit about how Canadians call Superman Canadian even though he apparently isn’t (and he still can’t convince me that Superman isn’t Canadian – Heritage moments wouldn’t lie to me!), but mostly everything else he mentioned was stuff I didn’t know. I didn’t know, for example, that Captain Canuck has made three reappearances after he was initially created! He also spoke about the comic book industry in WWII – comics weren’t considered one of the necessities that needed to be imported over the border from the USA, and so the Canadian presses decided to take up printing comic books for a few years until the war was over and comic books could again be imported into Canada. Then the Canadian comic book industry pretty much disappeared until recently.

The Bottom Line

Again, as I normally do with all of Ferguson’s stuff, I did love this book. Thoroughly enjoyable, and recommended to those who would like to know why Canadians are the way they are.

Other Reviews

Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.

The Story

Zombies have attacked your home – do you know how to defend it? Do you know the best way to eliminate a zombie outbreak, or even what the different classes of outbreaks are? The Zombie Survival Guide is your number one resource for protecting yourself from the living dead.

The Review

I can officially state that I will be ready for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. I have my plan put into action, and know how to protect myself. If it were not for this book telling me what weapons I need, or how to defend my home, or how to live in a zombie infested world, well! I would need to be worried, but thanks to Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide, I can definitely prepare for the worst possible scenarios.

This book was written in such a way that it’s so hard to tell that zombies are not a real-live threat. You actually believe it, and want to start putting into practice the steps that Brooks mentions you should be doing to protect yourself. It reads like a regular non-fiction survival guide, which is awesome. And such detail, too! It’s amazing

While this was definitely an informative book, and I did thoroughly like it, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Brooks’ World War Z. They do go hand-in-hand, though, and I think that someone who has read one should definitely read the other.

I don’t think I would have enjoyed this nearly as much if I hadn’t seen Max Brooks speak at FanExpo. It gives you a better appreciation for the humour of the book.

The Bottom Line

Will be keeping this book for reference for the future, you know, for when that zombie apocalypse occurs. Highly recommend it as an essential for all those who want to survive that horrendous event. Also, am definitely looking forward to reading Brooks’ graphic novel, The Zombie Survival Guide Recorded Attacks. I’ve flipped through it, and it looks pretty awesome.

Other Reviews

Adventures in Reading, Unmainstream Mom Reads. Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.

I’m not even going to give a synopsis, because everyone knows what Pride and Prejudice is about, and no doubt can easily imagine what this is – Pride and Prejudice with the inclusion of zombies. If, however, you really need to know more plot-wise, I would highly recommend that you read the first three chapters.

When I first heard of this book, I said that “I figure this book will either be so totally and completely awesome that I love it, or it will be so totally and completely horrible that I will laugh my whole way through it.” And parts of it were so so so awesome that I loved it. And other parts were so so so cheesy that I couldn’t stop laughing. So it was definitely thoroughly enjoyable. Campy, but oh-so thoroughly enjoyable!

For someone who didn’t enjoy P&P when he first read it, the author did well with the book. He didn’t always completely capture the way that Austen writes, but he didn’t do a bad job. The characters stayed true to themselves, even though they had to go through different situations. Even Charlotte, who herself turned into a zombie, seemed very Charlotte-ish until the very end. The writing itself, however, wasn’t always the same calibre – not always the dry wit that we expect from the wonderful Ms. Austen. In fact, some of the jokes seemed a little bit in poor taste compared to what Austen fans would be used to. But, if you can overlook that, it is wonderful.

A couple of random highlights to show you how awesome parts of it were:

• Elizabeth rips out a ninja’s heart and bites into it. For some reason, I think THIS is the scene that’s going to stick with me for the longest from the book.
• You know that scene at the end when Lady Catherine de Bourgh visits Elizabeth? It’s got a pretty awesome fight scene in it.
• Mr Bennett and Mr Bingley spend a day trapping zombies with the use of cauliflower – which apparently look like brains.
• Darcy totally beats up Wickham. And it is wonderful!

So yes, some pretty awesome moments to whet your appetite for this book.

I, however, do have two complains with this book. The first is that it didn’t flow really well. Imagine, if you will, that you are watching Shaun of the Dead for a moment. You’re enjoying it thoroughly, and then all of a sudden it cuts to a scene from one of those awesome Asian movies with the awesome choreographed fight scenes. Separately, both Shaun of the Dead and that scene from the awesome Asian movie are so thoroughly enjoyable. But they feel a little disjointed when put together in that sense. That’s what it was like with parts of P&P&Z… they’re fighting zombies and the like, and then Elizabeth is battling Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s ninjas. Could’ve worked REALLY WELL with just the zombies. Could’ve worked REALLY WELL with just the Asian influences. Together it almost felt like Grahame-Smith was trying to do too much.

Second complaint is a very minor one. I have certain expectations as a reader. I expect that if I’m reading a story about someone who owns a penthouse in New York, that person does more than work part time at McDonalds. It’s just the way the world works, right? So it struck me as slightly bothersome that though Mr. Bennett doesn’t have enough money to have a large dowry for each of his daughters, he can afford to send all five at least once to study “the deadly arts” in China. Doesn’t quite make sense. Logically and all.

So while I had the two complaints, and while his writing wasn’t as awesome as Austen’s is, I still loved it. Laughed though the whole thing. It had fabulous parts, it had cheesy parts, and I’m going to be keeping it to revisit certain scenes. Like the one where Mary jumps on the table in a fit of rage because of something Mr. Collins has said. (Wouldn’t we all like to jump on the table and threaten Mr. Collins when he’s being an idiot?)

Bottom Line: Don’t go into this expecting it to be serious. (How could it be, what with zombies inserted into it?) If you are a big Jane Austen fan and can’t stand it when Jane Austen’s books are made fun of a little bit (not that this is making fun of them, but you know what I mean) you probably won’t enjoy this. But it IS a funny book. A very funny book. I’d like to see if Austen’s other books follow in the footsteps of this one, with other fantasy/scifi/mythical characters. Fey in Mansfield Park? Werewolves in Northanger Abbey? A kelpie in Persuasion?

There were a handful of movies that my dad introduced me to when I was quite young, and my love for these movies has only increased over the years. The Indiana Jones trilogy is definitely one of those, so when I saw this book, I knew I had to have it.

This handy little book is what every aspiring Indiana-Jones-like-archaeologist should own. It’s broken down into five chapters, and each chapter is broken down further into various sections that teach you everything you need to know – not limited to how to do an excavation, how to escape if you are accidentally entombed, and how to avoid the Wrath of God. Each section includes examples that Indy went through himself, to help you think about how they would be applied in “real life” situations. They even have illustrations showing you how to do important things you’re going to need to know on your expedition (like how to crack a bullwhip, how to pull yourself out of quicksand, how to throw a punch, etc).

While I did find this book highly amusing, I found that I couldn’t read more than a section or two at each sitting. The highlight of the book, though, was the book design itself. I love the paper the book was printed on, and the page layouts were quite fun. Drool-worthy even. I’ve scanned one of my favourite spreads:

Now, however, I am craving a revisit to the Indiana Jones trilogy… and am getting more and more excited for the upcoming Indy movie. Yay fun!

This is my second book for The Canadian Book Challenge.

It’s no secret that I think Rick Mercer is one of the coolest Canadians ever. Not only is he positively hilarious, but he actually makes me interested in Canadian politics. Plus, he has some of the most entertaining interviews on TV. Need I remind anyone of Mercer going skinny dipping with Bob Rae? Or Mercer and David Suzuki in a frozen lake at the OPP training facility? (I should probably mention the wind tunnel at Western, but it really wasn’t that exciting.) And even when I’m in my not-watching-any-TV-programs phases, I don’t miss the Rick Mercer Report. So, I knew I needed this book from the moment I heard about it.

The book consists of a number of Rick Mercer’s rants (that you would’ve seen if you watch the show), as well as a number of blog posts he’s made, and small excerpts from interviews he’s done on the show. While reading the book, I found I remembered a good number of the rants from the show and remembered reading a few of the blog entries, but a good portion of the book seemed new to me too. The rants translated well to paper, but as they are posted to his blog, that wasn’t a surprise to me.

The book is divided into different themes, including Getting What You Voted For, The Trials of Lord Black and Canada’s New Government, and each theme consists of a few different rants/blog entries/etc. It would work well if you were planning on jumping around from one theme to another. Each bit in each theme is in chronological order, so you can easily see how things have progressed over the past few years in regards to certain issues.

This book is definitely a must-have for any fans of the Rick Mercer Report.

Each chapter in this book focused on a different part of Canada. It told about the history of the place, as well as illustrating personal experiences Ferguson had in each of these places throughout his life. Parts of it brought tears to my eyes, others brought the biggest smile to my face. It was exciting to be able to say “Hey, I’ve been there!” about a place or two, but I think the best thing about this book is that it’s added to my list of places that I want to visit at some point in my life. (Dude, I so want to go polar bear watching!)

Have I ever mentioned that I have like the hugest literary crush on Will Ferguson? Because I totally do. Totally. And I have half of the stuff in his books underlined because they make me giggle to no end. I mean, really. With writing like his, how could I not sit there and giggle madly? Especially when there are passages like this:

More polar bears live in Canada than in the rest of the world combined, which raises the question, Why the hell did we choose the beaver as our national emblem? We could have had Nanuk of the North, Lord of the Arctic, as our symbol. Instead we get stuck with Squirrelly McTeeth. Sheesh.

That’s the thing about good Canadian writers and comedians and the like. The sense of humour. It’s dry, snuggly and there’s always something so indistinctly Canadian about it (even if you can’t put your finger exactly on what is so Canadian).

When I first saw this anthology in the bookstores, I had to grab it. I mean, it’s edited by Will Ferguson, how could it not be absolutely fabulous? (I am muchly of the belief that anything Will Ferguson touches is positively brilliant.) And oh, it was wonderful. It’s been sitting on my night table for the whole summer, while I have been savouring bits here and there whenever I felt the need for some scrumptious Canadian humour.

This anthology has selections from some of Canada’s best humour writers – some of which I had read and loved before, others of which I had never heard of; it covered everything from hockey (only to be expected), to daily life on the prairies, to everything in between.

My favourite bits were by Jack Knox, Richard J. Needham, Erika Ritter and, of course Will and Ian Ferguson. I am quite happy as this has given me more writers whose books I need to hunt down. (Like I really need that.)

Like most people who had been awaiting this book, I stumbled upon Movies in Fifteen Minutes at Cleolinda Jones’ LJ Community, where she parodied a number of movies that I absolutely adored. That’s the thing with her parodies – you can tell that she loves the movies, and the way she writes about them is exactly what we are thinking while we’re watching the movie, without even realizing that we’re thinking it at the time.

As I mentioned, this book parodies movies – 10 blockbusters, to be exact, including (but not limited to) Titanic, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Lord of the Rings (yes, all three of the LotR trilogy).

It was a perfect book for reading on the bus, as it kept me awake and made me feel like my half hour bus ride was only about 5 minutes. I’m sure there were a number of people who turned to look at me when I would start giggling, but you can’t really help it at times.

This will be a book that I go back to time and again just to read certain parts of certain movies when I’m in the need of a good laugh.

Of course, she gets extra cool points because she mentions Horatio Hornblower in the Titanic one. Extra cool points there. (Not that I’m biased or anything. Nope. Not at all.)