The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett

This book is the reason why I was grinning like a fool in public while I was reading it (I really should know better than to try and read a Discworld novel and hope to look dignified).

The Fifth Elephant is part of The Watch subseries of the Discworld novels and it has His Excellency Commander Sam Vimes going to attend a dwarf coronation as the Ankh Morpork ambassador. Naturally, he finds a crime because Sam Vimes is the Watch.

While he does leave the watch in the capable hands of Carrot, Carrot suddenly finds the urge to resign and authority of the watch falls to Colon, with side-splitting consequences (for the reader. Also, this subplot will make a lot more sense if you’re already familiar with the Watch).

And like the best of the Discworld novels, Pratchett weaves in a deeper meaning, this time looking at the meaning of tradition, living with other races, and how identity (specifically dwarfish identity) is defined.

While I love this book, I don’t think that this is a good first book for people looking to get into the Discworld series because it assumes the reader knows about pre-existing relationships. But it’s definitely a must-read for fans of the Watch. And I don’t really need to go on about the book because I will just rehash my old feelings for the characters (p.s. if you’re invested in Carrot and Angua’s relationship, you have to read this book!)

White Whine by Streeter Seidell

I’ve been having a pretty bad week and am in totally no mood to tackle anything remotely heavy. So I borrowed this, because I remember laughing when I found the site a couple of years ago (although it doesn’t seem to load for me now).

White Whine is basically a collection of ‘whines’ that exemplify the idea of first world problems. They can be tumblr posts, Facebook posts, and even newspaper articles (apparently some kids sued their mom for lousy birthday cards?!). The book is organised into topics, with the majority of each short chapter being taken up with a commentary and then a couple of whines.

To be honest, I’m not a fan of the commentary. I understand the author was trying to be funny, and maybe it’s because of my current mood, but I didn’t really laugh. It felt more like the commentary was building up to a lot of funny whines and then I’d see one post, which was anticlimactic. I actually started skipping them after a while.

I don’t know what it says about me, but some of the whines actually sounded pretty reasonable. If I saw someone scrubbing themselves with a pumice stone in the hot tub I was in, I’d definitely be grossed out. So sometimes, the author just felt like a cranky old man.

If this was a collection of the best of the posts submitted to the site, I’d like this a lot better. The book works when it pokes fun at the ridiculous entitlement some people have, but it falls flat at other times. If you are/were a fan of the site, you might want to read it, but if you’re not, you can just skip it.

Heath Robinson's Home Front

Finally finished one book because this has not been a curl up with a book sort of holiday. I got this on our first day, at the Churchill War Room. To be honest, I thought this was a book on household management during World War II, but when I picked it up, I realised I was so wrong.

Heath Robinson is a famous cartoonist known for his drawings on machines that overcomplicate simple tasks. I suppose they could have just compiled all the comics together, because I found most of them funny, but this book pairs the drawings with satire written by Cecil Hunt. It’s supposed to be a mock-serious look at how the British can help the war effort at home.

To be honest, the text was very hit and miss for me. There were quite a few funny lines, but an equal proportion of the jokes didn’t work for me. I suppose that’s because I’m not British.

What I liked were the cartoons and the little glimpses of British life during WWII. While you can’t take the book seriously, there must be a common standard for satire to work. So it was possible to catch glimpses of life during the war, such as the importance placed on blackouts.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this little book. While the writing wasn’t to my style, I really enjoyed the comics and if the title is anything to go by, the comics are the real star of this book. Plus it makes for a nice souvenir(:

Notes from an Even Smaller Island by Neil Humphreys

Decided to take a trip down memory lane and reread this! I remember it being side-splittingly funny and luckily my memory isn't as bad as I feared. If you haven't heard of the book before, Notes from an Even Smaller Island is basically a collection of essays by Neil Humphrey, an ang moh who moved to Singapore from Britain.

I remember the book being funny the first time round, but I didn't remember it making such good points. The book actually tackles issues like depending on filial piety to support the elderly, education in Singapore and even the kampung spirit (of course, there are many chapters on the funny people that Neil knows so this is by no means a serious book). I found that I agreed with a lot of his points and I like that he made them with humour.

On thing that I particularly liked was when he was talking about our (and expats) tendency to congregate together. In Singapore, expats tend to have their own enclaves. Overseas, Asians tend to stick together. This isn't a bad thing, but I do agree with Neil that it's a bit of a waste if you do overseas and end up replicating the life and social circle that you had back home.

Also, I did not realise that as recently as 2001 (ok that isn't so recent) there were Singaporeans who would go on tour to America and have Chinese food for almost every meal! That is seriously inconceivable to me (and I think many people now) and I'm glad that we've outgrown that (I hope).

The book does feel a little dated because he's describing a snapshot of Singapore, but there is so much warmth and humour here that I found myself enjoying this reread as much as I did the first time. In fact, I may have enjoyed it more this time round.

Only Dead on the Inside by James Breakwell

If you don't follow James Breakwell on Twitter, you should go do so. He's hilarious and I really love reading his tweets - I don't go on twitter often so I kinda "binge read" when I'm there which is often. So when I saw that he had a book on NetGalley I immediately requested it and put it on the front of my TBR list.

And luckily, it lived up to expectations!

I mean, a book is a lot longer than 140 characters. I wouldn't have been surprised if it ran out of steam halfway. But Breakwell did an excellent job of pacing the jokes and I laughed during every chapter.

Written in a pseudo-serious tone, Only Dead on the Inside is a handbook to help parents survive a zombie attack while keeping their kids alive. Illustrated with very crudely drawn Microsoft Paint-style comics (the comics were probably the weakest point of the book but I laughed at quite a few of them so it's not like they are complete failures), topics include:

- How to convince your kids to hide

- Food during a zombie apocalypse

- Why minivans are awesome (and what else you can use as a weapon against zombies)

- Why a zombie apocalypse means you never have to clean your house

- And what to do if you need to amputate your arm.

I would definitely recommend this to everyone and I would pick up a copy if I ever found it in a bookshop. It's funny and I really enjoyed reading it. If you've had experiences with kids (and everyone has, since you either were one or know one), you'll probably enjoy this. And his Twitter account. You should definitely check that out!

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

The Social Climber's Bible by Dirk Wittenborn and Jazz Johnson

Finally done with this book and... it's not as funny as I expected. That said, satire is really hard to do so props to them for making me chuckle a little here and there (although I didn't consider giving up once or twice - but I already bought this so...)

The title pretty much explains the book. It's a satirical guide on how ordinary people can end climb their way to the top, covering things like social situations and how to do social media.

The biggest problem with this book is that it doesn't go far enough. Because they're so deadpan, they really need to use ludicrous examples (at least in my case), or they'd come off sounding like they actually intend for this to work. And as you might expect, the chuckles came from the examples. The wanting to stop reading came from the stretches of deadpan prose.

I think this book would be funny/useful when describing a social climber character. Can you imagine what would happen if someone decides to follow their life using this book? I would totally read that, although I would probably cringe the whole way. So in a way I guess this could be character inspiration?

I wouldn't recommend this book. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. Unless you're planning to write a story featuring a social climber and you want ideas on how to make her fail, I think you could just skip this.

100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings by Sarah Cooper

A fun, short book that does what the title says. Some of the tricks include:

#39: When someone asks a question, look at the person who you think has the answer.

#57: Say "That's a great question" before you avoid each question.

#82: To get out of a conversation, say you have some people waiting on you.

Each trick comes with an explanation on exactly how it's going to go down, plus an illustration. There are also sections like "famous meetings throughout history" (I found this very funny), "Advanced meeting power moves to get you promoted (or fired)" as well as what to do at business dinners (those are the last ten tips). And of course, the book also 'teaches' you what to do after a meeting to appear smart.

I think it would be better to read this a little at a time, because reading it all at one go will probably make the jokes at the end seem unfunny. After all, it's just variants on the theme of "how to pretend to look productive without actually doing anything."

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

How Not To Read by Dan Wilbur

I picked this book up because it seemed interesting, but sadly, the book's sense of humour and mine didn't jibe.

How Not To Read is supposed to be this satirical look at books, what makes them up and why you "should not" read. Inside are also 'better book titles', which is another way of saying "summing the book into one sentence or less".

I found the Better Book Titles part somewhat funny, but the rest of the humour of the book just fell flat for me. For the record, my favourite comedian is the Jim Gaffigan, so it's a pretty safe bet to say that the book's humour is not like that at all. It assumes that you've gone through a certain stage of life or have grown up or lived a certain way that is totally not applicable to me. I'm not an American male, nor did I have/do I have a very wild character, so a lot of the humour just didn't make me laugh.

I was hoping that this would be a new favourite book, given how much I read and how much I dearly love a laugh, but alas, it was not to be.

How to Speak Emoji by Fred Benenson

I found this in the humour section of NetGalley but... I didn't find it very funny. The book had a very engaging title, but it totally didn't live up to my expectations.

Then again, I'm not sure what my expectations were for this book. I only know that I wanted to laugh.

So this is basically the kind of book you'd get if you plan to spam your whatsapp/chat groups with one of those "guess the meaning" emoji games. At least, that's what I think. Because after a short 'dictionary', where the most common emoji are explained, the book basically gives you the emoji equivalent for famous quotes, ways to flirt, and a few various other categories.

I guess that might be funny, but it just didn't speak to me.

It wasn't a total waste because I did get a few ideas I could use the next time I want to challenge my brother to an emoji-guessing game, but it wasn't the book that I was hoping for.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

Antonia Barclay and Her Scottish Claymore by Jane Carter Barrett

This book was pitched to me as "The Princess Bride meets Jane Austen", so obviously, I had to request this and read it. It's what any sane person would do, right?

Antonia Barclay and Her Scottish Claymore is an intentionally anachronistic, intentionally funny book about Lady Antonia Barclay, who discovers that she's actually the long-lost daughter of Mary, the Queen of Scots. Unfortunately, the evil Sir Basil and his bumbling henchman of a son, Rex wish to use her as a stepping stone to becoming royalty. It's up to Mr. Claymore, Antonia's love-at-first sight to rescue her.

I must admit, this book and I did not start out on the right foot. Sure, the opening line was clever, but the first few pages felt like it was being forced to be funny. I suppose fashion anachronisms don't elicit laughs from me because I'm not a fashionista (not by a long stretch). But more importantly, the characters felt like they were caricatures rather than actually characters that I could root for.

Thankfully, as I read on and got used to the over-the-top style of the novel, I started to enjoy myself. Antonia turned out to be a sassy heroine with tons of courage, and I was rooting for her by the end of the book.

In fact, the over-the-top nature of the book actually helped me enjoy the romance aspect. Everyone who regularly reads this blog will know that I'm not a fan of instalove, which this book has in spades between Antonia and her Mr. Claymore, but the over-the-top nature of this book made me just laugh and go along with it, rather than sighing and wondering why anyone would assume this is a plausible reason.

While I can't really find any resemblance to Jane Austen, this book is an extremely light-hearted and humorous read. If you can accept that this book is going to be extremely exaggerated from the get go, you'll probably be able to enjoy this book. If you're looking for a book that plays up aspects of romance novels, and you want to read about a heroine that hates balls (being not a party girl, this helped a lot in getting me to like Antonia), then you should pick up this book.

Disclaimer: I got a copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

P.s. Check out the next blog to in this blog tour: A Frugal Life

How to be a Brit by George Mikes

I think I've found the other Guy Browning. Or perhaps since he came first (I think), Guy Browning is the other George Mikes? At any rate, these two authors make me laugh.

How to be a Brit was an impulse purchase from a bookstore (yes, I paid full price and my wallet scolded me for it) and consists of three works: How to be an Alien, How to be Inimitable and How to be Decadent. Unfortunately, the 'Alien' in the first book isn't about little green man, but the more traditional foreigner (by the way, if you aren't British, than that's you).

Personally, I loved the book, but that's mainly because I love British humour. I used to think that was universal, but after loaning friends my Guy Browning and Terry Pratchett books and receiving them back with a "I didn't think they were funny", I've learnt that I really have to add a disclaimer. So if the following quotes make you laugh, there's a good chance you'll like the book:

"In principle, the British Civil Servant stands always at the disposal of the public. In practice, he is either in 'conference' or out for lunch, or in but having his tea, or just out. Some develop an admirable technique of going out for tea before coming back from lunch." 

"Britain - to its true glory- is the only country in the world where the phrase, 'it isn't fair', still counts as an argument." 

"Other nations need occasional outbursts of madness and violence; the English need occasional excesses of self-discipline. Other nations, under unbearable stress, shout, howl, and get into brawls, run amok; the English queue up for a cup of tea." 

By the way, I do not pretend to claim that this book is accurate about the character of the British people. Although if they really do like queuing half as much as the book says, then it explains a lot about Singaporeans and our love of queueing.

Teaser Tuesday - How To Be A Brit by George Mikes

I'm here for Teaser Tuesday, but I might disappear for the rest of the week, because my finals have just started, and I am much less prepared than before. I spent all the time before my exams preparing for a competition (we got second place!), so exactly 0% of the time was actually spent studying.

I got this book yesterday, when I was feeling stress (I now see the point of emotional shopping). I figured that since I love Guy Browning, I should like this too. So far, it hasn't disappointed, though I haven't been able to read much.

My teaser:

"The trouble with tea is that originally, it was quite a good drink.  

So a group of the most eminent British scientists put their heads together and made complicated biological experiments to find a way of spoiling it." 

What is your teaser this week?

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read 

• Open to a random page 

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan

I'm not sure who recommended this book to me, but I owe them a big thank you. Apparently, I made a reservation for it on NLB, and promptly forgot about it. Good thing the library reminds me when the book is here.

Food: A Love Story is a collection of columns about, you've guessed it, food. It covers topics from the types of food in America to healthy food. For some reason, it reminds me of an American version of Guy Browning's books. Each chapter is a standalone, and as I found out later, is based on Jim Gaffigan's stand-up routines.

Really, I listened to the Hot Pocket routine because it sounded interesting, and I think the later half of the chapter is more or less the routine. So I guess if you're a fan of this guy, you may already know most of the material here.

I think the biggest factor that decides whether you like this book is whether you like the narrative voice. I happened to like it, but at the beginning, I remember thinking "I hope I laugh soon, or I'd get annoyed with the narration fairly soon." Of course, I laughed, and I laughed often. I may not have agreed with him (I love sushi and fish and shellfish and a bunch of other things he doesn't like), but that doesn't matter. It was still funny.

By the way, there's an audiobook version of this book as well, narrated by Jim Gaffigan himself. After watching his routines, I was really excited to listen to it (it's on Scribd!). But, the way he reads the book is different from the way he does stand-up. Stand-up speech sounds a lot more spontaneous, and more expressive. When I listened to the audiobook, I could hear him reading, and it feels like it's more controlled. I'm still listening to the audiobook though, and it was pretty good background listening while I was doing my work.

In conclusion, I found this to be a funny book, and I loved reading it. Whether you will, depends on whether you find the following video funny (yes, I know it's not the Hot Pocket routine, but I think McDonalds is a lot more universal than Hot Pockets):

Teaser Tuesday - How to be Normal by Guy Browning

Hey everyone! So, I've got a bunch of books to read for my class, but I'm guessing no one wants to see a Japanese teaser about the third industrial revolution.

So instead, I'm sharing a book that I found on Scribd and read a few pages of in the train. It's the latest book by Guy Browning, and considering that I loved his previous two books (I love his sense of humour!), I'm super excited about the fact that he's writing more of this!

So, from How to Be Normal:

"One of the reasons Americans can seem overly jolly is because they all have good teeth and don't mind displaying them. British teeth have been rotten for centuries and, as a smile was often like lifting a drain cover, we developed a stiff upper lip instead." 

I don't know about you, but I chuckled at this teaser (The column is called "How to Smile")

What is your teaser?

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read 

• Open to a random page 

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Obsidian Dagger by Catherine Webb

Back when I was still in MG, I came across the Horatio Lyle series. I've forgotten what they were about now, but I remember really enjoying them. So, when I went to the library, I hunted down the series - they only had one available, and sadly, it's not the first book. But, I still enjoyed reading it.

The Obsidian Dagger is a murder mystery. Two men are discovered dead in a boat. A series of murders follows. Horatio Lyle would like to stay out of this, but Lord Lincoln is basically twisting his arm until he starts to investigate. And the more he investigates, the clearer it is that meddling is only going to bring trouble. Too bad it's the right thing to do.

Accompany Horatio are Teresa, a former pickpocket and Thomas Edward Elwick, the son of Lord Elwick. The two kids are as different as chalk and cheese, and that's what makes the trio so fun. Thomas is smart, very smart, and a bit naive. Teresa may be uneducated (compared to Thomas), but she's street-smart, and learns at a quick rate. Horatio is like the guardian of the two of them, and the affection they share is very touching.

While I don't think you need to have read the first book to understand this book, knowing what happened before will definitely help. Several people referenced to are key players of earlier books, and may confuse the first-time reader.

I really enjoy the vivid descriptions and the rather unexpected humor of this book. It's funny, but it comes at times where you don't expect jokes to be made. Apart from humour, this book also touches on the themes of love (twisted love, patriotic love, philia love) and self-sacrifice (which if you think about it, is tied to love).

Now I remember why I loved this series so much.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein

Ah, airport bookshops. Like I said in my Teaser Tuesday, I get strangely drawn to non-fiction there. And I try to make it a habit to buy at least one book while passing through an airport.

Now, the main question for this book is 'can you really understand philosophy through jokes like the subtitle claims?'. And the answer is what I learnt in Theory of Knowledge, history and just about every humanities class "Yes, to a certain extent."

Yes because this book does contain many jokes and they do explain philosophy. But, this isn't just full of jokes, they actually *gasp* explain the jokes. Or use the jokes as illustration for explanations. So no, just reading the jokes will not help you understand philosophy. You have to read the explanations too. But the jokes do help in understanding (hence the "to a certain extent".)

One of my friends has read it before and he told me that I'd be in stitches. Well, I did chuckle quite a bit, but not as much as he probably did. For example, not all jokes in the feminist section (especially the one about the woman in the plane about to crash) were funny. In fact, the one about the plane was downright sexist. But to be fair to the book, they did admit it was over the top. However, the authors never clearly stated their position, so I'm not sure whether they were trying to undermine feminism in that section (especially since they talked about the 'Politically incorrect joke' and how it can make a joke seem funnier).

Oh, and they have this bit about argument from analogy (and why it's a bad argument). One group they singled out for attention were the creationists. I can understand the need for examples, but I felt that they should have also added that atheists use arguments from analogy as well. For example, Richard Dawkins has said that

“Nobody has actually seen evolution take place over a long period but they have seen the after effects, and the after effects are massively supported. It is like a case in a court of law where nobody can actually stand up and say I saw the murder happen and yet you have got millions and millions of pieces of evidence which no reasonable person can possibly dispute.” (1)

I would think that the fair thing to do was to point out that both sides use this argument.

So basically, other than the argument from analogy section, and the feminism section (which had a joke which, in my opinion, really shouldn't have been there), this was a pretty good book. Most of the jokes work. However, I can't really say if it makes philosophy accessible to the beginner. I've had quite a lot of previous exposure to philosophy, so this was more of a refresher course than anything.

(1)The Genius of Charles Darwin, Series 1, (UK) Channel 4 TV: Sat 11 Oct 2008.

Teaser Tuesday: Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein

Ok, this book I picked up at Changi airport. I don't know what reputations airport bookshops have (do share), but the ones at Changi are just like any other bookshop. The only difference is that I become strangely drawn to non-fiction books. And this seemed like the perfect book to buy and bring home.

This week's teaser:

"So, if Kierkegaard finds you in his closet and asks "What are you doing here?" don't say, "Everybody's got to be somewhere." Our advice: Improvise." (Page 117)

What is your teaser?

Teaser Tuesday - Hey Skinny! By Miles Beller and Jerry Leibowitz

Hey everyone! Can you believe that it's already April? Where has the first quarter of the year gone? And since I'm terrible at any sort of prank (I can't even pour water over unsuspecting people), this is a straightforward teaser. 

Well, I did pick this book for people who want a laugh. Hey Skinny! Is a collection of old advertisements in all their bizarre glory. If you want a laugh, this is a book you should have on hand to leaf through.

"Amazing New Game Sensation 'Let's Go To College' 

The Newest Coast-to-Cast CRAZE" (1944 advertisement)

Use your imagination for what the advertisement looks like. I'm actually quite curious as to how you win (with the highest GPA?)

What is your teaser? And how was your April Fools?

French Lessons by Peter Mayle

I never thought that French cuisine and Singaporean cuisine could have anything in common, but now that I've read this book I think I found one point: both cultures will eat anything. Frogs? Check (frog porridge is really good); snails? sorta-Check (we eat sea-snails, those do count right?). We even have fish head curry. Peter Mayle should totally come to Singapore and do a food tour.

French Lessons isn't about learning French (although considering how entertainingly Peter Mayle writes, he could write a French textbook and I will probably chuckle through it), it's about eating your way through France. It's not a comprehensive guide (in fact, he writes about missing a festival in the book).

In this book, he talks about French chicken, escargot, frogs, and he makes it all sound so good. My favourite festival was probably the slow marathon through the vineyards, because that seems like my kind of exercise. Slow. Another section I liked immensely would be when he and his wife checked into a detox center. It sounds so relaxing yet healthy (so it's win-win!).

Like A Year in Provence (link leads to my review), Peter Mayle writes entertainingly and fondly about France. The only difference is that this is focused on food and covers a wider area of France. He really does seem fond of the country and the way he makes you write made me want to visit.

And yet, he doesn't see France through entirely rose-tinted glasses (perhaps it's only slightly tinted, and only when it comes to food). He writes about a few of his French friends who are pompous and too-smug about their own culture. It's entertaining, but it's not exactly flattering. It's sections like these though, that make me believe what he says, because he seems to be telling the truth.

I believe the book that I haven't read yet is A Dog's Life (wait, have I read it? Or did I just read that one excerpt?) and after reading this, I really have to go and search for a copy.

Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down by Nicey and Wifey

To be honest, I bought this book because some guy that I've never heard of wrote "I love this book" on the cover. But, since the style of the book reminds me so much of Guy Browning, it seems like the cover testimonial was spot on. I read it on the subway home, and while I managed to control myself and not laugh out loud, I probably made a few ridiculous faces. I say so because when I looked up, the person sitting opposite me was giving me a strange face.

This book is about tea, biscuits and the British practice of having an nice cup of tea and a sit down. It's supposed to be about biscuit reviews and how to make tea, but it's just too entertaining. I may have learnt something too, but don't ask me what. I just feel slightly more knowledgable about biscuits now. There are some science bits inside as well, so I suppose you can try to persuade yourself this is educational somehow.

Educational.

Educational.

Edu-Nah, it's just entertaining.

And now, I have a rather strong craving for biscuits. And a bunch of other childhood snacks.

I'm actually not really sure who to recommend it to, so I'm going go with "if you like Guy Browning's sort of humour, you'll like this book." And of course, if you're a fan of tea (like me!) and biscuits (like me!) and even a bit of cake (me! Wait, here's a moment where I'm thankful for my metabolism), you'll probably enjoy this book.