Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down!

From Publishers Weekly
Barry's humor columns have been performed on audio by a variety of narrators, but in Dick Hill, Brilliance has found the perfect match for Barry's humorous musings. With a style similar to that of late comic actor Phil Hartman, Hill delivers Barry's words with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek pomposity, know-it-all persona and exaggerated melodrama. Hill is hilarious when narrating Barry's description of his trip to Paris: he deftly voices both the snobby French waiters (with an accurate French accent, dripping with sarcasm) and Barry's own halting, pathetic attempts at speaking French ("I went to the Lou-verrrr..."). Punch lines are delivered with impeccable timing. Other highlights include Barry's "manly" stint as Batman at a four-year-old's birthday party, his turn as a judge for an amateur dog show and his disappointment at his lawyer's insistence that he could not title this audio "Tuesdays with Harry Potter." One can only hope that Hill will become Barry's "official" narrator from here on. Based on the Crown hardcover (Forecasts, Sept. 4, 2000). Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Barry fans will enjoy this latest collection of columns from one of America's funniest journalists. The title originates from his rant about low-flow toilets in his notorious "Toilet Police" article. According to the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist (Big Trouble), it wasn't his first choice for a title, which would have been (and I am not making this up) Tuesdays with Harry Potter. Apparently, the publisher's legal department had some problems with that. The title represents Barry's rage not only about toilets but about airline "bistro service" meals, television ads for pharmaceuticals, and the general moral decay confronting America today. Fans will not be disappointed with Barry's forays into proper word usage when he dons his "Mr. Language Person" hat. And they will certainly rally around him on issues concerning the IRS, college dormitories, and Internet millionaires. But the toilet on the cover is really why this book should be in every library's humor collection.-DJoe Accardi, Northeastern Illinois Univ., Chicago Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
This is a collection of greatest hits by the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of the MIAMI HERALD. Most of the material is very funny, with a few misses and a lot of smiles thrown in to keep us listening. Dick Hill reads the columns with the same wry, ironic, smart-alecky tone in which they're written. Hill reads in a pleasant, easy-to-follow voice and has a great sense of comic timing. He captures the mood of each piece and really seems to understand Barry's intentions. Take these columns a few at a time, though, because the material can grate on you. Too much satire is difficult to digest in one or two sittings. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Barry here recycles his gripes, exaggerations, and pure fictions from his newspaper column from the past two years. Does recycling mean Barry has become a rabid tree-hugger? Perish that thought. As a patriotic American who recognizes that this nation was ordained for the convenience of consumers, Barry takes frothing umbrage at infringements on his, and every American's, right to a "Cherished American Way of Life" centered on junk-food eating and TV-watching. And don't get him started on toilets, concerning which a government proclamation that there be no more than 1.6 gallons of water used per flush set Barry off on several columns of satirizing this odious oppression of his freedom to flush away each call of nature with 3.5 gallons of water. Yes, this modern day, slightly-off kilter Son of Liberty finds Big Meaning in Small Things and thus taps the funny bone of a certain sensibility. Riffing off TV commercials with his brushes with famous people or his perplexities about women (his wife) and teenagers (his son), Barry flits among inspirations for his subjects, and that expectation of the unexpected is what has kept him popular for years. His fans will enjoy this reprise. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
“Dave Barry is one funny human.”
–San Francisco Examiner

“ONE OF BARRY’S BEST COLLECTIONS, this book should delight his devoted readers and will surely make the uninitiated sit up and take notice.”
–The Associated Press

“Reading Barry with another person in the room invariably elicits one of two responses: ‘What’s so funny’ or ‘For God’s sake, shut up’.”
–The New York Times



Review
?Dave Barry is one funny human.?
?San Francisco Examiner

?ONE OF BARRY?S BEST COLLECTIONS, this book should delight his devoted readers and will surely make the uninitiated sit up and take notice.?
?The Associated Press

?Reading Barry with another person in the room invariably elicits one of two responses: ?What?s so funny? or ?For God?s sake, shut up?.?
?The New York Times



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This is a collection of greatest hits by the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of the MIAMI HERALD. Most of the material is very funny, with a few misses and a lot of smiles thrown in to keep us listening. Dick Hill reads the columns with the same wry, ironic, smart-alecky tone in which they're written. Hill reads in a pleasant, easy-to-follow voice and has a great sense of comic timing. He captures the mood of each piece and really seems to understand Barry's intentions. Take these columns a few at a time, though, because the material can grate on you. Too much satire is difficult to digest in one or two sittings. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine


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