Satire Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

The Professional Security Manual Class 1, Urban Security by Charles White

The Professional Security Manual Class 1, Urban Security by Charles White The Professional Security Manual Class 1, Urban Security by Charles White might not sound like it, but it’s an inventive and hilarious take on a training manual, and one security guard’s over-the-top take on just what it takes to become a rent-a-cop. Covering important topics such as dealing with ghosts and how to use a stapler as a ninja weapon, this book will have you covered and then some. Mixed in with Charles White’s instructions are footnotes from a mysterious ghostwriter who finds himself imprisoned by Charles White, and ridiculing him the whole way through.

After the first footnote, it’s […]

SPR2018-10-29T12:19:16+02:00January 14th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Humor, Satire Book Reviews|

Review: Squirrel Days by Dustin Costa ★★★★

Squirrel Days Squirrel Days by Dustin Costa is the hard-to-classify but always-entertaining satire about the so-called US drug war. Renegade disc jockey insults the wrong people on the radio and flees to the marijuana capital of Northern California with his one-legged girlfriend, Juanita. There they find refuge with a wide variety of eccentric characters, each more insane than the last: wizards, an alien, a mad scientist, among others. Harnessing a powerful quantum weapon, this group of misfits thinks they have what it takes to defeat a bloodthirsty drug cartel.

The novel is madcap at times, hardboiled at others, and then absurdist sci-fi […]

SPR2019-01-22T15:39:01+02:00January 11th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, Humor, Satire Book Reviews|

Review: Pianist in a Bordello by Mike C. Erickson ★★★★

Pianist in a Bordello Pianist in a Bordello by Mike C. Erickson is a political satire about a congressional candidate who, ten points down in the polls, decides to tell the truth about his life in an incendiary memoir. After the introduction where his handlers are imploring him to not release this autobiography, the bulk of the book is the autobiography itself, where we learn that the congressman-to-be was raised by a hippie father on a commune, and gets involved with all types of women, nearly gets arrested for spilling state secrets, and basically doesn’t behave very well for someone hoping to enter politics.[…]

Henry Baum2019-01-22T15:49:25+02:00April 21st, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, Satire Book Reviews|

Review: Hot Minnesota Sex Death by M. R. Nesheim

In his novel Capital, John Lanchester writes about the effects of the 2007 banking crisis from the point of view of one street in London. In Hot Minnesota Sex Death, M. R. Nesheim takes on the same subject, also from a particular place, but Nesheim’s is a much less prosaic location, and he tells his tale in a vastly different way. When the spiritual leaders of an extremely prudish town die while engaging in a prohibited sex act, the citizens of the town fall prey to both a well-meaning but mistaken new leader and an entity determined to […]

Avery Hurt2014-05-05T22:25:43+02:00January 19th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews, Satire Book Reviews|

Review: Fantastica by Victorio Velasquez

Fantastica, by Victorio Velasquez is not a serious novel. If you sit down to read it and you want your mind to be blown away by a touching story, this is not the novel for you. If you are looking for something to make you laugh and to help you forget about the real world, then this may be the right fit.

Before I summarize the novel I would like to state that this story is meant to be silly. Velasquez is poking fun at fantasy novels and about the world we live in today. He goes out of his […]

T B Markinson2020-02-21T06:30:06+02:00June 19th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, Satire Book Reviews|

Review: The Hunting of The Bubblenuff by Joshua Goldfond

The Hunting of the Bubblenuff follows the adventures of Fabian Vermeer, an eccentric 19-year-old who lives in the fictional world of Lornholm. He is both a Priest and Inquisitor by profession, acting in the service of the Church of Solomn, god of Justice and Fluffy Clouds. Yet Fabian’s true, lifelong passion is “Cryptonaturalism”: the study of hidden, mythical beasts like the Sugar Moose (a rare but friendly creature whose candy cane antlers are treasured by hunters), the Solardillo (a bioluminescent armadillo used to replace campfires), the Hamsterdon (a 40-foot high hamster that runs around in a giant bamboo ball and […]

Majanka Verstraete2012-01-17T15:21:40+02:00January 17th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, Satire Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Debut novel, ‘Where’s Unimportant’ by Daniel Shortell

Where’s Unimportant by Daniel Shortell:

“Jack Addington is stuck. A carefree life wandering the globe has morphed into a monotonous existence working for an oppressive Manhattan-based software company peddling products which destroy the lives of decent people. Jack struggles through soul-sucking affairs with despotic executives and eccentric scientists by mentally projecting himself out of the present and into past adventures. Avoidance, however, is temporary, and it does not take long for his overly medicated mind to lose perspective, causing him to act increasingly irrational in a brutally rational world. Jack attempts to reconnect to reality through the guidance of a

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Daniel Shortell2014-05-11T22:14:46+02:00October 9th, 2011|Categories: Interviews|Tags: Satire Book Reviews|

Thank God for Humor

Where would we be if we couldn’t laugh in this world that is frequently too serious for its own good? One of the greatest gifts I’ve come to discover is how to laugh at and with myself. I’ve spent most of my life taking myself and things way too seriously. It’s wonderful to have a sensitive heart, but it’s so important to shield it from unnecessary pain. That’s where a good dose of humor serves the spirit and leads us all to let go through wonderfully releasing belly laughs. One thing is certain. Humor not only helps us, it heals.[…]

David Cowdery2014-05-11T22:12:21+02:00March 13th, 2011|Categories: Features, Member Blog|Tags: Satire Book Reviews|