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The Elements of Stress and the Pursuit of Happy-ish in this Current Sh*tstorm
Things can’t get much worse—but can they get funnier.THE ELEMENTS OF STRESS and the Pursuit of Happy-ish in this Current Sh*tstorm is a humorous handbook to help readers better deal with the challenges and headaches of our times, from overeating, to love problems, money woes, global warming, night sweats, winter itch, general anxiety, and so much more. Plus, over 70 stress-defusing cartoons from two of the best gag cartoonists in the world will help readers handle all the anxiety in today’s new world disorder––the perfect gift for fans of the original Elements of Style or anyone who has had it up to here.About the Bob Eckstein appears regularly in major publications as a humorist, cartoonist, award-winning illustrator, and New York Times bestselling author. He was nominated by the National Cartoon Society as Gag Cartoonist of the Year, twice, and selected in 2018 as the Erma Bombeck Humor Writer of the Month. He teaches Writing and Drawing at NYU. eckstein@pipeline.com Bob Eckstein @BobEckstein Bob_EcksteinMichael Shaw ’s cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker since 1999 and have a habit of going viral—appearing on an ABC news special following the World Trade Tower attack and on 60 Minutes as one of New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff’s “top five favorites.” Shaw’s cartoon on The Charlie Hebdo shooting led to his appearance on Ronan Farrow Daily on MSNBC. His cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker Book of Literary Cartoons, The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, The Rejection Collection I and II, The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons, The Ultimate Cartoon Book series and in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Harvard Business Review, Weekly Humorist, and Prospect magazine.shawtoons@hotmail.com @shawtoons_on_fridge
91 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 1, 2020
2 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Bob Eckstein
12 books59 followersBob Eckstein is an award-winning illustrator, NY Times bestseller, New Yorker cartoonist, and world's only snowman expert. His fields of expertise are museums, bookstores, cartoons and humor.
He is editor of the popular Substack newsletter, The Bob and host of The Cartoon Pad podcast. His cartoons, OpEds, and short stories appear regularly in the New York Times, New York Daily News, MAD magazine, Readers Digest, The Spectator, Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Atlas Obscura, LitHub, among many others. He was a columnist for the Village Voice, New York Newsday, and TimeOut New York. He has been interviewed in over 200 TV, radio, podcasts and magazine spots, including Good Morning America and People magazine. He was selected Erma Bombeck Humorist of the Month.
Follow him on Facebook Bob Eckstein and Instagram at bob_eckstein.
Bob Eckstein spent seven years traveling the world researching and attempting to answer the age-old question, who made the first snowman?
He has spoken publicly at many venues like The Norman Rockwell Museum, Miami Book Fair, The Grolier Club, Milford Readers & Writers Festival, and the Cooperage Theater and at the Erma Bombeck Workshop and Writer's Digest Annual Humor Conference.
He now lives in Manhattan. He has taught Writing & Drawing at N.Y.U., Pratt Institute, School of Visual Arts, Yonsei University in South Korea and many other places.
He is editor of the popular Substack newsletter, The Bob and host of The Cartoon Pad podcast. His cartoons, OpEds, and short stories appear regularly in the New York Times, New York Daily News, MAD magazine, Readers Digest, The Spectator, Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Atlas Obscura, LitHub, among many others. He was a columnist for the Village Voice, New York Newsday, and TimeOut New York. He has been interviewed in over 200 TV, radio, podcasts and magazine spots, including Good Morning America and People magazine. He was selected Erma Bombeck Humorist of the Month.
Follow him on Facebook Bob Eckstein and Instagram at bob_eckstein.
Bob Eckstein spent seven years traveling the world researching and attempting to answer the age-old question, who made the first snowman?
He has spoken publicly at many venues like The Norman Rockwell Museum, Miami Book Fair, The Grolier Club, Milford Readers & Writers Festival, and the Cooperage Theater and at the Erma Bombeck Workshop and Writer's Digest Annual Humor Conference.
He now lives in Manhattan. He has taught Writing & Drawing at N.Y.U., Pratt Institute, School of Visual Arts, Yonsei University in South Korea and many other places.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 13, 2020
I've been a fan of Bob Eckstein's and Michael Shaw's "New Yorker" cartoons for years, so when I first heard about this book, I immediately ordered a copy. It's a short book and I probably would have finished it in two hours had my reading not been interrupted so often by laughter. If the cartoons don't get you, the writing will. They grabbed me right away with the opening chapter title, "Initially, This Book Was About Gluten." No need for me to keep piling on complimentary adjectives so instead, here's one of my favorite lines: "A recent online survey on e-disharmony.com revealed that stress is the number one factor in relationship disharmony. A life partner taking up bagpipes came in a close second."
September 4, 2021
If you need a book to take you away from your stress, this is it. The comedy is lush, taking you out of yourself for every misery from covid to politics, from dieting to God, then on to God-knows everything else. Between the cartoons and the vignettes, you'll soon forget about your worries and your woes. Some of these snippets and many of the cartoons cracked me up. Still chuckling about Adam and Eve eating the snake. These guys have a grasp of how to weather hard times, and you'll feel much better trying to grasp their method of madness, too.
October 9, 2020
Everything is terrible right now—everything except this book, that is. Read it, laugh, and feel the anxiety melt away.
October 18, 2020
Bob is one of my favorite authors. I have been following his posts or writings on Instagram or Facebook from past few weeks
I really loved his new book. "The Elements of Stress" - One of a kind, truly. I had came across several stress coping mechanism or techniques books during my MBA or B-School days. All of them had quite serious tone to it. none of them had any flavor of humor.
However in this book, Bob had perfectly managed to use sense of humor at the right place honestly. Developing a sense of humor about life challenges is indeed a great place to start. 2020 is officially the worst year . These kind of writings we need more in the world to get by truly. One of the best part of the book was the author had used or depicted so many situations where the element of stress naturally exist. I like the chronology of situations.. How the author began with Adam & eve and dinosaurs hating on evolution to our present situations these days(like couples problems, depression, issues with family members with respect to managing finances and THE PANDEMIC). Brilliantly Crafted!
I really loved his new book. "The Elements of Stress" - One of a kind, truly. I had came across several stress coping mechanism or techniques books during my MBA or B-School days. All of them had quite serious tone to it. none of them had any flavor of humor.
However in this book, Bob had perfectly managed to use sense of humor at the right place honestly. Developing a sense of humor about life challenges is indeed a great place to start. 2020 is officially the worst year . These kind of writings we need more in the world to get by truly. One of the best part of the book was the author had used or depicted so many situations where the element of stress naturally exist. I like the chronology of situations.. How the author began with Adam & eve and dinosaurs hating on evolution to our present situations these days(like couples problems, depression, issues with family members with respect to managing finances and THE PANDEMIC). Brilliantly Crafted!
September 1, 2022
This is a book of light and hope in dark times. When are the times not dark? So everybody pretty much should benefit from this book, if they give it a chance on any day in any year. I received a copy as a gift from Mr. Eckstein, beautifully inscribed. If, God forbid, my house catches fire, this is one of the books I'd try to save. Not just because of the autograph, which I'm hoping will be worth thousands on Ebay someday. Counting on it, in fact.
April 10, 2021
Funny - but the text was weird
Loved the book! I gave it five - count 'em - five stars because it was good, in spite of the fact the words and letters were squished together and overlapping. That needs fixing, whoever.
Loved the book! I gave it five - count 'em - five stars because it was good, in spite of the fact the words and letters were squished together and overlapping. That needs fixing, whoever.
November 2, 2020
This book is good medicine for these times. My husband and I read it out loud together in about an hour and it had us both laughing. The chapter on pivoting is especially funny.
December 31, 2021
Funny light-hearted book with cartoons from the New Yorker.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews