Wisecracks: Everyday Wit and Wisdom

by Tom Burns (Editor)

Humorous animal photos are captioned with witty one-liners that touch on virtually every aspect of our lives. The threefold purpose of this clever little gift book is to provoke a smile, remind the reader of typical human foibles, and inspire readers to recognize something of themselves in the humorous phrases. For instance, a typical photo shows a family of lazy walruses lounging at the seashore, and the accompanying caption �Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate.� Close-up, black-and-white photos appear on every two-page spread, and each cleverly-captioned picture reminds us that animals and human beings have more in common than we sometimes like to admit.

Genres: Animals

128 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2005

Reviews

[Kathryn (Dragon Bite Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog, Nine Pages .

This is a picture book for adults. The text is composed of the sort of snarky quips familiar from Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest (really, many of theses phrases I’ve read or heard before). The lines were sent to Burns by various, unnamed contributors. The format of quirky text beside black-and-white animal photographs that might illustrate the text is highly reminiscent of Bradley Trevor Greive’s books (Grieve’s first, The Blue Day Book, was published in 2000). Unlike Grieve’s, though, each page’s text in this book is independent rather than building towards a book-long message. This book had me snickering, more at its witticisms than its photography, and as I’ve said, this text was not written by Burns. I do still appreciate the book, however. It’ll be a good pick-me-up on a gray day.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sister and I found this book while Christmas shopping; we wound up standing in the middle of a high-traffic store aisle, giggling ourselves silly.

We tucked it into my dad's stocking on Christmas morning; by noon my family had tears streaming from laughing out loud.

This book is adorable - a must-read to brighten your day! :)

[SHR · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have an incurable attraction to books full of funny sayings coupled with cute animal photos.
This is an example of it being very well done.

Some of my favourite sayings included:
• In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
• Cleaning the house while your kids are growing up is like shovelling the path before it’s stopped snowing.