Books about Irreverent from Amazon.com

Loaded with meaty trivia and tasty, bite-sized facts!

mental_floss is proud to offer a delicious, hearty helping of brain-food that's sure to fire up your neurons and tantalize your synapses Condensed Knowledge is a mouthwatering mix of intriguing facts, lucid explanations, and mind-blowing theories that will satisfy even the hungriest mind!

Ingredients include:

5 tiny nations that get no respect • 4 civilizations nobody remembers • 5 classics written under the influence • 4 things your boss has in common with slime mold • 3 schools of thought that will impress the opposite sex • 4 things Einstein got wrong • 5 classical tunes you know from the movies • 3 famous studies that would be illegal today • 2 religious mysteries solved by chemistry • 5 scandals that rocked art, and much more ...

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Price: $5.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The author of the wildly successful Portable Curmudgeon and Portable Curmudgeon Redux outdoes himself in the biggest collection yet of acid wit and wisdom cunningly collected from sardonic savants of every stripe.

A curmudgeon is defined as 1. A crusty, ill-tempered, churlish old man; 2. Anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; or 3. anyone who points out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner. The Big Curmudgeon is the richest collection yet of curmudgeonly commentary, combining all of the material from the bestselling Portable Curmudgeon and Portable Curmudgeon Redux, plus selections from A Curmudgeon’s Garden of Love—and lots of brand-new quips, quotations, and wisdom freshly collected by compiler extraordinaire, Jon Winokur.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and featuring special sections on such world-class grumps as H.L. Mencken, John Simon, W.C. Fields, and Dorothy Parker, the book is the last witty word on all things cynical, snide, and hilariously grouchy.

Equally suited to the "humor" and "reference" sections, The Big Curmudgeon is filled with the pithiest, smartest things ever said by the wittiest people who ever lived..
Price: $0.40 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Wildly successful when it was first published in 1955, Patrick Dennis’ Auntie Mame sold over two million copies and stayed put on the New York Times bestseller list for 112 weeks. It was made into a play, a Broadway as well as a Hollywood musical, and a fabulous movie starring Rosalind Russell. Since then, Mame has taken her rightful place in the pantheon of Great and Important People as the world’s most beloved, madcap, devastatingly sophisticated, and glamorous aunt. She is impossible to resist, and this hilarious story of an orphaned ten-year-old boy sent to live with his aunt is as delicious a read in the twenty-first century as it was in the 1950s..
Price: $4.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"All thinking men are atheists," Ernest Hemingway famously wrote. True? Here are quips, quotes, and questions from a distinguished assortment of geniuses and jokers, giving readers a chance to decide for themselves....

When I think of all the harm [the bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.
Oscar Wilde

SAINT, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
Ambrose Bierce

There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.
Gertrude Stein

Do not let yourself be deceived: great intellects are skeptical.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Susan Ertz

God is love, but get it in writing.
Gypsy Rose Lee

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw

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Price: $8.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

If you've ever wanted to know how to break into the sexy world of erotic photography, this is your guide. Lori tells you in a no-holds-barred style how to find and work with high profile adult models including Playboy Playmates and Penthouse Pets, how to contract and pay them, the etiquette of nude photography, where and how to exhibit your work, the truth about making money in the internet adult business, legal issues, the importance of make-up and set design, and much much more. The book also includes sample model releases, legal wording, diagrams of Lori's favorite lighting setups including some of her favorite images shot that way, and resources for getting started. The writing is done in a fun, brassy, tell-it-like-it-is style that will have you blushing and laughing alike..
Price: $11.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Captures the unique style of fashion maverick Iris Apfel and her exuberantly idiosyncratic personal chic.

With remarkable panache and discernment, Iris Apfel combines styles, colors, textures, and patterns without regard to period, provenance, or aesthetic conventions. Now in her mid-eighties, she is a unique style icon.

Over ninety sumptuous color plates, photographed by Eric Boman, show off a selection of Apfel's extraordinary outfits on wittily posed mannequins, some sporting her trademark outsized spectacles. The originality of her style is typically revealed in her mixing of Dior haute couture with flea-market finds, Dolce & Gabbana lizard trousers with nineteenth-century ecclesiastical vestments, pink Lanvin worn with ropes of Navajo turquoise. Apfel's eclectic pieces might come from a Parisian couture house, an American thrift shop, or a North African souk, or they may have been made to her own design in a tiny studio.

Detailed captions describe every aspect of the outfits, including names and dates of designers, plus full information on fabrics and accessories. A selection of audacious accessories also comes under the spotlight: a giant necklace made of bear claws, a turn-of-the-century Indian horse ornament worn as a necklace, a parrot's-head brooch in colored glass and rhinestones.

The book includes an introduction by Harold Koda, director of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an essay by Apfel herself, describing her lifelong love affair with style and illustrated with vintage photographs from her personal collection. 169 illustrations, 149 in color..
Price: $28.67 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Welcome to the Custer Hill Club - a men's club set in an Adirondack hunting lodge whose members include some of America's most powerful business leaders, military men, and government officials. Ostensibly, the club is a place to relax with old friends. But one fall weekend, the club's Executive Board gathers to talk about 9/11 - and finalize a retaliation plan, known only by its code name: WILD FIRE. That same weekend, a member of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force is found dead. Soon it's up to Detective John Corey and his wife, FBI Agent Kate Mayfield, to unravel a plot that starts with the Custer Hill Club and ends with American cities locked in the crosshairs of a nuclear device. Only Corey and Mayfield can stop the button from being pushed, and global chaos from being unleashed... More chilling than yesterday's headlines and as prophetic as tomorrow's, Wild Fire will challenge you to question everything you thought you knew about your leaders and your country while thrilling you with suspense that builds with every page..
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