Rating: 
Summary: Possibly funny, but childish
Review: The concept for the Darwin Awards is flawless. Think about it: the colected stories of people whose utter lack of common sense brought about their own demise. One cannot imagine these "sublimely idiotic" people as having much of a positive contribution to society. This book is proof that God has a sense of humor.
I wish Wendy Northcutt had. Her writing is childish and silly, making light of events that could be funny in the right context. She writes as though she is explaining the whole thing to small children, and trying to impress them with big words. I will make no corny puns about the author having not evolved (that sounds like something Northcutt would write), but I quiver at the thought of meeting the loyal fans of her website and book.
Pick the book up at your bookstore. Flip through, read some of the stories (I recommend "JATO," "One, Two, Three, Heave," and "Living on Zionist Time."). However, if you find yourself laughing at every single one, please stay away from my house.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved the news letter, loved the book, the cd must great!
Review: If you haven't read the book then you are missing out! The collection really makes you wonder why we are the dominant species. Must be dumb luck. I've always said that if it weren't for our parents, natural selection would have taken most of us. Wendy I look forward to my newsletter, it is such a riot! I eagerly read it and then forward it on to others. The book sits prominently on my coffee table and it's a hit at all my parties. I can hardly wait to hear the CD! Thanks and keep up the great work!
Rating:
Summary: Weak but still freakishly compelling
Review: Okay, the Darwin Awards are a dubious notion at best, and this book reads like a collection of wildly divergent, unconnected brief tales which often -- but not always -- come to a morbid conclusion. Most have no more detail than a newspaper clipping, which is generally their source. As anything more than a way to pass the time, this collection is worthless.But as time-passers go, you could do a lot worse. I found myself barely able to put the book down as I scanned entries, hoping and expecting that the next tale would be more interesting than the stupid one I just read. I was rewarded just enough to keep me coming back for more. This book is in the tradition of those odd "Best worst and most unusual" and "Panati's beginnings/endings of things" that kept me up late nights during my early teen years.
Rating:
Summary: Did I laugh at that ?
Review: This book deserves inclusion in the Encyclopedia of Bad Tastes. It is laughter at the expense of others - but I must admit that I did laugh more than I'd like to admit. This collection of bizarre, violent stories is strangly funny at times, hopefully in that we laugh at the folly of common humanity. On another level it is deeply disturbing and includes reports of people left not dead, but grotesquely maimed, by thier misadventures. It felt a bit like finding myself numbered among the gawking audience at a circus sideshow of tragic human oddities, and it approached poking fun at the handicapped given that some degree of mental illness likely played a role in a few of the tragic capers. I was less unsettled by the 'Honorable Mention' stories that left the subjects shaken but relativley unscathed, though presumably wiser. I even made a nomination to this catagory on Wendy Northcutt's website and I appreciated the debunking of urban legends, many of which I had heard in some form and wondered about. That the book held my interest to the end may say more about me than the book, and perhaps therein lies the value; a startling and thought provoking confrontation with the darker side of human nature winking at me in the mirror.
Rating: 
Summary: A chuckle a page
Review: It's a wonder there's anybody left on planet earth after Wendy Northcutt has finished. The Darwin Awards honour those amazing people who, by their own stupidity, eliminate themselves from the gene pool. And Wendy Northcutt tells us how - like the Palestinian terrorists who refused to live on Zionist time so kept their clocks on Daylight Saving Time after Israel had reverted to Standard Time. The bombs were prepared but, when the terrorist drivers entered Israel, they reset their watches to match Israeli time. BOOM, the cars were still en route when the devices exploded. This is an excellent book to be takem a bit at a time. Mine lives in the bathroom so that the few necessary minutes spent there are done so with a contented smile on my face!
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing
Review: I was rather disappointed by this book. It's simply a litany of idiots offing themselves. I'm grateful they did it before spawning, but I soon came to realize that, as often as not, they're endangering non-morons like you and I (well, maybe not you) while spectacularly entering the pages of this book. I suppose it's not the book's fault. It simply drew my attention to the dangers inherent in sharing a world with people capable of blowing themselves up with bug spray.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing, but...
Review: An amusing book, with fun stories and interesting commentary. The witty style of the writing is appealing. However, I found some inaccuracies disturbing, and there was little attempt to separate fact from fiction in some parts of the book. If you are an afficianado of the Darwin Awards (and, honestly, who isn't?) you'll enjoy this book. If you are a hard-core researcher of the veracity of urban legends, however, some parts of this book might irritate you.
Rating:
Summary: No substitute for wit.
Review: The actual stories are 'amusing', very much like the old Fortean Times 'Strange Deaths' section. The disturbing thing is that the collection is delivered in a supercilious and deeply banal commentary - Wendy is no Oscar Wilde. We K N O W these people are making mistakes...! It all comes accross like an undignified child, sniggering and pointing a finger at an afflicted wretch. There is also a strange attempt to turn the 'Darwin Awards' into some kind of phenomenon, as if it were somehow more important than the stories it collects.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly horrid!
Review: This book not only showed how horrid and condescending an author can be, but how to make your reader SNORE. I felt that Wendy Northcutt's writing was trivial, and dull. She not only pushed her idea that fools should not be allowed to live through darwins discovery of natural selection. I'm still confused at how Wendy Northcutt survived as a writer, i had figured there would be natrual selection when it came to writers. Sadly her and her writing has not been killed off, yet. Not funny, and a book only to fill one with scorn.
Rating:
Summary: Don't exclude yourself.....
Review: .....from the gene-pool of curious readers. I think it was Albert Einstein who was quoted as saying that two things that are infinite: the universe and ignorance,and he wasn't sure about the universe. I've read several of these 'unbelievable but true' short stories types, but this is undoubtedly the very best. The basic premise is that the stories are "evolution-in-action", and the winners have helped further the cause of the 'better thinkers' of humanity. Although some of these stories are 'hard' to believe, they are, in fact actually true, including several that occured in New Jersey, that made, at worst, 'page two'. Be warned, though, for an average reader, this is a read once and give away, as a healthy intellect will see the (extreme)humor in many of these incidents once. (So get a paperback or used copy if you can). The unbelievable 'lack-of-logic' of the true stories will impress the reader on the first reading. Still finding it funny on second or third reading may have Darwinian implications.
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