Rating: 
Summary: as funny as Seinfeld
Review: I've lived in New York City (Okay, except for a few brief years on Long Island) all my life and this book has all the energy of this place down pat. For real, it's got the wacky characters and interesting conundrums of Seinfeld (if a girl dumps you, which one of you should pick up the tab?), together with a million zingers: Smith says of his days as a slightly loopy single dude, "I played the field, and the field won." About his body, he says, "I have the build of a professional athlete: a sumo wrestler." About his efforts to grapple with weights at the gym: "When did I last push anything heavier than my luck?" The best parts of it are the scenes at the big-city muckraking tabloid, which to anyone who lives in the City will remind you just a bit of a hilarious paper called the New York Post. This book is already a hit and it's just going to get bigger.
Rating:
Summary: highly deserving of all the attention
Review: Love Monkey seems to be getting a lot of attention in the press, and if you just read the first few pages, you'll understand why. It's a comic tour de force, but additionally, it has soul. It revolves around a self-questioning, often self-defeating main character who reminded me a lot of Holden Caulfield. (OK, Catcher in the Rye is better.) His journey through the singles bars and parties of Manhattan takes him into hilarious situations (such as when the hero attempts to make an elaborate dinner for his girl despite only having one pan on his poor bachelor-pad stove), and he's surrounded by a pretty impressive cross-section of New York characters. There's the sozzled Australian hack, the cool guy with the dreadlocks who gets all the girls, and finally the object of his affection, a shy dancer who at times is just about within his reach but always seems to flit away from his grasp. Most guys (and probably girls) can point to a time in their past when they couldn't get one person out of their head no matter how hard they tried. This book takes you through that time in life with style and laughs.
Rating:
Summary: sweet comedy gem
Review: I've read a lot of books about the dating scene (time for me to write one myself, maybe....the stories I could tell!) but this is definitely one of the best ones, right up there with Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing and Good in Bed. What's a little different about this book is, it has tons of great New York City atmosphere (there are some really well done scenes that take place in the newsroom of a tabloid paper) and it also has more believable characters than a lot of the books you see nowadays. I really grew to like the main character, also his studly best friend Shooter and the various women they're after, all of whom had both pluses and minuses, just like actual people you'd meet. Towards the end it gets a little more serious and IMHO those are the very best scenes. Nice job all around.
Rating:
Summary: Like reading your ex-boyfriend's diary
Review: Finally, a book that lets you know what the guy is thinking. Love Monkey made me laugh, but it also made me think. I wish there were more books like this so I could understand what guys think!!! Anyway, if guys' little tricks and dating games ever get you down, read this book. It'll help you turn the tables on that guy you could never figure out. Also, a couple of the love scenes were really hot!!
Rating:
Summary: If you like Seinfeld and Nick Hornby...
Review: Tom Farrell is in his early thirties, and his world revolves around obtaining the un-obtainable woman- though any woman will do. While he wonders why he can't seem to score in a city seemingly full of eligible women, he cyncially philosphizes about work, new york, women, and life in general. On almost every page there are hilarious observations of characters and events during his everyday life, whether it be his co-workers at a New York tabloid, the cocktail parties he attends, or his couch. It's unclear how much Tom learns throughout the book, but he never fails to entertain. For those of you who miss new episodes of Seinfeld, and like Nick Hornby better when he isn't too sappy, this witty, entertaining, observational novel will fill the void.
Rating:
Summary: it's not P.C., it's just damn funny
Review: This book rocks. I've never read another novel that takes you inside the hip big-city dating scene with so much gusto and so much accuracy. Sex and the City? Please. That show is a fantasy. Love Monkey tells it like it is. The main guy in the book, a hack journalist named Tom, will remind girls of every immature, boyish man on the prowl they've ever dated. And the one-liners come fast and furious. "Why can't men and women understand each other?" Tom wonders. "Look to the gym, a place where, by using the exact same equipment, men hope to become larger and women hope to become smaller." Then there's the importance of alcohol as a social lubricant: "Never hit on a girl who could pass a Breathalyzer." And when Tom visits a married woman who can't ease up with the baby talk a few months after giving birth to her first kid, he wonders, "What happened to her? This woman has an M.B.A! One baby and she's Jar Jar Binks." The author may have made some enemies as a book review editor at People magazine, and some people take things way too seriously when you talk about the male/female divide, but if you're in the mood for a light, hilarious novel about relationships that has a lot more edge than the average CBS sitcom, grab a copy of this devilishly entertaining trip through the bright lights and the big city.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun, Hornby-lite read
Review: A copydesk editor for a New York tabloid dates around and moons over the 22-year-old beauty who plays with him while holding the torch for another man. Right off the bat the narrator takes funny shots at High Fidelity, knowing this book will seem like that one. Love Monkey lacks some of the poignancy and deeper insights about men that HF has to offer, but it is still very funny. I don't know how another reviewer could say there isn't one funny line in this book. Every page is chock full of about 20. The author is very clever and can turn humorous and satirical phrases like no other contemporary novelist I've read. The start is a little slow -- you wait for some plot to develop while chuckling over the one-liners. But it does get rolling once his love interest enters the scene. I like stories about young men trying to find love in the big city, and if that's your cup of tea, you'll thoroughly enjoy this one. (It also made me want to look for his byline in the books and movie section of People magazine, a section he edits.) Other recent funny novels about young men looking for love are Question of Attraction by David Nicholls and The Calligrapher by Edward Docx. I highly recommend both.
Rating:
Summary: Zip and humor and insight
Review: Finally a smart, entertaining answer to chick lit. This is the book for guys who want, no need a gender-friendly read like Bridget Jones and The Nanny Diaries, something good, fast, funny, and occasionially poignant. Smith writes with zip, humor and insight of a journalist in Manhattan, a lonely guy who is ensnared by love and then by real life. The nitwit who gave Smith's novel one star is missing one key ingredient - wit. He's simply a nit. Never mind going to the neighborhood bar for a beer and a yarn. Order this up, pop the top and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Read this now!
Review: Move over, Nick Hornby! This biting, incisive novel nails modern dating, and is laugh-out-loud funny to boot (this, by the way, is no small compliment; I don't laugh out loud easily). I've recommended it to a number of friends, and all of them have loved it. You won't go wrong with this one...
Rating: 
Summary: Chick Lit by a rooster? Thanks but no thanks.....pass
Review: Chick Lit done right is a howl. Chick Lit done poorly is a drag. Chick Lit done by a man is jarring. This is the debut novel by the People book and music Editor. Well, I have never thought People was strong in the magazine department, so maybe that explains this confused book.Basically, it covers the life of one Tom Farrell for about a half a year. He is single, in his early thirties and - gee, writes for a magazine - only, this time it's a New York Tabloid. Any comparison between Tom and the writers is...hum, names have been changed to protect the innocent??? He has a long string of ex-girl friends, and is a "love them and leave" them kind of guy, until Julia comes in his life. Instant attraction, but we never get a "real" sense of Julia other than she is involved with another guy, which our hero(??) thinks is a jerk. Tom daydreams and moons for Julia, but it does not stop him going out and chasing other women - lot of other women - so, we really see this guy is the jerk in Julia's life. It was very hard to sympathize with Tom, especially when he is being the date from hell - trying to get his date drunk so she will go to bed with him. There are genuinely funny moments, but in the end, you wonder just who this book is really for and if you really care.
|
