Rating: 
Summary: Highly "educational" :-)
Review: Okay, I'll admit that Dave Barry has written books that are much funnier than "Dave Barry Turns 50". This is not his absolute best book by any means. However, and it sounds weird to say this, I learned a lot from it! As someone who wasn't alive until the early 1980's, a lot of the jokes about musical groups, politicians, etc. went over my head, but his year-by-year account of what he calls "the formative boomer years" taught me a lot about the things that were going on in the world at that point in history.One of my favorite things about Barry is his ability to be informative, genuine, and funny at the same time. Yes, his writing can be very immature and silly at times, but he has shown himself more than once to be a man with opinions and a great deal of knowledge who just happens to have a juvenile side. I especially enjoyed reading the section about the Vietnam war, the draft, and the protests that went along with it. This is a great book, as Dave Barry books usually are. I hope he keeps writing, even though he's getting to be an "old fart" :-)
Rating:
Summary: Highly "educational" :-)
Review: Okay, I'll admit that Dave Barry has written books that are much funnier than "Dave Barry Turns 50". This is not his absolute best book by any means. However, and it sounds weird to say this, I learned a lot from it! As someone who wasn't alive until the early 1980's, a lot of the jokes about musical groups, politicians, etc. went over my head, but his year-by-year account of what he calls "the formative boomer years" taught me a lot about the things that were going on in the world at that point in history. One of my favorite things about Barry is his ability to be informative, genuine, and funny at the same time. Yes, his writing can be very immature and silly at times, but he has shown himself more than once to be a man with opinions and a great deal of knowledge who just happens to have a juvenile side. I especially enjoyed reading the section about the Vietnam war, the draft, and the protests that went along with it. This is a great book, as Dave Barry books usually are. I hope he keeps writing, even though he's getting to be an "old fart" :-)
Rating:
Summary: Highly "educational" :-)
Review: Okay, I'll admit that Dave Barry has written books that are much funnier than "Dave Barry Turns 50". This is not his absolute best book by any means. However, and it sounds weird to say this, I learned a lot from it! As someone who wasn't alive until the early 1980's, a lot of the jokes about musical groups, politicians, etc. went over my head, but his year-by-year account of what he calls "the formative boomer years" taught me a lot about the things that were going on in the world at that point in history. One of my favorite things about Barry is his ability to be informative, genuine, and funny at the same time. Yes, his writing can be very immature and silly at times, but he has shown himself more than once to be a man with opinions and a great deal of knowledge who just happens to have a juvenile side. I especially enjoyed reading the section about the Vietnam war, the draft, and the protests that went along with it. This is a great book, as Dave Barry books usually are. I hope he keeps writing, even though he's getting to be an "old fart" :-)
Rating: 
Summary: a touch of maturity in there, too
Review: The guy is gross, goofy, really really funny, but he's not the tenage moron he sets you up for. I read this book on my way to Japan for the first time. It was a great flight companion and every word of it turned out to be true. How he could get such insights out of so short a trip, with kids in tow amazes me, but my point here is that he handled the tough stuff--racism, pacifism...you know, the NOT FUNNY!!! stuff...with the compusure of a monk! Really. I would have read the book just for the profound insights (sorry Dave). As it happened my trip coincided with Bush's declaration of war on Iraq. Had I not read his chapter on Hiroshima, I would have been blindsided by the questions I was asked in highschool classrooms about the American attitude toward war. Intestinal fortitude or not, I vote for Dave to represent us around the globe.
Rating: 
Summary: The editor enjoys Dave Barry, too!
Review: There is no subject too grim for Dave's brand of humor. For instance, take death. Dave has a chapter in DAVE BARRY TURNS 50 called CONFRONTING THE INEVITABILITY OF DEATH You Go Ahead. I'm Gonna Watch THE SIMPSONS in which he says: "Death comes to all living things except crabgrass. We all know this, but most of us don't think about death much when we're young, because we're preoccupied with the concerns of youth, such as sex, and work, and having sex at work" The editor loves this as well as the rest of Dave's funniest yet. Be prepared to laugh.
Rating: 
Summary: Smiles, not laughs
Review: This book consisted of three different parts, stapled together. First we have Dave's reflections on turning 50, which are, frankly, a little morbid and not that funny. (Some of these appear at the beginning and some at the end of the book). Then we have the "year-by-year" review of his life and the world around him starting from his birth (1947) to 1974 when he more or less lost interest. Problem here is that some fairly awful things happened in those years and he knows he can't make jokes about them, so he mixes his humor with moral righteousness so that you know the HE was against the war (although he doesn't seem to have done much about it except get CO status for which it's fairly clear he didn't really qualify). The juxtaposition of jokes with the tone of moral outrage doesn't go that well. And finally he has a few very funny, typically Barry, obviously stand-alone type pieces on things like how to get your kid into college. But here's what I really want to know --- I only have a few Barry books but they all mention his wife, Beth. Now his wife, as per the dedication, appears to be "Michelle" and seems to be a lot younger than he is. Did Dave make a mid-life switch? And how can he poke fun at all the other late-middle-aged peccadillos and not mention this most-stereotyped one of his own?
Rating:
Summary: Smiles, not laughs
Review: This book consisted of three different parts, stapled together. First we have Dave's reflections on turning 50, which are, frankly, a little morbid and not that funny. (Some of these appear at the beginning and some at the end of the book). Then we have the "year-by-year" review of his life and the world around him starting from his birth (1947) to 1974 when he more or less lost interest. Problem here is that some fairly awful things happened in those years and he knows he can't make jokes about them, so he mixes his humor with moral righteousness so that you know the HE was against the war (although he doesn't seem to have done much about it except get CO status for which it's fairly clear he didn't really qualify). The juxtaposition of jokes with the tone of moral outrage doesn't go that well. And finally he has a few very funny, typically Barry, obviously stand-alone type pieces on things like how to get your kid into college. But here's what I really want to know --- I only have a few Barry books but they all mention his wife, Beth. Now his wife, as per the dedication, appears to be "Michelle" and seems to be a lot younger than he is. Did Dave make a mid-life switch? And how can he poke fun at all the other late-middle-aged peccadillos and not mention this most-stereotyped one of his own?
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Surprisingly Touching
Review: This book has all the Dave Barry touches we have come to love (the sophomoric humor, the non-sequitors, the belly laughs at the expense of the pompous and ridiculous). But this book also explores exactly why Baby Boomers are the way they are. Barry's year-by-year description of our lives and times is by turns funny, insightful, and suprisingly touching.
Rating:
Summary: Not Dave's funniest book,
Review: This is not Dave's funniest book, nor even his best-written. But it's still very funny, and still worth reading. It has a section that involves reminiscences of the "formative" boomer years from 1947-1974, plus various ruminations on getting older, and is well worth reading when you want a few chuckles.
Rating:
Summary: Barry's Decrepit. His Humor Isn't. This Book Is Great.
Review: Wow. For Boomers, this book is mildly disturbing and spectacularly funny. Barry uses his take-no-prisoners humor adroitly to plumb the sorry state of our bodies and souls. For Gen Y'ers, like my daughter, it provides a thrilling glimpse at what utterly FABULOUS feebs her parents were when they were her age. Like the best of Barry's work (if you read his brilliant book on Guys, you will know what I mean) there lurks within a terrifically funny book a terrifically profound message.
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