Rating: 
Summary: Another Franken Masterpiece
Review: Al Franken has nearly trumped his other great works (Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, Why Not Me?, and I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!) with "Oh, the Things I Know." He has retrieved his crown as the greatest living political satirist. Beware: there isn't much of his terrific liberal humor in this book, but this book, like all of his others, kept me laughing. Always taking shots at himself, Franken offers hilarious insight into the quirks of life. I hope that everyone who reads this will read his book. While rather short, "Oh, the Things I Know" is filled with a wealth of Franken's knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Franken At His Funniest
Review: Al Franken has written another acerbic and hilarious book that's a must read for all who've grown tired of living in Dr. Phil's America.Every page is a testament to Franken's humor, intelligence and delight in the absurdities of our culture. And whether you thought Rush Limbaugh was indeed a big, fat idiot or a prophet of the modern age (albeit a deaf one), "Oh, The Things I Know" will simply make you laugh out loud.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, the laughs you'll have!
Review: Al Franken's latest offering takes the form of an advice book supposedly targetted at college graduates. But unlike his previous books, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Why Not Me?, which were filled with the humor of a true political junkie, there is relatively little political humor in this book. Instead, it is replete with joke after hilarious joke about the roller coaster ride of life. The book is relatively short (I read it from cover to cover in a couple of hours), but just about every page elicited a hearty belly laugh. Franken is a master of understatement and satire. More than any humor book I've read before, most paragraphs have been written as their own carefully crafted, self-contained jokes. But Franken ties them all together so as to weave a coherent whole. Be warned: like Franken's other books, some of the humor is a bit off-color and risque. But unless you're a complete prude, you'll love it. Also, although the book lampoons some current figures of popular culture, most all of the humor should stand the test of time relatively well. My only complaint with the book is that it's relatively expensive for its length. However, the laugh-to-dollar ratio is quite high...
Rating:
Summary: Oh the fun you'll have while feeling totally demoralized!
Review: Al Franken...you really need to give all the proceeds of this book to your wife...and maybe that will begin to make up for all the fun we're having at her expense! Franken, author of one of my most favorite titled books of all time, "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot", scores another winner with this little book. With his sharp wit and conversational style (you can almost hear him speaking these words while you read them), he leads us through the too-often-times hellacious rollercoaster ride of life. He starts with college graduation and goes forward, till the bitter end of life and beyond. It's quite a journey through most of life's misadventures. The title, is done in Dr. Seussian style and that style is repeated throughout the contents. Examples include chapters titled: "Oh, you shouldn't skip the introduction"; "Oh, the drugs you will take"; "Oh, the orgasms you will fake". In the drug chapter, he advises people to use drugs responsibly, and that he would be a hypocrite to say not to use them at all, as he is high on drugs right now "prescription drugs, but drugs nonetheless". I can believe that one, but I can't believe his statement in "Oh pick a religion, any religion", that "he has absolutely no idea what he will write next". Franken knows what he wants to say and how to say it. There's a whole lot of practical advice -- ok, maybe not so practical. Some examples include: every marriage has a "stomach-turning" phase you need to get yourself through. Or, how about, "try to view your stay in a nursing home as merely temporary, because in one way or another, it is". There's some advice for men: resist the temptation to cheat on your wife, and try instead to make sex with her reasonably diverting, by thinking about a younger, more attractive woman. Along with his suffering wife, he gets some jabs in at Bill Gates, Kenneth Lay, Ann Quindlen and Maria Shriver to name a few. He shamelessly dedicates his book to that inspiration to us all, (especially to wannabe book-of-the-month club authors such as himself), Oprah. All in all a funny book, almost worthy of five stars. "AL" (see the drug chapter) would probably want me to conclude this review by saying something like, oh well, if you can't be successful, just be happy. "AL" Franken does makes us feel happy, despite all of our shortcomings, or perhaps, because of them.
Rating: 
Summary: "WE ARE BORN ALONE AND WE DIE ALONE"
Review: I like Al Franken, the comedian, and, based on some of his other books, I generally like Al Franken, the writer. This book has just enough of each for me to give it, what certain TV movie critics call a "reluctant, or borderline, thumbs up." Franken has certainly done better in other books. Sometimes I just can't figure out if he really means for us to take the advice he gives seriously, or if it is the bad advice he has promised to occasionally slip in, or if it is, purely and simply, an attempt at comedy. Hence my ambivalence. For the moment, I am going to concentrate on some of the more meaningful of his comments: In a chapter titled "Oh The Loneliness, The Loneliness," he comments that we are born alone and that we die alone, even though we may be surrounded, in both cases, by family and friends. Unfortunately, this truly describes the human condition, and the happy man or woman is one who has learned to accommodate this existential (my description, not his) loneliness. Another bit of good advice is that we should prepare for our declining years by anticipating the possibility for the future need of a nursing home or "assisted living facility," and check them out and pick one that we might like if we ever need one. This should be done while we are still young enough to make a valid assessment. These are just two exmples of the better advice he gives. Of lesser value are things like his discussion of the "inevitable" really horrible experiences during the middle years of a marriage. He apologizes to his wife in the afterword, but I think that, even if these chapters were meant to be humorous, they missed the boat. I also found his advice that one must pick a religion in order to get through the tougher parts of life to be less than valid. He never seems to have considered such secular answers to life's so-called mysteries as Humanism. One can get through life's downs without resorting to answers from the god of his or her choice. Thus, it is my opinion that there are other ways to get survive these tough times than by resorting to an organized religion. He also has listed modern religions in order of usefulness. These rankings might be subject to questioning. In summary then, the better and poorer suggestions tend to counterbalance one another, and the discerning reader will probably find some ideas that are of use to him or her.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Standard Franken
Review: I think fans of Franken's political satire books will find this book a sad change of pace. While certainly not the worst book of the year and even funny in some places, Franken's trademark bite is curiously lacking. Perhaps one of the strangest things Franken tries to do several times throughout the book is to change pace abruptly from comedy to serious advice. It does not work well, and is almost a pardoy of itself in that sense. Although the sections on marriage are often well-written and humorous, Franken partisans should know they aren't getting Al at his best here. True fans won't mind, but the casual reader will want to wait for another book in the political medium Franken seems to save the best of his talent for.
Rating:
Summary: Not Standard Franken
Review: I think fans of Franken's political satire books will find this book a sad change of pace. While certainly not the worst book of the year and even funny in some places, Franken's trademark bite is curiously lacking. Perhaps one of the strangest things Franken tries to do several times throughout the book is to change pace abruptly from comedy to serious advice. It does not work well, and is almost a pardoy of itself in that sense. Although the sections on marriage are often well-written and humorous, Franken partisans should know they aren't getting Al at his best here. True fans won't mind, but the casual reader will want to wait for another book in the political medium Franken seems to save the best of his talent for.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, satirist Al Franken gets BETTER AND BETTER!
Review: If Dr. Suess could order from Amazon.com from where he is now, he would be rolling -- with laughter -- in his grave. Al Franken spoofs the title of The Doctor's hit book and sticks it to the many self-help and inspirational books along the way. Franken is the early 21st century's perfect satirist, mixing late 20th century irony with HUGE vaudevillian, television and comedy club-style belly laughs. I liked this book better than his most popular book, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. Franken's genius is that he never overexposes himself so each book is a deliciously fresh comedy morsel -- and he keeps getting better, more perceptive and FUNNIER.
The laughs start early, when he talks about his pipe-smoking, good-humored father and how "this quantity time spent with my father, laughing and coughing phlegm...inspired me in choosing my life's work: making people laugh and raising money for the American Lung Association." Chapter titles are hilarious. Among the many: "OH! The People You Must Trample to Get Ahead!" "Oh! The Weight You Will Gain," etc. He throws in heaping helping of advice on such wide-ranging matters as sex, home ownership, religion, idiot bosses,
marriage, politicians, international long distance phone calls (complete with area code list)-- and Northern Canada.
He constantly lampoons tiresome exercises many self-help books have at the end of chapters. At the end of his chapter on advice he tells readers to make a list each night of all advice
given and gotten and at the end of a year "take a day to go through your 365 advice lists."He offers observations, such as how people don't change: "The person you marry will be the same person you will want to murder five, ten or twenty years hence.." And it's worth the price of the book to read his MANY (many more than can be quoted here!)running-gag references to people such as Oprah, fired Enron CEO Kenneth Lay ("If an investment sounds too good to be true, Kenneth Lay is probably involved.") and Maria Shriver ("If I wanted something to read that didn't make any sense, I'd just read Maria Shriver's book."). And what about conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who provided him with considerable material (and a title) for a best-selling book? In an extensive section Franken offers this (limited) olive branch: "When I wrote a book calling him a big fat idiot, he lost weight and became slightly more accurate."
Rating:
Summary: A clever satire but,
Review: It's a quick read, and you never know if Franken is being serious or not. I read it in about an hour, and there wasn't anything in there that would make me laugh out loud. Franken should stick to writing political satire, where he is much better.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, Al Franken Is A Wise Man And You Should Listen To Him!
Review: Oh, I've been a fan of Al's ever since the dawn of the Al Franken Decade. (For you younger kids who haven't learned about it yet in your History classes, the Al Franken Decade was the 1980s.)
This book is probably my favorite of all of Al's books. Besides being hilarious, it's full of a lot of great advice.
Oh, the fun I had reading it!
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