Rating: 
Summary: impressively stupid
Review: doonana should stick to window dressing, where his talent for his obsession with all things trivial WORKS. as a writer, the king of triviality and stupidity smells terribly rank.
Rating:
Summary: These women are not wacky. They're campy.
Review: I am so glad someone finally took a closer look at us.(I'm a redhead wacky chick and proud of it) Although, some of the examples were a bit extreme, he has helped me to realize I'm not looney. I am not afraid to have fun in all I do, I don't care if people judge me, and I live life to the fullest - all with a sense of humor.
Why follow the heard when you can blaze your own path?
Very inspriring and enlightening. Thanks Simon.
Rating: 
Summary: It's about time!
Review: I am so glad someone finally took a closer look at us.(I'm a redhead wacky chick and proud of it) Although, some of the examples were a bit extreme, he has helped me to realize I'm not looney. I am not afraid to have fun in all I do, I don't care if people judge me, and I live life to the fullest - all with a sense of humor.
Why follow the heard when you can blaze your own path?
Very inspriring and enlightening. Thanks Simon.
Rating: 
Summary: Lighthearted, Fun Reading...and Inspirational, to Boot
Review: I purchased this book out of respect for my late grandmother and great-grandmother - both of them sublimely wacky ladies. I had been thinking of them, and just happened upon this book - maybe it was meant to be. As I leafed through the pages, I found myself laughing out loud at the stories and witty writing style - I had to have it. And, upon reading the book cover to cover, was delighted. At last, a brave soul (only the likes of Simon Doonan could do it) has stepped forward, and lauded the zany lifestyles and pasttimes of these women - what society otherwise calls "characters". Here they are in all their loony glory - raising reptiles, creating burlesque home decor, fashioning spandex biker garb, writing up radical cheerleading rhymes...the tales don't stop, and come at you at rapid-fire speed. And not in a disrespectful, exploitative manner - it's done so with great respect, and an often bittersweet tinge. These wacky women didn't get that way by accident - there are some sad stories involved. But these only serve to enhance the overall feel of the book - these ladies are real people with great depth, not cartoony caricatures. And as far as my own wacky ancestors? Well, having read this book only makes me admire them all the more, and hope to embrace their eccentricities as my own. Maybe times have changed, and maybe I'll never have to endure the hardships they had to (the Great Depression, social pressures, Great Wars, poverty...you name it), but thanks to this book, I have a much greater appreciation of their survival instincts, and sense of fun in the face of adversity. This book surely opened my eyes even more to their greatness, and to the unique nature of all "wacky chicks".
Rating:
Summary: Lighthearted, Fun Reading...and Inspirational, to Boot
Review: I purchased this book out of respect for my late grandmother and great-grandmother - both of them sublimely wacky ladies. I had been thinking of them, and just happened upon this book - maybe it was meant to be. As I leafed through the pages, I found myself laughing out loud at the stories and witty writing style - I had to have it. And, upon reading the book cover to cover, was delighted. At last, a brave soul (only the likes of Simon Doonan could do it) has stepped forward, and lauded the zany lifestyles and pasttimes of these women - what society otherwise calls "characters". Here they are in all their loony glory - raising reptiles, creating burlesque home decor, fashioning spandex biker garb, writing up radical cheerleading rhymes...the tales don't stop, and come at you at rapid-fire speed. And not in a disrespectful, exploitative manner - it's done so with great respect, and an often bittersweet tinge. These wacky women didn't get that way by accident - there are some sad stories involved. But these only serve to enhance the overall feel of the book - these ladies are real people with great depth, not cartoony caricatures. And as far as my own wacky ancestors? Well, having read this book only makes me admire them all the more, and hope to embrace their eccentricities as my own. Maybe times have changed, and maybe I'll never have to endure the hardships they had to (the Great Depression, social pressures, Great Wars, poverty...you name it), but thanks to this book, I have a much greater appreciation of their survival instincts, and sense of fun in the face of adversity. This book surely opened my eyes even more to their greatness, and to the unique nature of all "wacky chicks".
Rating:
Summary: These women are not wacky. They're campy.
Review: I wish Simon Doonan would write a book about all the wacky guys he knows. Now that would be a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Wacky Chicks are Fabulously Funny Birds
Review: If you have ever looked askance at the lady next door who keeps iguanas, wears fishnets and sliced spandex, paints with crystals, sports a blue mohawk do and says whatever is on her mind at the moment - Get Over It! Simon Doonan has recognized a great truth: Wacky Chicks, those brave one-of-a-kind babes who do their own thing in their own way, are very cool. Worship them! says Doonan. They're not only having much more fun than their dress-for-success having-it-all sisters. They are the "screetching apotheosis" of feminist achievement and their lives the ultimate proof that "Womens Lib" worked after all! Here are 14 colorful mini biographies (16 if you count the author's Mum and Gran) to prove it! Doonans deliciously provocative Chicks are out to B.R.U.N.C.H. - "Belligerent, Resilient, Uninhibited, Naughty, Creative and Hilarious" in flamboyant plumage. His riotous take on their lives is as non stop flat out over the top hilarious as the rare birds themselves. For a fearlessly funny and fabulously feathered summer treat read Wacky Chicks. By the way, I'm one of them. I know Simon will have you laughing and loving us too. Just don't forget the worship part, 'cause honey, we earned it!
Rating:
Summary: Wacky Chicks are Fabulously Funny Birds
Review: If you have ever looked askance at the lady next door who keeps iguanas, wears fishnets and sliced spandex, paints with crystals, sports a blue mohawk do and says whatever is on her mind at the moment - Get Over It! Simon Doonan has recognized a great truth: Wacky Chicks, those brave one-of-a-kind babes who do their own thing in their own way, are very cool. Worship them! says Doonan. They're not only having much more fun than their dress-for-success having-it-all sisters. They are the "screetching apotheosis" of feminist achievement and their lives the ultimate proof that "Womens Lib" worked after all! Here are 14 colorful mini biographies (16 if you count the author's Mum and Gran) to prove it! Doonans deliciously provocative Chicks are out to B.R.U.N.C.H. - "Belligerent, Resilient, Uninhibited, Naughty, Creative and Hilarious" in flamboyant plumage. His riotous take on their lives is as non stop flat out over the top hilarious as the rare birds themselves. For a fearlessly funny and fabulously feathered summer treat read Wacky Chicks. By the way, I'm one of them. I know Simon will have you laughing and loving us too. Just don't forget the worship part, 'cause honey, we earned it!
Rating:
Summary: Shades of the Butterfly
Review: Men and women are incredibly complex creatures, especially by the time they reach the age of 25 or so, the time they begin to search for compatible mates. Women too often are undeveloped in that they are not the explorers they might be, and men are more likely than not to have been more explorers than they can handle sufficient to reduce themselves to the stability of marital life, bliss or not, requiring the kinds of responsibilities expected from husbands. This dissonance is not easily abridged by couples, heterosexual or homosexual. Still completing development from childhood, and conditioned by society in all manner of inconsistent methods of marital intimacy, and even possibly of dishonor of women, a relationship is unlikely to reach the breadth and depth required of marriage without each insisting upon their own unique personality, that, hopefully, will coincide with each other to produce a fruitful relationship that complements rather than supplements. While every person brings supplemental attributes to a union, complementary traits are critical to its survival. Hence, pretense and good behavior is always wrong. First, it never stays good, and it usually can't survive the brighter light of day in its pretense over long periods. Wishing is best for stars, and fountains; not for relationships. They either work or they don't, with some modicum of flexibility. They are either inspirational to each other, or they are not. They believe in each other or not; they allow each other the freedom required of healthy living or they don't, without serious accommodation and without stalking each other. Any occasion of stalking is usually a bad sign, showing distrust, mistrust, and weak flaws that show an undeveloped relationship, if not one incompatible and incomplementary. Compatiblity always shows without effort and without the need for show. Commitment is always a two way street, and cannot work otherwise since one is always left behind, usually repetively, and usually always the same one. Reciprocity always works, always honors, and is usually attentive enough to qualify as love. Very little else is. When it is unlikely to work, the signs are visible and deep, both to the individuals and publicly. Compatibles do become like each other and don't seek others, as close friends or as lovers. Either shows defects that may be insurmountable and will require an eternal uphill battle to survive, usually without considerable success. Forced decisions rarely turn out good because the commitment of both has not had time to develop sufficiently. It is not about freedom, but about commitment. With commitment, there is no need of restraint...the butterfly comes to rest where it is most comfortable and wants to be, be it male or female. Love can produce discontent, but not wanderlust. Wanderlust shows a desire for more. Discontent shows burdens difficult to bear. Where wanderlust exists, dissatisfaction exists from lack of readiness and commitment, not necessarily lack of desire or lack of ambition. Adaptability is the only recourse for lack of readiness along the faulty and struggling path of reducing potential alternatives into the too small space because of the ill fit, representing opportunities lost, or perceived as lost, causing regret and forced self containment. It is a sad outcome as the basis for a relationship that was designed for flowering, and developing into the blossom designed for it, preferably before the potential of children become the self selected boundary of reality contemplated. Nature provides the impetus for these life inspirations if couples are well matched and ready for commitment to each other, knowledgeable and open to the changes that naturally affect each, altering the individual into one half of a couple ready to embrace the difficulties of life's challenges together.
Rating:
Summary: NAUGHTY, CREATIVE, AND HILARIOUS!
Review: Reading "Wacky Chicks" is very much like dishing with a best friend. Of course, this friend knows everything, sees everything, and tells all about the most outrageous women imaginable. If you're lucky enough to have Simon Doonan as your friend he doesn't relate information disparagingly but rather affectionately and in delicious detail.
This all too short romp through the lives of the bold, brazen and sometimes beautiful is subtitled "Life Lessons from Fearlessly Inappropriate and Fabulously Eccentric Women." Rightly so. We meet Brigid Berlin, a rather chubby Andy Warhol adoptee who through this artist discovered an excellent venue for her exhibitionism - whether it was shooting whipped cream into her mouth or shooting mind altering substances into not-mentioned-in-polite-society body parts. Today, according to Doonan, she can be found in a Park Avenue apartment. Gray haired and well groomed, she appears to be the stereotypical well-to-do matron. Don't be fooled. There's a needlepoint pillow which is a portrait of Yasir Arafat with the words "They're Our Cousins" on it. Companion pillows are Chandra Levy and Michael Jackson. It seems that few Wacky Chicks age gracefully; they simply age with a flare. Pages in this sometimes ditzy, always delightful tell-all also include vignettes about Isabel Garrett, doyenne and driver of a motor home which hop scotches across the United States with pit stops at swinger conventions and biker rallies. Whether or not she drives in the all-together is not mentioned, but she is a sworn nudist. Someone on planet Earth has produced, written, and performed macrobiotic dinner theater; she is Jessica Porter, hypnotist to numerous celebrities. Having read this far, it almost comes as no surprise that Amy Sedaris, chief of everything of the Comedy Central series Strangers with Candy, has transformed her apartment into a woodland wonderland all for the benefit of her beloved pet rabbit, Tattle-tale. According to our erstwhile author, "Wacky chicks are a burgeoning and highly entertaining phenomenon. Wacky chicks will change the world. Wacky chicks dare to annoy. Wacky chicks empower themselves and others without acting like blokes. Wacky chicks are having more fun than most regular chicks and all men, except maybe gay men. Wacky chicks are disapproval-immune. Wacky chicks are belligerent, resilient, uninhibited, naughty, creative, and hilarious...." So is Simon Doonan. - Gail Cooke
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