Rating: 
Summary: A classic from PJ!
Review: O'Rourke takes a comical look at some of the more 'important' issues in our society, such as overpopulation, famine, racism, and poverty. With his usual wit, he reveals that many of the problems are not as bad as the 'professional worriers' make them out to be. He provides an interesting (and original) commentary on many of today's issues, whilst at the same time providing us with many a laugh. One of PJ's finest
Rating:
Summary: O'Rourke travels to the world's most miserable places.
Review: O'Rourke travels to the world's most miserable places (Bangladesh, Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti). He finds that the people seem relatively happy despite their miserable circumstances and their miserable circumstances are generally brought about by government (big surprise there) or ethnic differences or both. Since our own government is already responsible for much of our misery and they are certainly trying to highlight and escalate our ethnic differences, there is a good lesson here for anyone who would cast a vote for Al Gore. Anyway, just pick this book up and read the first chapter on Bangladesh. It's the best one in the book and I can guarantee you will want to read the whole thing afterwards.
Rating: 
Summary: P.J. fiddles as Rome burns; we dance.
Review: Once again, P.J. O'Rourke pulls us through a big, nasty tangle of complicated issues-All the Trouble in the World is a gleeful, drunken swim through a pool of sharks. In essence, the book takes everything that you are told to worry about and gives it a slow leak. A lesser writer would make fun of the topic in an attempt at humor; mockery is not P.J.'s approach or point. Instead, he skillfully explains how issues du jour are given their spin. It's not the disaster, the famine, or the disease that P.J. is talking about - it's the difference between the perception and the reality.
Whether you are right, left, or middle-All the Trouble in the World will illuminate and cheer. This is the literary equivalent of a really fine bottle of sipping whiskey.
Rating:
Summary: Not PJ's best, but thought provoking.
Review: P J O'Rourke has always made me laugh. I've never really considered him a "conservative", just someone who enjoys poking fun at people. Liberals just normally have more to ridicule and don't normally have that great a sense of humor. (Witness Al Franken who had the broadside of a barn to hit with Rush Limbaugh and missed almost completely). The problem, if you can call it that, with this book is that it isn't funny enough. The travelogue through the most hellish places on earth is sporadically funny, and often hits many targets, but only really caught fire when he visited his alma mater and made fun of the groups that he saw, especially the men against pornography. At any rate, PJ comes off pretty balanced in this book, and one suspects he may be more of a "liberal" than he admits. But I was still waiting for more of the wit that made Give War a Chance and Holidays in Hell so amusing.
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Summary: Skewer the liberals and roast their ideas.
Review: P.J. O'Rourke gets it right. First time and everytime. I appreciate the logical perspective he puts on his selected issues. From population to pollution, he shows the liberal slant in reporting is not reality. Funny how the population of Bangladesh is frightening, but not in Fremont, California, though both places have the same density. O'Rourke has a fun writing style and a propensity to use words that makes many readers cringe as they reach for their dictionaries. The man is truely a master of his craft.
Rating:
Summary: Skewer the liberals and roast their ideas.
Review: P.J. O'Rourke gets it right. First time and everytime. I appreciate the logical perspective he puts on his selected issues. From population to pollution, he shows the liberal slant in reporting is not reality. Funny how the population of Bangladesh is frightening, but not in Fremont, California, though both places have the same density. O'Rourke has a fun writing style and a propensity to use words that makes many readers cringe as they reach for their dictionaries. The man is truely a master of his craft.
Rating:
Summary: P. J. is a Genius
Review: P.J. O'Rourke is a cross between Thomas Paine and your funny drunk uncle. All his books are a must read because not only are they a wealth of knowledge and information, but they are also very, very funny.
Rating:
Summary: puncturing the balloons of do-gooders
Review: P.J. O'Rourke is funny and smart. I could do without his I'm-a-real-naughty-guy asides but he backs up his in-your-face opinions -- most of the time anyway -- with solid analysis. It's pretty clear that nobody reads O'Rourke except conservatives and libertarians. Everybody who has reviewed this book has given it high marks which tells me that everyone who has read it agrees with what O'Rourke has to say. A liberal would give it one star and attack it and his review would be worth reading if it was intelligently written -- an oxymoron, O'Rourke might say. O'Rourke travels to some of the least savory places of the world to contemplate the ills of mankind and he finds, to his surprise, that he rather likes some people he meets -- Vietnamese and Haitians -- and he comes up with a semi-hopeful scenario for mankind. Al Gore, who was Vice President when this book was written, is the chief butt of his jokes, as are gray-suited UN office-sitters and environmental hand-wringers. In debunking the doom-sayers, O'Rourke cites a profound principle: "Getting facts right is a fundamental requirement of morality." He excoriates Gore et al for their free and loose violation of that principle. Well, if your expectations aren't too high, you can be satisfied with this world. O'Rourke gives about a cheer and one-half for mankind. At the end of the day, he points out that through man's noble struggles and grim sacrifices" the fruit born is, um, him.
Rating:
Summary: puncturing the balloons of do-gooders
Review: P.J. O'Rourke is funny and smart. I could do without his I'm-a-real-naughty-guy asides but he backs up his in-your-face opinions -- most of the time anyway -- with solid analysis. It's pretty clear that nobody reads O'Rourke except conservatives and libertarians. Everybody who has reviewed this book has given it high marks which tells me that everyone who has read it agrees with what O'Rourke has to say. A liberal would give it one star and attack it and his review would be worth reading if it was intelligently written -- an oxymoron, O'Rourke might say. O'Rourke travels to some of the least savory places of the world to contemplate the ills of mankind and he finds, to his surprise, that he rather likes some people he meets -- Vietnamese and Haitians -- and he comes up with a semi-hopeful scenario for mankind. Al Gore, who was Vice President when this book was written, is the chief butt of his jokes, as are gray-suited UN office-sitters and environmental hand-wringers. In debunking the doom-sayers, O'Rourke cites a profound principle: "Getting facts right is a fundamental requirement of morality." He excoriates Gore et al for their free and loose violation of that principle. Well, if your expectations aren't too high, you can be satisfied with this world. O'Rourke gives about a cheer and one-half for mankind. At the end of the day, he points out that through man's noble struggles and grim sacrifices" the fruit born is, um, him.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh and Learn
Review: P.J. O'Rourke is the thinking man's John Stewart. Where Stewart is merely snarky and cutesy, O'Rourke has some actual working knowledge of the world, of history, and of human nature. In this book, he adroitly and hilariously skewers all of the "Henny Penny" sky-is-falling enviro-nazis who's holier-than-thou worship of nature is about to snuff out the human race. If you wonder why ideas like the Kyoto Protocol are so insane and ill-advised, read this book. If you've ever wondered about terrorist groups such as E.L.F., read this book. If you've ever had an unexplainable urge to snicker and hoot with derision whenever some earnest WASPy wannabe rasta mon tie-dyed tree-hugger begins to blather on about alar, read this book. In the midst of all of his cynicism and sarcasm, P.J. actually sheds a lot of light on some of the motivations, emotionalism, and deceptions of the far leftist enviro-whacko movement...how it is based in inaccuracy and ideological lunacy. He presents solid, well-researched facts in a way that is not dry, but delightfully pointed. This book is the archenemy of Al Gore's sci-fi thriller, EARTH IN THE BALANCE, and it blows the ex-Veep's book all to hell, and will leave the reader in tears of laughter. Check it out!
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