Joey Green's Amazing Kitchen Cures by Joey Green

Some of you might recall the name Joey Green. He's a life hack expert who has been helping people save money by using everyday household items in some very practical and often unusual ways. I seem to remember at some point he went to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and got Jay to smother peanut all over his iconic chin and use it as shaving cream. 

Joey Green's Amazing Kitchen Cures is a book in which Joey offers tips on how to cure and treat a variety of ailments using everyday ingredients like olive oil and black tea bags. Not all of his offered cures are edible. Like you can use WD-40 to help get a stuck ring off your finger or use panty hose, filled with oatmeal, as a soothing exfoliant if you have the chicken pox or shingles. Being from 2002, I'm not sure if all of the brand names Green recommends using are still in existence. Do they still make Star olive oil? 

The book can borderline on the repetitive. Let's be honest; there's only so many ways that you can tell readers how to use a Ziploc bag filled with ice as an ice pack. To combat the redundancy, Green includes factoids in each chapter about the ailments covered within. Some chapters include articles on the history of some of the household name products recommended by the author. There's also tips about when to give up on the home remedies and seek professional medical treatment. 

Not all of the suggestions seem practical or even safe. Green's chapter on sex has some ideas that border on risky. No way in the world am I ever going to use one of my credit cards as a toothpick! Even if I was to Purell and Clorox the heck out of it before hand... Google claims that some of Joey Green's suggestions are jokes. If that's true, I'm just not sure if some readers these days are able to weed out the hoaxes from tried and true cures.

I got this book at a consignment store. Good price. The shop had a couple other of Joey Green's books. Based on my experience with this read, I wouldn't mind a trip back to get them. Now that I understand the formula of his writing and know that not every suggestion is a serious one, I should have a better experience.

Worth Consuming!

Rating:7 out of 10 stars.

The Book of Unusual Knowledge

I bought this book over the summer during the 301 Endless Yard Sale taking place in Smithfield/Selma, North Carolina. A kid of about 15 was selling it. The mysterious title of The Book of Unusual Knowledge intrigued me. The picture of Stonehenge is was enticed me to pick it up. The factoid about how many endless hours it took to erect the stone monoliths sold me on the book. One portrait of Abe Lincoln and the book was mine. 

This book is massive. Just under 600 pages in length if you remove the index. A hardback, it's 'deceptively lightweight' as my bride described it one night when I asked her to hand it to me. 

Inside are articles on the real names of celebrities, Popes who were murdered in the Vatican, famous UFO sightings and much more. Some of the material isn't what I would consider 'unusual knowledge'. Information on the various sightings of the Virgin Mary is unusual. The history of that raining summer in Geneva which inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein is not. With topics like movies, animals, pop culture and holidays, what is considered unusual knowledge is really up to the reader to decide.

This felt like one of those Uncle John's Bathroom Readers. Only there aren't any stupid puns about having to poop. There are a few quiz type activities like linking the musician name with their real identities. No article is longer than 3 pages. Okay; there might have been one or two that were 4 pages in length. Most were only a page long. So there's a ton of relatively short reads. However, it took me a long time to read because of how huge this book was.

BuzzFeed listed this 2012 fact book as one of the best gift ideas for the 2024 holiday season. The retail price on Amazon is decent and publisher Publications International Ltd. offers over a dozen more similarly bound books including one volume about cats and another about crime. I'm very tempted to buy another book to increase my unusual knowledge over as I did enjoy this book even though some of it seemed like pretty usual stuff 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

That's a Fact, Jack! by Harry Bright and Jakob Anser

I enjoyed the heck out of this book and yet I was left unsatisfied. For one thing, this book claims to be a 'collection of utterly useless information'. However, I felt that there was some really interesting stuff inside that could be useful for a game of Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy!. 

Then there's the length of the book. 192 pages. However, most pages have only one factoid. Some might have two, tops. Either more facts could have been inserted into this book OR they could have reduced the page count by, oh maybe a third. No wonder we're having a shortage on trees! 

Some generic illustrations are added throughout the book. Public domain stuff from the late 1800s and such. They're extraneous. Again, instead of these fillers, either put in more facts or take out some pages!

When this hardcover book debuted in 2006, the MSRP was $21.99! Had I paid that much for this book based on all the faults I have for it now, I would have been pissed! Currently, this book sells new on Amazon for $9.99. That's a 55% discount and still too rich for my blood.

Thankfully, I got this at a used book store 'fill a bag' sale. I think the bag cost $20 or $25. We filled that sucker to the brim and then some. I'd say I ended up spending less than $0.75 for this book. Maybe a bit less. That sort of bargain prevents me from rating this book lower. But I wonder if I should for those of you who might not benefit from a massive fire sale. 

I liked what I read. I just do not feel like there's a portrait of Andrew Jackson's worth of knowledge inside.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Andrew Zimmern's Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild and Wonderful Foods: An Intrepid Eater's Digest

Andrew Zimmern. Host of Bizarre Foods and several spin-offs. Minnesota Chef and writer. Man who will eat just about anything. 

I really like Zimmern. He seems authentic. I don't get the vibe that he's conceited or feels like he's the smartest person in the room compared to a lot of other celebrity and professional chefs that I know and watch. Zimmern has a world view that the things we eat are what can bring us together, despite differences in both opinion and taste. It's something I try to emulate in my culinary classes; especially when we discuss global food cultures. 

Over the past 6 months, I've been trying to increase my culinary knowledge by reading all kinds of works about the food industry. After the recent loss of our oldest cat, Lily, I felt like I needed something light for a while. Thankfully, Andrew Zimmern's Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild and Wonderful Foods was sitting on my to-read shelf and it helped me during my time for grief and recovery immensely. 

Though there are a few recipes in this book, this is not a cookbook. It's also not 100% culinary related. There are about 3 dozen alphabetical listings of foods that Zimmern finds to be kinda oddball. Some of the things he lists like Bird's Nest Soup and Durian (both of which I have sampled), I wholeheartedly agree with. Twinkies and Hot Dogs (again, things I have consumed), I just don't. I understand Chef's argument that how they are made with a terrifying assortment of parts, bits and chemicals can be looked upon as weird. I would define those foods as troubling. As for things like alligator, (one of my all-time fried favs), I would classify them as exotic. Wonderful, not Weird. But to a non-food professional, I can see those large lizards are being both weird and wild to eat.

Amazon rates this book as being for readers aged 8-12. Zimmern in his opening chapter says his book is for all ages. I know that kids and adults alike love Zimmern's TV travel series that explore foods that the common American kitchen lacks. So this book has a universal appeal to fans. However, with some very advanced terms and a frank but necessary discussion of how feces, urine and blood are often intertwined with some of these foods, I can see where not all readers will be fans of this book. OR that all readers would be ready for the material.

The all-age appeal that I think Zimmern is talking about is some of the additional factoids he includes. For example, under his chapter on bats, he includes facts about some of the greatest baseball hitters of all-time. That appeals to generations of readers. I know his TV shows cover non-culinary aspects of the cultures he visits and if Zimmern had stuck to that as additional information, I would totally be on board. I would have liked more entries of bizarre foods and less about how to defeat a zombie, as discussed in the chapter on brains. The off-the-wall non-culinary segments were fun. Just not what I wanted in a Bizarre Foods related read.

Going back to the bats. This book was written in 2012. Of course, many of us know of the urban legend that somebody in China eating a bat was who started COVID in 2019. I'd be interested to know how if this book was re-issued today how Andrew Zimmern would cover the eating of bats due to the rumors. It would be an opinion that I would definitely be interested in hearing.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Book of Useless Information

by Noel Botham and The Society of Useless Information

My wife has this bit. Some random article of trivia will pop up and she'll say 'That's a useless piece of I wouldn't mind if you removed it permanently." Recently, I worked at a used book store for trade credit. (It's there where I found this book.) Out of that sweet revenge that only a loving husband can provide his dear bride, I got The Book of Useless Information just for her!

But first, I wanted to read it. 

Amazingly, this was an addictive read. From interesting facts about species of animals to oddball facts about our founding fathers, I literally could not book this collection of trivia down. That's not to say that I didn't have my issues with it.

First of all, this book is 13 years old. I am quite certain that some of the facts were outdated. Those in particular involve stats about movies, TV and social media. Was there social media in 2006? Maybe I'm thinking computer consumption. But I am sure that AOL is no longer the most used search engine and/or email in the world.

Another thing I had problems with was the 'uselessness' of the data. Some stuff didn't seem that unnecessary to me. Maybe that's because I was a history major. To me all history is relevant. Even dumb stuff about those Kardashians. You never know when somebody is going to hold a gun to your head and only your knowledge of 12th century monarchs is going to save your life. I guess useless info is in the eye of the beholder. With as least 3 other books of useless info out there, I am sure that I'll be a quick judge of those sort of details sometime in the future.

(Plus, while this book has tons of info, I wish that they'd provide more detail. Most of the trivia are single lines of fact. But there were a bunch of instances where I wished to know the how or why behind the what!)

Lastly, on 2 different occasions, the same bit of trivia was reprinted. Poor data collection? Bad proof-reading? Slip-ups on the part of the editor? I don't know why someone felt that I needed to know those bits of info twice in the same book. But somebody goofed.

Even though this wasn't the perfect fact book, I really did enjoy it. I particularly loved the last factoid on the very bottom of page 38. It was so random- so non-sequitur- and so un-PC; I laughed and laughed. Plus, I could not resist sharing the hilarity of it with my wife. Just what was so darn funny? You'll have to read it for yourself to find out.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

My Weird But True! Fact-a-Day Fun Journal (A Family Comic Friday Extra!)

I don't really understand the concept behind page-a-day books. Are they an alternative for a calendar? If not, are you really only supposed to read just 1 page a day? Well, it's February 1st and I am reviewing the National Geographic Kids' My Weird But True Fact-a-Day Fun Journal. So, if you are thinking that I didn't follow the rules, you are absolutely right!

I've organized and maintained a reading program through my wife's medical clinic. Every once in a while, I come across a book that I want to read before I donate it. Most times it's to ensure that something is age appropriate. But this time was all about my curiosity. 

I like fact books. You can learn some really off-the-wall stuff. But having read a bunch of fact books in the past, I find myself having to cull through 9 facts I already knew before I got to a completely new one. That's not the case here. With information about weird holidays, gross bugs, yummy sweets and more, I actually learned quite a bit of new stuff! 

One cool thing about this book is that each day has children doing some sort of activity. Some things are as simple as answering a question like 'If you were a dog, what type would you be and why?' Other days have you drawing a picture of your favorite food. In others, you are challenged, like to come up with as many words as possible from the words 'Valentine's Day.' I felt like I was reading an issue of Highlights!

The book is set up like a journal. Meaning, the reader is supposed to write in the book their thoughts and feelings. In order to give a complete review, I made sure to do the activities. But I did not write in the book. I'm donating this to a child in a low-income family. No way am I going to give them an already written in book. 

This is a cool book for parents and kids. Weird facts are always the best! But like myself, I find it impossible that many kids are going to only one page per day. There might be that one kid. The one whose never late to class or out sick from school. But other than that, all the other children are going to enjoy the heck outta this book in a day or two flat!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

One-up Trivia by Ken Weber

The idea behind this trivia book is kinda novel. You take a commonly known fact and you build from it. For example, most people know that Hollywood icon James Dean meet an untimely death in an automobile accident. But did you know that Donald Turnipseed was the driver of the car that struck Dean’s? That's one-up trivia in a nutshell.

   Now Weber will sometimes two-up or even three-up the knowledge. Working from the James Dean example, the author went on to discuss how people who bought parts of the actors car went on to suffer some bizarre accidents as well, thus, Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder is considered by many to be cursed. Then Weber goes on to discuss superstitions of famous people.

    The premise seems very straight forward. But sometimes I felt like the author was grasping at straws to make a connection. In one instance, Weber talks about the use of the first commode in space then goes on to explain how Thomas Crapper was a real person and then our factfinder rolls into a rant about fake names. Though I thought that this was a very informative book and that Ken Weber is a very clear and concise presenter of facts and figures, discerning how he connects some of these factoids left me scratching my head.

  If you enjoy learning or are a trivia buff like me, you'll enjoy this 2006 book by Running Press. Just be aware that while you learn a lot of cool stuff, you will have to make some weird connections to get to your destination.

  Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Attack of the Killer Facts by Eric Grzymkowski

   Killer Bacteria! Alien Abductions! Odd Laws! Paranormal Activity! Freaky Weather! Human Oddities! Filled with 1,001 weird and bizarre bits of trivia, Attack of the Killer Facts is the ultimate bathroom reader for fans of the strange and macabre.

    Written by budding Jeopardy contestant Eric Grzymkowski, Killer is Facts is just one of several books written by the gang at the Daily Bender; an informative blog created by Adams Media. Though these fact books are considered 'bathroom readers' you don't have to enjoy them on the porcelain throne. 

   I love reading about weird and odd things and with over 1000 crazy tidbits of subjects ranging from the search for Bigfoot to the odd collections of serial killers, there was tons of new stuff for me to learn. Some of these facts were completely new to me- so new, I couldn't believe them! But each fact comes complete with a list of references so you can further your research like I did when I looked up Lina Medina, who at 5 years old, was documented as the youngest female to ever give birth!

   One thing that each of these facts also contain are jokes and I could do without them. Grzymkowski seems to think he's better suited at comedy than fact finding as he includes an often inane quip at the end of every factoid he presents. 99% of these kneeslappers produced groans instead of gaffaws. Still, even with these stinkers, the amount of interestingly odd facts are enough for me to give another one of Adams Media's readers a try. I just probably will chose one of the publisher's other authors over another offering by MR. Grzymkowski.

    A fun read that suceeds at being a poor man's Ripley's but fails at being another '1,001 Gross Jokes...'

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

"Mental_Floss Presents: Scatterbrained"

WORTH CONSUMING!

This is like the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” of facts. The editors of Mental_floss magazine seek to take a topic like Greece the Country and find a way to link it to Grease the Musical. The twists and turns making these connections are very interesting.

More importantly, I’m hooked on Mental_floss now! I want to read all the books and am seriously considering asking for a subscription for Christmas.

A great read with little doses of humor.

The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe

Wanna win Jeopardy's DC Comics Trivia Challenge? 

Well too bad, there’s no such thing. But if there ever was, get this book. Whoever wrote this has either A. Every DC Comic known to man, B. Too much time on their hands, or C. All of Above.

For those who love to find flubs in movies, this is a book filled with them. I can’t tell if they wrote something under say Batman, and then 3 months later, were writing an entry for Nightwing and added something in a more current issue or if fact checking wasn’t such a big deal in writing this book. It’s made by DK and comic fans are almost as bad as Trekkies when it comes to getting the fact straight. So I think the editor wasn’t familiar with DC Comics and didn’t check the facts or worse, he was a Marvel Purist, (just Kidding, I like Marvel too).

But, if you have questions about storylines up to about 2003, like facts about the Imperiex War, or just wanted to know why Barbara Gordon is now The Oracle, check this book out.