February 2023 MBR The Humor Shelf

The Humor Shelf

Business Fables Adopted From Aesop For Humans Who Work for a Living
Erika Schelby
Lava Gate Press
9780989121644, $9.99 Paper/$2.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Business-Fables-Adopted-Humans-Living/dp/098912164X

Business Fables Adopted From Aesop For Humans Who Work for a Living is a spoof on American corporate culture that adopts a tongue-in-cheek countenance as Erika Schelby explores the world of work in a satirical Aesop-style collection of fables that includes an indirect critical eye on business profit-centric focuses. Consumers traditionally suspicious of big business interests will find not only statistics but information here supporting this viewpoint. Irony and social inspection come alive from the start: "Originally, kites had beautiful singing voices. But one day they heard the horses neighing, became envious, and decided to acquire that same skill with the greatest speed.

The desire to learn the neighing of horses became known and spread as quickly as a prairie fire. The kites happened to live in a country inhabited by many creatures of great ingenuity in matters of need recognition and wish fulfillment. Before one could count to three a whole neighing industry had sprung up, with neighing consultants doing a brisk business throughout the land."

Whether analyzing office outings and assertiveness training or considering the ineffectiveness of megatrends and a fox who becomes involved in financing, each story holds a link to the business world that points out its ironies, inconsistencies, and underlying mirth that accompanies downfalls, misperceptions, and business strategies. The idea is to elicit the rare laugh from the business-oriented mentality while adding a touch of thought-provoking inspection into that reader's mindset that injects doubt and questions into the process of modern business operations, pursuits, and methodology.

The result is a rollicking good read that tempers humor with real-world inspections and invites all readers to consider the roots of decision-making and analytical process.

Wildlife for Idiots: And Other Animal Cartoons
Adrian Raeside
Harbour Publishing
www.harbourpublishing.com
9781550179323, $16.99, PB, 128pp

https://www.amazon.com/Safaris-Idiots-Herd-Animal-Cartoons/dp/1550179322

Synopsis: With the publication of "Wildlife for Idiots: And Other Animal Cartoons", Candian cartoonist Adrian Raeside offers a new collection of wildly funny animal-themed cartoons.

Readers should be prepared to walk on the wild side with 340 full-color Raeside cartoons, now collected for the first time into a single volume. Here is a menagerie of garbage-rummaging bears, squabbling eagles, philosophizing wolves, pre-handbag alligators, artistic elephants, shedding mammoths and many more from the animal kingdom.

Critique: Laugh out loud funny from cover to cover, "Wildlife for Idiots: And Other Animal Cartoons" if a fun (and occasionally thought-provoking) read and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community library Contemporary Humor/Cartoon collections.

Editorial Note: Adrian Raeside (https://raesidecartoon.com/adrian-raeside) is the creator of the popular The Other Coast comic strip, which appears in over two hundred newspapers. Besides being an editorial cartoonist for four decades, Raeside is also the author of over twenty books, including The Rainbow Bridge: A Visit to Pet Paradise, Tails Don't Lie 1 & 2 and The World According to Dogs, An Owner's Manual. He currently resides on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

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