How Love Actually Ruined Christmas

How Love Actually Ruined Christmas
Author: Gary Raymond
Publisher: Parthian Books
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2020-11-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1913640221

RARELY HAS THE POWER OF CINEMA BEEN FELT BY SO MANY, IN SUCH OPPOSING WAYS... 'Love Actually dulls the critical senses, making those susceptible to its hallucinogenic powers think they've seen a funny, warm-hearted, romantic film about the many complex manifestations of love. Colourful Narcotics. A perfect description of a bafflingly popular film.' By any reasonable measurement, Love Actually is a bad movie. There are plenty of bad movies out there, but what gets under Gary Raymond's skin here is that it seems to have tricked so many people into thinking it's a good movie. In this hilarious, scene-by-scene analysis of the Christmas monolith that is Love Actually, Gary Raymond takes us through a suffocating quagmire of badly drawn characters, nonsensical plotlines, and open bigotry, to a climax of ill-conceived schmaltz. How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (or Colourful Narcotics) is the definitive case against a terrible movie.

Hyperbole and a Half

Hyperbole and a Half
Author: Allie Brosh
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2013-10-29
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1451666187

#1 New York Times Bestseller “Funny and smart as hell” (Bill Gates), Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations. FROM THE PUBLISHER: Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices. This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written. Brosh’s debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. We dare you not to. FROM THE AUTHOR: This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative—like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it—but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book: Pictures Words Stories about things that happened to me Stories about things that happened to other people because of me Eight billion dollars* Stories about dogs The secret to eternal happiness* *These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!

Ruining Christmas—Rediscovering Jesus

Ruining Christmas—Rediscovering Jesus
Author: Carl N. Toney
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2021-08-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 172529527X

Did you know that the Christmas story almost wasn't told? But Matthew and Luke saved Christmas. Have you wondered if Christmas is really a pagan holiday? Did marketers invent Santa Claus? And what does a Christmas tree have to do with anti-slavery? We'll learn which traditions come from the Bible and where other traditions derive. Have you ever considered who Jesus was named after? Or why Jesus's genealogy is traced to Joseph if he's not Jesus's biological father? We'll answer questions like these surrounding Jesus's legacy. Maybe you've asked what was the Bethlehem star? Or have you heard that there wasn't an inn or innkeeper? With these kinds of inquiries, we'll look at the circumstances surrounding Jesus's birth. Do we know if the magi were kings, astrologers, or magicians? Or could you name the oldest person that met baby Jesus? By interacting with these people who met Jesus on that first Christmas, we'll join the cast of characters around the manger. As we explore the stories and traditions of Christmas together, we'll ruin some past misconceptions, but in the process, I promise that we'll rediscover Jesus.

Chasing Redbird

Chasing Redbird
Author: Sharon Creech
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2012-04-24
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0061961310

“Intriguing, delightful, and touching.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “Creech’s best yet.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) It started out as an ordinary summer. But the minute thirteen-year-old Zinny discovered the old, overgrown trail that ran through the woods behind her family’s house, she realized that things were about to change. It was her chance to finally make people notice her, and to have a place she could call her very own. But more than that, Zinny knew that the trail somehow held the key to all kinds of questions. And that the only way to understand her family, her Aunt Jessie’s death, and herself, was to find out where it went. From Newbery Medal-winning author Sharon Creech comes a story of love, loss, and understanding, an intricately woven tale of a young girl who sets out in search of her place in the world—and discovers it in her own backyard. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

Love and Other Words

Love and Other Words
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2018-04-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1501128027

After a decade apart, childhood sweethearts reconnect by chance in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren’s touching, romantic novel Love and Other Words…how many words will it take for them to figure out where it all went wrong? The story of the heart can never be unwritten. Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away. But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her. Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Author: Dana Richter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 10
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: Grinch (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780785342625

The Grinch tries on several outfits for the Whobiliation party, but Max doesn't like any of them. Includes sound box with replaceable batteries.

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story
Author: Jean Shepherd
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 109
Release: 2010-10-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307768732

A beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana—the book that inspired the equally classic Yuletide film and the live musical on Fox. The holiday film A Christmas Story, first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. This edition of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker’s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father’s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie’s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s unstoppable campaign to get Santa—or anyone else—to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”? The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.

The Worst Book in the Whole Entire World

The Worst Book in the Whole Entire World
Author: Joey Acker
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019-03-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781951046095

OH NO!!! You found The Worst Book in the Whole Entire World! Well, since you're already here I may as well tell you about it... Poor Nameless tries to explain to the reader why this book is simply the WORST book in the whole entire world. Will he succeed in his noble quest? Is he the reason this book is the worst?? Will it have a happy ending or the worst ending ever??? The Worst Book in the Whole Entire World is a humorous and witty tale for young and seasoned readers. Whatever you do though, don't read it out loud! You may catch wind of these words: toot, stinky, booger, and booty. You've been warned, but you'll still want to see what happens next!

How the In-Laws Wrecked Christmas

How the In-Laws Wrecked Christmas
Author: Fiona Gibson
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 58
Release: 2014-11-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 000812471X

‘A little piece of Christmas heaven... A clever plot, with a great twist... I recommend this book for anyone wanting a little Christmas cracker of a read’ Goodreads review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Author: Dr. Seuss
Publisher: RH Childrens Books
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2013-10-22
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0385372035

Get in on the Christmas cheer with Dr. Seuss’s iconic holiday classic starring the Grinch and Cindy-Lou Who—guaranteed to grow your heart three sizes! Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot...but the Grinch, who lived just north of Who-ville, did NOT! Not since “’Twas the night before Christmas” has the beginning of a Christmas tale been so instantly recognizable. From the Grinch and his dog, Max, to Cindy-Lou and all the residents of Who-ville, this heartwarming story about the effects of the Christmas spirit will warm even the coldest and smallest of hearts. Like mistletoe, candy canes, and caroling, the Grinch is a mainstay of the holidays, and his story is perfect for readers young and old.