This is a collected version of a weekly New York Times column from about 2010-2012. It has very much the same genial rambling tone as another old-guy-chats-to-his-readers tome I finished lately, Dick Button's book, except that Cavett's is even more disjointed, being in newspaper-size bites. It's also very readable, at times LOL-funny, and contains enough name-dropping to satisfy the celebrity-hunger. Cavett's turn of phrase, and particularly his inversion of clichés, does leave one with a smile on the old visage.

Personages of particular note discussed or described in this work: Muhammad Ali, Stan Laurel, Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, Johnny Carson, Groucho Marx, Woody Allen, and Stephen Colbert - who gets Cavett's resounding endorsement as the replacement for Letterman, something that is coming to pass now, some two years after the column was written.

An amusing way to pass a few tedious hours.

	As funny as you expected it to be. An excellent coffee table book. I can see tons of great conversations sparked by these notes.

 

I saw this one pop up on my twitter feed from the publisher, and after checking some things, I saw that I just wanted to read this book. This isn't because there is such a famous name attached to it, that is only a small factor. I just love picture books, and I have heard that Jimmy Fallon is quite a funny person, the illustrations also look great. Mix those together and you got my reasons why I wanted to try this book out.

I can honestly say that I am delighted with this tiny book, of course it isn't 100% good at all times, that is the reason why I gave it a 4 instead of 5 stars. It is quite repetitive, most of the book is a farm animal dads saying Dada and trying to have his kid repeat it. Of course said kid replies not with Dada but with the telltale sound of that animal (so in case of a cow it would go moo). This goes on for a few times, and does get a bit boring, but it is still funny and silly. The ending is really fun and I loved that it was added. It gave me a laugh. That poor animal though.

The illustrations are quite good, I like the style. Simplistic, but fun. The animals often wear different expressions, some are sad, others look angry, which made the story more fun. It shows that these dads are truly dedicated to having their kids say that magical word. :)

I am sure the truly little ones will love this book, it clearly campaigns for the word Dada (as the book promises), but it also gives little kids a chance to learn about animals and what sounds those animals make. It also has a cute ending that is sure to bring a smile to everyone's faces.

All in all, I would recommend this book. It might be a bit repetitive but it is still great fun.

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

A few cute sarcastic things in there..

I had to share this funny.  Fun times on the Jimmy Fallon show with Stephen Merchant and Joseph Gordon-Levitt