Publishers Weekly - Audio
New Rule: Stop putting religious statues on the front lawn. Whoever said there are no virgins left in L.A. has never been to a Mexican neighborhood: there’s one in every yard.” Maher’s passionate rants have never been so addictive as in this inspired performance by the master of late-night talk-show controversy. Taking on everyone from god-fearing Christians to overzealous baseball fans that name their children after ballparks, Maher speaks his mind as only he can. Unabashed and unapologetic, Maher’s performance is as entertaining as his HBO program. Luckily, the new rules keep coming and coming and Maher wisely avoids overly long tirades; the laughs are endless in this thought-provoking work. A Blue Rider hardcover. (Nov.)
Publishers Weekly
Controversial ultra-liberal comedian Maher follows his acerbic New Rules collection with more irreverent musings adapted from his popular weekly HBO show Real Time. Addressing his pet peeves from 2005 to the present, the book tackles everything from The Jersey Shore, to Ted Haggard, to porn addiction, to Rick Perry, as Maher traverses what things irritates him most and ruin his American experience. His alphabetized rules are interrupted by longer screeds, including his 2005 foresight about the financial and foreclosure crises of 2008, and a get-out-now letter to Levi Johnston, who fathered Bristol Palin's baby, around the time of the 2008 Republican National Convention. The nonlinear nature of the book takes readers back and forth through the later years of the Bush Administration and the first three of the Obama Administration, showcasing Maher's consistently unforgiving wordplay, snark, and strangely self-aware humility. His satire can be surprisingly humane, though he never misses the opportunity to pun, which makes every entry capable of surprise. The fearless and honest Maher remains the best cultural critic since George Carlin, and his most recent effort is as hilarious as it is precise.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
From the Publisher
One of the establishment’s most entertaining critics.”—The New York Times
“Pundit Bill Maher courts controversy, you say? He calls it telling the truth.”—Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
“Pundit Bill Maher courts controversy you say? He calls it telling the truth.
The New York Times
“One of the establishment’s most entertaining critics.
DECEMBER 2011 - AudioFile
Nothing is sacred in Bill Maher's NEW NEW RULES. Fans familiar with his TV show will recognize this segment, in which each irreverent and sardonic "rule" is delivered with a punch. Maher skewers everything from politics to celebrities to the most mundane things of everyday life. The rules are arranged in alphabetical order without regard to subject matter groupings, and each rule is prefaced by Maher's announcement of "New rule," which at times can make it sound like he's reading a list. Regardless, the narration is often laugh-out-loud funny, not only because of the humor of Maher's incisive observations, but also because of his sheer audaciousness and equally audacious delivery. It's a mercilessly witty listen. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
Less an actual book than a return to the print-media platform by a brand most familiar from television. "It's a joke book," admits Maher of this sequel to New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer (2005). As an alphabetized collection of bits from his "New Rules" TV segments (though some never aired), this book is meatier than a collection of top-10 lists from another TV brand. Yet the author acknowledges that he deserves credit neither for the concept (his program's head writer conceived "New Rules" as a running feature) or for "so many of the jokes in this book" (he has staff writers for that). Consequently, the book is a compilation of TV bits that have aired since the last compilation (which means some might be six years old) and some that didn't make the airtime cut for a variety of reasons, aimed at dedicated Maher fans who want all their favorites in one volume or at those who enjoy Maher when they see him but want to see how much they've missed. Example: "New Rule: The White House doesn't have to release the dead Bin Laden photos, but don't pretend we can't take it. We've seen pictures of Britney Spears's vagina getting out of a car. Television has desensitized us to violence, and porn has desensitized us to people getting shot in the eye." Though Maher's perspective on celebrity culture, marijuana, masturbation and China will be familiar to fans, some of the longer (rarely longer than a page and a half), more ambitious pieces reflect the sensibility he shares with Jon Stewart, with a cutting-edge humor that slices through journalistic hypocrisy--e.g., "We don't need a third party, we need a first party. This is because we don't have a left and a right party in this country anymore. We have a center-right party and a crazy party. Over the last thirty-odd years, Democrats have moved to the right, and the right has moved into a mental hospital." Funny stuff for TV viewers with short attention spans.
