Cake Wrecks

Hilarious!

If you haven't read the Cake Wrecks blog that this book is based on, you need to go look at it right now. Back? Ok, good. I've been reading Cake Wrecks for quite awhile now, so of course I had to check out the book when I found out there was one and it was just as funny as the site.

If you didn't check out the link and have no idea what Cake Wrecks is, its a blog that basically shows cakes gone wrong. Misspellings, poor color choices, weird inspirations, and just complete cake failures are entertaining on their own, but Jen's comments are what put the posts over the top. You could say they take the cake! (Har har)

It just boggles the mind how the decorators of these cakes can miss the obvious mistakes that they do. And that the bakeries actually put some of these things up for sale. Who in their right mind would pay for some of these things? (Aside from the wreck reporters of course). I'm also a fan of the punctuation errors. Out of place quotation marks always make me giggle for some reason.

In reading the book, both my mom and I found ourselves laughing out loud and I was in tears at one point from laughing so hard. I can recommend this book highly enough. Its mostly pictures, so its a quick read and its perfect for when you're feeling a bit down and need a great pick-me-up. If you don't want to get the book, at least check out the blog, you won't be sorry!

4/5 Stars

Causing a Scene

Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere is an extremely fun book that tells the story of some of Improv Everywhere's pranks. If you've never heard of Improv Everywhere, you should go search for them on YouTube. One you start watching, you won't be able to stop. Some of the pranks are simple and silly while others will make you wonder at the effort and organization that had to have gone into them.

Perhaps one of the best known pranks, and the one I first saw, is the Grand Central Freeze. In it, over 200 of the "agents" froze in various positions in the middle of Grand Central Station and stayed there for 5 minutes. Its amazing to see the dedication of the agents because I know that I would never be able to freeze with all those people walking around and looking at me. The end is always great because everyone simply unfreezes and goes about their business as if nothing strange happened. This is how all of the pranks work; no one ever acknowledges that something out of the ordinary has just occured.

I won't explain the other pranks because it would take forever, but the No Pants Subway ride is a popular one that has spread to numerous other cities. The mp3 experiment is one of my personal favorites and one that I would love to participate in. Having watched the videos first, it was great to read how the missions came together, but it would be just as enjoyable to read about them first and then get to see how everything turned out.

3.5/5 Stars