"Comedian Powers's compilation of 365 vignettes is crass, witty, snarky, and unbelievably funny. It's for anyone-misanthropes and pessimists particularly-who's ever been fed up with books of daily inspiration. Go ahead and replace Christmas with "Stuff Your Underwear into My Mouth and Punch Me in the Nose Until I Can't Breathe Through It Day!" Readers will wonder how July 10 could ever have been anything other than "Tell Everyone You See, All Day Long, That They Can Do Whatever They Want Because It's Not Like It's Going To Bring Your Dead Brother Back Day!" This book is recommended for public libraries with the caveat that it contains profanity and material many readers may consider objectionable (sick would be an apt descriptor; the words raunchy and tasteless are also applicable here). Academic libraries may wish to add this title to their leisure collections. Reservations about appropriateness of content aside, it is a severely and morosely funny book.-"
Great interview in Timeout New York magazine. January 25th, 2007.
"There's a new book that's perfect for your bitter little heart. Bob Powers' Happy Cruelty Day! gives you 365 new holidays -- all free of any annoying joy or deep meaning." From the Sacramento Bee, Tuesday, January 23rd.
"Welcome, with some trepidation, to the off-kilter and frequently dark world of comedian Bob Powers." From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sunday, January 21st.
"...Offbeat, mostly offensive, and just strange..." From the undeniably accurate mention in the St Paul Pioneer Press, from January 11th. (Last item)
New York Post writeup on the book, from January 7th. "...365 dark, tortured and often hilarious new holidays...It's when he's at his bleakest that Powers is also at his funniest."
Comedy Central interview with Bob Powers onThe CCInsider's "Felber's Features"
Great interview with Bob Powers in Chief Magazine.
"This volume will only appeal to those with the most tortured sensibilities."
"Day calendars are for people who smell like your grandmother and like Beanie Babies. But the book "Happy Cruelty Day!: Daily Celebrations of Quiet Desperation" ($16, St Martin's Press) redefines day-to-day calendars. In 2007, every day will be a holiday exactly like how the dark and hilarious mind of comedian Bob Powers thinks it should be, such as "Redefine Hell With Every Waking Moment of Your Life Day" and "Your Job As An Organ Pirate Is Making Your Boyfriend Jealous Day." --Plus 363 more. We can't recommend it enough."
"I just wanted to give you a warning before you bought this book. You will enjoy it, but it will also crush your heart."
"My kind of book. Mean, but in a way that makes me smile. It's like a pleasant nightmare."
"Never again will we wonder why every day is the same. Now each day can be horribly, hilariously different."
"Wickedly funny work - a writer to be reckoned with, and maybe just a little afraid of."
"So much more than a humor book - hilarious, wise, and truly original - the daily psalm book of the absurd."
"Bob Powers is the kind of man who can inform you that you'll be waking up in a dilapidated budget motel in Denver. That you'll be jumped by drug-addled corporate embezzlers; that you're prone to robbing your personal physician for his wedding ring and cash; that you're the last milkman in the country, and that you sleep with any boozed-up piece of office trash who wins the weekly trivia night at the local bar-and when he tells you all of this, it somehow makes your day. Hell, even your entire year."
