Published in the US as “The Fireside Grown-Up Guides” and in the UK as “Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups” these amusing little books with their vintage Ladybird illustrations are great fun and make wonderful presents. Covering a range of topics they rarely fail to raise a smile, but essentially they’re not the sort of book that reward multiple readings so once read soon forgotten. Nevertheless, a laugh or even a smile is always worthwhile aiming for so I do in fact recommend them. I didn’t find this one as amusing as some but it’s still good fun.

(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)

RATING: 4 STARS

I loved Ladybird books when I was a child so when I saw there were books for grown-ups, I had to check them out.

This book brought back memories as it kept the old-fashion feeling to them - pictures, writing and layout. I love the witty humour and it is a fun gift book to give out or keep for yourself.

Yes, it has an easy target, but this entrant to the series is by far the best – witty, connecting pictures and text like some of the books just don't bother with, and making me laugh quite successfully. Now, if only all its subjects can bugger off and die, so it's immediately dated…

Hilarious, quirky and so current! Love this series!

This is a quick little book about hipsters. It was cute but could have been so much more. So not for me.

This pdf has no images. The structure is a couple of quick paragraphs and full color illustration, completing the joke. Without the illustrations, I cannot review this book.

Fun and hilarious. It got to be a bit much at times, but I liked it.

These books are very well observed and stick to the style of the original educational books in a very humorous way. I have enjoyed everyone of these books that I have read and can highly recommend them!

Hipsters - A Suitable, Target Rich Topic

CAUTION. SPOILER QUOTES. From a hipster bar, aitcH2ooEau, that only serves cocktails made from different sorts of water, to a popular hipster spot, Caff Eh?, that only serves things you've never heard of, (like dotka, commoner's milk, blacknock and carnip tartonne, and fresh oven-balched beetcorn labneys), to craft gin infused with sausage and toothpaste and made in a microstill located in a condemned electricity substation, this book mercilessly skewers the pretensions and obsessions of the Hipster.

Some of the Ladybirds go for easy targets, likes Mums and Husbands and Cats, but later volumes zero in on the things that matter, (like the mid-life crisis, mindfulness, and meetings). This one, though, is especially gleeful in its apt and penetrating zingers, and zeroes in precisely and almost surgically on all things Hipsteratic. I like all of the Ladybirds, but as they have slowly transformed from amiable and somewhat predictable to edgy and pointed, I've come to like them more and more. This may well be one of the best.

For what it's worth, the books in this series are published in the U.K. as "Ladybirds for Grown-Ups". The "Fireside Grown-Up Guides" are now starting to be published in the U.S. by Simon & Schuster, and are fairly faithful adaptations. Either way you can find them, as Ladybirds or as Fireside Grown-Up Guides, these books are a hoot.

So, a substantial bit of parody fun and a nice find. (Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Probably the most amusing of the all The Hipster looks at all the modern yet vintage pursuits of the modern day Hipster. Even more satirical than the others this tops it as the number one of the three I've read. Very amusing especially again because of the way the anecdotes have been put to the old fashioned pictures.

I really love this series of books; the ones on Mindfulness, the Husband and the Mom are really funny and perfectly combine witty, slightly absurd text with traditional illustrations.

This version, on 'The Hipster', follows in the same vein. The text explains, with mock seriousness and some ridiculous elements, the life of hipsters, presented with accompanying pictures. There was lots to like about the book; my favourite touches were the hipster names such as Zorro and Ned the Third.

However, I felt that this one wasn't as successful as some of the others in the series. I think maybe partly this is because it has more niche appeal, plus I also felt that the picture/text combinations were slightly less funny than before. Some of the images seemed a bit of a stretch for the text in a way that I did not think they were in previous books.

I still think that there is much fun to be had from this series of books, but this one just didn't really strike a chord with me like the others..