BOOK REVIEWING MADE EASY
Let me make one thing crystal clear: I am a huge admirer of Gay Haiku creator Joel Derfner. Who, by the way, has never been in the same room with Faustus. The following has nothing to do with Joel or his book.

It does, however, have to do with 365gay.com and its Book Editor, Robb Michaels. Michaels's review of Gay Haiku reads as follows:

For hundreds of years, the Japanese haiku has been equated with peaceful contemplation and spiritual enlightenment. A delicate balance of rhythm and line, the haiku has provided countless readers with an appreciation of the changing of the seasons and the miracles of nature.

Now, in Gay Haiku, readers can finally appreciate more important things—like the changing of boyfriends and the miracles of shopping.

Irresistible and irreverent, this collection of one hundred and ten witty and wicked short poems captures the many dating disasters of first-time author Joel Derfner.

Derfner graduated from Harvard with a degree in linguistics. His work for the musical theater has been produced in London, and New York. In an attempt to be the gayest person ever, he took up knitting and got a job as a step aerobics instructor.

In a wonderfully fresh and original voice, Derfner shamelessly mines his personal life to send up such broad-ranging topics as gay pop culture, politics, family, sex, and, of course, home decorating.

Readers will delight in Derfner's dry sense of humor and unmistakable charm as he tackles the big questions of life. For example:

How can we fix us?
The fights, the silence.... I know!
Let’s get a puppy!

Or, how about this one:

My seventh birthday;
I weep at Barbie’s Dream House.
How could you not know?

Impossible to resist, this hilariously sassy and sweet collection of haiku turns the perilous sport of gay dating into pure poetry.

Sound familiar? It should. Via Barnes & Noble.com comes this:

SYNOPSIS
For hundreds of years, the Japanese haiku has been equated with peaceful contemplation and spiritual enlightenment. A delicate balance of rhythm and line, the haiku has provided countless readers with an appreciation of the miracles of nature and the changing of the seasons. Now, in Gay Haiku, readers can finally appreciate more important things—like the changing of boyfriends and the miracles of shopping.

Irresistible and irreverent, this collection of one hundred and ten witty and wicked short poems captures the many dating disasters of first-time author Joel Derfner. In a wonderfully fresh and original voice, Derfner shamelessly mines his personal life to send up such broad-ranging topics as gay pop culture, politics, family, sex, and of course, home decorating.

Gay, straight, or undecided, readers will delight in Derfner’s dry sense of humor and unmistakable charm as he tackles the big questions of life:

How can we fix us?
The fights, the silence.... I know!
Let’s get a puppy!

My seventh birthday;
I weep at Barbie’s Dream House.
How could you not know?

From the sexy to the sublime, Gay Haiku captures contemporary gay life in one hilarious, gotta-have-it-right-now package.

Author Bio:
JOEL DERFNER graduated from Harvard with a degree in linguistics. His work for the musical theater has been produced in London, New York, and various cities in between. In an attempt to be the gayest person ever, he took up knitting and got a job as a step aerobics instructor.

In other words, what Michaels tries to pass off as a review is nothing more than a verbatim recitation of the book jacket. That's beyond sad.

The strange thing is that, at the bottom of the Michael's review, there's a copyright notice. That's not sad, it's ironic.

Maybe someone should tell him what it means.