Synopses & Reviews
In just three short years, Willie Geist has gone from behind-the-scenes producer at MSNBC to rising on-air star, as the host of
Way Too Early with Willie Geist and cohost of
Morning Joe. He's fast, he's funny—something of an early-morning Jon Stewart.
Now, in his first book, Geist focuses on America's ongoing parade of giant pop culture personalities, beings inflated by the Internet and twenty-four-hour cable news and tethered only loosely to the ground. Think helium-filled characters like Sarah Palin, Bernie Madoff, Rod Blagojevich, Miley Cyrus, Jon and Kate, Miss California Carrie Prejean, Captain Sully, and the aptly named "Balloon Boy." They float into our lives, consume our attention as we gawk from the street, and then slowly drift away as another one bobs into view.
In a series of hilarious yet biting satirical essays, Geist captures the absurdity of today's pseudocelebrity-obsessed culture. Among other things, he reveals Sarah Palin's 2012 Inauguration speech, broadcast to a national audience live from the site of WWE's Monday Night Raw as a tribute to "Real America." Geist also takes us inside the room for the Bernie Madoff Celebrity Roast in Hell. Roastmaster Pol Pot provides the laughs. And you'll pull up a seat for Sunday coverage of the seventh annual Kim John-Il Celebrity Golf Tournament, where Dear Leader teams with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and funnyman Ray Romano for a good cause and some bad golf.
Lately, American life seems like a parade of larger-than-life, overinflated giant balloon characters. Geist has written their made-up stories.
Synopsis
The host of MSNBC's Way Too Early with Willie Geist focuses on America's ongoing parade of giant pop-culture personalities—beings inflated by the Internet and twenty-four-hour cable news and tethered only loosely to the ground.
About the Author
Willie Geist is the host of MSNBC's Way Too Early with Willie Geist and cohost of Morning Joe. He also hosts Zeitgeist, a satirical video blog on MSNBC.com. Willie joined MSNBC in 2005 as a senior producer of The Situation with Tucker Carlson. Prior to that, he was a producer and writer for the critically acclaimed sports debate show I, Max, hosted by Max Kellerman on Fox Sports Net. A graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Willie lives in New York City with his wife and their two children. Johnny Heller has won two prestigious Audie Awards and has earned numerous Audie nominations. He has been praised for his adult, personal development, history, comedy, and children's book narrations. Named a Best Voice of 2008 and 2009, as well as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine, Johnny has earned almost twenty Golden Earphones Awards. Two of Johnny's audiobooks have been picked by AudioFile as Best Audiobook the Year, and he has won two Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards. Jo Anna Perrin is an accomplished actor, having appeared in film and television, as well as on stage in New York, Los Angeles, and regionally. Her audiobook work includes university and cultural releases in the United States and Europe, including for London and Yale Universities, the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Chicago, and the University of North Carolina. In addition to her work in audiobooks, Jo Anna has done commercial and film voice-overs. Independent of her acting, she is a published author and a professional photographer.