Previous Finalists

Finalist of The Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

Semi-Finalist of the Chanticleer International Book Awards in the category of Humor and Satire.


5 STARS “A wild philosophical ride that is as funny as it is timely and as mind expanding as it is mind bending.” Daria Sommers, award-winning director, writer and producer

Step into the twisted corridors of Bertram's Emporium, where the mundane meets the macabre in a carnival of unrestrained wit and biting satire.

In the madness of contemporary culture wars, the Emporium serves no ideology. It serves up iconoclasm. From hillbilly erotic philosophy to a cancel rag that declares the Sun triggering, from The Pronoun Simulator to The Abortion Avatar, from neocon unicorn princess to Antifa blackshirt, no extreme of the ideological spectrum is too self-absurd to spare. On one end, the far-right's demands for freedom from sweeping government powers evaporate the moment their own sacred cows of religious education and fetuses are at stake. On the other, militant gender identity ideology undermines the rights of the very people it patronizingly claims to protect, with dangerous implications for women, trans people, and detransitioners. On the whole, the absurdity of those ideologies is on plain display to those residing between the extremes who long for a more reasoned approach. Bertram's Emporium delivers one in the guise of humorist social commentary vignettes. It also delivers purely comedic pieces at a time when everybody can use a laugh.

www.arielpeckel.com

The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
EDITORIAL REVEW
2nd September 2024
TITLE: Bertram's Emporium of Things People Say
AUTHOR: Ariel Peckel
Star Rating: 5

'Poking fun at the modern world has never been so much fun. A satirical gem!' The Wishing Shelf

REVIEW
I do a lot of this – checking out books and telling the world what I think of them. But it's not often I stumble upon a book that's totally different. But that's what happened with Bertram's Emporium of Things People Say. In this often wildly erratic book, the author looks at (and plays with) the modern world of denying facts, gender identity, and well, pretty much anything that's (a) divisive and (b) will upset the woke readers of The Guardian. And I must say, it's all good fun.
Now, if you happen to get upset by satire and the thought of a book ripping into the crazy woke world / crazy right wing world we live in with classics such as a Pronoun Simulator (“I thought you were going by 'vlem,'” they'll say. And you'll say, “I go by 'those/thars' now. Don't you know I had an ungendering case of flatus on Monday?) will deeply upset you, Bertram's Emporium of Things People Say is NOT for you. But, if like me, you know the modern world's all a bit bonkers and it's wonderful fun to rip into it all, then you'll have a lot of fun with this book.
In many ways, this book would be the perfect present for a young adult. It might help them to look at cultural wars with an open mind; it will also show them that a lot of what's written on Twitter (X) or any platform for that matter is utterly bonkers! And that's a good lesson for any adult to learn as soon as is humanly possible.

'Wishing Shelf' Book Review
www.thewsa.co.uk