You Can Date Boys When You're Forty (Dave Barry) - Putnam - 2014 - 224 pages

Dave Barry took a vacation trip to Israel with his Jewish wife, Michelle and his daughter Sophie.  He wrote 60 pages about this eleven-day trip but nobody (especially the book publisher) wants you to know about it until you suddenly find yourself in the middle of this boring trip (pages 138-198) where nothing funny could ever happen.  Fortunately, Dave wrote some other pages that are quite funny but most of them do not have anything to do with the title of this book.  But, buy it anyway because the non-filler stuff is really good and many of us Dave Barry fans are wondering how many more books this old coot can write.  The very best part of the book starts on page 33 ("Manliness") where Dave tells you how to "Cook a Steak on the Grill," "Survive if You Are Lost in the Forest," "Order a Bottle of Wine in a Restaurant," "Perform Emergency First Aid," and some other stuff.  There is also some thinly-disguised (transparent) criticisms of female writers ("What Women Want") and the unreadable stuff they write for female readers (Shades of Grey, etc.).  In addition, Dave writes about dogs ("Nothing! Really"), illiteracy ("Grammar"), flying ("Air Travelers' FAQ") and death ("Death").  It's all great except that Israeli trip diary.  Don't go there. [JAM 3/16/2014]