I remember the first time I saw Jon Stewart do his stand-up act. I had a nasty case of the "going to be big" tingles. He strengthened my conviction by sending himself up on The Larry Sanders Show (the most criminally unwatched show in television history), and now this book...

Most comedians simply cut and paste their stand-up routines into a hurriedly compiled, emaciated volume, but Stewart has started from scratch, applying his humor into a collection of essays. Written from the point of view of famous people through history, he climbs inside the characters he satirizes and the humor is developed through the absurdity of their personalities. Hitler defends himself on Larry King Live, Diana's sophomoric letters to Mother Theresa are unearthed and the fictional account of young Jewish boy visiting the Kennedy compound in the mid-thirties is so biting and funny I'll be surprised if New England's Royal Family don't take out a contract on Stewart's life before the year is out.

Jon Stewart is an extremely rare talent. He has proven he can work in any media (print, television, live performance) and he continues to improve with time. The press has already praised this book so much this review is almost redundant, but Stewart's book is so good it deserves another recommendation. I can only hope that the public embrace it as warmly.

No prizes for guessing what I'll be buying my intelligent friends for Christmas this year.