Reviews

Praise for The Status Revolution

“Witty and incisive … an entertaining and intelligent eye-opener.”
— Publishers Weekly

“This will be hard for pop-culture readers to put down.” —Booklist

“Thompson is an insightful, wry observer of our times, with a cynical eye for the most foolish of human follies.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A very funny, surprisingly far-reaching attempt to determine what status means.”
—Men’s Journal

“A highly original book that is both eye-opening and hilarious.”
—Joe Queenan, Wall Street Journal columnist and author of Closing Time

“Thompson connects disparate industries and unusual characters in the fun—and always surprising—way that makes him one of my all-time favorites.”
—Sarah Knight, bestselling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck

“Chuck Thompson has tackled this slippery and ineffable topic with great aplomb, emerging with a book that is well-reasoned, beautifully paced, and a whole lot of fun. I feel improved.”
—Henry Alford, New Yorker contributor and author of And Then We Danced

“Hilariously curious, fact-packed global quest to understand why human beings still insist on outranking each other.”
—Jack Boulware, co-founder of Litquake and author of San Francisco Bizarro

Praise for Better Off Without ‘Em

“Viciously funny and thoroughly tasteless. Like Matt Taibbi or Bill Maher, Thompson isn’t aiming just to entertain; he wants readers to take his underlying argument seriously.”
— The Washington Monthly

“Often thoughtful, always irreverent . . . a raucous road trip through the South with a funny, informed, sardonic, and opinionated Yankee.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Hilariously over-the-top . . . Thompson’s mix of vitriol, bewilderment, humor, and research holds the seemingly disparate elements together and makes for an entertaining, if absurdly hyperbolic, read.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Awesomely talented and wickedly funny.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer

“A confrontational, extreme–and occasionally convincing–argument for cutting the South loose, peppered with hilarious anecdotes.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Thompson doesn’t have a politically correct bone in his Yankee body. He skewers the South mercilessly, and hilariously. And backs up his barbs with facts. Lots of facts.”
— Eric Weiner, author of The Geography of Bliss

Praise for Smile When You’re Lying

“[Thompson] knows the score and he tallies it accurately . . . A dead-on demolition job . . . The book is a savagely funny act of revenge.”—The New York Times

“Impassioned, funny, and uniquely honest.”—Esquire

“Consistently irreverent, Thompson is wickedly entertaining . . . reminiscent of Chuck Klosterman and David Foster Wallace . . . Thompson asks the right questions about why we travel, how we travel and what we expect from the experience. The unvarnished reality in these pages might just make you more eager than ever to hit the road.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A rare victim’s-eye view into the world of travel marketing and the nervous, unmoored corporate weenies who populate it . . . Fascinating reading, in a plane-crash sort of way.”—Washington Post

“Thompson’s weapons are wit, a well-oiled subversive reflex and a defiantly unbuttoned prose style.”—The New York Observer

“If there is such a pastime as extreme tourism, Chuck Thompson is surely its guru.”—Boston Globe

“Bitingly funny . . . as much as Thompson loves to play the curmudgeon, a reader can tell that through it all, he still loves to travel, despite, or perhaps because of, all the challenges.”—The Columbus Dispatch

“Vivid and ribald . . . If all Thompson was aiming for had been caustic observations about the industry he knows from the inside out, the book would have been an amusing but limited experience. But Thompson weaves his take on the travel racket and the damage it does into an engagingly personal narrative about his own nomadic life.”—Publishers Weekly

“An aggressively funny account of the world from an acerbic, energetic professional traveler who tells it like he sees it and has no reservations about sharing his stockpile of outrageous (mis)adventures and advice . . . At his best, this Thompson will remind readers of Hunter S.—provocative and thoroughly engaging, with a manic liveliness.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Reading Thompson is like listening to a buddy who shoots from the hip. He gives the straight dope on what a travel writer really sees on his trips and includes his opinions about it. Although readers may not always agree with Thompson’s conclusions . . . they will recognize an authentic voice on the subject of travel when they encounter it.”—Booklist

Praise for To Hellholes and Back

“Funnier than Smile While You’re Lying . . . [Thompson’s] incisive observations and biting sense of humor make for some riveting reading.”—Denver Post

“Riveting, hilarious, and wildly entertaining.”—Booklist

“His observations are sharp and honest. A witty, provocative tale that . . . packs in plenty of local flavor and amusing anecdotes.”—Kirkus

“Extremely irreverent.”—Outside

Praise for The 25 Essential World War II Sites: European Theater and The 25 Best World War II Sites: Pacific Theater

“The two books are a welcome new addition to the short shelf of military travel literature.”
—Orange County Register

“This two-volume series is essential reading for military history enthusiasts/travelers. Anyone interested in the history of the Second World War and planning to visit the battlefields should add these books to their library.”
—World War II Quarterly

“Without this book, you’d have to cobble together pieces from dozens of histories and guidebooks.”
—Washington Post

“More than just a travel guidebook—a worthy addition to your history library.”
—Pacificwrecks.com

“The definitive hip-pocket book. Never been done before. Don¹t go to any of these places without it.”
—KKCS, Colorado Springs