Litanies along the lines of 'Ya know what bugs me?'

I am easily annoyed by trivial things. People who say "ATM machine." People who send letters to Walter Scott, Parade magazine's celebrity gossip maven, in hopes of gleaning insight into the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. Incessant sniffling. Carrot Top. The dearth of intellectual curiosity in the White House over the last eight years, though that was more of an existential suffering than a mere annoyance. All of which should make me the perfect audience for two new books: Denis Leary's new "Feel Good Guide" and "Is It Just Me" by Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur with Brendan Hay. Both books attempt to catalog the ills of living in modern society. Both, sadly, fall short.

The validation of personal anger is what keeps both the psychiatric field and comedy clubs afloat. In both cases, however, that empathetic connection is frequently an issue of being caught in a receptive moment. The flip side is that if you're not completely in tune with the person venting his anger and discomfort, it can just come off as affectation.

In Leary's case, it's hard to tell if he actually cares about (or believes in) the topics of his rants. Throughout the duration of his career in stand-up and, most recently, his work in serious drama, including his acclaimed series "Rescue Me," Leary hasn't shied away from taking big chances, the result typically being success. His righteous anger is rooted in a working-class aesthetic that mocks the perception that fame equals intellect. Onstage, it works because you see the act, you see veins rise in Leary's neck and, for a few moments, maybe you imagine yourself having the acuity (or courage) to say the very things he does. In print, it can feel strained.

When Leary laments the sudden rise of children with "special needs" (in his chapter "Autism Shmautism"), he first defines what he considers autism to be: "I know a couple of autistic children and let me tell you something they both have in common -- they are extremely bright and attentive and -- much like Rain Man -- have individual talents and abilities that would lay your empty little tyke's video game-addled soul to waste. . . . Autism is up and who knows why -- parents who wasted time, their brain cells and a lot of healthy DNA on way too many recreational drugs is this doctor's guess -- but I refuse to sit here and believe that half the idiotic offspring I come across even amongst my own friends and family are a part of that problem."

Donning the mask