Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way has sold more than 1.2 million copies and changed forever the way many individuals use their early morning hours for creative self-exploration. In this timely and refreshingly funny book, the author revives the lively and insightful tradition of crazy wisdom relished by saints, Zen masters, Native American tricksters, rebbes, and holy fools. Cameron trains her sights on contemporary spirituality, and the result is a joyous romp filled with glints of truth and a tasty smorgasbord of snickers, giggles, and guffaws.

In a series of short and snappy essays all followed by journal and other exercises to try, the author presents her wry commentary on some of the excesses and deficiencies of "spiritually correct people," Buddhists, New Agers, Christians, and very smart people who are really very dumb about God. Cameron has little patience for what she calls "Extreme Skiers" — zealous practitioners of yoga, meditation, or any other spiritual practice who hold themselves up as paragons and look down upon the rest of us. She laments the fact that we structure our days around secular practices: "We have 'Good Morning America' or 'The Today Show' in the time slot for prayers upon rising. David Letterman helps us say 'amen' to the day."

Again and again, Cameron criticizes spiritual solemnity, which at one point she calls "an earmark of spiritual adolescence." Throughout, she celebrates God's remarkable sense of humor. Other topics covered include the Magic Wand School of Spiritual Development, prayer, the waning of the centralized power of the churches, the value of linking sexuality and spirit, the dire effect of parent bashing, and the delight of seeing God as a blind date who always delivers some surprises. God Is No Laughing Matter is a real hoot and a much needed antidote to the pretentiousness, vanity, and silliness of some segments of today's spiritual scene.