Catch-Up Links

While I was on medical hiatus, I stopped writing for Heroes & Heartbreakers. I continued my work for Publishers Weekly and, as I felt well enough, wrote some brief reviews for Amazon and Amazon Vine. Here are the links you missed, beginning with a link from my return to the H&H rotation:

• Kindle Magic (or How to Organize Your Kindle) article by Laurie Gold for Heroes & Heartbreakers
• Vine review of Lustfully Ever After by Kristina Wright (Erotic Romance)
• Vine review of Dermacontrol Foam Wash by Cetaphil (Skincare)
• Vine review of Apron Anxiety by Alysssa Shelasky (Memoir)
• Vine review of Paris in Love by Eloisa James (Memoir)
• Vine review of Curly-Q Dinnerware Set by Rachael Ray (Housewares)
• Review of Women's JB-6210-F "Victory" Pink Stainless Steel Diamond Watch by Just Bling (Jewelry/Watches)
• Review of Colored Gemstones by Paul Deasy (Reference)
• Vine review of Mio, Mango Peach by Kraft (Water Enhancer)
• Vine review of Fruit Design Post-It Notes by 3M (Office Supplies)
• Review of Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie (Biography)
• Review of Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (documentary) DVD, directed by Rodman Flender
  

Catch-Up Links

Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin

Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin

Grade: B

"Calvin Trillin is a wonderfully funny storyteller, whether or not his stories are true or fictional. He's a quintessential New Yorker, but his appeal is universal, if more than a little ethnic. I'd read previously many of the essays included in this new compilation, but re-reading them was just as funny the second time around. The essays, some of which are more than thirty years old, remain funny today; many that were written in the Reagan era could have been written last week. The included essays are short enough and filled with enough gems of humor that they simply cry out to be read aloud, and in this instance my husband was the happy recipient."

Read this review in its entirety at Amazon. It is not a Vine review; I received a digital copy from the publisher.

Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin

You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl by Celia Rivenbark

You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl

Celia Rivenbark

Humor

Grade: B-

"If Joe Bob Briggs and Libby Gelman-Waxner had a love-child (improbable in more ways than one, not the least of which is that both were invented characters) who grew up Southern and wrote a book, she would be Celia Rivenbark and the book would be You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl. Filled with colorful, inventive and often invented prose, pop culture-infused content that remains unconcerned with political correctness, mockery of self and others, the book is breezy and easy to read fun."

Read this brief Amazon Vine review in its entirety at Amazon.

You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl by Celia Rivenbark

I Just Love This!

So, I know this isn't new, but every time I see it, it cracks me up. What about you?

I Just Love This!

Christopher Moore...in Case You Missed It

Major fan-girl here for absurdist fiction author Christopher Moore. A Dirty Job is my favorite, even though it's tough to convince somebody that hilarity ensues after a man's wife dies in childbirth. Next in my love-fest with the author are Bloodsucking Fiends, which was my introduction to Moore - thanks Mary! - and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, followed by You Suck and Fluke: I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings. Although for my friend Gail last year's Fool supplanted A Dirty Job, I feel as though I need to re-read King Lear to do it justice, and simply haven't had the time. I do plan to read the brand-spanking-new Bite Me, though - which follows Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck in a series - as soon as possible. While the second book wasn't as fantabulous as the first, the excerpt for the third looks hilarious.

Lamb, btw, is the perfect book for any friend with a great sense of humor, whether or not they read a lot of fiction. I suggested it for my husband, who reads a lot of dry crap for his law practice and so doesn't do a lot of recreational reading, and now he's convinced "this guy writes like me."

Anyway, before I digress further...Christopher Moore wrote a short piece for the Huffington Post a couple of weeks ago. If you blinked, you probably missed OMFG, Horatio, in which he writes about language. If you like Moore, surely one of the reasons you do is that he's a master wordsmith, something I got into when I interviewed him a few years ago. I hope he writes more for HuffPo in the future; OMFG is a good start.

Christopher Moore...in Case You Missed It