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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Sedaris’s sparkling essays always shimmer more brightly when read aloud by the author. And his expert timing, mimicry and droll asides are never more polished than during live performances in front of an audience. Happily, four of the 22 pieces are live recordings, and listeners can hear Sedaris’s energy increase from the roaring, rolling laughter of the appreciative audience. Sedaris’s studio recording of his 10-page Of Mice and Men runs 16 minutes, while the live recording of Town and Country, which runs the same length in print, expands to 22 minutes thanks to an audience that often doesn’t let him finish a sentence without making him pause for laughter to subside. The studio recordings usually begin with an acoustic bass and brief sound effect (a buzzing fly, the lighting of a cigarette, the clinking of ice in a drink, etc.). Sedaris’s brilliant magnum opus, The Smoking Section (about his successful trip to Tokyo is quit smoking) (more…)

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Review
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars 100% Worthwhile Investment, April 29, 2008 By K. Blaeser skipblazer (Boston, MA USA) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME) Like many new Kindle users, I bought this cool tricks Kindle book on my first buying spree about 2 months ago. I reserved judgment on how useful it would be until now, giving myself a chance to both read the material and receive the very helpful free emails that the author offers as a bonus, if you choose to send him your email address. The very first tip that came through that I used, a tip on a free download, in one click repaid the cost of the initial cool tricks book. High energy author who is motivated to find a position in this new market, and why not? Someone’s got to save time for the rest of us, and I appreciate it. –Amazon Customer Reviews33 of 35 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars 100% Worthwhile Investment, April 29, 2008 By K. Blaese (more…)

Book Summary Do you want to be made whole? Jesus still asks us this same question today. Many people feel helpless, hopeless, discouraged and powerless. Learn through true-life stories and inspiring journey of a woman whose broken life has been transformed by God. Through deliverance, healings, miracles and revelations her experiences will convince readers that God can transform their lives as well. This book will open your eyes and your heart to the Redeemer. This book will inspire reflection and release renewal in your faith. It will come alive as your learn of God’s restoration power. Kathy Armstrong’s first revelation that God was real and hears our calls for help came during a carpooling incident with her friend, Nancy. Kathy’s car stalled right in the middle of dangerous traffic, and she barely made it to the side of the road. It was not out of gas, but no matter what she did, it just wouldn’t run anymore. Nancy challenged Kathy to ask God for help, a (more…)

From Publishers Weekly
With parodies of mail order catalogs such as “The Crapper Image,” “W.C. Pooterman,” “Toylets ‘R’ Us,” and “Modern Manurity,” this “scatalog” takes potty humor to a new low. After a brief introduction comparing money to excrement, the authors showcase their mock offerings: there’s the “Discobowl,” from “The Crapper Image” (”Shake your booty while you do your duty!”); “The Potty Barn” offers “The Presidential” toilet bowl (”an exact reproduction of the…model from which LBJ preferred to give press conferences”); while “Bowels & Nobowl” sells “The Public Restrooms of Madison County,” “Chicken Poop for the Soul” and other “bestsmellers.” The authors’ disapproval of catalogs and our culture of consumption may be understandable (”What can you get for the child who has everything? More of it!” says the “Toylets “R” Us” catalog), but their way of expressing it isn’t-few will find the vulgar jokes or the crude illustrations funny. Copyright 2003 Reed Busines (more…)

Amazon.com Review
Stephanie Plum, girl bounty hunter, the terror of Trenton, the bane of her boyfriend Joe Morelli’s existence, and the delight of her crazy grandma’s heart, is in the wrong place at the wrong time–as usual. Just happening to be indulging her nachos jones at a local deli when it’s robbed by the notorious Red Devils, Plum is the eye witness who could put the gang leader, known as the Junkman, behind bars… if he just lets her live long enough. Looking for a place to hide out from the killer until the cops catch up with him, Stephanie sneaks into her fellow bounty hunter Ranger’s apartment without telling Morelli, who’s not overly fond of him. All the usual suspects in this long-running series are along for a wilder than ever ride, including Lula the gun-toting ex-hooker, Grandma Mazur, Stephanie’s pregnant sister Valerie and her fiancé, as well as a host of minor characters who bring Trenton’s seedier environs to life. Ten Big Ones is another madcap cape (more…)

From Publishers Weekly
Journalist Kelly (coauthor, Starring You!, Get Serious About Getting Married) takes a close look at the instant success of Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, the New Age inspirational/self-help title which, as of this title’s pub date, has ruled nonfiction bestseller lists for some nine months. Though the “secret” of The Secret is the tried-and-true “law of attraction,” an idea kicked around for centuries, Kelly demonstrates why it’s captured the attention of today’s culture, paying special attention to the scientific and historical claims made by Byrne and company and the marketing techniques used to fuel sales. Guiding readers first through the controversial process by which the DVD and book made it to market, she then looks at the history of an idea, “the power of positive thinking,” and demonstrates “stunning” similarities between “metaphysical writers working today… and the New Thought writers” of the 19th century (including Christian Science founder (more…)

From Booklist
Gr. 5-9. Fourteen-year-old Jamie is tired of feeling insecure: at home she’s barraged with media images of physically flawless young women; at school, she’s hassled by a gang of catty, manicured classmates. Venting her frustrations in her diary, she chronicles the adventures of invented superhero Isabella (IS) who, with her signature wrist flick, sends “positivity rays” that destroy her nemesis, Myrna, and her “evil clique of Populars.” Through a wild chain of events, Jamie’s IS stories become a published best-seller, and Jamie becomes a teen celebrity. DeVillers’ frothy, humorous first novel is a giddy fairy tale, written in a combination of diary excerpts, instant messages, and Jamie’s spot-on narration. Readers may wish that the novel contained more of the actual IS story that inspires such uproar, but they’ll enjoy joining Jamie as she experiences both highs and lows, copes with fame and fortune, and tries to maintain her IS-like sense of self-empowerment (more…)

Forbidden Love with a Married Man; E-mail Diaries describes one couple’s journey as they struggle with sexual identity and how it conflicts with right and wrong. More than 4 million women are currently or have been married to either a gay or bisexual man. Often the gay spouse feels forced by societal and family pressures into marriage, suppressing his true feelings in order to be socially accepted by appearing “straight.” However, in secret these men cheat on their wives by conducting affairs with members of the same sex. This day-by-day memoir diary includes actual daily e-mails and correspondence between the author, Dennis Schleicher, and his 14-year married boyfriend. Will his boyfriend leave his wife and confess to her his love and desire to live with another man, or will he be trapped in his own insecurities and not move to a side of life he has kept hidden all of these years, risking the loss of his potential “soulmate”?Every married and single woman and male and/or (more…)

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Amy Walker endured unspeakable horrors while being held as a hostage before she was rescued by Dallas Garrett and his brothers from E.D.E.N., Inc. Amy is determined to leave the past behind…but only after she gets some answers to the questions that haunt her: Why was she abducted by the terrorists? Why is her mother locked up in a mental institution?Dallas wants Amy to know he’s a man she can trust. He’s incapable of offering her his love but promises his sworn protection while she embarks on her quest to discover the truth about her family…and herself.  Working on a lead, Amy and Dallas team up with an investigative journalist and an unlikely accomplice whose motives are as murky as his past.  Soon they are drawn into the depths of a secret organization that practices non-consensual mind-control experimentation—one that Amy’s own grandfather appears to be involved in.  With a ruthless enemy closing in fast Amy and Dallas race against time and risk their lives (more…)

Bestsellers have been with us for more than a century, ever since the first bestseller list appeared in 1895. But they have received surprisingly little attention from critics. What kind of books become bestsellers? Why do people read them? Do they have literary value or are they merely the literary equivalent of crossword puzzles? S. T. Joshi, a leading critic of horror, fantasy, and mystery fiction, devotes his attention to these and other issues, showing that bestsellers emerged only with the advent of near-universal literacy and the increased leisure time among the masses. Joshi is also aware that most bestsellers fall into the categories of genre fiction: romance (Danielle Steel, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Nora Roberts); mystery (Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Patricia Cornwell); suspense (James Patterson, Nelson DeMille); espionage (Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler); horror (Stephen King, Dean Koontz); and so forth.

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