You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl: Observations on Life from the Shallow End of the Pool
by Celia Rivenbark is a humorous collection of essays by the sassy Southern comedian. With her irreverent humor, Rivenbark comments on all aspects of pop culture and current events and really says what many of us think. As she muses about the challenge of tweeting her thoughts in only 140 characters ("Twitter Woes: I've Got Plenty of Characters, Just No Character") or the paucity of quality in reality TV ("Loonies Litter Landscape of (snicker) The Learning Channel"), she puts words (albeit much funnier ones than I would string together) to the observations we all make about politics, entertainment and the human condition. My Thoughts
I literally laughed out loud while reading this book - this drew some interesting looks on the plane and by the pool! Despite being in public places, I could not contain myself - Rivenbark's pithy commentary is spot on and the spin her snarky humor puts on daily occurences just made me laugh. In addition to doling out witty commentary on others, Rivenbark also includes some self-deprecating humor. My favorite example of this is when she describes asking David Sedaris to "blurb" her new book - she is pretty thoroughly rejected by Sedaris. When someone can be so withering in their humorous criticism of others, it is good to see them share their own foibles and vulernerabilities - it softens the edge of their snarky humor. Rivenbark's ability to do this kept her book from just being a collection of stories with laughs at other's expense and the book is all the better for it.
If you like Sedaris (he may not agree) or Dave Barry, this collection by Rivenbark may be for you. It makes for great light reading and its essay format means you can easily pick it up between other books or projects. I can also recommend Rivenbark's 
last book You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the Morning (sage advice, no?) if you are want more from this author after finishing "You Don't Sweat Much . . . " (review here).
Thank you to Tanya Farrell of Wunderkind PR for the review copy of this book
last book You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the Morning (sage advice, no?) if you are want more from this author after finishing "You Don't Sweat Much . . . " (review here). Thank you to Tanya Farrell of Wunderkind PR for the review copy of this book
I enjoyed this book, but I don't think I liked it as much as you seemed to. I found her to be a little too snarky at times.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't think Sedaris is that funny, so maybe that means I will like this book! I do love books like this so I am glad to read your review.
ReplyDeleteI have to read my copy. My husband and I were cracking up just reading a few pages. Nice review.
ReplyDeleteShe dose make me laugh on Twitter - I need to get this one, I am sure I would enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I would enjoy this one. I haven't read a lot of books like this.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I was actually just wondering if I'd missed any recent posts of yours because I hadn't read any in a while and then I realized you posted this today which is funny because I was looking at this at BN today and was wondering if her books were funny. I'm glad to hear it's good because it looks hilarious but sometimes I'm disappointed by these types of books because I'm expecting more funny. I've only read part of one sedaris book and didn't think it was that funny, but I typically love snarky comedy (like Jen Lancaster). I definitely want to read this one!
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny - you haven't missed any posts - I have been on an unplanned hiatus! Haven't posted in a month - ugh. I am dealing with some health issues and am so fatigued its hard to work up the energy for blogging but I do miss it so am happy to be back!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely check out Rivenbark's books - as with any collection of essays, some are better than others but on the whole they are funny and definitely made me laugh (I like Jen Lancaster's books too!)
Great review! I won a copy of this book on Goodreads and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival! I'm a big David Sedaris fan, so I'm hoping this can measure up to his work.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you posting again, and hope you are feeling better :)
ReplyDeleteI think humor is one of the hardest things to do well in books -- this sounds great, and I haven't read anything by her before, so I'd like to give this one a try.