Customer Reviews

I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies): True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As a long-time fan of Laurie Notaro's books I was eagerly awaiting her third book. The first book was started before we got out of the bookstore parking lot-fortunately the boyfriend was driving. I laughed so hard on the way home I had to race to the bathroom immediately upon arriving. The second book was read aloud in large part but I couldn't continue half the time because I was laughing too hard. Sections of book three? I couldn't even speak I was laughing so hard and all I could do was point to the passage I wanted my boyfriend to read.

Between Mrs. Notaro's (the author's mother) attempts at the internet and passion for QVC, aunt-guilt, awful work supervisors and goofy men Laurie Notaro captures those aspects of life that we wish we could relate even a quarter as well in the telling.

Not just for idiot action-adventure girls (see book one to determine if you are a member) this book makes a fine companion piece to my L.N. set and I look forward to enlarging the collection.

I too am a fan of Notaro's other books and eagerly awaited the release of I Love Everybody. I have to restrain myself from reading the book in one sitting -- each piece is like its own bon bon, best appreciated alone. My favorite one thus far is an otherwise quotidian trip to Costco, in which Notaro valiantly attempts to love everybody as an effort to have better karma. In so trying, she short circuits and verbally accosts two women blathering in the all-important sample line, as well as almost runs down an innocent bystander with her "angry jazz hands". This is a well-written complement to her other books, and takes on different, more 30-something material with self-awareness and hilarity. Well worth the wait.

This third book again had my whole family laughing and shrieking in delight. Just as fresh, well written, and hilarious as Laurie's first two. Her writing style continues to mature, even as it retains the unparalleled uniqueness that is Laurie Notaro. Met her at a booksigning for this book. She is beautiful inside and out. She read some items from her fourth book - can hardly wait for it since we devoured this third one in 24 hours. You rock Laurie.

I loved this book. There were some stories in the middle that make me (gasp!) actually think Ms. Notaro was losing her touch (too many "oh, I gotta hurry up and end this story"), but then came along the three-part tale of her trip to Disneyland with sis and nephew, and I almost lost it.

Do yourself a favor, and don't read this book in public. It's really awful to want to laugh hysterically (and yes -- you will want to) and you can't for fear that others will look at you weird. I was stifling my laughter on public transport and while taking lunch at my desk, and each time I sounded like I was desperate to start crying.

Anyway, that's just me.

I Love Everybody is just wonderful -- especially if you can relate to Ms. Notaro, which I can. I'm so glad to know that I'm not the only one who really really tries to have "I Love Everybody" days and doesn't succeed. I too lost my given allotment of patience the first week I was born. I just love Ms. Notaro, if not for the humor she brings into my life, but because for awhile I don't feel like a loser since I know there are others out there -- just. like. me.

Enjoy!

I love this woman. I read the first story in this new collection, and by the end I was in danger of requiring a box of the Extra Absorbent Depends! I was laughing so hard my husband asked me if I was going to pass out. I have loved every book since her first, Idiot Girls Adventure Club. Then Autobiography of a Fat Bride came out, and I rejoiced! Now this one...it's even better than the last! Her writing is wonderful, warm and funny and monumentally truthful. I can hardly wait for the next book! Meanwhile, I will read this one till the spine cracks (like I did her others) and enjoy every word! Thanks Laurie! You Rock!

Laurie Notaro is back again, delighting me and her other readers with her third book in as many years. Her writing is maturing and her life is just as funny as her stories in "Idiot Girls". The story about her trip to Disneyland made me put the book away so that I wouldn't embarrass myself on public transportation! I wish that Laurie got the credit she deserved - unlike David Sedaris, Laurie keeps coming up with fresh, new material that allows you to feel like you know her and makes you wish you did.

Of all of her books, Notaro's latest venture, _I Love Everybody_ is certainly her best yet, and easiest for this 30-something to relate to. Anything about her mother's QVC addiction sends me into giggle fits, as my mother is much the same. The best chapter I've read so far, though, is the chapter about The Sims. If you have played The Sims you MUST READ this chapter. Tears were streaming down my face and I was hiccupping for air as I read. I tried several times to read it to my husband, but finally just thrust the book at him because I couldn't string a sentence together without laughing so hard it hurt.

Notaro is truly one of the funniest writers of our time. Her writing flows like a conversation with your best friend. Buy the book. You won't be disappointed.

DO NOT...I repeat...DO NOT read this book in public. My neighbors at the community pool looked at me like I was losing my mind when I began giggling uncontrollably within the first 10 minutes of reading this book. One night before bed I read a chapter that caused such a deep, phlegm-y grandma cackle that it brought on an asthma attack and I had to take a pill! Dangerously funny!

No book has ever kept my interest, sad but true, as much as this one. I laughed so hard that my husband would look at me funny and shake his head. Notaro seems capture every family interaction and social interaction and then screams out things that you would never allow your self to really scream. I have recommended it to my mother and sister and my best friend. i read this book in a weekend and just ordered the other 2 she has written!!!

Although I feel compelled to note, right up front, that humor is tricky and what one person finds funny may not appeal to another, I still think this book is one that MOST readers will find laugh out loud funny. I love every book Notaro has written and they've found a permanent place on my bookshelf because they're guaranteed to lift my spirits on even the worst days.

Hers is the kind of humor that I'm tempted to call a combination of humor and self-help because I ALWAYS feel better about my life after reading about her misfortunes (but not guilty, because she is able to laugh at herself and, besides, her books sell well, so I figure any temporary humiliation is offset somewhat by that).

Notaro has a knack for being totally shameless about exposing life's various insults foisted upon her - and making normally dull subjects seem funny (everything from having kidney stones to finding herself traumatized and in a state of near nakedness, quite by accident, at Disneyland (yes, DISNEYLAND).

She is quick to point out her character flaws as well. She can be impatient, clumsy, drawn to the wrong type of boyfriends (until she found her husband) and prone to the most embarrassing experiences. Somehow this makes for a great read. I relate to her and I think a lot of others will.

I should note that this may fall into the type of book known as a "woman's book" and I'm not sure how many men will relate to this one. I hope I'm wrong about that.