Hardcover, 272 pages
Published August 4th 2015 by Riverhead Books (first published August 31st 2014)
Get a copy:
Goodreads | Amazon CA | Barnes & Noble | Chapters.Indigo.ca
Published August 4th 2015 by Riverhead Books (first published August 31st 2014)
Get a copy:
Goodreads | Amazon CA | Barnes & Noble | Chapters.Indigo.ca
“I was thinking I might want to study public health, but I was also thinking I might want to move to the forest and eat berries and mushrooms and hibernate with the bears in the winter.” |
| Description: A fresh, honest, and darkly funny debut collection about family, friends, and lovers, and the flaws that make us most human. Fearless, candid, and incredibly funny, Lauren Holmes is a newcomer who writes like a master. She tackles eros and intimacy with a deceptively light touch, a keen awareness of how their nervous systems tangle and sometimes short-circuit, and a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves. In “Desert Hearts,” a woman takes a job selling sex toys in San Francisco rather than embark on the law career she pursued only for the sake of her father. In “Pearl and the Swiss Guy Fall in Love,” a woman realizes she much prefers the company of her pit bull—and herself—to the neurotic foreign fling who won’t decamp from her apartment. In “How Am I Supposed to Talk to You?” a daughter hauls a suitcase of lingerie to Mexico for her flighty, estranged mother to resell there, wondering whether her personal mission—to come out—is worth the same effort. And in “Barbara the Slut,” a young woman with an autistic brother, a Princeton acceptance letter, and a love of sex navigates her high school’s toxic, slut-shaming culture with open eyes. With heart, sass, and pitch-perfect characters, Barbara the Slut is a head-turning debut from a writer with a limitless career before her. |  |
 Author Lauren Holmes | About The Author: Lauren Holmes grew up in upstate New York. She received a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA from Hunter College, where she was a Hertog Fellow and a teaching fellow. Her work has appeared in Granta, where she was a 2014 New Voice, and in Guernica. Holmes lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. |
My Thoughts:
Loved, loved, loved this book of short stories. Unique characters with powerful voices, talking about relationships with family and friends (especially mothers and brothers), intimacy with lovers (uncomfortable and otherwise), sex and coming out, and let's not forget the interesting jobs (the sex toy store was hilarious and quite memorable). I listened to the audio version of this book while working with a room full of people. I was laughing out loud many times and everyone wanted to know what was so funny. I couldn't tell them, for some of the descriptive words are not work-friendly. They'll just have to read it for themselves, as will YOU! *still smiling*
Loved, loved, loved this book of short stories. Unique characters with powerful voices, talking about relationships with family and friends (especially mothers and brothers), intimacy with lovers (uncomfortable and otherwise), sex and coming out, and let's not forget the interesting jobs (the sex toy store was hilarious and quite memorable). I listened to the audio version of this book while working with a room full of people. I was laughing out loud many times and everyone wanted to know what was so funny. I couldn't tell them, for some of the descriptive words are not work-friendly. They'll just have to read it for themselves, as will YOU! *still smiling*
My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
(because I love to laugh, I love to spit out my coffee at the ridiculous conversations that are so funny and I love imperfect characters who make me think and forget I'm reading fiction).
(because I love to laugh, I love to spit out my coffee at the ridiculous conversations that are so funny and I love imperfect characters who make me think and forget I'm reading fiction).
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