Praise for Karen Karbo
Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me
• A New York Times Notable Book
Is there any aspect to being a mom—stretch marks, fat sagging over the top of the elastic waistband, baby spit-up everywhere—that Erma Bombeck hasn’t already trampled into the ground? Fortunately, yes. Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me should be clutched to the “corn-silo-sized” breasts of every new mother.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
If Carrie Fisher wrote with depth as well as wit, she would probably turn out to be Karen Karbo.
THE SEATTLE TIMES
The subject of pregnancy and motherhood so easily lends itself to laughter, though it has taken a novel as good as Karbo’s to remind us of that fact. But the beauty of her book is that underneath the lightness is a deeper, moving truth that never lapses into sentimentality. She’s our Erma Bombeck—a funny, uncensored chronicler of what happens after the fairy tale ends and life begins.
WHITNEY OTTO, author of Eight Girls Taking Pictures
In order to transcend the monolithic mommy story you have to reach down in there and wrestle it away from the mouth of American culture. Karen Karbo’s Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me does the hard work of giving our bodies and lives back to us. If you are any kind of mother, like me, or if your own mother is part of your life story, read this book. I wish Dr. Spock would have.
LIDIA YUKNAVITCH, author of The Chronology of Water
Karbo (The Diamond Lane) is at her best writing tongue-in-cheek riffs on sports and modern life and manages a successful marriage of the two in her sassy, satirical new novel. (She) relishes her characters’ war stories of pregnancy and labor; the novel, without taking itself too seriously, proves in its cheeky details a fun (and accurate) sendup of the timeless trials of womanhood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me is a funny, wise novel about more than simply gender. Karbo uses her wonderful narrative voice and her penetrating wit to find her way to the universal secrets of the self.
ROBERT OLEN BUTLER, author of A Small Hotel
[A] witty and astringent take on motherhood, crackles with insights and humor.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
Brilliant! The righteous, thoroughly American Karen Karbo delivers a swift kick in the kegels to those sappy What to Expect When You’re Expecting moms in her funny and appallingly honest novel Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me.
VANITY FAIR
Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life
I want to make wallpaper out of this original and beautiful book just so I can have Karbo’s unparalleled wit and wisdom always on hand.
CHERYL STRAYED, author of Wild
[A]nyone with even the slightest interest in cooking and pop culture may find it hard to resist this series of epigrammatic guidelines for living large, especially when they come from a master at doing just that.
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
Karbo’s Kick Ass books follow a unique structural blend of biography and advice-giving. When you read Julia Child Rules, you not only learn more about Julia’s fascinating life, you come away feeling as though you can be a little bit like Julia too.
GLAMOUR
A lighthearted trek through a food icon’s life, studded with satisfying tips for modern living.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
This intriguing book is about how Julia Child became an icon, and Karbo attributes Child’s success to her unique view on life. Here, through a fun and engaging set of rules, Karbo instructs readers on how they can follow Julia’s example and find true joy in life, too.
FOREWORD REVIEWS
Karbo’s joyful take on the ebullient, self-described “California hayseed” will charm readers new to the twists and turns of Child’s life, as well as devoted fans.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Julia Child Rules is a blast.
HEADBUTLER
Out of all the other Julia Child literature that’s out there, Karbo succeeds in pointing out something that should be, but isn’t always, obvious to us: the way Julia lived life with abandon, first and foremost, was by not allowing her age or place in life to dictate her career.
THE BRAISER
You won’t get any gushing food description here. In its place you’ll find humor, a little heartbreak, and a lot of wit and grit to inspire your own inner Julia.
THE OREGONIAN
How Georgia Became O’Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living
“Georgia was a proto slacker,” writes Karbo. “There were days and weeks when she would read, spend hours tramping around outside, write letters, sew, and play dominoes. … But when Georgia worked, she worked her ass off.”
O MAGAZINE
Simply a revelation.
ELISSA SCHAPPELL, Vanity Fair
Karen Karbo’s fresh and revealing take on the epic life of Georgia O’Keeffe is both effortlessly entertaining and profoundly inspirational.
SHEILA WELLER, author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon
[I]ntimate, joyful, and absolutely fun biography …
JULIE METZ, author of the New York Times bestseller Perfection
I want to give this book to every young woman I know who’s setting out on her own in the world – not to mention the rest of us …
MEGHAN DAUM, author of Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House
How perfect that a writer as thoughtful, original, and hilarious as Karen Karbo takes on as a subject as talented, passionate, and fearless Georgia O’Keeffe. The result is a fresh, funny, highly personalized take on “the nation’s greatest woman artist,” a meticulously researched, page-turning romp through the life of a painter whose days were as bold and unique as her art.
CATHI HANAUER, author of Sweet Ruin and editor of The Bitch in the House
This intimate, quirky, and sassy essay makes its iconic subject into an accessible, relevant figure with whom readers can identify.
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY
[T]old with great wit and hilarity throughout. While O’Keeffe is already revered by millions of women and aspiring artists everywhere, Karbo’s original, wry
