Adventures in Reading


Fiction: Arsenic Soup for Lovers by Georgia Z. Post, 2008
November 18, 2008, 10:40 am
Filed under: book reviews, short stories | Tags: , , , , ,

Georgia Z. Post’s short story collection Arsenic Soup For Lovers is a self-published collection from iUniverse. It’s a thin book at only 62 pages with 25 stories. With a bit of an Elizabeth Berg feel to them, the rather bare bone stories look at affairs, marriage, and middle age.

These stories are Reader’s Digest-esque and rely on “zinger” endings. I grinned a couple times but overall the collection is very formulaic. Some of the ideas are interesting, but the collection would have greatly benefited from some further workshopping.

I think I’ve learned my lesson to stay away (far away) from iUniverse.

Conclusion: Tossed.

(Available at Bookmooch.)

Other opinions: BookZombie, The Things We Read, and Diary of an Eccentric,

4 Comments

4 Comments

I don’t think anyone can out-achieve Madame Bovary in the department of feeding arsenic to lover.

Comment by Matthew November 18, 2008 @ 4:09 pm

Ahh that’s it Reader’s Digest! The stories reminded me of something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. They are very similar to those little anecdotes found at the end of larger articles.

Comment by Joanne November 18, 2008 @ 7:14 pm

I reviewed the book here and added a link to your review from mine. (I also have a few links to other reviews that you don’t.)

Comment by Callista November 18, 2008 @ 9:02 pm

Weird. You’re blaming iUniverse for an author’s lame writing? Have you read other genres they publish? My third sci-fi title with iUniverse, Martian Divides, will be out soon. If it’s a bad book blame the author, not the publisher.

Comment by scifialiens February 1, 2009 @ 9:19 pm


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