Category Archives: Books

When There is Nothing Left to Give

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Last night I read the book, “The Giving Tree,” before tucking the muppets in for the night. It’s a book I remember from my childhood, as it has been a staple for generations.

As I closed the door to their room, I was overcome with nostalgia for reading comprehension. Don’t we all remember the days of an English professor requesting a 10-page paper on the subtext of what the author really meant. You’d spend days thinking, it’s about a tree. Maybe the author wanted the audience to understand IT’S ABOUT A TREE. Continue reading

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Live, Laugh, Survive

SMITH Final Book Cover

Laughter really is the best medicine. It’s no secret I’ve got my issues; and I’m here to make sure everyone out there, living in my computer world, knows they are not alone.

Sometimes something as simple as a smile can change someone’s day. So join me. Laugh at our misfortunes.

Today, Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor is available!

Seriously. Go buy it now. Yes, you – you are the target audience of this book, even if you’re rolling your eyes at me right now. Whether it’s you or someone you love, this anthology will allow you to see the humor behind the darkness.

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From the release:

Living with a mental illness is a journey that one in four Americans will travel at some point in their lifetimes. The stigma and misinformation surrounding the public perception of mental illness is appalling and unfounded. Those with symptoms fear judgment and being ostracized, leaving many to suffer in silence. Awareness and understanding are crucial in eradicating negative attitudes about those with mental illness. By creating an honest dialogue about the highs and lows of mental illness, the non-suffering public will gain a better understanding, and those suffering may be more likely to seek the support they need.

In discussing their own personal experiences with mental illness, popular bloggers and creators of the anthology Alyson Herzig and Jessica Azar envisioned a book that would squash stigma and support readers that are facing their illnesses alone, Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor was born. They gathered a group of talented humor writers who personally battle mental illness. The authors willingness to share their personal stories is inspiring, and shows that living with mental illness doesn’t have to equal a life of endless misery. While the lows of living with mental illness can be devastating, the disease doesn’t define the lives of these contributors. Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor contains essays that will make the reader’s heart ache, as well as ones that will make them cry with laughter. The groundbreaking anthology leads the mission to ‘laugh stigma into submission’ by inspiring attitudes of acceptance and compassion.

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I am proud to have my story featured among the talented writers comprising Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor. In addition to hopefully spreading empowerment to others who may suffer, every writer has agreed to donate a portion of his or her book earnings to charity.

It should come as no surprise that my organization of choice is the March of Dimes – in support of their quest to ensure the arrival of healthy babies. Nor should you feel any shock that the story I shared involved tiny persons (and the mooing of a cow).

Go check it out.

For more information on Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor, check out www.survivementalillness.com.

And thank you. Thank you for allowing me to share my story and for being the audience who loves me despite, or maybe because, I’m crazy.

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Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor

SMITH Final Book Cover

About a year ago, I saw the call for submissions to a book on mental illness. I laughed.

Because sometimes they only way to survive is to find the humor of the situation. Or, at the very least, make inappropriate jokes that diffuse the situation in your mind (your mentally misfiring mind, that is). Continue reading

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Book Review: The Secret Life of Book Club

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Book Club Just Got Real.

Have you ever been a member of a book club? I’ve been in a few over the years – any excuse to escape reality, really.

Because that’s what books do. Crack open the spine of a new novel and suddenly you’re whisked away to post-Napoleonic France to seek revenge on those who have wronged you. You’re a top CIA agent, the deadliest sniper in American history, or the wizard chosen to save magic from a dark end. You’re the talk of the town as a flapper married to F. Scott Fitzgerald or a very hungry caterpillar. Continue reading

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If You Give Silicon Valley a Starbucks

Silicon Valley Starbucks

We’ve been reading a lot of the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” series. A lot. Enough to make me realize that real life is just as circular. Continue reading

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Motherhood May Cause Drowsiness: A Momoir

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Confessions of a Scary Mommy meets Chicken Soup for the Soul in this “momoir” anthology by 40 mom lit and parent humor bloggers!

MOTHERHOOD May Cause Drowsiness: Funny Stories by Sleepy Moms is now available. Continue reading

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Fun with Fishing

Caden fishing

Search and Destroy received fishing rods for their birthday. So this past weekend, we headed to a local pond where a friend had assured us fish were practically leaping out of the water to eat bait.

“That was the thing about nature: make one lousy rule to describe it and it’ll contradict you even if it has to transmogrify and metamorphosize and bust its ass to do it.”
– The River Why, David James Duncan
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Goodnight Gorilla: A Bedtime Story

Because who doesn’t like a good story before bed. This evening, Search has requested to do the honors.

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The Bane of Banned Books

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Haven’t you heard?
It’s all about the word.
We have a need to read, to help our brain’s exceed and lead.
Agreed? Proceed – let your mind be freed. Just pick a book and take a look.
Imagination. An educational donation of narration elation.

Banned books are back in the news. And this time the villain is none other than the evil Dr. Suess. Continue reading

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Book Review: I Just Want to Be Alone

I Just Want to Be Alone

When you’re poured into an airplane seat as you prepare to spend the next six hours hurtling across our great nation in a giant metal tube praying Bernoulli seriously had his shit together, sometimes you just want to be alone.

What better time than to pick up a copy of the hilarious new anthology, “I Just Want to Be Alone.” Continue reading

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