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263rd out of 1,873 books
—
3,699 voters
Bless Your Heart, Tramp: And Other Southern Endearments
From the wickedly hilarious pen of Southern humorist Celia Rivenbark comes a collection of essays that brings to mind Dave Barry (in high heels) or Jeff Foxworthy (in a prom dress).
Step into the wacky world of "womanless wedding" fund-raisers, in which Bubbas wear boas. Meet two sisters who fight rural boredom by washing Budweiser cans and cutting them into pieces to make...more
Step into the wacky world of "womanless wedding" fund-raisers, in which Bubbas wear boas. Meet two sisters who fight rural boredom by washing Budweiser cans and cutting them into pieces to make...more
Paperback, 220 pages
Published
May 30th 2006
by St. Martin's Griffin
(first published November 1st 2000)
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I heard a lot of negative reviews on this book and a lot of great reviews. As someone who lives in Alabama now but not originally from here (born in Florida), I can see how it might offend people who do not understand the culture and lifestyle of many of the people in the South. For instance, I had NEVER heard of something called "Decoration Day" until I married and moved here. That is where you go to the cemetery on a certain day, clean it up, take fresh flowers and, in LOTS of more rural spots...more
This book was mildly humorous -- suitable for bubble bath reading, but I certainly can't recommend it.
My biggest beef with Ms. Rivenbark isn't her unoriginal observations, but the unbelievability of her Southerness. Sure, she knows a few Southern "endearments." And she might hail from North Carolina, but her attitudes are distinctly un-Southern.
Many of her essays were about how lazy in the home and in the kitchen she is (Southern women are nothing if not prideful of their ability to keep a house...more
My biggest beef with Ms. Rivenbark isn't her unoriginal observations, but the unbelievability of her Southerness. Sure, she knows a few Southern "endearments." And she might hail from North Carolina, but her attitudes are distinctly un-Southern.
Many of her essays were about how lazy in the home and in the kitchen she is (Southern women are nothing if not prideful of their ability to keep a house...more
Bless Your Heart Tramp: And Other Southern Endearments by Celia Rivenbark is a quick, fun read that will have you laughing out loud. It isn’t really a novel; it’s a collection of 3 and 4 page humorous observations about life, told from the female perspective. At first, I thought you’d have to have some familiarity with the Deep South to understand it, but quickly discovered I was wrong. (There are some passages that may be lost on non-Southerners, though.) I found myself laughing out loud and re...more
This is a collection of short humor essays by proud Southern woman Celia Rivenbark. Topics range from family to Southern living, with a few other stories scattered in among the rest. These are extremely short essays - most were just a page and a half on my eReader, far shorter than those of other humor essayists I've read.
The book was okay. There's really not much else to say about it, and I don't feel particularly strongly either way. It was a nice, light read with nothing really memorable abo...more
The book was okay. There's really not much else to say about it, and I don't feel particularly strongly either way. It was a nice, light read with nothing really memorable abo...more
Mar 06, 2012
Tamara
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
two-stars-out-of-pity
I was given this book along with three other's by the author from a friend's bookshelf. Maybe I shouldn't have started with this one... I thought it was "meh". I didn't think she was that funny. I thought she was narrow minded. And I thought the vignettes were too short to really have any substance. Ugh, I still have three more of hers to go.
After really loving We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier, I thought I was going to be a fan of Celia Rivenbark for life. However, while I enjoyed Bless Your Heart, Tramp, I have to say that it wasn’t as funny as my first experience with Rivenbark’s work. This collection of short stories and articles by Rivenbark cover a wide range of topics: Southern cooking, crazy cat lady experiences, child-rearing nightmares, etc. While it kind of kept me on my toes, wondering what the next chapter would be abo...more
This is a collection of humorous essays that were originally published in a South Carolina newspaper. Brooke and I read them in the car as we were driving cross-country, and we really enjoyed them. They are light and fun, but I didn't think every single one was a jem. A fair number from the "at home" too much "Men are like this, and Women are like this" humor for my taste, and in general I can't say that the humor seemed natural or effortless. They were definitely moments in almost every essay w...more
A collection of columns, these observations on life (from a Southern perspective) are, as a whole, amusing. I wish the book had been organized chronologically rather than by “subject” (the first section makes it seem like it’s going to be run-of-the-mill Mommy humor, which can be entertaining but was, on the whole, the weakest part of the book) and that the references had not been updated to coincide with the republishing (I read the 2006 library edition, and a mention of Ashton and Demi dating...more
I grow impatient with Rivenbark's "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" shtick. My husband doesn't have stinky socks, I can send him to the grocery store with a list, and he can complete a chore. He doesn't care for football. And...none of these things make him unusual around here.
I never liked that type of humour where a woman says, Ladies, aren't men all just a bunch of barely-civilized grunting gross pigs? No, they aren't. The dirty little secret is that they're just like us, only with a...more
I never liked that type of humour where a woman says, Ladies, aren't men all just a bunch of barely-civilized grunting gross pigs? No, they aren't. The dirty little secret is that they're just like us, only with a...more
Read her while sitting on the couch and cooling off. Like her, but she's not as LOL funny as Laurie Notaro. She's very Southern and occasionally that's a problem as some of it reminds me of what I don't like about the South. Some of it is really funny and some of it's just meh and thrown in. I would describe her as a mix of Laurie Notaro, Jen Lancaster and somebody Southern. Would recommend her to someone who has a sense of humor about the South and who is running out of other humorous essays to...more
Jan 24, 2009
Eva Leger
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Rivenbark fans, fans of Southern humor
Recommended to Eva by:
liked Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like A Skank
Shelves:
b-non-fiction,
humor
I've read three of the four books I know Celia Rivenbark has written. The only one I haven't read yet is Belle Weather. The best one in my opinion is Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like A Skank which is far superior to the other two I have read.
All three are funny and very, very easy to read. All three are worth the time in my opinion. If someone was going to read one by her and asked me which one I think we all know what I'd recommend.
All three books are a series of short essay type chapters...more
All three are funny and very, very easy to read. All three are worth the time in my opinion. If someone was going to read one by her and asked me which one I think we all know what I'd recommend.
All three books are a series of short essay type chapters...more
I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. At first glance, I thought it was going to be a collection of essays about why Southerns are the way we are (history lesson, maybe?). However, the book is actually a collection of funny "slice-of-life" moments from columnist Celia Rivenbark's adventures as wife, mother and Southerner. The book is broken into three sections: At Home, The South, And Everywhere Else. Of the three sections, I enjoyed At Home, where she mainly writes about her husband and...more
I am so happy that my sister discovered this writer! This book was hysterical. I was laughing so much out loud that Tom thought I was going crazy. Girls, remember when Sean used to sit in the "up" chair and watch Airplane and those police academy movies and laugh hysterically? Well that was me with this book! It is funny about The South but even more funny about being a parent, being a wife and just life in general. Thank you Celia Rivenbark for making me laugh so so much!
Bless Your Heart, Tramp is a very quick read and mildly funny. I recommend this book to people looking for read that will help them de-stress from daily life. Rivenbark's work is guaranteed to make you laugh aloud a few times and smile the rest. As a midwesterner, I'm not sure I interpreted Rivenbark's humor the way I should have. As a result, this book may be better suited for southerners; however, I'm sure all Americans can find bits and pieces very entertaining.
This is a book of Erma Bombeck-style essays that caught my eye while traveling for work a few years back. I picked it up but never got around to reading it. It's not really something I can easily attribute to enhancing or refining my skills at fiction, though it was an interesting study in creating character through voice. I think did help me with a recent free-writing exercise where I developed a very distinctive character voice just through the character relating his experiences during a parti...more
While I do like her sense of humor and sarcasm, I had a little problem with some of the more "Southern" stuff that she writes about. I was born and raised in the south and had the most country grandmother in the world and I can say that I NEVER heard her use terms that Celia Rivenbark uses in her columns. I even called some Southern friends and asked if they heard of some of the terms and mannerisms and they were as puzzled as I was.
But besides that little problem, I did enjoy the book.
But besides that little problem, I did enjoy the book.
Celia is a relative of mine and yes, she is funny, smart, and thoroughly Southern (minus the Confederate perspective TG) Some of her snarky, suburban Southernisms are beyond or below my frame of reference, but if you don't LOL at least once while reading any of her books, well, I'm sure she'd have some kind of remark about you that could be construed to be taken as complimentary or sympathetic. Bless your heart...
I liked the shorts in Bless Your Heart, Tramp, but unfortunately, they were too short. In this, Rivenbark's writing felt choppy and disconnected, making her first book the least enjoyable for me, despite the ready humor. (I enjoyed two others by her much, much more.) Plainly, these essays started out as newspaper columns; too bad nobody thought to have her flesh them out a little more for the book.
I don't know, hons, . . . She not the best social critic. She says some rather homophobic things, but she's not a conservative southerner. I like some of her slang.
It's not bad for a book at the beach, but I wish she'd have been funnier. I wanted to support a funny female columnist, but I'm not ready to that after this book. Maybe some of her other books are better.
It's not bad for a book at the beach, but I wish she'd have been funnier. I wanted to support a funny female columnist, but I'm not ready to that after this book. Maybe some of her other books are better.
As a Southern woman, I absolutely loved this book. I had to send several screenshots to friends of particularly poignant moments that made me laugh. It's a quick read- took me less than a day of off-and-on reading to finish it. All of the stories are funny, very Southern, and rather sweet. She's just like my friends- so it was more like spending a day listening to one than in reading. Loved it!
Celia Rivenbark is funny! Not just "tee hee" funny, but "laugh so loud my husband had to come into the room to see if I was ok" funny!
Her books are not novels, just collections of short observations of life. Well worth the time if you want a laugh! It's hard to find humor books today that are not rampant with raunchiness, hers are not.
Her books are not novels, just collections of short observations of life. Well worth the time if you want a laugh! It's hard to find humor books today that are not rampant with raunchiness, hers are not.
anyone brought up in the South will laugh out loud at this collection. "Bless Your Heart" was the first book of hers that I'd read, but I equally enjoyed "We're Just Like You (Only Prettier)"; "Stop Dressing Your Six-Year Old Like A Skank", and "You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start In The Morning".
Collection of humor columns which I found more miss than hit but on the positive side none were longer than three pages. The first section about home life did not really appeal to me at all but I did enjoy the second section about life in "The South" and I now know the difference between "a mess" and a "gracious plenty".
While funny, this book wasn't as great as I was hoping. It was full of tidbits that gave a (somewhat) accurate depiction of what Southern women actually think about the world at large, and in the beginning, I thought it was laugh-out-loud funny, but as I read on, I just got bored with it.
I love Celia Rivenbark's weekly column in our paper. I saw this book and checked it out of the library as a light read during my lunchtime. I really enjoyed the stories one by one. Not sure if I could read the whole book straight through. She is hilarious. Love her!!
Wasn't the funniest thing I've ever read, though I do love the title. I wish she'd felt the need to expand on the original columns in a forum where length doesn't matter. It felt like she'd really get on a roll with something only to abruptly end the chapter. Meh.
not as exciting as
I read this,We're Just Like You, Only Prettier: Confessions of a Tarnished Southern Belle, and Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank (all of which are collections of her humor columns) and they very, very funny. Highly recommend.
This is the second of Rivenbark's books that I have read (and I ran out to get it "hot on the heels" of finishing the first one). Think Dave Barry with a touch of snarky steel magnolia and you'll get her style perfectly. A great vacation read, and lots of fun.
Sometimes one needs to just kick back and read something light and downright funny. Celia Rivenbark does that for me, whether in her weekly newspaper column or in this collection. Nothing serious just the chance to laugh at human foibles.
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Celia Rivenbark was born and raised in Duplin County, NC, which had the distinction of being the nation's number 1 producer of hogs and turkeys during a brief, magical moment in the early 1980s.
Celia grew up in a small house in the country with a red barn out back that was populated by a couple of dozen lanky and unvaccinated cats. Her grandparents' house, just across the ditch, had the first ind...more
More about Celia Rivenbark...
Celia grew up in a small house in the country with a red barn out back that was populated by a couple of dozen lanky and unvaccinated cats. Her grandparents' house, just across the ditch, had the first ind...more
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“I really loathe [the bumper sticker] 'Proud Parent of a Terrific Kid!'
Why not a bumper sticker for the unlucky parents, something like: 'My Fifteen-Year-Old's in Detox and Not Speaking to Any of Us' or 'My Kid Robbed a 7-Eleven and is in a Center for Youthful Offenders.”
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61 people liked it
Why not a bumper sticker for the unlucky parents, something like: 'My Fifteen-Year-Old's in Detox and Not Speaking to Any of Us' or 'My Kid Robbed a 7-Eleven and is in a Center for Youthful Offenders.”
“[Home Economics Textbook from 1950]: "Prepare yourself. Take fifteen minutes to rest so you'll look refreshed when hubby comes home from work. Touch up makeup and put a ribbon in your hair. He's just been with work-weary people. Be a little gay. His boring day needs a lift."
Mama Celia: "Get knee-walking drunk. You've earned it. You've been with four kids under the age of seven all day. Put a ribbon in your nose and try to pull it out of your mouth. You're wasted, after all. Announce you're gay. The look on his face will give you a lift.”
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42 people liked it
More quotes…
Mama Celia: "Get knee-walking drunk. You've earned it. You've been with four kids under the age of seven all day. Put a ribbon in your nose and try to pull it out of your mouth. You're wasted, after all. Announce you're gay. The look on his face will give you a lift.”
Jun 22, 2009 01:50am