"It All Changed in an Instant": More Six-Word Memoirs by the Editors of Smith Magazine

This fun book takes its place on my shelf among many others of the genre. John Train’s “Remarkable” series heads the list – True Remarkable Occurrences and Remarkable Names of Real People, for example, have a hilarity about them, which sometimes causes roars of laughter or a bout of goose bumps. This little volume does all that and more.

The premise is simple: famous and unknown writers submitted six-word biographies to Smith Magazine. I have so many favorites, but here are a few:

“Books then. Books now. Occasionally life.” –Nancy Pearl
“Heard some Shakespeare. Never went back.” –Casey O’Toole
“Everything I touch turns to mold.” –Lisa Anne Auerbach
“I have to constantly reinvent myself.” –Terry McMillan

And, of course, I could not resist making up one of my own: “Read, write, listen, love, and live.”

Lots of fun for a rainy afternoon. 5 stars

--Chiron, 2/18/10