Everything Is Perfect When You're A Liar

By Kelly Oxford

Everything in this book is true. The time Kelly peed her pants in the gas station. The time she stalked Leonardo DiCaprio through Los Angeles as a stoned teenager. The time she used her son’s diaper explosion to get out of a speeding ticket. And especially the time she was convinced David Copperfield could read her mind. Kelly’s more than half a million Twitter followers already knew she was hilarious, and Everything Is Perfect When You’re a Liar has proven it, spending months on the bestseller list, earning her love from both reviewers and readers, and proving “not only has she mastered the 140-character barb, but the long-form essay as well.”* Kelly’s adventures are now in paperback, with a brand-new story about how she and her husband, James, got married to fulfill their son’s desire to be a ring bearer. (But blew it, by forgetting a crucial detail.) From childhood to motherhood, from the zany to the tearjerking, Kelly covers it all and proves that when you live life unapologetically, there’s no need to lie.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781443408226

Kelly Oxford

Kelly Oxford, born in Edmonton, Canada, currently lives in Los Angeles with her three children. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Everything is Perfect When You’re a Liar. You can find her avoiding her book and screen writing on Twitter and Instagram (@kellyoxford). She likes poodles and PBS.

Reviews for Everything Is Perfect When You're A Liar

[tod_christianson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well crafted short stories by an excellent writer who has found her voice. It is a graphic voice, perhaps even shocking at times, but it is authentic and original and entertaining.

[newskepticx · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I like Kelly Oxford's twitter like everyone else in the universe but this book was just okay. Short stories are a good medium for her personality but what others probably found laugh out loud funny, I found grating. You can miss me with that magical negro paragraph, I was weary of her sense of humour for the rest of the book. The part I liked best is her training in palliative care and that's not even really funny, just touching.

[reluctantm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Why is there so much CAPS LOCKING GOING ON with multiple punctuation marks to emphasize how funny things are?!?!? The writer needs some more confidence to just let things be funny rather than constantly telling me where the funny occurs.

[muddyboy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow! I am going to have to read the 2 and a half star review. I thought that this book was great. I had never heard of Kelly Oxford before I read the book. The is a person that was born to push the envelope. This is a memoir from her teens to her thirties and is full of here unique way of approaching the world. It includes her running away to LA to pledge her undying love to Leonardo Di Caprio, her invitation to Vegas to meet and visit David Copperfield's"Museum of Magic" and have a very non traditional visit with her family to Disneyland. The book is funny, fast paced and I was left thinking while reading it - What on earth is she going to do next? Since this is a memoir I don't know where she goes next with her writing but I will certainly give her next book a look.

[felicity1smith-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

a bit of a "wild" by Cheryl Strand for me. It was a nice wander through her life but nothing special. In fact the self indulgence became a bit annoying. Get it together seemed to echo in my head. Maybe it wasn't the right read for a 42yr old or something

[clem_bojangles · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kelly Oxford rose to fame on Twitter with her pithy, clever updates. In this funny memoir, she shares more of her personal stories. Essay topics range from her experiences as a precocious child growing up in suburban Canada to her experiences as a mother.

The stories present in Oxford’s book are loosely chronological, starting with her precocious childhood (these stories are often gratingly obnoxoious) and moving into her young adulthood. The book also deals with Oxford’s experiences with parenthood, and she often takes a no-holds-barred approach to storytelling. This works, sometimes: her voice as a child and a teenager comes across as incredibly entitled (which was the point, I think), and it makes it hard to like her.

The strongest parts of the book are near the end, when Oxford seems to grow into her voice. Standout essays include “How I Met Your Father” and “An Open Letter to the Nurse Who Gave Me an Enema Bottle,” but many of the other stories sort of blend into the background. These are funny, heartfelt, and entertaining.

Of course, the problem here is that Oxford isn’t much of a writer. Her true calling is as a funny voice on Twitter, and what’s disappointing about this collection of essays is that she stays far away from that topic. The most interesting thing about her is her celebrity-persona on the social networking site, and her decision to only briefly mention it feels like a mistake.

Although this is a sometimes funny memoir, it’s also totally forgettable. Recommended to hardcore fans of Oxford or readers looking for a light collection of autobiographical essays, but there’s better stuff out there. A tendency to be a grating personality will alienate some readers.

Everything is Perfect When You’re a Liar by Kelly Oxford. Harper Collins: 2013. Electronic copy accepted for review via Edeweiss.