Lance Manion

Lance Manion’s fast-moving, quirky collection of short stories blends fascinating spins on words and ideas with odd philosophical musings, creating a book that’s both easy to read and curiously absorbing—even haunting—like haiku in prose. There’s a childlike delight to my favorite story—She don’t fade—where a character is advised to remember what pufferfish do when they’re scared. And there are plenty of scares. Procreation is another frequent topic, handled amusingly as people are compared to trees in A Wonderful Thought… Ruined. Excellent titles entice the reader throughout, fascinating science intrigues, curious humor amuses (and sometimes confuses), and together it’s a cool blend of real, impossible, imaginary tales told with self-deprecating humor, cool wordplay and worldplay, and happy delight. Then there’s the cover—okay, that’s definitely odd; it fits the book perfectly.

Disclosure: I was given a copy and I enjoyed it.… (más)

Homo-Saywhaticus was hilarious. It was a bunch of short stories, more like blog posts. It jumped from one topic to another and in no specific order. Sure there was some “posts” that I was put off about and some that were vulgar, but it didn’t stop me from reading the rest. It was a very quick read and the type of book that you could put down and come back to later or even a few days later and not worry about forgetting what you had read. Overall, a quick and funny read.

Rating 4

Heat Rating: Mild

Reviewed by: KellyR

Courtesy of My Book Addiction and More… (más)

More reviews at: http://www.onstarshipsanddragonwings.com/2012/06/15/mercifulflush/

Merciful Flush is a collection of posts from Lance Manion’s blog, which range from disturbing to hilarious and back again over and over. Read at your own risk, you might get grossed out, you might get offended or you might have a cool idea and a laugh.
I first off need to say thank you so much to Lance Manion for sending me a copy of Merciful Flush for review. Merciful Flush is my first unsolicited review copy and it was quite exciting for an ickle fledgling like me! It was also highly entertaining :).

Title: Merciful Flush
Authors: Lance Manion
Pages: 199 (e-copy)
Genre-ish: Adult Humor (think South Park)
Rating: ★★★★☆ - Fairly entertaining, offensive to some I’m sure
Setting: Mostly the real world, though there are a few stories that definitely didn’t happen in this world (I hope….) or stray pretty far into someone’s imagination ;-).
Premise: As I said, this is a collection of blog posts that are each a stand alone short story. And honestly, this guy has one of the craziest imaginations I’ve run across in the last week, maybe the last month. Some examples that I can recall off the top of my head: an airplane window turning into a touch pad on the descent, taking a shower so hot your skin melts off, what starfish think to themselves.
Strengths:

Entertaining and compulsive writing, very easy to get sucked into “just one more”
Very very very very imaginative, I can’t believe what is now in my mind that wasn’t there before….
Fairly entertaining in spots, depending on your humor style, as a fan of puns, I was delighted :) Even if you don’t like puns, the dry delivery is sure to draw a chuckle
Weaknesses:

Just as imagination can be a strength, there are times that I was wholly disturbed by what came out of this guy’s head, read some of these stories at your own risk….
As can be expected from a blog to book transition, there were a few glaring typos and tripping sentences that could have been brushed up by another set of eyes
Swearing here and there so definitely not safe for the young ‘uns
Not as many laughable moments as I’d hoped for, but still more than I expected (since I don’t tend to laugh easily at the humor genre)
Summary:
An easy and compulsive read, Merciful Flush by Lance Manion is a blogging success story and definitely worth picking up for any travel reading. If you are sensitive to normal adult humor offenses, you might not enjoy the book, but fans of South Park and modern comedians will probably really enjoy Merciful Flush.… (más)

A rambling collection of essays, anecdotes, and assorted madness. The punctuation leaves a lot to be desired, but despite that it's still quite readable. The humor often borders on the demented, sort of a cross between David Sedaris and Happy Tree Friends. There were parts where I laughed, parts where I cringed, and even a few parts where I was tempted to skim - but most of it was quite unforgettable either way. I may think of one story in particular every time I take a shower for the rest of my life. If you're looking for something well outside the mainstream, this will probably amuse you. I'd like to read more of Manion's blather because much of it is really quite funny, but I think I'll wait until it's visited a proofreader first.… (más)