This is definitely tongue in cheek humorous history, even if she does get some minor details wrong (Henry afaik did Love Catherine of Aragon - at least at the beginning), it is a howl to read in spots. Her asides and generally I've dropped by for a chat style is fun. there is a no holds barred aspect to some of the stories and her way of discussing things.

Enjoyed this very much, 4 stars. ( )

Funny history - go figure! A delightful collection of true (and astonishing) tales! Another title to add to my "the smaller books ARE better!" list. ( )

This was good! I wasn't sure at the start, because it's pretty clear the author geared her narrative towards women (or men, but really, women) who were battling their way through breakups while reading this book. But it's easy to get past that and just enjoy the history and the wry humour. And omg were these people awful. You expect Nero to be horrible, but - and maybe it's just my general ignorance of Roman history, but not this weirdly horrible. And Oskar Kokoschka... holy cheese whiz weird, although I think I found it even more bizarre that everybody let him get away with his flavour of weird without seemingly batting an eye. By the time you get to Norman Mailer, his horribleness almost seems bland by comparison. Almost.

This is popular history in its purest form, but it's lively and entertaining while it's being informative. The source list at the end is a little web-link heavy for my taste, but I'm going with it; I learned a lot and little of it had to do with how these people broke up with their exes.

I have this in print, but borrowed the audio from the library and while I was a bit hesitant about the narrator at the beginning, I soon changed my mind. Hillary Huber's performance starts off sounding a bit monotone, but I soon found it works really well with Wright's wry humour and occasional sass. I particularly enjoyed her narration in the car as it was both calming and often hilarious.

I definitely recommend this (in audio or print) if you're looking for light, breezy and educational.

Book themes for Kwanzaa: Read a book whose cover is primarily red, green or black. ( )

I adored Jennifer Wright’s snarky Get Well Soon and hoped for the same magic with It Ended Badly. Sadly, while it has its moments, lightning did not strike twice. Some of my issue with it is the narrator of the audiobook. Hillary Huber does a decent job capturing the stream-of-conscious-like asides and jabs with which Ms. Wright punctuates her storytelling. However, she is not as good at this as Gabra Zackman is. With Ms. Zackman, I feel like she is telling a story and interacting with her audience. With Ms. Huber, I feel like she is narrating someone else’s story and is uncomfortable with directly addressing the audience. This makes a big difference, especially with Ms. Wright’s writing.

Moreover, the subject matter of It Ended Badly is not quite as hard-hitting as in Get Well Soon. At times, it did feel like I was reading a tabloid magazine, something I try to avoid. I can see the target audience for It Ended Badly being someone who just broke up with his or her significant other and is seeking solace. For that reader, this is an excellent read because it shows just how crazy people get when it comes to break-ups, and there is a good chance he or she is doing much better than the thirteen couples in the book. For everyone else, they are amusing but tragic stories of love gone wrong that serve to provide you with interesting but useless trivia with which to impress others on trivia night.