This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Kim Anisi for Readers' Favorite
“Viva Laughter” by Patrick Shannon is a book that would be ideal as a travel companion or as a book that you read while you wait for food to cook in the oven, for your visitors to arrive or during any other time when you have time to kill. “Viva Laughter” is a collection of short stories that range from very short stories to longer ones. They don't have much of a common theme apart from the fact that they don't take life too seriously and make fun of topics and beliefs that other people take very seriously. There are stories about cats, poodles, famous people, the Bible, made-up people and events in history (that have been “slightly” altered by Patrick Shannon).
Unlike other books that make fun of topics that are very serious or even sacred for other people, “Viva Laughter” never comes across as being malicious or degrading. If you have even a tiny bit of humor, there will be many stories in this book that will keep you very entertained. I enjoyed many of the stories and some I found just a little bit too silly but I guess it is really hard to please everyone with every single story in a collection. Some of the stories I would have liked to be longer (because they are so funny like the story in which the cat talks about her pets, i.e. her humans) and others I would have liked to be shorter because they lost their momentum the longer they went on (e.g. 'Dead Fish Scrolls' is funny at the beginning but then becomes a bit boring). Overall, most stories are good, some are excellent and only very few were simply not my kind of story. Obviously an enjoyable book!