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Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing from America's Favorite Humorist by Erma Bombeck, Alan McDermott, Donna Martin
From Kirkus Reviews - A collection of more than 100 of Bombeck's most popular newspaper columns (during her long career she produced 4,500 pieces), ranging from those published in the 1960s, when Bombeck first darted out from behind the drier to explain where the other sock went, to columns written shortly before her death earlier this year. The book includes a series of moving tributes from fellow columnists Ellen Goodman and Art Buchwald and from her husband, Bill, often the subject of her acerbic and compassionate wit. Does that seem an oxymoron? Can you nail your target and commiserate at the same time? Bombeck could, and not only because she made herself the bull's-eye as least as often as her mother, her children, and her friends. She had a unique knack for finding universal humor in hitherto unsuspected places, locating the comic possibilities in such unlikely matters as that infamous lost sock, a dying Boston fern, or the humiliating paper dress worn in the doctor's examining room. She muses about galloping food costs, kids who turn their backs on mother love, and husbands who are too much around the house. The collection is divided loosely into sections like ``Hello, Young Mothers'' and ``In Sickness and in Health.'' Whatever the subtitle, Bombeck can always make a reader laugh out loud--but she's not perfect. Some columns are overly sentimental, including one on Thanksgiving and another on ``When God Created Mother.'' Is Erma dated? Yes and no. Some of her columns reflect, in their concerns and attitudes, another time. But then again, socks still disappear mysteriously in driers. For Bombeck fans, a sure bet. For the woman of the '90s, much still hits home. Thanks, Erma. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A Marriage Made in Heaven : Or Too Tired for an Affair by Erma Bombeck (Author)
From Publishers Weekly - Costarring Erma and Bill, the author's ( Motherhood ) 12th book tops her previous hits as it traces the couple's lives since they wed in 1949. Told in Bombeck's comic, no-nonsense style, the story combines suspense, pathos and high humor as the years bring the inevitable moments of "for better and for worse." One of the funniest, and most sobering episodes occurs during the 1960s when the couple's children turn into hippies and at the same time Betty Friedan announces, in Brombeck's paraphrase, that "The roles for which our mothers had groomed us--taking care of a husband and family--were wrong." Not long after that, Bombeck (who early in her marriage had responded to her husband's singsong "Ring-around-the-collar" with a withering "So why don't you wash your crummy neck") got a job as a "housewife-columnist" at a suburban weekly newspaper earning "three bucks a column." Though she has managed to combine a spectacular career with a successful family life, Bombeck makes clear that having it all means giving one's all. 500,000 first printing; $350,000 ad/promo. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own! by Erma Bombeck (Author)
From the Publisher - Combine Bil Keane and Erma Bombeck and you get a hilarious book! I remember reading this when I was a teenager and it was a favorite that I'd read again and again! What makes this title interesting now is that since it was originally published back in the early 70's, not only is it funny, but it's like traveling back to a different era! Katherine Clarke

"She goes a long way with her book to prove that humor is the best -- possibly the only -- way to keep the world on an even keel."
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Remember the things Mother used to say? Erma Bombeck remembers them all and now she's using them on her own kids! With clever illustrations by Bob Keane, these really funny, too-true observations on family and kids and why it shouldn't work but does, is a wonderful antitdote to the daily problems and crises that every family faces. With Erma Bombeck in your corner, laughter is the best coach you can have....