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Reviews

Leve is a major pessimist, sets low standards to avoid disappointment, would rather stay in bed than get dressed and made up to go to a party that *might* not be worth her time. She expresses in print what most of us think. She’s observant, sharply critical and savvy. Leve’s irreverent voice and bittersweet outlook mingle in an erudite, esoteric manner.
Read more here...

Entertainment Realm
Best of 2010: Non-Fiction

Imagine that you were going through a huge pile of books and you find a diary. When you begin reading the diary, you find that it’s written by someone who is just like you, attitude-wise. In discussing his or her flaws, the diarist is describing you. Likes and dislikes? You. Bad habits, bad behaviors? You. Might you begin to wonder if this was a diary you kept and forgot about...
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Seattle PI

Ariel Leve sits down to speak with A.J. Jacobs about pet peeves, interviewing celebrities, and how to lead a green life (hint: no kids)
Read the full interview here...

Daily Beast

“The perfect cure for springtime scrooges with a penchant for Woody Allen-style despair...”
Read the full review here...

Forbes.com

“This New York-raised transcontinental journalist is at her best when she’s at her worst...”
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Modern Tonic

“Leve's laugh-out-loud collection...wry, self-deprecating and hilarious stories...”
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Paper Magazine

“Leve’s irreverent voice and bittersweet outlook mingle in an erudite, esoteric manner. Don’t be scared away by her brilliance and underlying charms. She will seduce you with this collection from the first page. Even the optimists among you. She’s that good.”
Read the full review here...

Entertainment Realm

“In these bulletins from the front of deepest, darkest curmudgeonliness, Ariel Leve proves herself to be the literary love child of Larry David and Dorothy Parker. This book is like the perfect dinner companion: observant, irreverent and funny as hell.”

Dani Shapiro

“Let me cut to the chase (a phrase Ariel Leve hates, by the way): this is a funny, smart, delightfully cranky book about everything from Facebook to dating to Angelina Jolie’s dinner conversation. If Fran Leibowitz didn’t have her famed case of writer’s block, "It Could Be Worse, You Could Be Me" is the kind of book she might publish.”

A.J. Jacobs


Reviews

‘She could be the love child of Fran Lebowitz and Woody Allen. She possesses that same kind of sad-sack New York Jewish humour that is both perceptive and caustic. If you enjoy laughing at your foibles and the foibles of your friends, then every line of this very clever, if painful, book will be chuckled and cried over’
PDF Version...

Sydney Morning Herald

‘This was never intended to be a feel-good book but in a perverse way it proves itself a great mood shifter and lifter. Darkly humorous Ariel Leve lays out her daily insecurities like a patchwork quilt of modern anxiety and inadequacy, sparkling with tiny appliquéd gems of self-deprecating cynicism.’
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Good Housekeeping Best Books for September

“Sharp, witty and ruthlessly observed. Leve writes brilliantly — even, perhaps especially, when preparing for the worst...”
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PDF Version...

The Jewish Chronicle

‘Positivity seems to be the byword for surviving the modern age. But do we have to be so bright and perky all the time, especially as the world economy crashes? Ariel Leve's dry and bitter wit highlights the funny side in our everyday negative feelings’
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Irish Herald

‘Welcome to the wonderfully dark and witty world of Ariel Leve. This collection of her much-loved Cassandra columns is packed full of laugh-out-loud one-liners and thoughtful observations on everyday life … forthright, funny and extremely honest’
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The List

“The antithesis to Bridget Jones, Leve offers a refreshingly dark and wry outlook on life that is masterfully told through
her sharp and acerbic wit...”
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She Magazine

The Cassandra Chronicles is perfect for le crunch – who needs to be upbeat when negativity is this entertaining?
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In Style

'Original, insightful and sharp, The Cassandra Chronicles is the flip side of Sex and the City:
a very funny book written by a woman who knows how to laugh at herself and her insecurities.'

Joan Rivers

‘Ariel leve Is brilliant and funny and the only other person i know without an oven. Buy this book and keep it close’

Bill Nighy

‘It might seem strange that I approve of Ariel’s doom-mongering, but actually I find that her hilarious and addictive honesty comes closer to the secret of optimism than she would probably care to admit! Immensely enjoyable.’

Laurence Shorter – Author of The Optimist

‘Why would anyone buy this book?’

Harvey A. Leve – Ariel’s Father

 

 

Latest News

20 August
2010
  Cineflix Options ‘It Could Be Worse, You Could Be Me’

Read More...

3 May
2010
  Borders Books
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
7 PM: reading, Q&A, and signing
13 April
2010
  Book Court
163 Court St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
7 PM: reading, Q&A, and signing
27 March
2010
  Oxford Literary Festival
Ariel will be appearing at the Oxford literary festival on Saturday 27 March 2010.
23 March
2010
  British Press Awards 2010
Receives Highly Commended for
Interviewer of the Year
15 March
2010
  BBC Radio 4
Ariel appears on BBC Radio 4 program
14 March
2010
  The Fussy Eater
Column begins March 14th in Observer Food Monthly.
February
2010
  Shortlisted for British Press Award 2010:
Interviewer of The Year.
25 August
2009
  Portobello Books
Advice to help you survive August and beyond
22 August
2009
  RTE Radio 1 Ireland
Listen to Ariel's appearence on the Marian Finucane show on Saturday 22nd of August Ariel appears at aproximately 48 mins.
11 August
2009
  BBC Radio 4, Woman’s Hour
Live at 10am. Ariel will discuss the positive side of pessimism. Listen here
7 August
2009
  Robert Elms BBC London
Ariel makes an appearance on BBC Radio London on the Robert Elms show.
31 July
2009
  Jewish Telegraph
Read an interview with the Jewish Telegraph here.
27 July
2009
  Huffington Post
Read an extract of The Cassandra Chronicles here...
July
2009
  Portobello Books
Proust Questionaire Read more at Portobello Books.
Ariel Leve