Famous Baby

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“Famous Baby is inventive, hysterical, and touching. Karen Rizzo wraps a timeless drama about the love between mothers and daughters in a fresh, snappy package for the social media age.” —CHRISTINA SCHWARZ, author of The Edge of the Earth and Drowning Ruth, an Oprahs Book Club Selection

Before there were Real Housewives and Tiger Moms, the was Ruth Sternberg, the hugely popular First Mother of Mommy Blogging—or, as Ruths daughter, Abbie prefers to call her, the First Lady of Cyber Exploitation.

Eighteen year-old Abbie has finally found her way out of the limelight, by moving a solid five hundred miles away from Ruth and her “maternal instincts.” But when she hears that her ailing, beloved grandmother is moving in with Ruth, she suspects that her mother has found a new blog subject to exploit. Abbie kidnaps Grandma to save her from the same fate, and thus begins an uproarious battle of wills. Famous Baby wisely and hilariously explores mother love, identity, and the hazards of parental over-sharing in the social media age.

Karen Rizzo, who lives with her actor husband and two children in Los Angeles, California, is the author of Things to Bring, S#!T to Do… and Other Inventories of Anxiety, a memoir centered around her penchant for lists. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Salon, Living Fit, and womens humor anthologies, and her plays have been staged at several theatres. Famous Baby is her first novel.

Los Angeles Magazine Now Read This: The Best of L.A.

A Jane's Addiction Pick, W Magazine

South Florida Lifestyle Summer Read

Zoe Report Best Summer Beach Read

HelloGiggles Summer Guide to Truly Spectacular Reading

“Will take your summertime escapades to the next level.” —Zoe Report: Rachel Zoes Daily Dose of Glamour

“Famous Baby wisely (and funnily) explores motherhood, identity, and the hazards of parental over-sharing in the social media age.” —HelloGiggles

“Believable and well-conceived. . . . Rizzos use of mommy blogging as a source of conflict wrests a wry smile of recognition out of the reader.” —PopMatters

“A refreshingly new twist on one of the oldest stories in the book: the mother-daughter love hate relationship. . . . Funny, touching . . . Famous Baby would be a great choice for a book club.” —Bookconscious

“A recommended read for all daughters out there.” —Chickens in the Road

“Rizzo did a great job creating characters who are not what you would expect them to be. . . . This novel will make you think about possible over-sharing digitally, but more than that it will make you think about your relationships and both death and life. Though not a ‘light story, with serious issues, complex characters, and emotion, Rizzos humor is both needed and enjoyed.” —Book Sp(l)ot Reviews

“This deft first novel [is] a satirical exploration of the modern American family . . . a very pleasing debut.” —Publishers Weekly

“In her funny and touching new novel, Karen Rizzo deftly unpacks the fraught world of mothers and daughters, skewers the vast narcissism of the blogosphere, and reveals the emotional wages of unbridled ambition. An enjoyable and surprising ride to some places I didnt expect to go.” —SETH GREENLAND, author of The Angry Buddhist

“Hilarious, moving, and wildly original, Famous Baby is a laugh-out-loud funny and poignant look at the modern family in these TMI times.” —WENDY LAWLESS, actress and author of Chanel Bonfire

“Karen Rizzos writing is so good I want to read it out loud and pretend its me who is so cunning, sublime, and full of light. Famous Baby is a sturdy tale of exceeding relevance that dwells squarely in that nearly impossible landscape of everything so darkly funny and so achingly true.” —MARC PARENT, author of Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk and the Runners World “Newbie Chronicles” column

“Famous Baby is inventive, hysterical, and touching. Karen Rizzo wraps a timeless drama about the love between mothers and daughters in a fresh, snappy package for the social media age.” —CHRISTINA SCHWARZ, author of The Edge of the Earth and Drowning Ruth, an Oprahs Book Club Selection

"Famous Baby is inventive, hysterical, and touching. Karen Rizzo wraps a timeless drama about the love between mothers and daughters in a fresh, snappy package for the social media age." --CHRISTINA SCHWARZ, author of The Edge of the Earth and Drowning Ruth, an Oprah's Book Club Selection

Before there were Real Housewives and Tiger Moms, the was Ruth Sternberg, the hugely popular First Mother of Mommy Blogging--or, as Ruth's daughter, Abbie prefers to call her, the First Lady of Cyber Exploitation.

Eighteen year-old Abbie has finally found her way out of the limelight, by moving a solid five hundred miles away from Ruth and her "maternal instincts." But when she hears that her ailing, beloved grandmother is moving in with Ruth, she suspects that her mother has found a new blog subject to exploit. Abbie kidnaps Grandma to save her from the same fate, and thus begins an uproarious battle of wills. Famous Baby wisely and hilariously explores mother love, identity, and the hazards of parental over-sharing in the social media age.

Karen Rizzo, who lives with her actor husband and two children in Los Angeles, California, is the author of Things to Bring, S# T to Do... and Other Inventories of Anxiety, a memoir centered around her penchant for lists. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Salon, Living Fit, and women's humor anthologies, and her plays have been staged at several theatres. Famous Baby is her first novel.

Ruth Sternberg was the first and most famous mommy blogger, and now, eighteen years later, daughter and blog subject Abbie is understandably bitter about her public exploitation. So she takes a gap year to get away from the scrutiny and her overbearing mother. When she hears that her beloved grandmother is moving in with Ruth after receiving a terminal diagnosis, she rightly suspects that her mother has found a new subject to write about on her blog. Abbie can't bear the notion that her grandmother's suffering will be shared with the nation, so she kidnaps her, sending her doting but misguided mother into a panic. Famous Baby wisely and hilariously explores mother love, identity, and the hazards of parental over-sharing in the social media age.

Karen Rizzo is the author of the Book Sense Pick Things to Bring, S#!t to Do…and Other Inventories of Anxiety, a memoir built around her penchant for lists. Rizzo's stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Salon, Fit Pregnancy, and women's humor anthologies, and her plays have been staged at several theaters. Famous Baby is her first novel. Rizzo lives with her actor husband and two children in Los Angeles, California.