My review of Leslie C. Halpern's "Scantily Clad Truths"

Scantily Clad Truths: Essays on Life with Clothes (and without)
by Leslie C. Halpern

• Paperback: 110 pages
  
• Publisher: Cautious Optimist Publishing (July 20 2018)
  
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0999376330
• ISBN-13: 978-0999376331

Amazon Synopsis:  In this collection of humorous essays, award-winning author Leslie C. Halpern provides true stories from her strange and unusual personal life and three decades of working as an entertainment journalist for The Hollywood Reporter, Markee Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, and other publications.
The book features 15 essays exploring various subjects, including a Hall of Shame college roommate, a perverted (but literary) peeping Tom, a walk down the red carpet with the stars, an awkward interview with director Francis Ford Coppola, and an encounter with a sexy homeless man.

Despite the diverse range of subjects, each story contains a common thread: clothes. Instead of the naked truth, the author believes that clothes offer more of a scantily clad version of reality - a seductive, though manipulated, outer covering that simultaneously and selectively reveals and conceals. In each of the essays, clothing - or a lack of it - leads to an unexpected conclusion by the author.

"It will all come out in the wash" isn't the case with Scantily Clad Truths, where deeply stained souls may never come clean - even with a detergent booster. From panty lines to punch lines, these and other truths are revealed in humorous personal essays that provide the occasional, though well-deserved, dressing down.

My review:

Fun, insightful collection of interestingly garbed stories

Each chapter is a short tale and each tale links its story and characters to how they dress, whether on an individual occasion or their general style, all to great humorous effect.   What a unique lens through which to see each person and plot—each essay is as witty as it is relatable.  This writer has certainly lived a book-worthy life, and is willing to delve deep to share true life events straight from the soul.  This is an entertaining read you’ll want to tear the clothes off of!

* Please note that I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.