Picture of author.

About the Author

Laren Stover is currently editor-at-large of Contents and was associate creative director at Bergdorf Goodman

Includes the names: Laren Slover, Laren Stover

Image credit: Laren Stover author photo by Marion Ettlinger

Works by Laren Stover

The Bombshell Manual of Style (2001) 263 copies, 8 reviews
Pluto, Animal Lover (1993) 59 copies, 4 reviews

Associated Works

Fiddler's Green 8: Idyl Hearts (vol. 2, no. 4) (2021) — Contributor — 2 copies

Tagged

animals (3) art (5) beauty (9) Bohemia (3) bohemian (13) Bohemianism (4) bohemians (4) bombshell (3) chick lit (4) counterculture (4) culture (11) fashion (32) favorite (3) fiction (12) hardcover (5) how-to (5) humor (15) lifestyle (14) manual (3) non-fiction (49) own (4) philosophy (3) pop culture (4) read (7) reference (3) self-help (3) sociology (5) style (26) to-read (21) women (4)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Stover, Laren
Birthdate
1964
Gender
female
Education
University of Maryland
Maryland Institute College of Art (B.F.A.)
Johns Hopkins University
Occupations
Story teller
journalist
essayist
poet
short film producer
Awards and honors
Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant (Fiction)
The Dana Award (Fiction)
Hawthornden fellowship
Yaddo fellowship
Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award Finalist
Agent
Inkwell Management
Relationships
Stover, Dr. Leon (father)
Short biography
Laren Stover deconstructed the incandescence of Bohemians in Bohemian Manifesto, A Field Guide to Living on the Edge (Bulfinch, 2004). Her novel, Pluto, Animal Lover (HarperCollins, 1994), was a finalist for the B & N Discover Great New Writers Award, and continues to be a cult classic, recently reviewed by Carlos Dews.
Laren’s book, The Bombshell Manual of Style (Hyperion), was pivotal in exploding iconic Bombshell consciousness into a popular genre of its own when it was published in 2001, The Bombshell Manual is referenced as a Trivial Pursuit question and made a cameo appearance on HBO’s “Sex and the City.”
Laren has been sought out as a style expert with readings/interviews on NPR with Leonard Lopate, The Early Show, CNN, The Caroline Rhea Show, WOR-TV, Oxygen and more, and her work widely reviewed from The New York Times and The New York Post to US Weekly and Italian Vogue.
Laren has received fellowships to Yaddo and Hawthornden Castle. Her awards include the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant for fiction and the Dana Award. She was also named finalist by Anne Tyler for The Loft National Prize.
She has written for The New York Observer, The New York Times, Bergdorf Goodman Magazine, Bomb, German Vogue and mrbellersneighborhood.com. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in various literary magazines, her plays performed at venues throughout Manhattan and her libretto, Appalachian Liebesleider, premiered at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation.
Nick Tosches writes: “Reading Laren Stover is an engagement of the senses…a seduction of the senses—transporting you to the magical and softly illuminating place whence she writes.”
Nationality
USA
Places of residence
New York, USA
Associated Place (for map)
New York, USA

Members

Reviews

17 reviews
I loved this little novel! It's a short little book that tells the dark and disturbing tale of Pluto who is, as the title suggests, an animal lover. He loves animals so much, he values them more than humans. He loves them so much, he's willing to...put them out of their misery when they are mistreated by humans. If you haven't caught on by now, Pluto is plum crazy.

Pluto, Animal Lover delves deep into the mind of a madman, who's thought process is so twisted and mangled it's almost logical at show more times. I would be reading it with wide eyes as I read some of the horrible thoughts that entered this disturbed man's mind...but, most scary, on occasions I would read something he was thinking and find myself nodding. I'd realize my head was bobbing and I'd think "NO! Did I just agree with that guy!?" He's so crazy he's almost more sane than the rest of us.

The book was a little hard to read at times. There are scenes that feature animal cruelty and abuse that, as an animal lover, I found a little hard to stomach. I think many of my fellow readers will feel the same but I would still highly recommend this one. It's a quick read and, although it is dark and a tad morbid, I found the book incredibly enlightening.

Another eerie aspect of the book for me: I actually adopted a dog from the pound 2 days before reading it. Kind of a strange coincidence!
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I loved this weird little book. A strange question is asked here: What if a compassionate animal lover was also a sociopath? The search for an answer plumbs deeply into the darker side of the human condition. The story is told with humor and sensitivity, but also with unflinching brutality. Pluto is not quite right in the head -- but is the reader so superior? A very enjoyable and profoundly dark reading experience, highly recommended by me.
Entertaining, to say the least! This book begs the question, "What kind of bohemian are you?". Very detailed and quite flush with artistic and cultural references, this book is fun and informative, and yet somehow still takes itself quite seriously. I thought the "Bohemian Case Studies" were a bit much, however, and really not as interesting as I'm sure the author thought they were. A good read, all things considered, but there is no need to bother with the last sixty pages.
This is a well-done disturbing read, and something worth exploring. Yet, for me, it was a very difficult read. There's a lot here about animal cruelty and animal death, and while it's necessary and here for a purpose, it wasn't at all what I expected. With that warning in mind, I recommend the book as a literary jaunt into a unique yet believable character's mind. Depending on the material, I'm sure to read this author in the future. Without a doubt, her prose is unique, exotic, and show more page-turning. The book was difficult for me for the earlier mentioned reason, but I'm still glad I got around to it and explored. It certainly got me thinking. show less

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Statistics

Works
4
Also by
1
Members
611
Popularity
#41,143
Rating
3.9
Reviews
17
ISBNs
9
Languages
2
Favorited
3

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