I don't usually read collections of stories, but Nick Hornby's name caught my attention. I liked this book a lot, especially Patrick Marber's story "Peter Shelley."

this is a collection of short stories, one is by nick hornby. he put together the book to raise money for children with autism, he has a son with autism. his introduction to the book is heartbreaking where he talks about day to day life with his son. i can't remember all of the short stories, my favorite one is called Nipple Jesus, which is about a man gaurding a controversial piece of art in a museum- a picture of jesus made out of nipples cut out from magazines. its a fun easy read.

ok, so I read this book because I wanted to read colin firth's short story. fight me

i don't care much for anthologies and short stories but this was surprisingly fun to read!!! there were several stories that i didn't actually like but the rest were great (hornby's eponymous Nipple Jesus comes to mind) and made up for it imo.

here's a list of the ones i liked i guess:
- PMQ / Robert Harris
- The Department of Nothing / Colin Firth
- Nipple Jesus / Nick Hornby
- The Slave / Roddy Doyle
- Catholic Guilt (You Know You Love It) / Irvine Welsh
- Walking Into The Wind / John O'Farrell

Good compilation of stories. A lot of variety and mostly good quality.

I picked this up because I was looking for a reasonably light and fun, but not brainless, collection, so Nick Hornby seemed the way to go. Mission accomplished; that's exactly what this was. Some stories were better than others, but that's to be expected in any collection.

A portion of the proceeds from the cover price go toward schools for kids with autism, making me feel like a big jerk for having bought this used. Ah, well.

Wonderful--stories by different authors for a good cause.

A collection of short stories written by friends of Nick Hornby at his request to raise money for an autism education program in England (and in the US if you buy the published in America version). The only requirement Honby gave his friends was that the stories be told in first person. With that broad of a brief, you're bound to get a variety of tone, plot, and of as in any anthology, quality. Colin Firth, for one, should never quit his day job. And Dave Eggars reminded me that writing as an animal will cause an immediate disconnect with the reader that is very difficult to overcome. On the positive side, a few of the stories are just down right good short fiction: Roddy Doly writes "The Slave", a sneaky little story that examines the difference between maturity and age; Giles Smith brings us "Last Requests", about person with a very unique job - preparing the last meals for death row inmates; and Irvine Welsh writes in the voice of a homophobe who finds the afterlife exactly what he wants it to be. It wasn't a surprise to learn Walsh was the author of "Trainspotting". Of all the pieces, my favorite was "NippleJesus", by Hornby himself, a "what is art?" story that shows that the question is more important than the answer.