Astonishing Tales!

Your Astonishment May Vary Stories and Essays

Non-Fiction - Humor/Comedy
200 Pages
Reviewed on 09/12/2018
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Astonishing Tales! Your Astonishment May Vary is a collection of humorous essays and stories written by Matt Geiger. Who is Matt Geiger and is he really still alive? In his opening story, Geiger relates his experiences growing up in the shadow of the much more famous NBA player, Matt Geiger, and receiving anonymous envelopes with clippings about his alter-ego in his school locker. Matt Geiger, the NBA player, loomed so much larger in so many ways, not least of which was his physical height and solid physique. Then there was his palatial retreat boasting eight bathrooms, a bass-stocked lake and a herd of bison. How could a geeky, somewhat portly kid compete with that? And then, there was his sense of loss at hearing of his more famous self’s misfortunes, the back taxes and forced sale of that mansion. And what about the bison and the one lone donkey?

Matt Geiger’s collection of humorous essays and stories managed to keep my astonishment at a fairly high and consistent level. As I began reading, I soon found myself Googling Matt Geiger, not the author, the other Matt Geiger, and couldn’t help but seek out pictures of the mansion and its inhabitants. I loved sharing the author’s ruminations over whether that Matt ever wondered about this one, and found myself wistfully imagining that they would somehow manage to meet or at least enjoy a chat someday. His essay, Horse Baby, is hilarious and kept me happily occupied picturing him sliding, slipping and extravagantly falling awash in conditioner and shampoos. While I don’t really have much of a sense of humor and am not terribly partial to short stories, I had a grand time reading every word of every essay and story. Many of them are astonishing to some degree or other; all of them are marvelous and funny -- and very, very human. Astonishing Tales! Your Astonishment May Vary is most highly recommended.