Thursday, July 03, 2008

Have I Got A Guy For You- Edited by Alix Strauss


Have I Got A Guy For You: What Really Happens When Mom Fixed You Up is a anthology of 27 stories of woman and their mothers who set them up on blind dates.

It's hard to give a summary since this is a anthology. So let's see some of my favorites involved Hindu Matrimonials, "Cousins", the Perfect Son In Law, and a live-action game of Dungeons and Dragons. For the most part this was a good natured look at blind dating. It was funny!

Most of these matches end up in mismatches. But I found myself hoping that something good would come from these blind dates and in a few cases something did! Most of these mothers had their daughters best intentions in mind so it made the stories more lighthearted and loving.

It seemed like a large group of friends got together to contribute to this and a good number of them happened to be Jewish and live in New York, nothing wrong with that but it was definitely a theme throughout.

Reading these all in a row could get a little bit repetitive but at the same time anthologies are nice because you can set them down and pick them back up without losing your place. This is one of the many reasons I love anthologies. I read several stories a day for maybe 3 or 4 days.

I love love love anthologies. The idea of look at one subject (be it vague or specific) from multiple angles introduces you to many new and exciting ways of looking at a subject. And also getting to sample a bunch of different authors at the same time! I still need to go back to this one and look up some of the authors other works. (There are great bios in the back) I love that anthologies have the potential to lead you to your new favorite author.

What's your favorite anthology?

Thanks to J. Kaye for featuring this book on her blog.
3/5 Stars
Review copy provided by publisher

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:31 AM

    Wow - what an outstanding review! Love it!! I don't have a favorite as of yet. I guess I haven't read enough.

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  2. Oh I'm glad you like it. I'm never quite sure what to write about a book... I love what some of the stories explored. I'm really interested in Indian culture so that was an instant, YAY! moment for me. In fact one of the many books I've picked up this summer is a book called, Holy Cow, about one journalist's (i think) experience in the country. I also love Bollywood movies!

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  3. Great review.:-) the book sounds like fun. My favorite anthologies are the Best American Non-Required Reading series- usually it's a mix of short fiction, nonfiction, some comics, some other stuff. 's fun. :-)

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  4. Marie- I love those too! I actually had to read one of the Best American Short Stories collections for a class once and that got me going on both of those and then a few years later The Best American Comics series came out! Do you like those too? I've read both of the Comics anthologies through but I've been horrible about reading the other two, I buy them and they just sit there. I haven't bought the two newest yet trying to be good!

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  5. Anonymous2:31 PM

    This does sound like a fun read (and a safe one, from the perspective of someone who is well past the fix-up days!).

    Being the last day of a long holiday weekend, I'm stumped to come up with a favorite anthology - any general literature theme will do.

    I enjoyed (because of the various points of view) *Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs* which I reviewed on LibraryThing and my blog earlier this year. Tough subject, looked at from many different angles (some memoir, some short fiction, even some poetry)

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  6. sheistoofondofbooks- That anthology sounds really interesting. Especially because they use all different forms of writing instead of just one. Cool!

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