Synopsis

The Barber’s Conundrum and Other Stories is a collection of humor essays that address every day life including parenting (The School Project: An American Tragedy), relationships (How Bananas Almost Destroyed My Marriage), religion (If We’re Late Again for Church, I Will Kill You), the media (There But for the Grace of God Goes the Weather Reporter), animals, specifically geese who tie up traffic by refusing to fly (Behold the Goose), the afterlife (An Unwanted Glimpse of the Afterlife), and other topics readily identifiable and relatable to anyone who doesn’t employ and house a staff of servants that outnumber their immediate family by a ratio of 16:1.

Review

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book.  I don’t remember how much of the synopsis that I read before delving into the book.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised at the stories in the book. I loved that they were short (easy to find a stopping place when necessary) and a variety of topics.  Several found me bursting out laughing or nodding in agreement with his musings.  I’m not sure which one was my favorite but I know that I found myself reading excerpts to my husband when he asked what was so funny.

We give this 5 paws and I’m planning to add his blog to my RSS reader so I can keep up with his “observations from the cheap seats”!

About the Author

John Hartnett was born in Jersey City, NJ, grew up in Cranford,NJ, and moved to Los Angeles in 1984 after graduating from Emerson College. He has worked in the restaurant, construction, entertainment and publishing industries as well as several others which thankfully have been suppressed from memory. He moved back to his hometown of Cranford in 1997, where his parents still reside, and is married with three children. His first love has always been comedy and his second love is his wife, but sometimes the order is reversed depending on who’s in the room with him.

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