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krikketgirl's review
4.0
Weingarten has a way with words and a way with people. These stories were engaging, haunting, and thought-provoking. Particularly praiseworthy is Weingarten's accomplishment in making the people he writes about sympathetic, while still remaining neutral. His ability to remove himself from the story left me feeling as though I were able to meet the people myself and make up my own mind about them.
sandyd's review
5.0
This is a simply amazing collection, both in terms of writing and in content. I wish it were twice as long. The topics are wonderfully varied - a children's party performer called "The Great Zucchini", the ghost writer for the Hardy Boys, parents who have accidentally left their babies or toddlers in their carseats in the backseats (to die horribly), Gary Trudeau and wounded veterans, Weingarten's father's old age, and the world-famous violin maestro who played his Stradivarius in the DC subway station one morning. Read it, you won't be sorry.
saras's review
5.0
I had read some of these pieces when they were published in the Washington Post Magazine, and I had gone back to the site to re-read a couple of them. So it's great having them in book form and reading some that were new to me. Weingarten is an outstanding writer, as evidenced by his two Pulitzer Prizes for feature stories (both winner included here). People are either fans of his or they don't know him yet.
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