A love story between to actuaries: Barry -a male Jewish cat owner sharing his life with Mac (the cat), and Annette – a Christmas-decorating-loving woman who slowly comes to be Mac’s person. 4 starsįourth is “The Infidelity of Judah Maccabee” which was probably had the lightest feeling to it, without really being light. The third story is “Tattoo” and follows an artist-painter who gives up his painting and uses his art afterward to focus on tattoo art, becoming more and more convinced of the life-altering nature of his new art. “Collections,” the second story, is about a woman whose partner died, after they’d lived together for fourteen years, leaving her nothing.

The first of these short stories is the one the title of the book is based on - “We Love Anderson Cooper.” This story begins with young Markus who is reluctantly listening to his Rabbi’s recording of Leviticus 20:13 ”If a man lies with a man…both have committed an abomination…” ”In less than a month, he was supposed to chant those words from memory” in the temple, but laying on his bed with these words pouring into his brain through a single earbud, all he can think of is having sex with Gavin, and his plans of announcing that he’s gay during the bar mitzvah speech, hoping the YouTube video will catch Ellen DeGeneres’ attention and bring him instant fame. Some stories are charming, others are subdued, others are eye-opening- others jolting.Īll have a tinge of sadness or a lot of sadness.ġ1 short stories were VERY ENTERTAINING.( one was only so-so- but all is forgiven).Ī collection of eleven short stories by R.L. each of these stories are unique and diverse. With universal familiar threads: loss, jealousy, negligence, sadness, anger, guilt, grief, humor, prejudice, success, failures, illness, death, purpose, love, and relationships. Maizes’ stories: humorous > to “OMG, NO WAY”.”*THAT* didn’t just happen”.

There are several ways we can look at R.L. The 13 year old, may have pissed off the rabbi - disappointed his mother - betrayed his friend- but he managed to weasel himself out of his - ha- religious-educational-speech. The title story, “We Love Anderson Cooper”, is priceless.īeing assigned a section to read and interpret Leviticus for Bar Mitzvah preparations from the Torah is just bad luck! Haha!Įvery Jewish child would prefer Genesis over Leviticus. I adored these stories.ġ0 out of 11 stories were each memorable to me!!Ī struggling artist with a masters degree in Fine Arts, walks into a tattoo shop to apply for a job.

We Love Anderson Cooper by R.L. Maizes