Fast Funny Women

75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction

By: Gina Barreca

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson, Cindy Kay

These 75 flash nonfiction pieces, written by internationally celebrated women authors and dazzlingly hilarious newcomers, are no flashes in the pan: They provide a feast of insights, generously garnished with wit, spice, and an exhilarating attention to craft. In Fast Funny Women, you'll find everything you want from thoughtful essays in a short, delicious form. Perfect for students of writing, writers of humor, and all fans who welcome laughter, insight, and perspective into their lives.

©2020 Regina Barreca (P)2021 Tantor

Half good stories, half non-stories, few funny

I really wanted to like this book, but I was incredibly disappointed. About half the stories in the book were genuinely good, but few were actually funny. I LOLed maybe twice and smiled a few other times. Part of the issue, I think, is that the reader did not have a voice that invited humor. She read way too seriously for my liking.

The other half of the stories were not really stories. Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and these did not. Many times I didn't realize the book had moved on to another story because there was no real end/closure to the previous one. This is an obvious hazard of flash fiction like this, and it didn't do the stories or the book justice. If you're inclined to check out this book, get the hard copy and read it yourself.

LOL Stories!

The short stories were funny, and I enjoyed them. I just wish the narrators didn’t use the same tone in reading all the stories. It was sometimes difficult to discern when one story was ending in the next one was beginning.