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Most of the stories I read are pure fiction. I like to read about impossible things in particular. Future things, distant things. Stuff I could never experience in reality. Stories that inject something beautiful and amazing into life.

This is a writer who has made his life beautiful and amazing and injected it into story.

With every recollection, I was nodding, giggling, and crying in ways I thought I had left behind when I stepped out of highschool and into the dark four years of my life that followed it.

Those years are long past, but they left me feeling estranged from something the author seems to have managed to hold onto - a sense of wonder and beauty in the world. This... More > ability, paired with a fantastic talent for writing, has resulted in a book that has left me with a renewed passion for my own city and the stories in it.

I cannot recommend it enough. I want to buy copies for all my friends.

(I have also posted this review at Good Reads, if this looks familiar to anyone...) < Less

"Great Stories of Life" If you're familiar with The Fray (www.fray.com), the story-telling website (and, now, a huge worldwide storytelling movement), then you will have read Derek's writing before. I like the way he writes, the stories he has to tell, and how he tells them. He's like an amiable, chihuaha-loving Charles Bukowski, but one that's not as angsty and knows how to use Photoshop. I mean, he can write, but doesn't let his writing get in the way of a story. That's the kinda stuff I dig.

After each story I found myself thinking of my own. Derek's cover a lot of bases (lost love, lost loved ones, found couches, dogs) that I can relate to.

This is a wonderful collection.