We Love Anderson Cooper: Short Stories

Written by R.L. Maizes

Narrated by Barrie Kreinik

In this quirky, humorous, and deeply human short story collection, Pushcart Prize-nominated author R.L. Maizes reminds us that even in our most isolated moments, we are never truly alone.

In We Love Anderson Cooper, characters are treated as outsiders because of their sexual orientation, racial or religious identity, or simply because they look different. A young man courts the publicity that comes from outing himself at his bar mitzvah. When a painter is shunned because of his appearance, he learns to ink tattoos that come to life. A paranoid Jewish actuary suspects his cat of cheating on him—with his Protestant girlfriend.

In this debut collection, humor complements pathos. Readers will recognize themselves in these stories and in these protagonists, whose backgrounds are vastly different from their own—we’ve all been outsiders at some point.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jul 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781250226747

R.L. Maizes

R.L. Maizes’s novel, OTHER PEOPLE’S PETS (Celadon Books, Macmillan), is a Colorado Book Award Winner and a Library Journal Best Debut of Summer/Fall 2020. She is the author of the short story collection WE LOVE ANDERSON COOPER (Celadon Books). Her stories have aired on National Public Radio, and can be found in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading and in The Best Small Fictions 2020. Maizes’s essays have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O Magazine, and Literary Hub and have aired on NPR. Her humor articles have run in The New York Times and in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Maizes was born in Queens, New York, and lives in Boulder County, CO.

Reviews for We Love Anderson Cooper

[Ryan Ludman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve been reading a lot of short stories lately. I like the genre, but sometimes they don’t hold my attention. I found this book on the “Lucky Day” shelf at the public library and so I picked it up. It was also available on Scribd so I listened to the stories as well. These short stories held my attention the whole way through. There is a story about a boy coming out at his bar mitzvah. A few stories feature pets, including a Jewish man who is jealous that his cat may like his non-Jewish girlfriend more. Jewish people and animals feature prominently in these stories. I thought a lot of these stories were really funny and I laughed out loud a couple of times. But these stories are also pretty heavy. Some of the characters are dealing with serious tragedy like a father who has died. If you’re new to short stories, I really recommend this collection. They are well written, interesting, funny, and engaging. If you listen to the audiobook, the performance by Barrie Kreinik is excellent. ★★★★★ ◊ Trade Paperback ◊ Fiction - Literary ◊ UK version purchased from Book Depository. ◊ Published by Celadon Books / Macmillan on July 23, 2019.◾︎