By Dinty Moore

Rating: 4/5

Three-Word Summary: Funny meta essays

For most non-writers, the essay is something they did reluctantly and poorly back in the fifth grade.

But in Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy, author Dinty Moore takes the genre of the essay to the next level.

Through a number of essays responding to letters, he demonstrates how essays can be simultaneously creative, funny, interesting, sarcastic, sad, personal and manic.

Think of it as Dear Abby meets Dave Barry.

I’m not usually a fan of nonfiction, but Moore proves that you can cover a wide range and relate to a large audience even while remaining in the realm of reality.

What I enjoyed most about this short book was the variety of formats used. The essays were written in everything from numbered lists, flowcharts, Google Maps, Facebook updates and even cocktail napkins.

Meanwhile, the subject matters are even more diverse. They cover eating zebras, cauliflower jokes, cannibals, wearing shorts, George Plimpton and getting robbed in Spain.

Contrary to what many of us would assume about a collection of essays, this book was downright entertaining. Moore’s writing style comes across as effortless and punchy. For these reasons, it’s a quick read and only took about a weekend to finish.

This isn’t a masterpiece of literature, however, there is still something profound about the truths hidden in each of these short pieces. For what it’s worth, I highly enjoyed reading it.

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book from the fine people at Blogging For Books. But I promise that they didn’t bribe me to write nice things, those sentiments are genuine.