A mixed bag of shorties, ranging from jaw dropping (The Children's Lottery) to dark humor (Burrowing in Exile), and a whole lot of other life's dilemmas in between.

I do love short stories for the simple reason you can catch a full story in a short period of time. 'The Amazing Mr. Morality' offers 10 25-35 paged stories which are sometimes surreal and have a social footprint.

There wasn't a real click which connected me to this book. I don't dislike surreal but this book didn't do it for me.

Cover art: amazing!

Appel's stories are always quirky, fun and imaginative. In my opinion though these were not his best. It felt like there was something missing from most of these stories to make them truly stand out and be great. The big reason I chose to read this was because of the woodchuck on the cover. A failed television producer wants the woodchuck in his yard gone, so he has it relocated only for it to send him written letters begging to come back. I did enjoy that one as well as the long story at the end in which the title of this collection comes from. In it two ethicists writing for rival newspaper columns answer questions such as 'If you’re going to commit a murder, is it worse to kill when the victim is sleeping or awake?' I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open for more from this author.

A mixed bag of shorties, ranging from jaw dropping (The Children's Lottery) to dark humor (Burrowing in Exile), and a whole lot of other life's dilemmas in between.

Jacob Appel has the unique talent to create worlds within a small amount of words that always get me me thinking, well beyond the ending.

While The Children's Lottery is certainly the most impactful, I think the one most dear to my heart is Gable's Whiskers. The circle of life summed up perfectly!

ARC provided by NetGalley

I do not know what to say about this book except what a ride. These stories hold nothing back. They are quite different from anything I have read in a long time. Some of the stories are disturbing, twisted, etc, but you cannot stop reading. The story that stuck with me the most was " A Children's Lottery". This story sets the benchmark for all stories that follow and does not disappoint. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review. Read this book, you will not be disappointed.

3.5★
“. . . the first students were clambering down from their busses. Whichever child won the sweepstakes, Oriana understood, would depart with him in the same vehicle.
. . . If not for the fact that he lived in a pedophile colony and would soon carry off one of her charges, he seemed the sort of person she’d welcome onto her block.”

This author writes some of the quirkiest, most far-fetched stories, and I love them. This first one takes place in a community that decided that it’s better to let the kiddy-fiddlers select a child from a classroom to be taken to live with them, leaving the others free to grow up unmolested. Oriana, the teacher, tries to sway the “selector” towards a child she would be happy to be free of and away from one of whom she is quite fond. Quirky indeed!

Along with some unique story lines, Appel has a talent for showing us his characters.

“Marcella wore her tawny hair in cornrows tufted with cowry shells; her harem skirt flowed from a belt garnished with artificial daisies—but even in her thirties, our visitor looked too battle-worn for Hippiedom. (Try to picture Mrs. Khrushchev dressed as Bo Derek.)”

And he understands their feelings, Here’s a poignant home-truth for a girl who had tried unsuccessfully to attract a guy. Poignant for the girl, not so much for the woman she grew up to be.

“Another two years would pass before I learned that broad-shouldered athletes didn’t date plump girls with dull features, and another ten before I realized those plump, dull-featured girls hadn’t missed much.”

The last, and I think the longest is the title story about a man who has long pined for a girl he had a crush on in high school who is now married and is the editor of their small town newspaper. To be near to her he accepts the job of writing the advice column, Mr. Morality. He sorts the first batch of letters.

“The third set of letters, which Grossbard reread with increasing gloom, posed quandaries that seemed to spring from the minds of sociopaths.

. . . a letter that asked, If you’re going to commit a murder, is it worse to kill when the victim is sleeping or awake? (PS: This is a serious question.)”

Grossbard tries to treat them with consideration, but when a rival local rag starts copying the questions and giving outrageous answers, Grossbard attempts to retaliate.

There’s a storyline about his desire to win his old school crush away from her handsome, overbearing husband and a storyline about the rival “newspaper” all mixed in with his hosting the local Quince Festival. I found it long.

Likewise, some other stories had good premises and characters but tried to get too clever, perhaps, and I lost interest. I will continue to read Appel’s stories, if only to enjoy the gems among them, because there are always good ones. This had fewer gems, though, than the other of his collections that I’ve read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Vandalla Press for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.

Another wonderful, eclectic collection of Jacob Appel's short stories. Ten stories in all, diverse, unique and mind-blowing beauties that you'll just marvel over each one. The first, "A Children's Lottery" is a moral giant and much to take in; but do not resist the other stories. Carry on and discover fun "Burrowing in Exile" and lovely "Next of Kith." Ironic "A Change of Plumage" will make you laugh. And finally, "The Amazing Mr. Morality" is the best of all. Don't miss this latest collection from the quirky mind of Jacob Appel. I mean it!

I’ve seen lots of rave reviews of Jacob Appel’s short stories over the last few years on Goodreads. I’ve even accumulated some of his books, but had not yet gotten round to reading any of them. I finally took the plunge with The Amazing Mr. Morality, and I definitely get it. This is what short stories are meant to be at their best. Appel creates a strong sense of personality and circumstance in each story, and each story is original — no sense that he’s telling the same story in a different guise over and over again. I also love the deadpan voice through which Appel depicts his characters and their lives.

I say all this with one caveat. The first story was too weird for me, and I almost stopped reading the collection. It involves an alternate reality in which pedophiles are treated as though they have a condition that must be accommodated for the greater good of society. Enough said. I just found it too creepy.

But for those readers who also find the first story hard to get past, keep going... Because after that, I enjoyed every story, especially the last one which is the title story. The main character writes a popular advice column that is morally fraught, as is his personal life. It’s great in its details, as are the other stories in the collection.

Now I’ve got to catch up on the Appel’s other books. Thanks to Netgalley and Appel for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

Morality, Morality.....Yep, Morality is the underlying theme here, but creativity and bizarre UNIMAGINABLE stories is once again the name of the game in Jacob Appel's upcoming new novel, THE AMAZING MR. MORALITY....especially in...........

The Children's Lottery....OH. MY. GOSH....Super Dark and Super Disturbing. A horror of a futuristic? story! Could not believe what I was reading....truly! Never. Never.

Anyway, my favorite of the ten shorts here was a CUTIE entitled BURROWING IN EXILE. Made me laugh and is just in time for February 2nd too. The finale, THE AMAZING MR. MORALITY was in my top three, but all were, once again, entertaining reads that I zoomed right through.

Jacob Appel, a new favorite author for me, has quite the talent for drawing in the reader with limited text! Highly recommend taking a perusal of his collections!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Vandalia Press and Jacob M. Appel for the ARC COMING February 1, 2018 in exchange for an unbiased review.
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Jacob M. Appel is author, physician, attorney and bioethicist, according to his biographical information. But that description fails to mention his most important attributes: a wicked sense of humor and a mind for the absurd. These two are the elements that are most appealing in his story collection, The Amazing Mr. Morality.
What the stories have in common is a seemingly everyday setting, event or person but something is very, very off. Appel takes the reader to places that are totally reasonable, but only after you accept that from here on, you will encounter a most unusual perspective on behavior and events.

The Children’s Lottery is held for the benefit of a child molester, and the community at large. An old, enigmatic barber brings more stories than skills when he comes to work at a barbershop in Gable’s Whiskers. A suburban man battles tenacious woodchucks as his wife and daughter watch him coming apart in Burrowing in Exile.
A man assumes the identity of his neighbor and attends an ornithologist convention as its keynote speaker in A Change of Plumage. These were my favorites and I look forward to other titles by this author. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this title.

This is a delightful collection of ten short stories that are eloquently written, each dealing with a moral or ethical issue. Incredibly well written and captivating from the start, Appel has a way with words that is almost poetic. The narrators in each story vary in age and gender, as well as the ethical quandary that they face.

My favorite short story from the collection is The Children's Lottery, which essentially was some Black Mirror inspired nightmare fuel that made me think for about three hours. And now I am thinking about it again!

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. It is a quick read and despite having the thread of morality it is in no way a cumbersome philosophical discourse on ethics... it is just a collection of stories to which the reader can relate to.

I love this author's short stories! So intelligent, disturbing, humorous... ! This one doesn't disappoint if you enjoy off the wall stories!
I received an advance kindle copy from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

Jacob M. Appel’s latest short story collection, Mr. Morality, is yet another set of brilliant stories. His flair for wry observation of the human condition, his true gift as a writer, continues in this set of stories about people who find themselves in unusual situations and have to create unusual ways to not only cope but convince themselves that their role in the story is anything but coincidence.

Of course, in Appel’’s world, there is no coincidence; someone is in the wrong place or unpleasant situation at the “wrong “ time, and then things just unfold, or, in some cases, unravel. In the story that bears the book’s name, an unassuming psychiatrist is approached by his former crush to write and ethics column, similar to the one found in the Sunday New York Times magazine, for the local rag. Despite his misgivings, Dr. Grossbard takes on the task, and soon learns that he not only has a flair for dancing around ethical boundaries, but the rare opportunity to spend time with his former crush, a crush he’s never really gotten over. Mr. Morality himself proves amoral once the rival local paper starts a similar column, literally stealing his inquiries and answering them crudely. If you know Appel’s work, you will know that this will not end well, and it doesn’t, shortly after Dr. Grossbard is chosen to be the substitute Grand Marshal of the local annual Quince Festival.

One of Appel ‘s gifts is his ability to create an apparently straightforward setting and then sprinkle it with generous dollops of the bizarre or slightly off center. Some of his stories are exceptionally funny, some not, but even those stories not intended to be comedic, his gift with language and forays into the mildly absurd is such that there is always something amusing in his work, even if only in his careful choice of words.

I am a big fan of this writer and read everything that I can get my hands on, because I know I will always be entertained.

I received this book from NetGalley as an ARC.

This was an alright collection of stories. The first story is a bit off-putting and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to continue. I did end up finishing the whole collection, It was an alright collection, but I didn't really blow me away.

I mostly enjoyed this book. It is a collection of short stories that are somewhat entertaining with a couple that kind of dragged on a bit. I really found it to be a mild read. No real highs or lows emotionally, with a bit of dark humor.