Rating: 
Summary: The short story is alive and well: thank God!
Review: Sadly, most of the mass-market paperbacks these days fall into a very small number of categories: Legal thrillers, spy novels (on the decline now, of course), murder mysteries,... I expect we'll see a fair number of novels about terrorism in a few months. And of the very few short story collections, most follow the Roald Dahl or Jefferey Archer traditions--albeit from not such masters. This book, however, is different!I like Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, About a Boy) and Roddy Doyle (The Barrytown trilogy, A Star Called Henry) and their participation was enough reason for me to buy this book. The fact that parts of the proceeds go to a good cause also helped, of course. The stories cover very disparate topics, none of them are the twist-in-the-tale type, but you never know where the story is heading once it takes off. My favourite is the first story where the British Prime Minister is explaining to the parliament why he ran off from his body guards: at the same time a logical, insane, and hilarious escape. With so many contributors, the collection is bound to whet your appetite to read more from an author you didn't know before. Maybe that's even the biggest advantage!
Rating:
Summary: Speaking with the angel
Review: if you want something fresh, new and written by the young generation of writers this is the colorful package for you. That might seem a little corny, but it defiantly if fresh. Not the kind that's like, "it was so refreshing", but more like slap on the face for being fresh kind of fresh. It's great.
Each story is highly individual, and if you asked me which one I liked best I would immediately respond with, " that's a very unfair question, that's like asking if I had kids which one I liked better. (Even though they would be very big kids with the skill of writing brilliant short fiction, but don't make me decided)."
This book is great and I tip my hat to the authors that wrote each of the 12 wonderful pieces of work.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun read!
Review: If you like comtemporary British (and some American) fiction, this is a great anthology. Buy it today!!
Rating:
Summary: Great Entertainment
Review: Speaking with the Angel is an excellent collection of very humorous short stories. It is the humor that makes it hang together, which is great considering it's a collection of stories from 12 different authors. I enjoyed each one of them thoroughly; there isn't a weak story in the bunch. Most of these authors have achieved terrific success already (Helen Fielding, Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, to name a few), but some are a little more obscure, but nonetheless, equally talented. Enjoy this collection. It will make you smile, it will make you chuckle, and it's for a good cause.
Rating:
Summary: Great short story collection
Review: This is a book of short stories by some of England's 'hip' new writers - Nick Hornby, Robert Harris, Melissa Banks, Patrick Marber, Colin Firth (yes, the actor), Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, Roddy Doyle, Helen Fielding, Irvine Welsh and John O'Farrell. With any collection, there are invariably some better than others, and I was disappointed in places - I was looking forward to a lot more from Zadie Smith for example. But there are some brilliant stories in here - 'Nipple Jesus' by Hornby is the story of a bouncer who is now guarding a controversial piece of art and discovering a lot about appreciation and the modern art world; 'Last Requests' by Giles Smith, the tale told by a woman who cooks the final meal for death row inmates; 'Slave' by Roddy Doyle, which is about a man dealing with his very normal mid-life crisis, brought on by a dead rat. There is some full-on language, so if you don't like swearing, you might have problems with most of the stories in this book. And as usual, Irvine Welsh writes phonetic Scottish, though it is not a strong as 'Trainspotting'. (I didn't find either of these factors a problem, but I realise there may be some readers who do.) My favourite story is the last in the collection, John O'Farrell's "Walking into the Wind' about a mime artist that needs to get a grip on reality. Go out and buy a copy, and decide for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: A Funny Yet Uneven Collection
Review: Speaking With The Angel is an amusing collection of first person narratives, each of which is written by a unique voice in popular fiction today. Like any collection of fiction by multiple authors, there are some duds but all-in-all this is a satisfying read. Especially brilliant are the pieces by Nick Hornby, John O'Farrell, Melissa Bank and Zadie Smith. But the stand-out performance really comes from Roddy Doyle. Irvine Welsh's entry is excellent but its harshness is a little out of keeping with the rest of the stories (but typical for Welsh). Another pleasant surprise is the piece by Colin Firth - actor seen in Bridget Jones' Diary and Fever Pitch. As I said, there are a few duds. I didn't think Helen Fielding's piece was very well done at all - it seemed more like rambling than short fiction. Dave Eggers' piece was also a disappointment. I truly loved his Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius but the piece he contributed here seems like he knocked it out in an hour and gave very little thought to it. In that respect, it seemed out of place here. Proceeds from the collection benefit educational programs for autistic children both in the U.S. and Great Britian so even if you're not a fan of all the contributors, it's a worthy cause.
Rating: 
Summary: Half worth it and half not...
Review: I was delighted by the first few stories in this colllection. The entire collection is definitely worth the read, but there is some stuff not for the faint hearted! Even I was offended in parts, and that's hard to do. This book is an excellent introduction to many authors I had not yet read.
Rating: 
Summary: Diamonds In The Rough
Review: There are a few good bits in this collection of stories by today's best-known young (mostly British) authors. Nick Hornby's "NippleJesus" is my favorite thing he has ever written, and Hornby is one of my favorite authors. Also good is a story by Colin Firth, an actor who really should write more often. The best story in the set is narrated by a cook in a prison's kitchen, who has the chore of preparing last meals for the condemned. But many of the rest are poor. The wonderful and brilliant Dave Eggers submits a gimmicky story narrated by a dog. It seems like he had the clever idea of such a story, but couldn't make it do anything but roll over and play dead. And Helen Fielding, who I'd never read before and don't plan to ever read again, submits a piece that proves why so many of my acquaintances find her irritating.
Rating:
Summary: some are excellent - others, less so - still worth a look
Review: Kudos to Nick Hornby for bringing together twelve of the brightest and best fiction writers today (10 Brits, 2 Americans) for a thought provoking compilation of short stories. I believe that a good short story can be just as difficult to compose as a novel (if not more so - the writer has a brief time to convincingly state his case, and somehow, we expect the ending to impact us more powerfully than a novel). Given these constraints, successful novel writers such as Helen Fielding and Zadie Smith are disappointingly not up to the task. Others, however, do not disappoint - Melissa Bank's beautifully poignant love story is written with economy, yet really hits home. Irvine Welsh is his usual mind-in-the-gutter self - a brilliant writer with a wicked sense of humor. Roddy Doyle's excellent depiction of a middle-aged man's persective of his own nervous breakdown is deeply moving. Praise also goes to Nick Hornby, Patrick Marber (who perfectly depicts a teenage Brit obsessing over music in the late 1970's ), Giles Smith and Dave Eggers, whose surreal tale told by a dog is an absolute must-read (the last paragraph is stunning). Overall, a good effort - 7 brilliantly written short stories, 3 not-too-bad ones, and two disappointments. Zadie Smith's story is sloppily written and goes nowhere, while Helen Fielding really ought to stick to diaries of chardonnay-and-cigarette-loving singletons. I recommend this book for the high quality of those stories I mentioned; and for the 2 dollar donation to schooling for children with autism that is included in the purchase price.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly hits, a few misses
Review: As a fan of Nick Hornby and several of the other writers here (Helen Fielding, Roddy Doyle, Melissa Bank, Zadie Smith, etc) I snatched this collection up, and for the most part, was not disappointed. The tying thread of these stories is that they are all told in the first person. While some of my favorites didn't disappoint (particularly Hornby and Doyle, who have probably the best two stories in the collection), I was impressed by the writers I hadn't been exposed to. The first story, a Clinton-esque denial of wrongdoing by the Prime Minister was very funny, and the story of the death row cook also very good. I was also impressed with novice and actor Colin Firth's touching story of a boy and his grandmother. While there were a couple of stories that didn't live up to my expectations based on the authors' previous works, I was completely turned off by Irvine Welsh's story. On the whole, this is definitely worth the price of the book, and part of the proceeds benefit the school for autistic children Hornby's son attends (his introduction about his son is another gem). Most of all, I came away with an even greater appreciation of Hornby. (This group of "friends" he gathered to write these stories left me very envious--invite me to your dinner parties, Nick. Please!)
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