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Ride Sharing by Mike Monson
By Chris Murphy
I have always loved short stories. Maybe it is because of my ADD attention span, but these little episodes of writing are good for me. Mike Monson is one of Modesto’s prolific authors. Our area is really fortunate with amazing literary talent. I opened this book and got sucked in immediately with his tales as a Lyft driver. Not only are the stories short, in fact the perfect length to get sucked into the next one and then the next one. First, this is NOT an all ages book. Profanity, seedy characters and places, that you swear you might have seen here in town, populate the pages. So consider yourself warned, but this book is really good.
If you are familiar with our area, this book comes to life. You can see the places on South 9th St, Waterford, Oakdale, the west side and even Dutch Hollow and Del Rio make appearances. Some stories are witty and funny, some are tragic and some just show the despair in so many lives. This is really well written, super engaging and so colorful that you actually can feel where you are and see the people in the back seat. There are stories called “Big Ray”, “People are Awful”, “Abandoned Spouses” and some as simple as “Helen”. These people come to life, with all their blemishes, assets, bright spots and deep holes, through the eye of a very clever writer and driver, clearly his own carful of baggage. You definitely feel like you are along for the ride.
I can’t wait for his next edition as there must be thousands more stories like this. I’ll never look at my Lyft driver the same way again.
While you are there, check out his other titles.
Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle download
