20 Short Ones: 20 Short Stories
By Dan Salerno
The title of this story is self-explanatory. It’s a collection of twenty different short stories but what most readers probably won’t know is that the stories are all Christian. As a fellow Christian myself, I have no problem with that. In fact, I really enjoyed it. You’ll probably find some reviews for this story with a negative opinion on that but I wholeheartedly enjoyed the story and I liked that Salerno didn’t limit himself by targeting just the Christian audience.
I mean, I could complain that secular authors ‘force’ their godless and sinful themes on me when I read but I don’t because that’s ridiculous. So I really don’t understand how a book with religious themes is ‘forcing’ the author’s beliefs onto the reader. I also don’t understand how not being religious means religious books automatically make them uninteresting. But that’s a debate for a different time so I’ll get on with my review.
Salerno’s writing is good. Its solid and it doesn’t poke around. I liked that in some stories and in others I felt there needed to be a little bit more detail or emotion but overall, it was a good read and I would highly recommend it to others. The short stories all had a pretty obvious theme, pretty much Chicken Soup for adult Christian readers but with a less mature style of narration. You will understand what I’m saying if you actually read the book.
That’s not a complaint, though, I enjoyed the narration and I felt like it made the stories easier to get through. The book isn’t a ball of sunshine, most of the stories deal with every day issues in life from a Christian perspective of course. That was something that I personally enjoyed. Anyone with a decent set of eyes can see that Christian values are becoming an, often criticized, thing of the past. So I found it pleasant to see those morals and values brought back to life on the pages of Salerno’s book.
All in all, I would recommend this book to readers of all ages and religious beliefs—or those with none at all. The stories are interesting enough to keep you turning the pages and the characters are original. It’s a great book for any kind of reader.
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*