I mentioned in my Bout of Books Wrap Up that for some reason I though this was by Miranda Hart, I'm still not sure how I came to this conclusion. But from the start I was a little disappointed, maybe this blurred into my reading of it. Either way, this didn't work for me as a set of short stories. I couldn't find a unique voice, to me the stories all blended into one, it was almost like the same story over and over. Bumbling and a little aimless. There were some points that I found amusing or thought were nicely written, but for the most part I didn't enjoy this. 
 There was really only one part of this that I just went 'YES!!' and that was in the story 'The Boy from Lam Kien' Pg. 100. The story starts with is a boy and a woman having a conversation about pets and why she can't have one, she travels a lot. Maybe she could have a little pet that wasn't very hungry? 
 I knew all about thise things that weren't very hungry; my life was full of them. I didn't want any more weaklings who were activated by water and heat but had no waste and were so small that when they died, I buried then only with forgetfulness. If I was going to bring something new into my home, it would be a big starving thing. 
 I can't put my finger on it but that paragraph has stayed with me, I think it's beautiful. Sadly, I don't feel the same way about the rest of the collection. That said I would still like to try her novel The First Bad Man.