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Manderino, JohnManderino, John | Alt 1
Manderino, JohnManderino, John | Alt 1

John Manderino

John Manderino has written four books for Academy Chicago, all highly praised for their unusual wit. He has a rare knack for dialogue and infuses his stories with a self-deprecating sense of humor. He lives in Maine with his wife and teaches writing at the University of Southern Maine.
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Titles by John Manderino

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Titles Found: 6
But You Scared Me the Most
But You Scared Me the Most (2 Formats) ›
By John Manderino
Trade Paper Price 14.99

Trade Paper, Mobipocket

Published Jun 2016

This collection of twenty-six dark but often humorous short stories features a pantheon of disturbed and disturbing characters, human and otherwise. Many of the stories are modern takes on classic monsters crafted with twisted plots and Twilight Zone-esque endings. For example, “Wolfman and Janice” is about a werewolf  who is doing the best he can under very trying circumstances, especially when confronted with eating his elderly neighbor’s cat. There’s an adolescent vampire-wannabe who is suffering badly: in love for the first time. “Frankenstein and His Mother” is a terrifying story of a grown man who wears a Frankenstein mask and lives with his mother watching TV and eating corn chips all day while being afraid of work.  “Dracula’s Daughter” turns a pretentious hippie into an honest ghost. And Bigfoot—lonely, sexually frustrated—tells all. Other stories feature characters who seem perfectly normal until they're alone. Phil, for instance, is never so happy as when he’s with his inflatable girlfriend Vanessa—until she tells him the devastating truth about himself. Elderly Ellen is running out of patience with her dead husband George, who’s turned prankish. “Bob and Todd” tells the story of a hitchhiking ride gone bad that will have readers squirming in their seats. More than just standard monster stories, the tales in But You Scared Me the Most reveal much more about about human nature and will appeal to a wide range of fans of smart, funny short fiction.   
Crying at Movies
Crying at Movies (2 Formats) ›
By John Manderino
Trade Paper Price 15.95

Trade Paper, Mobipocket

Published Oct 2008

Reason for Leaving
Reason for Leaving (2 Formats) ›
By John Manderino
Trade Paper Price 16.99

Trade Paper, Mobipocket

Published Jun 2012

On a job application, there's that tricky question: reason for leaving? John Manderino's answers are collected here in this hilarious novel tracing the history of a guy trying to grow up job by job. Delivery boy, altar boy, busboy, teacher, cotton picker, umpire, Zen monk—Manderino's protagonist tries on one hat after another.
Sam and His Brother Len
Sam and His Brother Len (4 Formats) ›
By John Manderino
Cloth Price 19.95

Cloth, PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket

Published Aug 2005

This is the funny, poignant story of two brothers growing up in the early '60s. Manderino lightly approaches the underside of the middle American family in a tumultuous period of history.
The H-Bomb and the Jesus Rock
The H-Bomb and the Jesus Rock (4 Formats) ›
By John Manderino
Trade Paper Price 14.99

Trade Paper, PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket

Published Oct 2010

It’s Saturday, october 27, 1962, the darkest day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two children, Ralph and his little sister Lou, are searching for empty bottles in a vacant lot when they discover a rock which—to them, at least—looks quite a lot like Jesus. Ralph immediately declares it a Possible Holy Object. And, since his fondest wish is to be a “boy-in-a-story,” he earnestly places himself and Lou—now his “sidekick”—in a tale featuring the “sacred rock” as the key to nothing less than saving the world from nuclear annihilation.
 

But there’s another boy, Toby—older, shrewder, and quite a bit larger—who has very different plans for the rock, intending to use it as a lucrative sideshow exhibit, complete with fliers: Is it Jesus? Or just a rock? You decide! Hovering over the children and their small-scale war is the general anxiety and dread attending the most perilous moment in our history. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, John Manderino’s The H-bomb and the Jesus Rock provides a unique, children’s-eye view of that near-Armageddon.

The Man Who Once Played Catch With Nellie Fox
The Man Who Once Played Catch With Nellie Fox (5 Formats) ›
By John Manderino
Cloth Price 22.50

Cloth, Trade Paper, PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket

Published Aug 2005

At forty, Hank has decided he's through with baseball—a routine pop-up fell on his head and he got the message. Trouble is, baseball is the one thing that's given any meaning to his life. This is the painfully funny story of a man who decides to get a life, but isn't sure how. It's about fathers and sons, heroes and whiners, the wheel of fortune (and Vanna White), baseball and the decline of Western civilization—and why Nellie Fox always spat in his glove.