With Matt Weiss, history teacher at Shady Side Academy and “voice” of the Pittsburgh Thunderbirds ultimate frisbee team

A bride so desperate to get in shape for her wedding that she enrolls in a new kind of workout program that promises the moon but costs more than she bargained for. A snowman who, on the wish of a child, comes to life in a decidedly less savory way than in the childhood classic. And in the title story, a time-hopping 1940s starlet tries to claw her way to the top in modern-day Hollywood, despite being ridiculously unwoke.

In this uproarious, addictive debut, Jen Spyra takes a culture that seems almost beyond parody and holds it up to a funhouse mirror, immersing the reader in a world of prehistoric influencers, woodland creatures plagued by millennial neuroses, and an all-out birthday bash determined to be the most lavish celebration of all time, by any means necessary.

Pittsburgh and Squirrel Hill native, Jen Spyra was a staff writer for Late Show with Stephen Colbert for four seasons. Prior to that she was a senior writer for The Onion. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.