395 ratings | 124 reviews | avg rating:3.56

Tom McAllister’s Followers (203)

Tom’s Bookshelves

to-read (288)
currently-reading (3)
read (387)
gradually-reading (0)
probably-never-gonna-finish (3)

Tom’s Friends (210)

Lukas Klessig

34 books | 1,363 friends

Jennifer Brinkmeyer

2,525 books | 352 friends

frumpburger

2,396 books | 94 friends

Ryan Davison

361 books | 805 friends

Smiley III

901 books | 1,421 friends

Melki

15,278 books | 3,050 friends

Virgowriter (Brad Windhauser)

878 books | 141 friends

Daniel DiFranco

185 books | 206 friends

More friends…

Tom McAllister

Goodreads Author

Born

in Philadelphia, PA, The United States

Website

http://tom.mcallister.ws

Twitter

t_mcallister

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Literature & Fiction, Contemporary

Member Since

June 2007

edit data

Tom McAllister is the author of the novels "How to Be Safe" and "The Young Widower's Handbook," as well as the memoir "Bury Me in My Jersey." He is the non-fiction editor of Barrelhouse magazine and the co-host of the weekly Book Fight! podcast. His shorter work has appeared in a number of places, including Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Collagist, Hobart, The Rumpus, and The Millions. He lives in New Jersey and is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Temple University. ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Tom McAllister questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Tom McAllister’s books

Average rating: 3.44 · 3,066 ratings · 675 reviews · 8 distinct works • Similar authors

	How to Be Safe 3.19 avg rating — 1,543 ratings — published 2018 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Young Widower's Handbook 3.40 avg rating — 798 ratings — published 2017 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015: A Literary Anthology Curated by Students and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Adam Johnson by Adam Johnson (Editor), 826 National, Wells Tower 4.01 avg rating — 528 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bury Me in My Jersey: A Memoir of My Father, Football, and Philly 3.91 avg rating — 128 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	It All Felt Impossible: 42 Years in 42 Essays 4.57 avg rating — 65 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bring the Noise: The Best Pop Culture Essays from Barrelhouse Magazine by Tom McAllister (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Sarah Sweeney (Goodreads Author), Louisa Spaventa 4.53 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ce qui nous tue 2.95 avg rating — 22 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Eagles Almanac 2012: The Definitive Guide to the 2012 Philadelphia Eagles Season by Mike Tanier, Derek Sarley, Tom McAllister (Goodreads Author) liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Tom McAllister…

54 posts
Tom McAllister's Blog

Link roundup - news, events, reviews, and more

The last month or so has been a little quieter than the two weeks after publication of It All Felt Impossible, but there’s still a lot to share, including a couple upcoming events in both August and September. Pictured above is a great event I did at Kramer’s in Washington, DC, with Amber Sparks, and a whole bunch of kind people who braved horrible weather to get out to a bookstore on a Wednesday

Tom is Currently Reading

Tom is currently reading

Animals Eat Each Other

by Elle Nash (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Dec 27, 2017 11:28AM

Tom is currently reading

20th Century Ghosts

by Joe Hill (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

May 28, 2017 09:29AM

Tom is currently reading

The Tin Drum

by Günter Grass

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

May 10, 2017 06:20PM

rss
Tom’s Recent Updates

Tom McAllister wrote a new blog post Link roundup - news, events, reviews, and more The last month or so has been a little quieter than the two weeks after publication of It All Felt Impossible, but there’s still a lot to share, incl Read more of this blog post »
Aug 06, 2025 04:23AM · like
Tom rated a book it was amazing Frontier: A Memoir and a Ghost Story by Erica Stern	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 11, 2025 04:20PM · like
Tom made a comment on We've got a cover! " Thank you, Mark! (sorry, I haven't checked GR in a while, so just saw this now) ...more "
Jan 24, 2025 02:37PM · see blog post
Tom rated a book it was amazing It All Felt Impossible: 42 Years in 42 Essays by Tom McAllister (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
had to do it
Jan 24, 2025 12:42PM · 13 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of It All Felt Impossible by Tom McAllister. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — It All Felt Impossible by Tom McAllister <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Tom and 8 other people liked Kathleen's review of It All Felt Impossible: 42 Years in 42 Essays: "We are publishing this at Rose Metal Press and it's so good, duh."
Jan 24, 2025 12:41PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of It All Felt Impossible by Tom McAllister. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — It All Felt Impossible by Tom McAllister <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Tom's books…

Quotes by Tom McAllister (?)

“Some (sea)shells have magic in them. If you listen really closely, you can hear voices from another world.”
― Tom McAllister, The Young Widower's Handbook

3 likes

“My problem is not a lack of dicks. My problem is an abundance of dicks, being surrounded by dicks, always being reminded that they’re ready to be unsheathed and used as a corrective if I step out of line.”
― Tom McAllister, How to Be Safe

2 likes

“The culture at large had exerted the same pressure on her that it exerts on all women, namely to feel insecure about herself regardless of what she was doing, to feel that simply by being a woman in the world she was necessarily doing something wrong and could only correct her wrongness via endless consumerism and an array of contradictory neuroses. She’d been socialized to always apologize, to smile when a man told her to smile, to believe men who told her she was doing something wrong. Before”
― Tom McAllister, The Young Widower's Handbook: A Novel

1 likes

See all Tom McAllister's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Nothing But Readi...: Zombie Band READ BOOKS	268	219	Dec 08, 2018 01:51PM
Tournament of Books: 2019 TOB Contenders	361	562	Dec 19, 2018 10:14AM
Tournament of Books: 2019 ToB Longlist	726	441	Feb 25, 2019 06:30AM
The Seasonal Read...: * Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD!	2704	288	May 31, 2023 09:00PM