Story Collections Community Read-Along February 2013

January was a good start for the readers of stories! More liked their story reads than did not, and most of us got at least one collection read. Here are two February reading suggestions to be thinking about:



His first collection after the bestselling After Rain, William Trevor's The Hill Bachelors is a heartbreaking book about men and women and their missed opportunities: four people live in a suburban house, frozen in a conspiracy of silence that prevents love's consummation; a nine-year-old dreams that a part in a movie will heal her fragmented family life; a brother and sister forge a new life amid the chaos of Ireland after the Rebellion; and in the title story, a young man chooses between his longtime love and a life of solitude on the family farm. These beautifully rendered tales reveal Trevor's compassion for the human condition and confirm once again his position as one of the premier writers of the short story.



A woman in a township in Zimbabwe is surrounded by throngs of dusty children but longs for a baby of her own; an old man finds that his new job making coffins at No Matter Funeral Parlor brings unexpected riches; a politician’s widow stands quietly by at her husband’s funeral, watching his colleagues bury an empty casket. Petina Gappah’s characters may have ordinary hopes and dreams, but they are living in a world where a loaf of bread costs half a million dollars, where wives can’t trust even their husbands for fear of AIDS, and where people know exactly what will be printed in the one and only daily newspaper because the news is always, always good.

In her spirited debut collection, the Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah brings us the resilience and inventiveness of the people who struggle to live under Robert Mugabe’s regime. She takes us across the city of Harare, from the townships beset by power cuts to the manicured lawns of privilege and corruption, where wealthy husbands keep their first wives in the “big houses” while their unofficial second wives wait in the “small houses,” hoping for a promotion.

Despite their circumstances, the characters in An Elegy for Easterly are more than victims—they are all too human, with as much capacity to inflict pain as to endure it. They struggle with the larger issues common to all people everywhere: failed promises, unfulfilled dreams, and the yearning for something to anchor them to life.

Oh good! I have one of those already - An Elegy for Easterly, which I actually started reading last year, and then we moved and stuff, and I did not get back to it. Thanks for reminding me. I also just picked up 420 Characters from the library, which I know you recommended on the January thread, but it just got to me. I am adding the William Trevor to my list - sounds like something I would like. Thanks, Richard!

That's great, thanks for that Richard, both collections look good - I am hoping to get to the library this weekend so they will be a starting point.

Richard, these are collections I haven't heard of before and they both sound great!

Am I first, am I first, oh wait wrong thread. These look like two good ones Richard. Thanks for posting them. I am looking through my books for any short story collections to post on here also.

>2 Crazymamie: Oh boy, Mamie, I really look forward to your opinion of 420 Characters! Quite a varied response to the book, which is my clue that a book has something interesting going for it.

>3 FionaWh: I hope your reads go well this month, Fiona, whichever or whatever you end up choosing!

>4 phebj: Goody good good, Pat! That's what I'm hoping will happen for each of us during the months ahead.

>5 mmignano11: Hi Mary Beth! Let us know what you find. Always good to have more ideas of what to read. (My TBR disagrees.)

Just finished up the excellent collection, Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe by Doreen Baingana. This is an interesting collection of connected short stories which manage to convey the lives of three Ugandan sisters from youth to adulthood. The stories are written in a direct style, in the distinctive voices of the three sisters. The plots range widely, from the joy and mystery of being alone in her parent's bedroom playing with her mother's jewelry, to the hunger and hardship at boarding school, to the firestorm spread of HIV/AIDS across the country, to studying in the USA, to coming home to Uganda after eight years in the States. The emotional tenor ranges from childlike wonder to fury to disillusionment to self-discovery. All in all, a series of vignettes which give the reader some glimpses into daily life in post-Amin Uganda, and to the challenges faced by anyone growing up in one culture and trying to blend into a new one. Baingana does a wonderful job of balancing aspects of general humanity with facets of live specific to Uganda. Very nice collection!

I have many a collection in my library, but I suspect I might read one of the new ones that arrived in my home recently. The question is whether I want News from Spain or News from Heaven. Ha!

I started a short story collection earlier this week but won't have it finished until February -

Round Mountain by Castle Freeman, published by the Concord Free Press. I received the book for free through their website, with the understanding that I will make a donation to a charity of my choice and pass the book on to someone else.

It's pretty good so far - about rural life in Vermont. I grew up in a rural area in New York State not too far from Vermont so a lot of it is recognizable.

Thanks Richard, for a great February start! I love your suggestions. I have a couple ideas that I downloaded very reasonably ($1.99) and they piqued my interest. I have not yet read them and they don't seem widely available, so there isn't a lot out there on them:

1. Volcanic Jesus by Lee A. Jacobus - stories about Hawai'i, from various perspectives
2. Crash Diet by Jill McCorkle - while this sorta seemed like "chick lit" at first glance, it seems to be something more. Stories about Southern women, mostly.

I have to finish up a couple of books for my Library Reading Winter Program and then will choose a collection to enjoy! Also, going to a small church-y used book sale (that my attorney buddy runs) on Saturday and tend to pick up a gem or two there.

I read Crash Diet back in 1992, I was really into Southern lit at the time and remember enjoying it. How I would feel about it now, 20 years later, I don't know.

Although I am excited to see that Jill McCorkle has a new book coming out!

I would highly recommend Trevor :)

I have been reading some classic short stories with my Intro to Lit students but probably won't get back to a collection until later this month.

I'm three stories into Stay Awake and apart from one or two very minor quibbles, I'm finding it to be a compelling collection.

>7 hemlokgang: Oh good to hear that you liked it! I've got it sitting here glaring at me.

>8 alphaorder: Spain or Heaven? How would one ever decide? Don't envy you.

>9 katiekrug: Castle Freeman? New name to me, reminds me of Wells Tower though.

>10 CarolynSchroeder: Volcanic Jesus! Adore adore adore the title. Makes me snicker. Jill McCorkle never made it high on my list for some reason now buried in my memories.

>11 alphaorder: Hmmm that title isn't ringing a bell. I must go look at my old lists and see what book it was that ho-hummed me so much.

>12 AnnieMod: He is a deep pleasure of a writer, I agree, AnnieMod.

>13 Cariola: Any ideas which collection will get the nod yet, Deborah? Or will that be a last-moment mood decision?

>14 EBT1002: *pats foot awaiting Ellen's review*

Richard, I just started it! If I hadn't had to spend my whole evening cleaning up after the impromptu party over on my thread, I would have gotten through a couple more stories.....

I started News from Spain and am hooked! My husband wanted to watch 2 more episodes of DA, so I had to stop reading last night. I hope to get some good reading time in today though.

I have Round Mountain thanks to laytonwoman3rd. Thanks for reminding me to get back to it!

RD - Thanks for putting up the Short Story Community thread mate. Done with An Elegy for Easterly straddling the month. Thinking over my review - Zimbabwe is one place I'm not rushing to get a stamp in my passport for.
Hope to squeeze in an extra short story collection this month either one of :

Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Stay Awake by Dan Chaon
The Pleasant Light of Day by Phillip O'Ceallaigh
Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuzsi Gartner
Drifting House by Krys Lee
East of the West by Miroslav Penkov
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson

Can't make up my mind....any suggestions?

Love all Lorrie Moore collections. Read this one back when it first one came out. (Her novel, not so much...)

Also loved Fan Chaon's creepy Stay Awake. Don't read it right before you go to bed.

17> Not absolutely sure, but I am thinking it may be Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri.

20> Lorrie Moore is one of a kind. If you've never read her stories, you are in for a real treat.

Loved Unaccustomed Earth. Another writer I think is better at short stories than novels. IMHO.

>18 EBT1002: ...I have no idea what you might be talking about...oh and did you happen to find...never mind

>19 alphaorder: Well, Downton Abbey is a darn good reason to leave a book aside, IMO.

>20 PaulCranswick: Of that list, I've read two and recommend one: Birds of America.

>21 alphaorder: *note to self: Get the Chaon!*

>22 Cariola: Hmmm...Jhumpa Lahiri gets a lot of love around these parts. I look forward to another take on her, a fresh one (unless I misremember this would be your first Lahiri).

>23 alphaorder: Some writers can do all the forms, and some should stick to one. Stories, done well, are so very difficult that I wish the best practitioners would focus there. Of course that's a pretty limited market, dash it all.

>25 richardderus: I haven't posted here in a while, but I've been following the read-along. In any case, you might like to watch the Charlie Rose interview with George Saunders, in case you haven't seen it already. He talks a bit about short stories, and the difference between writing them and novels.

>26 dmsteyn: Well, glad to see you here as and when you can be...and I haven't seen that part of Charlie Rose, so I'll head off and find a clip. Thanks for telling us all about it!

>27 richardderus: A pleasure! Hope you like it.

ETA: I forgot to mention that it was Darryl (kidzdoc) who brought this to my attention.

Aha! The Doc strikes again. Are you one of his fellow gloom-doom-and-misery-book readers?

Hmmm, I guess I am to a degree, but I read quite widely, including such cheerful books as (to pick a random title) Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson.

;)

>30 dmsteyn: Oh my yes, that's a real confetti-toss of a book! Non-stop chuckles.

*props shotgun on chair* Farewell, cruel world.

25> Nope, I read The Interpreter of Maladies when it first came out and have both read and taught The Namesake several times. I've had Unaccustomed Earth since it came out, too, but just haven't gotten around to it.

Still haven't had a chance to get to the library, BUT finally got the E-Reader up and going so downloaded the first short story collection I came across, just to experiment The $30,000 Bequest by Mark Twain so I may just start on that for February.

>32 Cariola: OIC The returning savorer...every author's dream.

>33 FionaWh: That should be a lot of fun Fiona, since Twain could pack the laughs into his short fiction. Hope it works for you!

Since I've decided to de-lurk here, I might as well also tell you what short story collections I'll try reading this month. I've got Calvino's The Complete Cosmicomics up next - not sure if those even count as short stories. Well, they're short and stories, so I vote yes.

I'll also try to get to some Borges. I have his Collected Fictions, but I'll only read one of the collected books (probably Ficciones).

Copy of my brief review of:

An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah (Category Challenge Short Stories 2/13 - RD's Challenge)

The title probably has it pat as this is a 13-part lament for the state of Zimbabwe. We have grooms suspected of AIDS, pregnant simpletons in shanty-towns, the dispossessed and the repossessed, the repressed, the oppressed and obviously depressed.

The concerns in Gappah's Zimbabwe are escaping the place, being able to get by, to be able to scrape the money to bury one's family, the ever present hyper inflation turning dollars into confetti and the numbingly ever-present corruption and brutality of the regime.

This is a very good first collection and at least half of the stories are well worth another read. It could have been better but that is nitpicking somewhat with a debut anthology. Recommended but not by the Zimbabwean tourism board.

Currently reading M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman. Some fun stuff so far, nothing too spooky.

Richard, thanks for starting us up again. I'm so glad this thread is here!

>35 dmsteyn: I don't see why the Calvino shouldn't count if you want it to...this isn't a rule-bound kind of a thread. I hope you enjoy the read! And Ficciones is an excellent read, too.

>36 PaulCranswick: I'm eager to get to that one, Paul, and thank you again for gifting me with it!

>37 LauraBrook: De rien, Laura, happy to do it. I look forward to hearing your impression fo the Gaiman!

SS collection # 3 for 2013!

News from Spain - loved it!

Hard to describe, but I think this NYT Book Review review does a good job http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/books/review/the-news-from-spain-by-joan-wicke...

Recommend!

Starting SS Collection #4 (#1 of February) ~ The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff by Joseph Epstein. I just loved his story "My Brother Eli" from The Best American Short Stories 2007 (a real standout collection in its own right) and I live in Chicago and all his stories are based here. I really like his writing, so he kind of can do no wrong in my book. The title story was great. Just such ... "real" ... writing. And he always strikes that perfect combination of laughing, thinking pensively and feeling wistful.

>39 alphaorder: What an interesting-sounding collection! Tom Barbash's review was a solid hit from a well-aimed book bullet. "Thanks" for that....

>40 CarolynSchroeder: Another winner in the making, I hope!

For the relief of unbearable urges
Finished reading: 12 January 2013



For the relief of unbearable urges is a collection of nine short stories, which are all very well-written, but a trifle boring. Placing the author on an equal footing as Philip Roth or Saul Bellow is really rather premature.

Jewish people are not by definition more interesting than other people. A short story must be infused with some inspiration. It is here where Englander's stories are wanting.

The first two stories are excellent. They are recognizable, very well-written, and deal with some of the major themes in the literature of Jewish writers on the Twentieth century. The first story in the collection "The Twenty-seventh Man" is reminiscent of Kafka, descrbing the fate of Jewish intellectuals under Stalin, while the second story, "The Tumblers" deals with the holocaust. Both stories are original, and immediately accessible. To some extent that is also true of the title story (number eight in the collection), "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges", which end with on a "funny" note. The other stories miss the characteristic accessibility through familiarity with the stories as belonging to the genre of Jewish (-American) literature.

Great review, edwinbcn. I recently read my first Nathan Englander story and thought similar things. He is a very classic-feeling solid, good writer. I like his style very much. But his characters felt so dull or flat to me. It's funny, because I'm reading The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff by Joseph Epstein now (4 stories in), and he primarily writes of Jewish characters (and older men at that) and his characters explode off the page, in all their quirks, humor and sadness. I don't think it is their Jewish-ness that does it, but just getting to the inner oddness we all harbor, no matter the faith, race, gender, age ... That said, I always enjoy when he throws in some things about Jewish culture as I'm not and I find it interesting to learn about.

Oh lordy. I had so planned to read short stories with you all, but it hasn't happened yet. Now I'm on the hook to read Anna Karenina for the first Tuesday in March. I'll catch up with you later.

>43 CarolynSchroeder:

Thanks for the tip, Carolyn. I'll keep my eyes open for The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff. I am sure Jewishness adds a lot to the fun of reading Jewish-American authors, but I find that I can, for example, enjoy their work more if it recognizeably relates to the whole of the genre and cultural tradition of the Jewish diaspora, particulary European, Russian and American, while I have less affinity with Jewish writers from Israel. Possibly, the fact that Englander lives in Jerusalem casts a somewhat different perspective on his tales, which make them fall outside the framework that I am familiar with. Still, the stories are clearly very well-written, so I will go on reading work by Englander.

Nathan Englander was interviewed on NPR last week.....witty, erudite, and fascinating to listen to. I enjoy his writing quite a bit.

Interesting review, edwinbcn, and thanks for the perspective on Englander. I can't warm to his work at all. Perhaps it's the inspiration I'm not getting....

Judy, it's all as and when you can, so we'll see you when we see you.

Hi Carolyn and hemlokgang!

I've finished my first short story collection of the year, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Larihi's people and settings are brilliantly presented, as real as can be, and her writing is a joy to read. As with any collection of short stories, some selections work better than others as stories. The two that stand out for me in this collection are "Sexy" and "The Third and Final Continent". In each of these stories a main character gains wisdom from a brief and casual acquaintance with another human being whose presence inspires compassion and insight. I'm not up to real reviewing these days, but if there are readers out there who haven't yet encountered Lahiri, she is worth your time, I promise. This was her debut collection.

I think your "unreal" review did the job admirably, Linda3rd. Quite persuasive!

Great review, laytonwoman3rd! I have to check that one out. I too have heard about her work for ages, but have yet to read anything by her. Short stories are always a great place to start.

I finished the lovely The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff: And Other Stories by Joseph Epstein and put up a short review for our group here. I really enjoy his work. I will have to check out his novels/books (I think he is mostly a NF writer) and see if it carries through to the longer format.

>50 CarolynSchroeder: 4-1/2 stars! Wow, Carolyn, that's a vote of confidence.

Direct link to Carolyn's review.

Still working my way through Mark Twain's $30,000 Bequest, hmmm, some great bits in here, some not holding me, but will keep going.

We Are Taking Only What We Need by Stephanie Watts has been recommended to me. Must see if my library has it.

Okay, The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff is going on the WL. Epstein taught essay writing at my alma mater, but I never actually had a class of his.

@35 LOL, I know what you mean about Cosmicomics. They are quite trippy little just-so stories of the universe.

I just finished reading Saints and Strangers by Angela Carter. I bolted the collection down whole. May have to return to them some day. My review is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/54452

I've reviewed the 4.5-star short story collection Widow: Stories by Michelle Latiolais in my thread...post #16. Simply put, excellent stuff.

>52 FionaWh: That's always a risk with collections, the unevenness factor. I hope it ends up as a good read!

>53 laytonwoman3rd: I haven't heard of it, Linda3rd, so I'll be extra-interested in hearing about it.

>54 cammykitty: Oooh Angela Carter! Such a wonderful writer. Gone these 20 years and still I long for a new book by her.

I've written my review of the curiously monotonous, though quite well-written, collection of Southern American Black Male stories called I Got Somebody in Staunton. I gave it three stars. Review is in my thread...post #19.

Pleased to be finishing Mark Twain's $30,000 Bequest, enjoyed some of the stories, but generally not me.
I picked up two short story collections in the library today; The Children's Hours; Stories of Childhood, put together to raise money for Save the Children, and The Best Little Book Club in Town, supporting breast cancer and featuring authors such as Lee Child, Jodi Picoult, Katie Fford, Sophie Kinsella and Tracy Chevalier - looking forward to that one.

>58 FionaWh: Twain failed to conquer you, eh Fiona? I haven't read that particular collection, but I am such a fanboy it wouldn't be hard for me to rise above the lesser entries. The two new volumes sound tasty! I look forward to hearing about them.

Dare I say it, I'd rather read Dickens!

I've just finished Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers. Wimsey solves a variety of mysteries, some surprisingly gruesome. In one story an old man wills his stomach and entire digestive tract to his nephew.

>37 LauraBrook: I read M is for Magic just a couple of months ago and loved it.

I picked up 3 collections at St Vinnie's yesterday. Going on my list. The Devil's Larder by Jim Crace, Mr. Lincoln's Wars by Adam Braver and Home from the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean.

>60 FionaWh: *stony silence*

;-P

>61 mstrust: I think I'll pass on that...disembodied stomachs and intestinal tracts fail to beguile me...but it sounds as though the collection worked for you!

>62 jldarden: I've only ever heard of the Crace collection, so I hope you'll come back and tell us about your impressions of them all.

#63 haha *unaffected smile*
I do love Twain's quotes though, and loved Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as a child. On the rest we will have to agree to disagree lol.

I haven't forgotten you, Richard, but I lost the thread...

Anyway, in January, I read A Dove of the East: And Other Stories by Mark Helprin. That man can WRITE! Very much recommended.

And for February, Volt: Stories is waiting for me at the library...

@60 ??? Twain can get rather... graphically cynical, but Dickens? "It hurts us" to quote Gollum.

>64 FionaWh: So we shall indeed.

>65 tloeffler: *sniff* I know what you *really* mean, you don't care anymore...*sniff*

Betcha you will after you read Volt: Stories, though.

>66 cammykitty: Amen!

Completed Stay Awake by Dan Chaon
My comments:

This is a worthwhile collection of short stories, providing a complex and interesting exploration of loneliness, anxiety, and grief. The protagonists are uniformly white midwestern men but Chaon uses various voices - and unlikely circumstances - to create depth and breadth of character. One story is even written in the second person, which I have encountered before but not as effectively as Chaon's effort here.
There are recurring themes and content giving coherence to the collection (watch for two-headed babies to show up at least twice, as well as loss, plenty of loss). The men in Chaon's collection struggle and strive for meaning, for feeling, for authentic intimate connection. That may sound trite, but Chaon gives meaning and feeling to the characters' striving and struggle. He avoids the melodramatic and creates an emotional response in his reader with nuance and irony. Only one or two stories left me cold; overall this is very good work.

Shortest short story ever:

A Man in Monte Carlo by Anton Chekhov

A man in Monte Carlo goes to the casino, wins a million, returns home, commits suicide.

http://www.berfrois.com/2013/02/a-man-in-monte-carlo-chekhov/

>68 EBT1002: Sounds like a winner of an experience, on balance. Thanks Ellen!

>69 kidzdoc: Hemingway's is better: "For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn."

One of my children gave me this massive text:

The Art of the Short Story by Dana Gioia & R.S.Gwynn

It's one to tackle a little at a time, which I plan on doing over the course of the coming months.

>71 hemlokgang: NINE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX PAGES! Ye gods and little fishes, that is some kinda doorstopper! I hope it proves to be a wonderful read.

Half way through The best Little Book Club in Town and enjoying it very much. Mostly a good variety, here and there a predictable outcome but on the whole good value short stories - able to conjour up a complete picture in only a few pages.

Finished The Best Little Book Club in Town.
A few syruping love conquers all stories but on the whole a good collection. I feel it's aimed at women and as it's a breast cancer fundraiser maybe it is.
Four stars from me though.

It sounds as if you got your money's worth, Fiona! I think special-purpose collections such as this are very heartening on one level--people will buy an anthology of stories, let's raise money that way!--and depressing on another--let's stick in even the sappiest submissions, it's just an anthology.

I think you are right Richard.

Next up is The Children's Hours; Stories of Childhood but I may get a little further along into Doc first. I tend to get a bit waylaid with the short stories as they are quick and I'm usually short of time.

I think it's hysterical that The Art of the Short Story is almost 1000 pages long. There is something masochistic about that.

>76 FionaWh: One of many reasons I wonder why short stories aren't the American vehicle of choice...?

>77 EBT1002: MAsochistic and ironic in one nice little ball, right?

FINALLY finished a SS collection!



Round Mountain by Castle Freeman, Jr.
Completed 10 February 2013
3.5 stars

The twelve stories that make up this slim volume chronicle life in a small, rural town in Vermont. In a series of vignettes in which local characters appear and disappear and reappear, Freeman shows us the interconnectedness of these lives even as the individuals remain set apart, at times adrift in loneliness. The writing is strong and clear and the sense of place is vivid.

I liked this book but I did not love it. I felt always at a distance from the characters, even when they were eerily familiar to me from my own childhood in a small, rural town in the Northeast. Many of the stories felt unfinished and the ambiguity with which some concluded left me impatient. I think the right reader would fall in love with this collection; as it is, I admire Freeman's writing and skill very much but wish for something more.

Note: I received this book by requesting it online from the Concord Free Press which provides free books in return for a commitment to make a charitable donation to the reader's choice of organizations and to pass the book on. I'd be happy to pass this book on - PM me your address and I'll send it along. First come, first served!

#78 a bit like speed dating? - what is the world coming to. More determined to not rush the good reads now.

>79 katiekrug: Well, 3.5 stars is a whale of a lot better than the collection I've been slogging through....

Good review!

>80 FionaWh: What it's coming to, I daren't venture a guess...what it's already come to is bad enough most days.

79 Round Mountain doesn't sound like my cuppa, but Concord Free Press sounds really cool. I just checked them out, and they have a book by Lucius Shepherd who is one awesome short story writer - mostly horror.

Great review katie! I don't know if that is my cup o' tea either, but I love hearing your thoughts. I will check out Concord Free Press! I am about halfway through a large novel(s) 2666, but just got a new SS collection in today (which I had to order from Amazon), The Selected Stories of Siegfried Lenz. I think he is an awesome writer and I was surprised he had a SS collection available in English. So that may be my next endeavor. Although, he is a little intense and after 2666, I may pick a lighter interlude. I have Travers Corners on Mount TBR and that just looks ... fun.

Things are getting hectic at work, which means bringing a lot of it home, so it's the perfect time for me to pick up another short story collection. I'll be starting Trigger Man: More Tales of the Motor City by Jim Ray Daniels tonight.

#81 Oh so true....

I've calmed down enough to write a rational review of Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, my latest and last foray into reading the work of Connie Willis. It's in my thread...post #24.

It's taken over a month for me to be able to behave sensibly instead of screaming insults and hurling baboon feces every time I see the jacket illustration.

86 Wow. I must see this jacket illustration. Unless you are friends with a zookeeper, finding a steady supply of baboon feces must have been quite a challenge.

P.S. That's a very precious jacket cover. Only thing more precious would've been C3PO and R2D2 under the mistletoe. I tend to like Willis, but I doubt I ever would've picked that book up at a church garage sale.

I've finished reading The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, which was immensely enjoyable and strange. I've posted the review in my thread on Club Read 2013: post 144 .

>86 richardderus: I won't make any attempt to dissuade you from that course.

>87 cammykitty: Qfwfq is a quicksilver trickster, and the stories are a delight. I've never tried to read the whole body in one bite, but I suspect I'd overdose quickly. Nice review!

The New York Times notes the rising popularity of short stories in the digital age.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/books/a-good-fit-for-small-screens-short-stori...

90> Good article, and I'm sure much of it is true. But, I have to say that my own drift toward short stories in the past year or so has been the idea that every 'novel' must be a SERIES/FRANCHISE/MULTIMEDIA EXPERIENCE. This results in bloat and rushed, poor and oftentimes farmed out writing ala James Patterson.
Here are some quotes from the article that explain my point; stories have become "short narrative models of concision" and "the story form has started to loosen up some". Those sound contradictory but are not. And the quality is better than many novels; "the stories felt novelistic" with "shifting points of view and complicated structures".
Many recent additions to my TBR pile have been short story collections, including one mentioned in the article, We Live in Water by Jess Walter, an author I have followed for a while.

I figured LT was responsible for the resurgence of the short story's popularity. I mean, if we aren't affecting the market, I don't know what would!

Good article, but I think it misses a few things, namely, the shrinking attention span of at least the American people (since I can only speak towards what I see around me every day, not what is happening abroad). But I also think, like jldarden points out, there is a current, very intense present-day death of the well-thought-out, edited novel. I also think publication is chosen on potential for the big screen/other money sources, not just that it is an outstanding novel. I mean, many books are great and were never meant to be movies. But now, it's almost like a tandem desire at publication. Hollywood seems to be suffering from a dearth of creativity/scripts and so novels/short stories are always the "go to" places for that. I guess that is why there is such a rise in older books being made into movies, or the same movies (usually based on books), being re-done over and over and over again (Gatsby, Karenina, True Grit, etc.).

I do believe many of the short stories are in higher quality than the novels of the day (with a handful of exceptions, of course, as there always will be). I don't think the "e" part is the most relevant to why short stories are rising in popularity. But alas, the NYT peeps did not ask my opinion AGAIN ;)

Just started The Children's Hours; Stories of children - no touchstone it seems.

I've put up the April thread for them as wishes to read along for another month.