Short Story Collections Community Read-Along September 2013

I've been shamefully neglectful of this group and my reviewing of collections. Bad me.

The most recent collection I've read and reviewed is Full Frontal: to make a long story short by the former Doctor, Tom Baker. It's here in my thread.

I am making my way through the Sherlock Holmes short stories. Currently I am reading The Return of Sherlock Holmes - I think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did much better with the short stories than the novels overall. Or perhaps it is just me... too much Holmes at once makes me dislike his arrogance but one story at a time is just the right dosage for me.

Reading Bobcat. Not very far along, but live that it is filled with academic settings and characters who are writers.

>3 alphaorder:
Mmm, some pretty mixed reviews of Bobcat out there, although at first glance it looks like a collection that I'd enjoy. I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it alphaorder.

I have Bobcat 2.5 stars. I won it here on Early Reviewers. I just did not care for her characters, but I thought her technical writing skill and prose and such were very good. But good writing does not make good stories. Academic folk are actually a tad boring, IMO.

Finished my Sherlock Holmes and am now reading The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick: Volume 1

I just came over here to say that I am disappointed in Bobcat, Carolyn. I am surprised that one of my local friends recommended it so highly... I am going to finish it because I am so far along, but really, I don't care about these characters. Academic characters don't HAVE to be boring, IMO. (Crossing to Safety, Stoner). These just are.

Thanks for the update, and Carolyn your comments as well. I think I'll probably give it a miss then.

That is very true, #7/alphaorder - I have read plenty of interesting fiction based in academic settings. After all, I've been through mountains of it and hope I was not always boring!

I am about to start Last Car Over The Sagamore Bridge by Peter Orner - picked it up today off the "new fiction" shelves at the library. Kind of psyched as it seems may of the stories take place around my home (Chicago area).

I'm still slowly going through that pile of old magazines in my home office I described a while back. This week I added the June 21 & 28, 1999 edition of The New Yorker to my "between book" reading list. This is the magazine's annual fiction edition for that year, and the subtitle of this edition is: "20 Writers for the 21st Century - The Future of American Fiction."

The stated qualifications for inclusion were writers younger than 40 who had already made a name for themselves and showed potential for staying relevant over the long haul. The roster is impressive; almost all of the writers are still famous and producing quality fiction. However, the first work in the collection, "I Can Speak! TM" by George Saunders, I found to be a clunky and unsuccessful attempt at satire.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the edition, though. Next up is "Asset" by David Foster Wallace.

My September read was North American Lake Monsters, which I really liked. I've got about six or possibly 10 collections to review yet. *sigh*