It wasn't my goal to read a bunch short stories this month. It's just how my holds requests came in.
The Kate Atkinson and the Steven Millhauser collections were the best (and they also had the most interesting covers).
Everything, except the online pieces, is from the public library.
Short Stories:
Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Atkinson, Kate
These stories of life in an Alternate UK are somewhat connected but not exactly linked. They definitely should be read in order. Excellent!
Contents: The void -- Dogs in jeopardy -- Blithe spirit -- Spellbound -- The indiscreet charm of the boutgeoisie -- Shine, Pamela! Shine! -- Existential marginalization -- Classic Quest 17 -- Crime and punishment -- Puppies and rainbows -- Gene-sis
Disruptions: Stories by Millhauser, Steven
Odd how many of these suburban stories can be both unsettling and comforting at the same time. How often do I like every story in a collection? Rare indeed. This month there were three collections that made it!
An added plus is they are mostly set in and around my adopted state: Connecticut.
Contents: One summer night -- After the beheading -- Guided tour -- Late -- The little people -- Theater of shadows -- The fight -- A haunted house story -- The summer of ladders -- The circle of punishment -- Green -- Thank you for your patience -- A tired town -- Kafka in high school -- A common predicament -- The change -- He takes, she takes -- The column dwellers of our town
Company: Stories by Sanders,Shannon
I liked every one of the linked multigenerational short stories.
Contents: The Good, Good Men -- Bird of Paradise -- The Gatekeepers -- Rule Number One -- RiojaLa -- Belle Hottentote -- Mote -- Dragonflies -- Amicus Curiae -- The Opal Cleft -- Three Guests -- Company -- The Everest Society
Seven Empty Houses by Schweblin, Samanta; translated from the Spanish by McDowell, Megan
Another good short story collection. Liked it, but not as much as the top two collections.
Contents: None of that -- My parents and my children -- It happens all the time in this house -- Breath from the depths -- Two square feet -- An unlucky man -- Out
The Goodbye Cat: Seven Cat Stories by Arikawa, Hiro; translated from the Japanese by Gabriel, Philip
These were OK but maybe seven cute cat stories are a bit too many (I am not a cat person). Each stands alone but there are some connections so they are best read in order.
Contents: The goodbye cat -- Bringing up baby -- Good father/bad father -- Cat island -- The night visitor -- Finding Hachi -- Life is not always kind
Other Fiction:
Blackouts by Torres, Justin
Amazing!
Beyond the Door of No Return by Diop, David; translated from the French by Taylor, Sam
Disappointing tale of an Eighteenth Century French botanist in Senagal.
The Berry Pickers by Peters, Amanda
A child disappears while her family and other Mi'Kmaq migrant workers pick blueberries in Maine.
The Twilight World by Herzog, Werner; translated from the German by Hofmann, Michael
Japanese WW2 soldier on Phillipine island in 1970s doesn't know the war is over.
Nonfiction:
Hoop Muses: An Insider’s Guide to Pop Culture and the (Women’s) Game by Fagan, Kate; curated by Agustus, Seimone; illustrated by Chang, Sophia
This was a pleasant surpries that someone else picked for me.
Orphan Bachelors: A Memoir: on being a confession baby, Chinatown daughter, baa-bai sister, caretaker of exotics, literary balloon peddler, and grand historian of a doomed American family by Ng, Fae Myenne
How the various US immigration laws affected families.
The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism by Nagourney, Adam
I was really liking this until I got tired of the infighting and repitition. Recipe for selecting an executuve editor: Current editor selects and grooms a replacement, publisher eyes a different candidate, they lockheads and select the wrong man, there is some sort of crisis (internal or external), editor steps aside, and they repeat the process making the same mistakes. Somehow a paper gets printed, a web edition suceeds, the nation is (more or less) better informed and the Times goes merrily on.
Windfall: The Prairie Woman Who Lost Her Way and the Great-Granddaughter Who Found Her by Bolstad, Erika
Too many themes here for one book: the one stated in the sub-title; the author's personal struggle with infertility; fracking and its effect on North Dakota; the more general effect of fossil fuel use and climate change; and the American dream of "We could strike it rich." All that, but the parts i enjoyed most were her descriptions of the land.
Online:
By Matt Hickman, The Architect’s Newspaper 8, 2020
What eating a big meal does to your body by William Park
