The Best American Short Stories 2013 edited by Elizabeth Strout & Heidi Pitlor

The Best American Short Stories 2013 edited by Elizabeth Strout & Heidi Pitlor

I always look forward to this series coming out each fall. I always purchase this and The Best American Non Required Reading and have never been disappointed. This year's editor Elizabeth Strout picked another amazing collection of stories including some of my all time favorite authors and some that I've never heard of which I always appreciate.


The Provincials by Daniel Alarcon
The first story in the book is a story about a father and son in Mexico. They take a trip back to the father's hometown and the son tries to impress his dad. It was interesting because at some point it switches to being written in the story of a play going on in the son's head.


Bravery by Charles Baxter
This one I'd read before but I'm not sure where. I think Baxter has an interesting voice and I've always enjoyed his stories. This story is about a young husband and wife going on their honeymoon and having a baby. Brings up a different point of view about being jealous & possessive about your child with your spouse. I didn't really think about how that would be natural for even happily married couples to have.


Malaria by Michael Byers
Coming of age story with weird family dynamics. I liked it.


Miss Lora by Junot Diaz
I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Diaz at last years Boston Book Festival where he graciously signed my book of his collected short stories that included this story. He's amazing and this story is one of my favorites in both this collection and his book.


Horned Men by Karl Taro Greenfeld
Good little story about a man who has lost his job underwriting those sketchy mortgages that almost bankrupted the entire country. No idea how the author made the guy a little bit of a sympathetic character despite his work morals and creepily spying on his fully clothed daughter from a whole in the attic. I ended up pitying the guy and don't feel great about it.


The Third Dumpster by Gish Jen
Two brothers renovate a house for their elderly parents. Nice story about 2nd generations immigrants in America


Encounters with Unexpected Animals by Bret Anthony Johnston
I loved this story. Man gives his 15 year old son's 17 year old girlfriend a ride home. Plans on giving warning to break up with son or else. Does not go well.


Magic Man by Sheila Kohler
Here's a hint, Magic Man = Pedophile


The Chair by David Means
Stay at home dad deals with being a stay at home dad and his son having close call where he could have really hurt himself.


A Voice in the Night by Steven Millhauser
I love Steven Millhauser, his stories are amazing. This was a tremendously skilled story blending a story about Samuel from the Bible along side with a man when he was a kid and when he was an old man.


Referential by Lorrie Moore
She's another one of my all time favorite authors and this story was probably my favorite in the collection. It's a reimagining of a classic Nabokov story, was funny at times and extremely poignant.


Train by Alice Munro
She's really good. This story is about a man running away from his past who never really stops running.


Chapter Two by Antonya Nelson
Great story about an alcoholic woman telling stories about her drunk neighbor.


Nemecia by Kirstin Valdez Quade
Kid's can be idiots huh? Story about a girl who's jealous of an older cousin who came to live with her after a terrible event happened to her as a young girl.


Philanthropy by Suzanne Rivecca
This story was amazing. It's about a former drug addict running a non profit that helps women trying to solicit donations from a wealthy celebrity who's daughter had her own troubled past. Loved it.


The Semplicia-Girl Diaries by George Saunders
If anyone who likes short stories hasn't read George Saunders they're doing themselves a disservice. His completely original voice is quirky and ridiculously good.


The World to Come by Jim Shepard
Jim Shepard stories always pack a punch and this one certainly did. Farm lesbians in the 1800's had it rough with their husbands I guess.


The Wilderness by Elezabeth Tallent
This is an authors story about a professor. Well written but not a standout for me.


The Tunnel, or The News from Spain by Joan Wickersham
Sad little story about a middle aged woman dealing with her institutionalized dying mother and poor love life. Sad in a good way.


Breatharians by Callan Wink
Holy crap is there a lot going on in this story. I'm willing to bet this is the only anthologized short story that involves a kid being paid to kill barn cats. There's also a ton of family dynamic stuff going on, mom and dad are separated living in 2 homes on the same farm while his dad is plowing both the fields and a lady farm help. Honestly, I loved this story, great way to end the book.

Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King


Historically speaking I haven't been much of a non fiction reader. I think it's mostly because I need a story. Some narrative that isn't just a collection of facts but that takes the reader on a journey. This book did that extremely well, the author made the book flow like a novel and was hard to put down. Doesn't hurt that the facts of the case and major players involved were all fascinating as well. While the story is heartbreaking, it really makes you appreciate how far race relations have come in 70 years. That being said, time will tell but I feel like this book will have a long impact on me from the sadness over the atrocities perpetrated against the 4 Groveland Boys to the hate over the ones who committed the acts. Heartbreaking that shit like this happens and in some places around the world are systematically allowed to happen. Complete bullshit and it needs to stop.

Audio Book - Dr. Sleep by Stephen King

Audio Book - Dr. Sleep by Stephen King read by Will Patton

I love audio books. There's nothing else quite like listening to a someone read a story. People will probably say the nostalgia brings you back to your childhood but I think it's more than that. Yes it reminds me of being read to as a kid or listening to Spiderman & Lone Ranger stories on my record player but I think it's also about slowing things down and being in the moment. It's such a fast paced world with seemingly whatever entertainment you want literally within iphone reach. But listening to a story takes time, can't be rushed and gives me a lot of peace. Anyways, this specific audio book was great. I was a little worried that as the sequel to The Shining I'd be disappointed especially when we find early on in the book that Danny "Doc" Torrence was on the path of being an alcoholic loser. Luckily he finds AA and pulls himself out of it. The book revolves around him and a young girl Abra Stone who has an even bigger gift of the shining than Danny did as a child and a group of monsters who feed on kids with the shining. The story stands on it's own and had moments where it terrified. The reader Will Patton was also quite good, especially with the male characters. I'd recommend reading the Shining first because a couple scenes wouldn't be anywhere near as scary out of context but I really liked the book.

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

I picked up this book right before Halloween because I'd see it included on a list of the best scary stories on Huffington Post. Up until now I'd only read Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery, which is amazing and highly anthologized and if you haven't read it you really should. This book, almost a novella really, is about a young girl living with her older sister and sick uncle alone in a large, somewhat isolated family estate in a rural town. The rest of the family was poisoned and most of the town is openly hostile to the survivors. The narrator Mary, nicknamed Merricat is one of the most interesting characters I've read in a long time and the book lived up to it's reputation as excellently written and creepy as all hell.

Final 4 Wheel of Time Books and a note about the Prequel

Quick review of the final 4 books of the Wheel of Time and the prequel New Spring

These 5 books kind of killed my October. I was plugging along thinking about how the series was a lot of set up and that Rand was becoming insufferable and then a switch was flipped and I couldn't put the books down. I was consistently staying up until the wee hours of the night burning the candle at both ends, I had an addiction. Since I've finished them I've kind of burned myself out from reading and have just been casually reading short stories and slowly reading a couple other books. But I can't match the frantic pace I set last month. I read New Spring in order of publication so I read it between books 10 & 11. It was a nice fun read focusing primarily on Moriane & Lan 20 years before the start of the series. It was a much lighter read and provided some good insights into the Aes Sadai. Honestly I was nervous about the final 3 books as I'd never read Brandon Sanderson and wasn't sure if he'd do a good job but he was excellent. His style is a little quicker than Jordan's was but he kept the essentials there and did a fantastic job with the characters. I won't give anything away but at one point Rand has a huge shift and with it the entire series pivots with him towards the final battle. The slow middle books were worth it for the ultimate payoff. While I still prefer good old George RR Martin & JRR Tolkien, this series is in the conversation for one of the best epic fantasy series out there.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

I bought this book because I had read Wells Towers in McSweeney's, New Yorkers 20 under 40 and ESPN magazine the fiction issue and his stories stood out among the best in each collection. I was pleasantly surprised that this book comprised of 10 stories were all new to me as I assumed that at least Raw Water would have been included. Overall I really liked the collection, the stories deal with a lot of the standard issues of literary fiction, family, love, loneliness, pains of childhood, etc. Well's style is full of excellently written prose that pulls out quotes from every story. His other fairly consistent style is to let a story end without any conclusion or finality. I personally like the technique if it's done well but it was kind of funny as I was talking to my girlfriend and she said that it's the exact reason why she doesn't like short stories so he might be a little polarizing as an author. My favorite story in the collection is the title story Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned. It's a story about a Vikings who leaves his wife to sail across the sea to a neighboring village to stop a sorcerer but really it's an excuse to pillage. It was a fun way to end the book.

Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan

Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan


The 9th book in the Wheel of Time series. This book didn't really feel like a complete book but more of a continuation of the series. It hit on all of the main characters save Egwene but none for long enough to really move their individual stories much further along except for Rand & Nynaeve who accomplish a huge feat. I was glad that Matt was back in this book after an absence in The Path of Daggers. There were some good scenes in this installment but it really did feel more like a transition book.

One resource I find really useful is www.encyclopaedia-wot.org that I referred to a lot to help with keeping all the characters and plot lines straight as there are a lot of moving pieces at this stage of the series.