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.

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

This is the 4th book in the Tiffany Achings series by Terry Pratchett. The series follows Tiffany a young witch living in the country and her friends the Nac Mac Feegles, a group of tiny Scottish faeries who like fighting and stealing more than just about anything. I love Terry Pratchetts humor and this series while made for young adults is fantastic. Tiffany is getting older and has to face a powerful witch hunter that was made aware of her because of her actions at the end of Wintersmith. Funny, sweet and insightful about things big and small. Highly recommended for anyone who likes British humor.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Loved it, absolutely loved it. I'm not saying I have an unrequited love affair with Mr. Gaiman's books, but I totally do. I've read a lot of great books in the last few years but few authors have that ability to sink in the hook where I can't put down the book despite literally losing sleep like he does. The good news/bad news situation here is that this is a short book so the obsession is a brief strong flash rather than a long affair. Not to get off on a tangent but I love how this book felt like it was exactly the right number of pages. I think a lot of authors are edited into the best selling number of pages, typically around 400, and I think a story should be as long or short as it naturally is. But I digress. While I'd love to explain the magical story that Neil masterfully puts to paper I'm not going to, it needs to be explored not laid out. What I will say is that the story is full of wonders & terrors with a good amount of typical Gaiman humor. Brilliantly written, great characters and impossible to put down. American God's & Good Omens are still my favorites but this is in the conversation for my next favorite Gaiman book and that's saying an awful lot.

Movie Review- The Heat

The Heat

I went to this movie on a date and wasn't all that excited about the choice going into the movie. I knew Melissa McCarthy is funny and Sandra Bullock is underrated as a straight woman but they were hilarious. McCarthy was absolutely filthy and Bullock plays off her brilliantly. There weren't very many scenes where I wasn't laughing and there were quite a few where I couldn't stop. Besides those two lots of funny small parts, Michael Rapaport plays a small time Boston crook great and I have a soft spot for Kaitlin Olson from It's Always Sunny who has a brief cameo. Lot better than I thought it would be and I'm highly recommending it.

Movie Review- The Wolverine

The Wolverine

Last weekend I had some free time and decided to go and spend it watching the new Wolverine movie.  I enjoyed the movie but I can't recommend it unless you're a big Xmen fan.  The movie was well acted and had some great story tie ins from classic comic books but for a casual fan I'm not sure it hit the mark.  The movie mostly takes place in Japan where Logan is brought to say goodbye to a dying man who's life he once saved in WWII.  Obviously he's full of shit and becomes the primary antagonist of the movie while Logan falls in love with his granddaughter who is in danger.  There were some good actions scenes and all the acting was really well done but the story never really came together like it should have.  To me I think it would have been better if there were less plot threads and they concentrated on less things.  This is also a pipe dream but these movies really need to be rated R and more hardcore.  Wolverine should be a ball of rage with really sharp claws.  All in all, if you're a huge Xmen fan or love the Xmen movies I'd check it out, if not I'd give it a pass.

The Best American Short Stories 2012

The Best American Short Stories 2012 edited by Tom Perrotta & Heidi Pitlor


Another year and another ridiculous collection of short stories.  This years editor Tom Perrotta did a great job of picking the stories that made the collection seem varied and rich.

This years edition includes the following stories;
Carol Anshaw. The Last Speaker of the Language from New Ohio Review
Good start to the book. This story is essentially about a dysfunctional family.

Taylor Antrim. Pilgrim Life from American Short Fiction
This story would feel right at home in the mid 90's slacker genre. A slacker dealing with some family issues tries to leverage his roommates new found internet fortune. Ends up being a bit of a coming of age story too, just slacker late.

Nathan Englander. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank from The New Yorker
Love his fiction and was excited to read this piece that's the title of his newest collection of short stories. The story revolves around the question, would the person I'm with risk their life to save me?

Mary Gaitskill. The Other Place from The New Yorker
This was probably my favorite story from an author I wasn't that familiar with. I don't know how to describe it without ruining it but it deals with a topic that evokes a visceral reaction. MUST read!

Roxane Gay. North Country from Hobart
Sweet story about a woman who moved up to northern Michigan to take a teaching job.

Jennifer Haigh. Paramour from Ploughshares
This is another story I don't really know how to summarize without giving away too much. She spoke at the Boston Book Festival last year on a panel that I liked a lot. Glad the fiction lived up to my imagination, she set a high bar.

Mike Meginnis. Navigators from Hobart
Loser father and impressionable son bond over playing a video game where the goal is to become nothing and ascend to heaven. Odd in a great way.

Steven Millhauser. Miracle Polish from The New Yorker
Millhauser has consistently stood out in every anthology I've read with him in it and this story is no exception. Excellently written with more than a touch of magic.

Alice Munro. Axis from The New Yorker
Brilliant story about two college women when most women only went to college to find a husband. The story follows their lives primarily through a brief relationship between one of the friends and her boyfriend then the boyfriend's chance encounter with the other friend decades later.

Lawrence Osborne. Volcano from Tin House
This story followed a sad lonely middle aged woman on vacation in Hawaii and was really well done. Creepy, excellent finish to the story.

Julie Otsuka. Diem Perdidi from Granta
Brilliant story about a woman dealing with her mother's dementia. The format of the story is what really separates it from the rest.

Edith Pearlman. Honeydew from Orion
Messed up family and dad cheating on mom, done a million times but rarely as well as this.

Angela Pneuman. Occupational Hazard from Ploughshares
Story starts with an inspector stepping in raw sewage and it goes on to deal with family & death.

Eric Puchner. Beautiful Monsters from Tin House
This is the second time I've read this story as it was included in the Best American Non Required Reading and it was even better the second time. Trouble comes into a society of all children in the form of a grown man.

George Saunders. Tenth of December from The New Yorker
He is as unique a genius as there is writing today. Fantastic story about a man who is saved by a boy in the act of saving a boy. Mind #$%# in the best way.

Taiye Selasi. The Sex Lives of African Girls from Granta
Disturbing story about a girl living with her aunt and uncle in Africa. Dirty privileged old men are the same in everywere unfortunately.

Sharon Solwitz. Alive from Fifth Wednesday Journal
This story was inspired by the authors own experiences with a mother being with her 2 sons on a day at a ski resort. The oldest son is battling cancer and the story is told from the point of view of the younger son. Poignant, gets into your soul.

Kate Walbert. M&M World from The New Yorker
A complex story with a simple set up of a single mom taking her 2 young daughters to the M&M store in Manhattan.

Jess Walter. Anything Helps from McSweeney’s
I'd read this story before and really liked it. It's about a homeless recovering addict dealing with his addictions and trying to connect with his son who's a ward of the state.

Adam Wilson. What’s Important Is Feeling from The Paris Review
Dysfunctional movie crew makes shitty movie. Pretty funny story and makes fun of some Hollywood cliches. I liked it.

Audio Book- The Shining by Stephen King

Audio Book- The Shining by Stephen King narrated by Campbell Scott

My recent run of audio books continue with The Shining. I've read a ton of King but oddly haven't read a lot of the classics before now including The Shining, Carrie & Kujo. It's possibly because I thought I knew what the stories were about but I'm not positive. In any case I'm kind of glad because it's really nice to go back and read the classics. Some of the themes of his career are seeded in this book, an atypical hero, a strong sense of good v evil forces and strong foreshadowing for example. I see a lot of Jack Sawyer from The Talisman in Danny Torrance and that's strong praise as The Talisman is one of my all time favorite books of all time and my favorite by King (co authoring counts). Both are children that have extraordinary powers tying to battle evil forces that are attacking their parents and you can't help but put your full support behind them. While I prefer King as a narrator, Campbell Scott did and amazing job and the argument can be made that he's better at the job because of his range of character voices. He also managed the scary scenes really well, there were quite a few scenes that were really creepy and I think if the narrator wasn't excellent he could make the scenes come off as campy.

Movie Review- Man of Steel

Man of Steel

Loved it. Great story and acting. Going into the movie I had seen pictures of Henry Cavill who plays Superman during the movie's publicity tour and I wasn't sold. I was wrong, Cavill did an amazing job with the perfect happy medium between Christopher Reeves and Tom Welling. I'd also heard that the chemistry between him and Amy Adams playing Lois Lane wasn't great and that is a fairer criticism. I thought she did an ok job but she could have played it with more attitude and the romance could have been a lot better. She's gorgeous and the romance wasn't as important as some of her other scenes so I thought she did well overall. Personally I thought the two best performances in the movie were by Michael Shannon who played General Zod and Russell Crowe who played Superman's father Jor-El. Michael Shannon in particular really stole the show for me, he was absolutely brilliant. I was also glad that the story was so good and dark. Lately with a lot of the reboot movies I've been a little bored by the origin's story but this movie handled that really well starting off with Clark as a young adult and covering his childhood through a few well done flash backs. Really enjoyable move and highly recommended!

Movie Review- World War Z

World War Z

I went to see the movie as a Sunday matinee after finally starting to feel better from a brutal hangover on Saturday. I'd read the book and thought the previews looked really good. Brad Pitt's an actor I like and the zombie effects looked pretty cool. The movie itself just didn't really perform, they did an ok job building tension and it was really cool when the zombies swarmed but overall it never really came together and the last quarter of the movie was pretty boring. I also had a really hard time with the camera constantly jumping around, I was feeling about 95% better but left the movies really nauseous again. Nausea aside, I think the real issues with the movie were not developing characters outside of Pitt's and the story seemed rushed and unorganized. A friend said they could have added 30 minutes and really tied it together a lot better. Ultimately I have to agree. Cool special effects does not make the movie.

Audio book- Needful Things written and read by Stephen King

Audio book Needful Things written and read by Stephen King


This is the second book I've listen to by Stephen King that he also read and it was another amazing experience. I couldn't stop listening to it and listened to all 250 hours in a little over a week. The story itself is about a nefarious shopkeeper who opens a shop in Western Maine and almost immediately starts trouble by escalating longstanding small town feuds. I'm not sure I would have liked the book as much as I did if I wasn't one of King's constand readers. Castle Rock has been featured prominently in a lot of his other works, the main protagonist Alan Pangborn was awesome in The Dark Half and there's a strong tie in to the Dark Tower series at the end of the book. It was nice to revisit old friends and familiar places but the key to me was the Dark Tower tie in at climax. I won't ruin it but I'm not sure I wouldn have completely understood it if I wasn't aware of King's the world outside of this book. That being said, this book is still excellent on it's own but if someone wanted to listen to one of King's books and haven't read much of his catolog I'd recommend starting with Bag of Bones because while there are still tie in's they're not really all that important and you'd still get to enjoy listing to King read his own work.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Summer finally showing up in Maine was the perfect time to read a good mystery and this one comes highly rated being included on just about every best books of 2012 list. Obviously I had high hopes when I started reading and to me the book left me unsatisfied. In order to avoid spoilers I won't get into too many plot specifics but overall I didn't like either of the 2 main characters, the plot twist was good but too early in the book and then the psychology for behind the ending had me rolling my eyes. I don't expect the plot complexities or prose in literary fiction but I just can't believe how flawed the plot feels to me looking back. Can't say I'd recommend the book and am a little baffled about why it was so highly lauded. Good but far from great.

Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

Crazy collection of short stories and I mean that in the best way.  The stories all revolve around some bad men all drug addicts, alcoholics or both.  Quite a few of the stories have been heavily anthologized so I'd already read Car Crash While Hitchhiking, Two Men & Emergency and love all three.  Two Men in particular is one of my all time favorite short stories and the rest of the collection holds up just as well.  I wouldn't want to be friends with any of these guys but it was a great sneak peak into that seedy underbelly of society and he brings some unexpected light into that world.  For example the last story in the collection, Beverly Home shows some real unexpected tenderness in a story told from the point of view of a drug addict and peeping tom.  It was a great way to finish the book as it leaves you with a weird, wonderful feeling and like the rest of the collection you have a lot of mixed emotions about the characters.

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

As is well documented, I'm a huge Kurt Vonnegut fan so I was excited to read the last book he published when he was still alive.  It's kind of an odd book with a mix of fiction and semi biographical material that somehow works really well.  The story is about a timequake that everyone including his long time character Kilgore Trout and him are sent back 10 years in 2001 to 1991 where everyone has to do everything exactly the same because it's already happened.  This is sprinkled in with a lot of rants that are true to form with Kurt's signature dark whit and insight.  I think I highlighted more passages out of this short books than the last 10 I've read put together.  He was an absolute genius.

Audio Book- Inferno by Dan Brown

Audio Book- Inferno by Dan Brown read by Paul Michael

This is the first audio book I've listened to in a long time and I forgot how much I like them. I used to listen to them all the time when I lived about 40 minutes from work during my daily commute but last year I moved a lot closer and now only have a 5 minute commute. Overall I enjoyed the book, Paul Michael did a fantastic job especially mixing between the different characters voices & accents. The story itself was fast paced and fun focusing with Robert Langdon searching to find a secret that was tied to the classic book Inferno by Dante. Like The Davinci Code and Angels & Demons (I haven't read Lost Symbols) the story revolves around classic peaces of art and historic landmarks that I enjoyed googling while listening to the story. Like a lot of mystery stories the plot twists tend to take over the story at some point and got a little ridiculous but I think that's kind of expected so I was ok with it. The best thing I can say for the audio book is that I couldn't stop listening to it, I'd find excuses to drive or walk more so that I could finish chapters and honestly, what's higher praise than that?