24 of 30- The Best American Short Stories 2010

The Best American Short Stories 2010 edited by Richard Russo & Heidi Pitlor

I’ve loved this series ever since I started reading it in 2006. Around that time I was branching out and picked this series up in order to find new authors. In addition to finding some of my favorite authors it also exposed me to publications where the stories were originally printed. So between finding amazing authors and publications it’s probably had the greatest impact on my reading in the last 5 years. This year’s stories were chosen by Richard Russo with help from the series editor Heidi Pitlor and I don't envy the job. Well kind of, they've read some some amazing stories. Looking through the section of other distinguished authors at the end of the book gives a rough idea of how hard the choices must have been. Among many others Ann, Beattie, Amy Bloom, T.C. Boyle, Jonathan Franzen, A.M. Homes, Stephen King, Jonathan Lethem, Stephen Millhauser, Joyce Carol Oates & George Saunders all published stories that were passed over. Joshua Ferris, Tea Obreht, Lori Ostlund & Maggie Shipstead all had at least one other story that was considered with the one chosen. Maybe I'm naive but I have to assume that if the stories included in this addition were chosen over ones by some of the absolute best writers working today then these stories made it based on their merits and not those of their maker. The thought for some reason makes me very happy.


Steve Almond. Donkey Greedy, Donkey Gets Punched
Great story about an aging psychologist who gets the gambling bug for a bit of an escape. He treats a professional gambler and the tension goes from there.

Marlin Barton. Into Silence
This interesting story is about a middle aged deaf woman living with her mother in the heartland during the depression when a mysterious stranger comes to stay with them.

Charles Baxter. The Cousins
Great little story that includes one of my favorite quotes of the book especially because the story itself is kind of sad;

“Once, back then in my twenties, all I wanted to do was to throw my life away. But then, somehow, usually by accident, you experience joy. And the problem with joy is that it binds you to life ; it makes you greedy for more happiness. You experience avarice. You hope your life will go on forever.”

Jennifer Egan. Safari
The first of my top 3 literary crushes to appear in this series. I’d already read this story twice and enjoyed it just as much this time around. If you haven’t read A Visit From the Good Squad you really should, that Pulitzer was well deserved. This story is about a music producer bringing his family on a safari vacation and deals beautifully with a lot of family dynamics.

Danielle Evans. Someone Ought To Tell Her There’s Nowhere To Go
This story is about a soldier just returned from the dessert dealing with the horrors of war trying to reconnect with his ex girlfriend through babysitting her daughter.

Joshua Ferris. The Valetudinarian
Interesting story about a lonely old man in Florida in poor health. He’s miserable and drives everyone away from him by incessantly talking about his health. His last friend sends over a prostitute for a birthday present and things pick up from there.

Lauren Groff. Delicate Edible Birds
This memorable story is about a group of war reporters during WWII who end up in a bad place after coming across a house while out of gas that is occupied by Nazi. A powerful story that’s sure to resonate long after the book has been read.

Wayne Harrison. Least Resistance
Nice little story about a young mechanic who has an affair with the wife of his boss and mentor.

James Lasdun. The Hollow
James was another new author to me. He was easy to read and wrote about rural neighbors.

Rebecca Makkai. Painted Ocean, Painted Ship
This is the third story I’ve read from her and I’m convinced she’s one of the strongest authors of short stories working today. Fantastic story and one of my favorites this year.

Brendan Mathews. My Last Attempt to Explain to You What Happened with the Lion Tamer
A love triangle written from the perspective of a clown who’s in love with a trapeze artist who’s hooking up with the lion tamer. It made me think of the Big Cat Habitat and is another standout in this list.

Jill McCorkle. PS
Love the concept of this story, it’s a letter written to a psychologist by a former patient to give finality to the counseling.

Kevin Moffett. Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events
I’m familiar with some of Kevin’s works as a contributor to McSweeneys and I’ve always liked his stories. This is a writers story about an author whose dad picks up writing as a hobby and is much better than his son.

Tea Obreht. The Laugh
Tea is another one of my top 3 literary crushes right now and the primary reason I’ve lamented so much about my bet to read 30 of my own books. I fell in love with The Tigers Wife when I read it in the New Yorker and it’s the first book I’m checking out or buying after I’m done with the bet. I’m not going to lie, I was nervous reading this story because I was afraid it couldn't live up to my lofty expectations. Luckily, my fears were entirely unfounded.

Lori Ostlund. All Boy
This story is about a precocious boy who’s parents are going through marital issues. Really well done and will be one I remember.

Ron Rash. The Ascent
About a boy whose parents are junkies living in a rural mountain town. Makes me glad my parents are awesome.

Karen Russell. The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach
The third of my top literary crushes. I’ve read her book of short stories and plan on picking up Swamplandia in short order after the bet is over. Can't say enough good things about how imaginative and wonderful her stories are.

Jim Shepard. The Netherlands Lives with Water
The first of two stories from a McSweeney’s issue about a city 25 years into the future. This one deals with a city in the Netherlands being flooded due to global warming. It’s also about a marriage that’s not so good.

Maggie Shipstead. The Cowboy Tango
Another love triangle story. This one is about an older ranch owner who falls in love with a ranch hand who doesn’t love him back but falls in love with his nephew who briefly falls for her. It’s sad & powerful and makes me want to read a lot more of her work.

Wells Tower. Raw Water
This is the second story from the McSweeney’s about the future and is written about a town in the dessert that was created by flooding it with salt water to make a community in the dessert. Wells is also becoming one of my favorite short story authors and one I’m looking forward to reading whenever I can.

23 of 30- The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson

I'm a little tired as I write this because I was up until 3:15 last night finishing the book. I picked it up around 10 figuring I'd pass out around 11 and the next thing I know it's after 1 and I'm committed to the end. It goes without saying that I was pleased with how the series ended despite the fact that overall it was probably the least exciting and most Swedishy book of the three. By Swedishy I mean involving Swedish politics & long runs of hard to pronounce street names. Highly recommend the books for summer reading and don't want to give the impression that it wasn't a great book because it absolutely was. It just was a little slower than the previous two as a big story line was a court drama. I know I've mentioned it in my last 2 reviews of these books but Lisbeth Salander is one of the most interesting main characters I've read in a long time. She's someone who's so smart that she operates far outside of normal social lines. A quick quote fairly close to the end of the book is a small example of why I liked her so much;

"Salander gave him a long look, satisfied herself that he was an idiot, and decided that she would not waste too many seconds concerning herself with his existence."

At some point in the not too distant future I'm going to check out the Swedish movies, be incredibly disappointed with how Lisbeth won't match my image of her and still be genuinely entertained.

22 of 30: Flash Fiction Forward

Flash Fiction Forward 80 Very Short Stories, edited by James Thomas & Robert Shapard

Absolutely one of the best anthologies I've read in a while both talent wise and conceptually. Each piece was limited to 750 words or less and had to truly be a story. It's amazing to think of how much can be conveyed in such a short story. Out of the 80 stories there were only a few that I didn't really like and most I thought were fantastic. Because they're all so short I had a hard time summarizing them in any meaningful way that didn't give away too much so I decided to just list my favorites;

Jumper Down by Don Shea
Sashimi Cashmere by Carolyn Forde
Baker's Helper by Cynthia Anderson
Sleeping by Katherine Weber
Currents by Hannah Bottomy
Rose by John Biguenet
Why You Shouldn't Have Gone In The First Place by Samantha Schoech
Words by John A. McCaffrey
The Black City by Leonardo Alishan
Nicaragua by Kirk Nesset
Parrot Talk by Kit Coyne Irwin
Drawer by Rick Moody
00:02:36:58 by Bayard Godsave
The Mesmerist by Michael Knight
Toasters by Pamela Painter
Diagnostic Drift by Michael Martone

The Voices In My Head by Jack Handy was my second favorite story in the book. I always loved the deep thoughts segments from SNL and this story would have fit right in.

Accident by Dave Eggers. This story was my favorite and has the best line in the book;

"In a moment of clarity, you finally understand why boxers, who want so badly to hurt each other, can rest their heads on the shoulders of their opponents, can lean against one another like tired lovers, so thankful for a moment of peace."

21 of 30: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

Two legs of the trilogy down, one to go. Considering this was the second book it took a frustratingly long time to set up the plot. I read it on my Kindle so I'm not sure how many pages it took to pick up with it was about 30% of the way through. Luckily, as soon as it got going the book was excellent and I couldn't put it down. A lot more about Lisbeth Salander's character was revealed in this installment that in my opinion makes her one of the most interesting characters in recent popular fiction. I've decided to go right on to the next book to finish the series as I want to know what happens to Lisbeth the series so far has been great summer reading.

Movie Review- Zookeeper

After suffering through a hot day at work I took Sky to see Zookeeper last night. As goofy, physical comedies go this one was pretty good. Honestly better than I thought going in and it had me laughing pretty consistently. Nothing that had me on the floor but was genuinely funny. The story is about a Zookeeper played by Kevin James who gets dumped while proposing to his girlfriend played by Leslie Bibb then tries to win her back 5 years later when he sees her again. The zoo animals all help him win her back so he'll stay at the zoo and in the process reveal to him that they can talk. Lot's of physical comedy and the animals advise Griffin to do what they would do to attract a mate in the wild. Rosario Dawson plays Kate his co worker at the zoo as the girl he should really be with. Rosario was amazing, she's strikingly beautiful yet pulls off fun and down to earth. It's a no brainer between her and Leslie, no offense to Leslie. Kim Jeong plays a small role as the zoo's reptile guy and steals every scene he's in. The animals were pretty good but Sandler was the funniest in his role as a mischievous capuchin monkey. Right after Sandler, Jon Favreau and Faizon Love were also great as a pair of bickering bears.

The bottom line is that while I don't think it's going to crack may people's top 5 it was funny and a nice way to beat the heat for a couple of hours.

Audio Book- Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace

I just finished listening to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace. I can tell he’s talented but I didn’t enjoy it much. I would compare the experience to looking at a painting by a good impressionist artist when you don't like impressionist art, you think it’s crap but it’s really not. Despite not liking his style, I really enjoyed three of the stories. The first story was about a guy with a disfigured arm who used it as an asset to manipulate women into sleeping with him. The second is a conversation between buddies, where the one telling the story seems to be a good guy but ends up showing his true colors by taking advantage of a vulnerable girl. The third was about a man who as a teen needed a ridiculously complex fantasy in order to masturbate and could never get it just right. As I said DFW was a gifted author but as a narrator he was terrible, just awful. He had a monotonous drone and an inability to pronounce any word that started with WH without sounding like a freak. The combination kept distracting me from the stories and made me wonder why he would choose to narrate some of them himself. Was he oblivious to the fact that he sucked at reading out loud or did he know and not care? Anyway, when others narrated I enjoyed the book a lot more. I REALLY hope “brief” was used ironically in the title because these hideous men could pontificate like nobody’s business. Some of the stories started off well but would go on and on trying to make their point in the imagined interviews. Another of my main problems with the book was that DFW chose to only include the interviewee’s answers without including any of the interviewers questions. The technique gave the stories a preachy rather than conversational tone. I could handle it through an individual story but hated it collectively. Again, I think this would be another nod of support for his literary genius but I just didn’t like the style. I will say this: The guy had some pretty big balls, which I respect. You’d have to in order to write not 1 but 2 stories about potential positive side effects of rape. They were brazen and, I’m sure, designed to elicit strong visceral responses from the reader. But in both cases the character telling the story drones on for so long using vocabulary scarcely used in casual conversation that the stories felt pretentious and exasperating.

Overall, if you’re a fan of DFW and audio books I’m sure you’ll enjoy the book but I’m not a fan.

20 of 30- The Best American Poetry 2010

The Best American Poetry 2010 Guest Editor, Amy Gerstler & Series Editor, David Lehman



I've been reading this book off and on for a few months. I like poetry but find it hard to sit down and read it for long periods of time. Instead I like to read a few poems and put the book down. That way I let them sink in and can give it the time to absorb. I think modern poetry is quite a bit different from classic poetry as it seems to me that the classics are mostly about the prose where modern is mostly about making you feel. I have no idea really, just what I think.

The poems that really stood out to me were;

Ugly Man- Dennis Cooper
Four "Addresses"- Peter Davis
I never went to that movie at 12:45- Dolly Lemke
Letter to the Past after Long Silence- Sarah Murphy
Q- Sharon Olds
Vectors 2.3: Fifty Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays- James Richardson
From "A Jar of Balloons or The Uncooked Rice"- Matthew Yeager

The book is worth picking up just for Four "Addreses" and I highly recommend it for anyone who's interested in reading some poetry.