#25 [2025/CBR17] Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

CBR17Bingo - "Recommended" because this book was recommended to my by my friend.

Most of my book club is composed of a bunch of lawyers. However, there is one, lonely electrical engineer among us who is constantly recommending science-fiction novels that are met with a varying amount of acceptance. She has recommended a number of Hugo-award-winning novels to me that I have intensely disliked, so I don't completely trust her judgment. So, when she loaned me another science-fiction book to read and said she didn't care when she got it back, I put it on my shelf for a number of years and forgot about it.

Then came the day when I needed a book to read, and my library books were all on hold. In my desperation, I turned to the rejects on my bookshelf. And there it was, Stories of Your Life and Others (2002) by Ted Chiang. This book contains eight short stories. Chiang seems to be a very well-respected writer of science-fiction. On the whole, these stories were unique and interesting, although some of them were a more painful plod than others. I tended to lose interest in the stories that focused more on religion, but that's just my preference. 

Below is a short blurb about each story in the order they appeared. The starred stories were my favorite.

"Tower of Babylon" - This story explains the building of the Tower of Babylon. Just bringing bricks up to the highest level takes months. People live up there, while they work, growing plants where they can. The sun is especially intense near the top. When they reach the top, they bring a team to drill through to heaven. They are flooded with water and end up back on the ground. It turns out Heaven and Earth were much closer than they had thought. It's like a cylinder with drawings imprinted on it rolled onto the Earth. They might appear far apart if you only look at the impressions from the cylinder on the ground. But they're right next to each other on the actual cylinder. 

*"Understand" - The main character is a subject of an experimental drug that helps him recover from a coma after a near-drowning incident. His brain had been pretty much destroyed, but the drug makes him smarter than he was before. And he keeps taking it, and then he goes rogue and steals another dose. He's smarter than ever, and then he runs into Reynolds, someone else from the program. Their brains are beyond powerful, but they have different ideals and eventually seek to destroy each other. Interesting.

"Division by Zero" - Carl and Renee are an older couple. Renee is a mathematical genius and she discovers a theorem that disproves the very building blocks of Math that are the cornerstone of Renee's entire life. It ruins math for her completely. Her husband realizes that he doesn't love Renee anymore, and it's a similar realization for him. I thought this one was okay, but it wasn't my favorite.

*"Story of Your Life" - I did not know that this eponymous story was the basis for the movie, Arrival. I have not seen Arrival, but I did think this story was good. There is a linguist, and she is brought in by the army to try to communicate with aliens who have appeared in locations around the Earth. In the process, she learns a new language and a new way to think, which allows her to know what is going to happen in the future. ***SPOILER*** She learns that she will have a daughter who will die young, and she has to decide if she wants to have her daughter knowing what's going to happen. This was one of my favorite stories. The details of learning to communicate with the aliens as well as the emotional punch of her discovery was very well done.

"Seventy-Two Letters" - You can create a kind of living automaton with certain combinations of letters. One scientist wanted to create beings that were able to create others. This was seen as a huge threat to the people who already created the automatons. This story was not my favorite. It felt very long and religious-y

"The Evolution of Human Science" - This entire short story is written as an article in Nature magazine. Apparently there are metahumans (something like AI, I think). These metahumans make all the advancements in the world while humans are left just trying to understand it. I found this one short and interesting. I liked that it was written as a magazine article, and it may hit a little too close to home.

"Hell is the Absence of God" - This story also felt very long and religious-y. We are in a world where angels come to Earth, sometimes (accidentally?) bringing death and destruction with them. Surviving these experiences means something and some people chase this experience trying to change their lives. Not my favorite.

*"Liking What You See: A Documentary" - This was one of my favorite stories. The story is written from a bunch of different perspectives. Science has come up with a thing where you can alter your brain so that you are not aware of beauty. It affects the way you see faces, and makes everyone look kind of bland. In this context a college is trying to decide whether they should require and/or encourage everyone on campus to undergo the procedure. This issue is pretty controversial, and the story consists of the many different opinions and perspectives on the matter. There are students who grew up with it, who both like it and dislike it. There are people who want looks to not matter so much. There are the advertisers who desperately need people to see beauty in order to sell their products, and many more. 

This story probably gave me the most to think about. First, this wouldn't realistically work unless it affected our views of bodies as well. Of course beautiful faces are important, but people definitely look at the whole body when determining beauty and attraction. Second, it's fascinating to imagine a world where people were not treated differently based on their looks. Finally, it was both interesting and realistic to see how the competing interests handled this proposal at the college. Inevitably money got involved and people were paid to endorse certain points of view. I think this was my favorite story, and I'm glad the book ended with this one.

#19 [2023/CBR15] Recitatif by Toni Morrison

Recitatif is Toni Morrison's only short story. Published in 1983, the version I read was republished in 2022 and featured an introduction by Zadie Smith (the introduction was longer than the short story). I often regret reading introductions before I read the main story because I usually prefer to have my own thoughts and impressions when reading something new. On the other hand, I probably notice and take more in when I've been primed by an introduction. Anyway, Zadie Smith's introduction was very smart and thoughtful. And by the time I started reading the first page, I knew all the main plot points.

Recitatif is about the relationship between two girls who meet at a home for children (St. Bonaventure shelter) when they are eight years old. Twyla and Roberta spend four months sharing a room at "St. Bonny's", and then run into each other a few times when they are older. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of their relationship is that Morrison lets us know that they are of different races, but she doesn't let us know which is which. "Morrison described it as 'an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial.'" Both girls are poor and have mothers who can't take care of them. They both struggle at the shelter for being young and bad at school. And they both look down on others they see as below themselves. 

Toni Morrison is something of a wizard, and she does a lot with not many words. Many reviews have said that readers inevitably try to figure out the races of the girls and it says more about the reader than the characters. I imagine characters in my head as I read, so I found myself arbitrarily making one of the girls white and one black, just so I could have an image. I think I changed my mind a couple of times throughout the story. I do wonder if Morrison assigned a race to them as she wrote, or if she just focused on describing the characters in a way that kept the question open.

Maggie was perhaps the most memorable part of this story. She was an older, disabled woman who worked at the shelter. Misshapen and mute, everyone looked down on her, and she was treated badly by the children, including Twyla and Roberta. It's something the two of them struggle to remember accurately when they grow up. So, in this short story that addresses race in such a unique manner, Morrison also includes other layers of hierarchy and humanity.

I would definitely recommend this short story. It's a quick read, but written by a master and very thought provoking.

#38 [2021/CBR13] Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I read Americanah back in 2014 and I really enjoyed it. So when I saw that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had written a short story, Zikora (2020), I picked it up. This is definitely only a short story, clocking in at about 30 pages or so. But Adichie has a way with words, and she explores a number of different themes including: family, pain, love, and motherhood in a very short amount of time.

The story begins with Zikora, a successful lawyer in Washington D.C., in labor at the hospital. She is there with her mother who is visiting from Nigeria. Her mother is not the most sympathetic helping hand, expecting her to stoically and silently bear the pain.

We slowly discover that the father of the baby being brought into the world is Zikora's ex-boyfriend, Kwame. He was everything to her, and although the pregnancy was not planned, she expected him to be thrilled. Instead he left her. Her unanswered texts to Kwame from the hospital were her last hope for them.

Throughout the pain and trials of labor, Zikora thinks through her relationship with her own parents and family in Nigeria.

I was impressed by this short story. I generally prefer longer books, so I can really dig into the characters. I could have easily read an entire book about Zikora, her relationship with her boyfriend, and her family back home. However, this short story is memorable and meaningful as well.

Some favorite quotes below:

"If he was going to have a child, of course he should have a say, but how much of a say, since the body was mine, since in creating a child, Nature demanded so much of the woman and so little of the man."

"Some kindnesses you do not ever forget. You carry them to your grave, held warmly somewhere, brought up and savored from time to time."

"I looked at my mother, standing by the window. How had I never really seen her? It was my father who destroyed, and it was my mother I blamed for the ruins left behind."

"I felt translucent, so fragile that one more rejection would make me come fully undone."

"I believed then that love had to feel like hunger to be true."

"My father told jokes and laughed and charmed everyone, and broke things and walked on the shards without knowing he had broken things."

#12 [2021/CBR13] An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Turston

I'm not sure who picked An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good (2018) by Helene Turston for book club, but I do remember that we were all interested in something short. This book includes four short stories originally written in Swedish. They are all about one elderly Swedish woman and the people she kills. I came into this expecting something a little different than what I got, and this is mainly to do with the blurb on Amazon.

Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and... no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss investigations, features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home.

I wasn't exactly sure how a little old lady murdering people was going to be funny, but that is what I was expecting. I figured the victims would deserve it, or Maud would act in self defense, or the stories would be so comical that you couldn't take them seriously. But it wasn't like that, and as I read, I tried to figure out the tone. Sure, a couple of her victims were not great people, but it was disturbing that the readers were expected to root for her.

***SPOILERS*** Maud was not a helpless, little old lady. She thought the worst of people and preemptively acted to stop them from doing anything she did not approve. She was also judgmental and a heartless killer. The first person Maud killed was an entitled artist who wanted Maud's apartment. But instead of saying, "No, thank you. I'll stay in my own apartment." Maud smashed a giant penis sculpture on the woman, killing her.

The next one was a man who beat his wife. Maud killed him because their loud arguments were disturbing to her. She pushed him down the stairs. Then she killed the woman who was going to be marrying an ex of Maud's. And then she killed an antique dealer because she was convinced that he wanted to steal from her. The more I read, the more I felt there was something deeply wrong with this woman--especially when we find out everything she did to get away with the last murder. Also, people died pretty easily in this book. One old lady pushing you down the stairs doesn't usually mean immediate death.

My friend liked this book because she said it showed how we underestimate old people and that it's all about expectations. She said that Maud was able to get away with murder over and over again because she was consistently underestimated. It's true that no one judged her as a danger because of her age. Then again, old women are not in the highest demographic of murderers. ***END SPOILERS***

Although this book was memorable, entertaining in parts, and not difficult to read, I'm not sure I would recommend it unless the storyline grabs you.

#9 [2020/CBR12] "One Day" by Gene Weingarten

I discovered One Day by Gene Weingarten on NPR's Best Books of 2019 List. It looked interesting, but I wasn't sure I had the time to read it. When I found it available at my library on audio, I decided that was the perfect solution. I'd listen to the book in my car. For me, listening to a book is a very different experience from reading it. I generally prefer reading, where I can easily glance back if I find I've stopped paying attention or want to confirm a name. Because this book consists of a number of relatively short, non-fiction stories, I was hopeful I would be able to pay attention.

Gene Weingarten is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and columnist at The Washington Post. He and a friend came up with the idea for this book. They would pick a day at random, some time between 1960 and 1990 (or something similar, I can't remember), and write a book about that day. Weingarten wanted the date far back enough in history that he could see further developments, but he didn't want it so far back that there would be nobody left to interview. He had a family in a bar pick out the numbers from a hat, and he ended up with December 28, 1986. Apparently the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's is a notoriously slow news day, but Weingarten couldn't change the date without nullifying his premise that you could find newsworthy stories at any time.

And Weingarten came up with over twenty chapters, each a story around the country that is unique, interesting, and occurred on December 28, 1986. Some of the stories involve fire, murder, and lives changed forever while others show a little glimpse of what was going on in the eighties. This includes the AIDS epidemic and the beginnings of Instant Replay in the NFL.

There can be a little bit of fudging with the date even though it is always a date with some importance. For example, once December 28, 1986 is the date of a marriage, although the real story happens some years later when that marriage is falling apart. Another time, the date is when a young girl wins a video game, but it is only later that she becomes a famous blogger. Anyway, I like the idea that there are interesting stories everywhere if you only look hard enough, and I appreciated the gimmick.

The story that most captured my attention was a true-crime tragedy that involved the murder of a 20-year-old San Diego State University student, Cara Knott. Her body was found about six a.m. by her family on a lonely freeway exit that was no longer in use. Her car, with the keys inside it, was located nearby. This one was very disturbing and stuck with me for quite awhile.

My only complaint is that a couple of times it felt like Weingarten was actually writing this book in 1986. He made a couple of comments that had me wondering if I'd heard the reader correctly. Once he stated that a famous surgeon coming to visit a hospital was very touchy-feely with the nurses and laughed it off like the surgeon was another adorable old man. Another time, ***SPOILER*** Cara Knott's murderer turned out to be a California Highway Patrolman that liked to pull blondes over on deserted highways and use his power of authority to talk and flirt with them for over an hour--sometimes petting their hair or shoulder. Weingarten called this behavior "harmless" until it led to Knott's killing. Yes, congratulations, until the murder the CHP officer did not assault anyone, but his actions were far from harmless.  And the murder was more than a misunderstanding. ***END SPOILER***

Sometimes I have problems with books of short stories because it's hard for me to keep identifying with new characters over and over again with nothing tying them together. I found all of these stories interesting, but with over twenty of them, they were hard to keep in my head or feel that they worked together. However, I liked the book, and I was consistently entertained. Recommended.

#55 [2019/CBR11] "Florida" by Lauren Groff

Florida (2018) by Lauren Groff was strongly recommended to me by my boyfriend. He was surprised I hadn't heard of it, and I probably should have. It was a National Book Award Finalist and on NPR's Best Books of 2018 List. I read the first part of the first story on his iPad and was interested enough to read the rest of the book.

Short stories are not my go-to. Most of the time I have a hard time connecting to the characters before the next story begins and I have to start all over. I found some of these stories by Groff pretty interesting and some pretty challenging. Most were quite dark, and I had some problems relating to the characters. After at least a couple of the stories, I felt disturbed and wondered what the point of it was. Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind. Obviously, Groff is a talented writer, and some of these stories will definitely stay with me. In fact, I might get more out of them if I read them again. However, something kept me from feeling really connected to most of these stories.

I find reviewing short stories challenging. So, instead of sweeping generalizations and discovering trends, I'm writing a short blurb on each--mostly so I can remember them if I come back to this.

Ghosts and Empties - a woman walks through her gentrifying neighborhood at night to escape from the rage she can feel stuck at home with her husband and children. It seems to focus on how things change with time. I liked this one.

At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners - Jude was born in the swamp with a snake-hunting father who worked for the University. His father drove his mother away after the war. Jude escaped, but moved back to the same house with his wife. I wanted to know more about Jude's mother in this story.

Dogs Go Wolf - two young girls are left alone to survive on a small island. It is very vague when it comes how this all came about. I was frustrated by this lack of detail and couldn't quite understand the point of it.

The Midnight Zone - a woman is staying at a cabin in the woods with her two children. She falls and hits her head, and they spend a night in the cabin with her injured. Again, I didn't quite understand the point of this one. I also couldn't understand the woman's fear of the panther in the area.

Eyewall - a woman decides to stay alone at her home during a hurricane. She is visited by her ex-husband, ex-boyfriend, and father as the storm goes on. I found this one interesting but weird.

For the God of Love, For the Love of God - Amanda and Jennifer (Genevieve) are old school friends from very different circumstances. Meeting in France with their husbands, and often seen from Genevieve's son, Leo's, perspective. I was very interested in these characters and could have read much more about them.

Salvador - Helena rented an apartment in Salvador for the one month that she gets off from taking care of her ailing mother. She has an odd relationship with the shop owner across the street. She is both afraid of his actions and his judgments, but sometimes feels sorry for him and wonders about her own judgments. It feels like a very honest, uncomfortable, and awkward relationship. This one had me responding viscerally and really thinking about the two characters.

Flower Hunters - a woman on Halloween sits at home by herself while her husband takes the kids out. I got a little tired of this woman's angst, but it also had the most quotable lines for me. "You love humanity almost too much, but people always disappoint you." (162) "She would take a break from herself, too, but she doesn't have that option." (167) "Surely, in the history of humanity, she is not the only one to feel like this." (168)

Above and Below - a woman who was in graduate school loses her position and becomes homeless. Her life becomes worse as she loses more and more; sometimes seeing people from her old life. This woman's spiral downward is catching.

Snake Stories - a woman finds another woman who has just been raped on her running route. She tries to help her, but she disappears when the woman returns with the police. There's a lot going on here, but it wasn't my favorite.

Yport - mother takes her two sons with her to Yport, France to research a writer she loves Guy de Maupassant. This was a very dark vacation with cold weather and a creeping feeling of danger and isolation. I found it rather difficult to read.

#14 [2019/CBR11] "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories (1955) by Flannery O'Connor was one of the last books on my 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 List. I previously knew neither the author nor the book, so I wasn't sure what to expect. And to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what to think now that I'm done. I'm impressed by O'Connor's writing, disturbed by the content, disturbed by the pervasive racism, and once again impressed that I had such a visceral reaction to her stories.

The book is comprised of ten short stories that primarily take place in the South in the mid-20th Century. A couple of them reference World War II but I did not notice any specific dates. The stories are usually centered around a family, a couple, or a mother and her daughter and their interactions with their help, their neighbors, and visitors. Of the ten stories in this book, four of them ended with people dying (mostly tragically), and four had someone in the story betraying another in a way that made me feel sick to my stomach. Finishing this book became a relatively stressful experience.

O'Connor is a talented writer. Her characters felt real and well-rounded with very little description. When you throw in the disturbing conclusion to many of her stories, they become very memorable. Perhaps what also bothered me is that O'Connor did not give much reasoning for the evil characters' actions or any judgment of their actions. It seemed a pretty bleak view of the world.

I read that Flannery O'Connor was a Roman Catholic and her religion influenced her writing. There were certainly religious characters and scenes in her books, including priests, a Bible salesman, a religious revival, and a religious school. Some of her stories seemed to bring up religious questions. However, she didn't seem to be promoting religion through her stories. In fact, I learned almost nothing about the author's point of view while reading her book. I could not tell if she was commenting on something she didn't like in society or approved of it. There is a heavy amount of racism throughout the book, which is surely an accurate representation of the time and place, but I couldn't tell what she thought about it.

So, in the end, I am again left not knowing what to think about this book. I wanted some kind of catharsis or explanation after one or another horrible thing happens. But O'Connor never gives it to us. There is no final judgment, and we usually don't find out what happens to the transgressors or the victims. It was frustrating, but it's also part of what made her stories so memorable.

#53 [2018/CBR10] "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros

Another book from my list of 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 was The House on Mango Street (1984) by Sandra Cisneros. I did not realize this until I had actually finished Mango Street, but I'd already read Caramelo by Cisneros years ago and enjoyed it. I like repeating authors when I appreciate their writing, and I was again impressed by Cisneros's writing and perspective with this book. However, I was always looking for more detail, and I often felt left behind and looking for more. 

The House on Mango Street is a relatively short novel made up of a number of brief, poetic vignettes about a teenage Latina girl growing up in a small house in a Chicana and Puerto Rican neighborhood in Chicago. The girl, Esperanza Cordero, often felt like a placeholder for the author, but it is unclear how much fact and fiction mix in this story.

The stories focused on Esperanza, her friends, and her neighbors. The neighborhood is poor, and the house is something of a disappointment to Esperanza when they first move in. Esperanza wants to grow up and get out of her neighborhood. One chapter tells how her first boss forced a kiss on her while another details a sexual assault at a carnival. One of the more memorable characters, Sally, and Esperanza's classmate, is a tragic mix of beauty and desperation.

If you haven't yet figured out by my short and muddled description above, I'm having a hard time gathering my thoughts in a meaningful way. I often have problems connecting with characters in short stories. I like to get into people's heads, really understand where they come from, and what their lives are like. But the little snapshots that Cisneros gave me were not enough. I wanted more detail about the characters' lives, what they were thinking, and how they lived. I wanted to know what happened to Sally and what was going on with the woman locked in her house by her husband. I kept seeing fascinating little glimpses, but not enough to be truly meaningful or memorable for me. So when it comes to writing the review, my mind is mostly blank. I guess an overarching narrative helps me retain and sort my thoughts.

The House on Mango Street is a classic and has won tons of awards. The writing is often perceptive and beautiful. It is possible that what kept me from loving this book would be what other readers find most impressive.

#27 [2018/CBR10] "Anything is Possible" by Elizabeth Strout

Anything is Possible (2017) is another book I picked up on President Obama's recommendation. I remember reading Olive Kittredge (2008) many years ago--it must have been right after it was published. At the time I was impressed by the writing, but the details are fuzzy. Anything is Possible is similar in construction: a novel composed of interconnected short stories. However, these stories take place in a small, Midwestern farming community instead of a small town in Maine.

Lucy Barton is the primary connection in these short stories. Everyone in the book is related to her, knows her, and/or has an opinion about her. Growing up, the Barton family was dirt poor, and the children were abused. Lucy managed to break out of town, go to college, move to Manhattan and become a writer. She has just published a new book and is on a publicity tour.

Strout tells the story of Lucy's brother and sister, left behind in town with varying degrees of problems and resentment. We also learned about the dairy farm owner who became a janitor after his farm was burned to the ground. He saw Lucy stay after school every day and knew she was in some kind of trouble. Lucy's cousin was even worse off growing up, but he manages to pull himself out of poverty and become a successful businessman. There are other characters, less connected to Lucy, who fill the book. Their stories are often painful, tragic, and disturbing, but they all feel real.

The construction of this book is unique. The short stories from different perspectives allow the reader to see more of the town and what's going on in it than if the story were focused on one person. At the same time, Strout keeps so much information to herself that I felt I never got closure or a real understanding of any one situation. We never learn what Lucy Barton's book is about and only get glimpses into the sordid reality of each character's life.

Relationships and family seem to be the focus of these stories, and many of these relationships are very dysfunctional. There is abuse, cheating, and judgment from all of the characters, but Strout gives them all reasons for who they are and why they act and react as they do. I was impressed by how Strout managed to craft all these different threads into a greater understanding of a community. There is no doubt it's well written, and would probably be a great book for a book club. There is so much to think about and discuss.

Unfortunately, I also found it difficult to read. There was so much pain and suffering and so little light that I found it depressing. Looking back, some stories may have ended with some happiness, but the reader only hears about this from afar. The focus is on broken people struggling to live and understand each other. There is also very little closure in any of the stories. I felt that Strout just jumped from one depressing thing to the next without any catharsis. The emotional toll piled on. I realize this makes her stories more realistic, but I was glad when I finished the book.

"We're all just a mess, Angelina, trying as hard as we can, we love imperfectly, Angelina, but it's okay."

"It caused Annie to tremble inside; the skin of the sausage was shame. Her family was encased in shame."

#17 [2016/CBR8] "Kindred Spirits" by Rainbow Rowell

Kindred Spirits (2016) by Rainbow Rowell is more of a short story than a novel. Clocking in at just over sixty pages, it's a fun, quick, tale. I was wondering whether I even wanted to bother writing a review for something I could read so quickly. In the end I decided it was worth it because I wanted to thank Faintingviolet for sending me this book! There is nothing like opening your mailbox to an unexpected, (because I forgot it was coming) brand-new book from one of my favorite authors!

From what I understand, Kindred Sprits is part of "World Book Day" that occurred on March 3 in the United Kingdom. It sounds like a great idea, involving giving schoolchildren tokens that they can turn in at participating bookstores for these books--written specifically for World Book Day.

Elena is your normal teenage girl, except that she's a huge Star Wars fan, inculcated by her father since birth. She is intent on camping out for opening night tickets for The Force Awakens--no matter how much her mother worries about her. She's seen pictures of the fair-like atmosphere of costumed and enthusiastic fans waiting in line and bonding over their shared love. She's looking forward to the experience.

When her mother reluctantly drops her off on Monday morning, they are both dismayed to see that the line consists only of two guys. Troy is the talkative leader and Gabe is the quiet, sullen teenage boy. Instead of the party atmosphere Elena was expecting, she feels like she is stuck in an elevator with two random strangers. As the days crawl closer to the first screening on Friday, Elena gets to know Troy, and especially Gabe, much better. Through cold, discomfort, embarrassment, and challenges involving lack of bathrooms, Elena stays strong.

In the end, we learn through Elena that it's more about the process than the goal, and it's worth it to keep an open mind--about both people and experiences. As someone who has not yet seen The Force Awakens [I'm waiting for the DVD], and someone who does not take Instagram selfies [one of Elena's favorite pastimes], I didn't wholly relate to the protagonist. With the brevity of the book, Rowell did not have much space to explore her main characters. However, the focus of the book is still on relationships and experiences and Rowell made a nice, memorable story.

Redux #39 - "Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3" by Annie Proulx

I always find it more difficult to review books of short stories. I think it's because I'm not sure what to focus on. Should I quickly discuss each story and my reaction? Try to find a common theme and discuss my general impression? It is even a greater challenge today because I already returned the book, so I can't remind myself of the titles or plot of some of the stories. I'm also in a bit of a rush because it's late and I desperately want to catch up on these reviews. Anyway, I've heard a lot about Annie Proulx, I've read "Brokeback Mountain" and seen the movie, and I figured she would be a good author to read. I was reminded of her again and decided to read Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3 (2008) when I saw that it was one of the final choices for Denver's book club this year.

Fine Just the Way It Is includes nine different short stories that primarily take place in Wyoming in both the past and present. There are a couple satirical stories that have the devil as the main character, but the rest are hard and brutally honest stories about struggle and survival and life in Wyoming. These stories include: "Family Man," "I've Always Loved This Place," "Them Old Cowboy Songs," "The Sagebrush Kid," "The Great Divide," "Deep-Blood-Greasy-Bowl," "Swamp Mischief," "Testimony of the Donkey," and "Tits-Up in a Ditch."

I guess you could say the common theme in these stories is that life sucks and then you die. Story after story just left me catching my breath in horror. I often read on the bus on the way to work, and I came into work one day freaked out by the image I had in my head of a poor girl who had died in childbirth. And then on the way home, I was able to finish the story, and it just got more disturbing. Annie Proulx's writing is very powerful, though. Her stories are sparse, straightforward, and unsentimental, but they grab your attention and stay with you for a long time. Just thinking back on them to write this review makes me appreciate them more.

Living in Colorado, even though it's not Wyoming, I think I also have an appreciation for the West and the ruggedness that was in each Proulx story. I also recognize Proulx's talent for storytelling. I can't exactly say that Fine Just the Way It Is was an enjoyable read, but I'd recommend it to anyone who can handle the bleakness and sadness that Proulx portrays.

Redux #30 - "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

It has been an awfully long time since I last finished a book. Interpreter of Maladies (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri has taken me weeks and weeks to finish, even though it's a pretty quick read. I am enjoying my new EMT-Basic class very much, but between working full-time and trying to keep up with that class, I'm barely finding enough time to sleep and work out, so unfortunately reading for pleasure has fallen by the wayside.

I've seen The Namesake--the movie--based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. I've also read Lahiri's other book of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, which I enjoyed so much I knew I'd have to read Interpreter of Maladies as well. Interpreter of Maladies consists of nine short stories, all of them dealing with the intersection between American and Indian lives and culture.

I often have trouble connecting with the storyline or characters in short stories because there's not enough time to really get to know and empathize with the characters before the story ends. I do not have that problem with Jhumpa Lahiri's works. I don't know how she does it, but she is an amazing writer. I start reading, and I understand and feel strongly for her characters almost immediately. This might sound weird, but the power of her writing reminds me of Cormac McCarthy. She writes clear, concise sentences with no melodrama, yet I find myself so emotionally drawn in that these stories instill their melancholies and sadness inside me before I even realize what's happening. Cormac McCarthy often has the same effect on me, although the content of his stories are drastically different, taking place in worlds of violence that I will never know. Lahiri, on the other hand, keeps to more quiet, intimate stories of relationships and family tragedies that we can all relate to. Her themes of isolation, displacement, and loneliness are strong and weave through each of her stories.

I still have a lot of reading to do for class, so I need to keep this short, but I also feel like there isn't much more to say. Jhumpa Lahiri is an amazing and affecting writer. I look forward to reading the next book she publishes.

I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination. (198)

Redux #22 - "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling

After reading The Graveyard Book, I decided to be thorough and read The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling as well. It is a classic after all, and Gaiman recommended reading it at the end of his book. My knowledge of The Jungle Book comes from seeing the Disney animated film when I was little. I've also seen the live-action version of The Jungle Book, and I remember enough of that one to still appreciate the man who played Mowgli--and his muscles. Anyway, The Jungle Book consists of seven different short stories with some short poems thrown in. Three of the short stories center around Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves. The stories include: "Mowgli's Brothers," "Kaa's Hunting," "'Tiger, Tiger,'" "The White Seal," "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," "Toomai of the Elephants," and "Her Majesty's Servants."

On the whole, I liked the book. I love animals, and the stories were interesting. I'd have a hard time choosing a favorite between The Graveyard Book and The Jungle Book. I enjoyed the storytelling more in The Jungle Book. The characters and descriptions of the locations were described more vividly and with more detail, which I really appreciated. As I've said before, The Graveyard Book felt a little random to me. I felt that Gaiman intentionally left explanations out to keep us feeling unsure of his world, but I sometimes felt manipulated and frustrated.

The Jungle Book also supposedly has a moral in each of its stories. I noticed the continuous themes of courage, bravery, alienation, and learning from different cultures. However, I think I ended up disagreeing with much of what Kipling may have been trying to teach. SPOILERS Mowgli seemed rather arrogant in his dealings with the villagers. Sure, he grew up in the jungle and knew much more than them, but it still felt wrong...until the villagers threw him out. Then I felt sorry for him. My main concern during "The White Seal" was that the perfect island for the seals that the "sea cows" had been using was going to be overrun with the millions and millions of seals that the white seal was bringing over. I read in Wikipedia that "The White Seal" may have been about the burgeoning Zionist movement, so I guess if you look at it that way, the "sea cows" could be the Palestinians. But Kipling never mentions the effect the seals had on their new island or its other inhabitants. I admired the white seal's courage and determination, but I also didn't appreciate all the fighting the white seal used to get some of his compatriots to move to the new island. Is that what Kipling thought was necessary for Zionism?

I had similar problems with the other non-Mowgli stories. In "Toomai of the Elephants" all I wanted was for the elephants to go free, and I was very disappointed that they walked back to their captors after the dance. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" was another story I was already familiar with from childhood, but reading the story I was annoyed that Kipling made the cobras so evil (that they would murder all the inhabitants in a house. This is the kind of thing that makes people terrified of harmless little garter snakes.), and I felt sorry for the snakes at the same time. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi kills Nagaina's husband, murders all of her children, and then chases and kills her as she runs for her life, pleading for mercy. I didn't think the snakes were really any worse than the mongoose. Finally, I got the impression that Kipling was reinforcing and approving of the order of the English military in "Her Majesty's Servants." But I found the discussion between all the animals with no understanding of what they were doing or why they were fighting or how their actions made any difference just sad. For me, it brought out the pointlessness and wastefulness of war. Interesting stories, though, and they made me think. I think I want to read the second book of stories sometime soon, especially to hear more about Mowgli.

Redux #8 - "The Brutal Language of Love" by Alicia Erian

I discovered The Brutal Language of Love (2001) by Alicia Erian while browsing through Marra Alane's blog. I think she mentioned it as one of her favorite books, which piqued my interest. When I saw the glowing reviews on Amazon and realized that Erian also wrote Towelhead (I haven't actually read this book, but I've seen the movie), I decided to pick it up.

The Brutal Language of Love consists of nine short stories, all with female protagonists who are disturbingly flawed, vulnerable, and real. My primary experience of reading these stories was very similar to my experience of watching the movie Towelhead--they made me uncomfortable. The very first story begins with, "Beatrice told Shipley she would sleep with him, and then she passed out. When she awoke the next morning, he said he'd gone ahead without her. He got dressed and asked her to drive him to the police station so he could turn himself in for rape, but she said not to worry about it." I was still caught up in all the action of this revelatory half-paragraph: disturbed by the situation; wondering how Beatrice really felt; wanting to know what Shipley was really thinking. But Erian was already moving on to other important relationships in Beatrice's life. I often felt like I was playing catch-up, not emotionally able to digest and understand everything that was happening so fast on the page.

When Erian hit on something in her stories that I could personally relate to, it was often so blunt and honest that I had to catch my breath. However, in situations farther from my personal experience, I sometimes had problems understanding the characters' motivations. This did not lesson my interest or the impact of the story, but was probably an effect of her writing style. The world 'brutal' in the title is perfect. The stories are brutal, their effect on me was brutal, and Erian's writing is so unembellished, direct, and naked--that her writing is brutal as well. I don't think I could say that I enjoyed reading this book as it made my stomach tie up in knots more often than not, but I'm not going to forget these stories. I'm finding that the more I think about them, the more I find in them.

Now, solely for my own benefit and memory, I'm going to list them with a quick (hopefully unspoilerish) blurb, so I can revisit them again:

• "Standing Up to the Superpowers" - details Beatrice relationships with Shipley, a college Freshman and her Russian literature professor. Includes the line, "In return he offered her nothing," which I couldn't forget.

• "Alcatraz" - Roz is 13 and having a sexual relationship with Jennings while dealing with Jennings' bully friend Garrett. This is where I rediscovered that reading about 13 year olds having sex or being hit on creeps me out.

• "Bikini" - Vanessa's early relationship with her boyfriend Shawki, including his dislike of promiscuous clothes and their outing on a lake. This story had me on edge the entire second half.

• "Almonds and Cherries" - a film student with a crush on her professor and confused about her sexuality makes a movie about an incident in a fitting room. Consistently interesting, but probably the one I least understood.

• "Lass" - Shayna marries Carl, the son of a famous novelist and goes to live with his parents in Ireland. I really couldn't understand the motivations in this story, although I frustratingly felt they were right below the surface.

• "On the Occasion of my Ruination" - Very relatable story about a girl heading off to college and eager to lose her virginity while she works in the mall over the summer.

• "The Brutal Language of Love" - Another disturbing story with a character named Penny and her problematic relationships with her father, her boyfriend at the movie theater, and the man who films her for his documentary. A lot going on.

• "Still Life With Plaster" - a young girl who lives with her grandparents with her younger brother and uncle, a loving home for her that still has its lies and violence.

• "When Animals Attack" - a grown brother and sister meet a teenage runaway at a bus station because their mother had befriended him in New York and given him money to get back to him parents. Again, disturbing, and did not go where I was expecting.

"Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Short stories aren't usually my favorite genre. They tend to go by too quickly, so by the time I get involved with the characters and story, it's over and I'm already struggling to ground myself in the next story. Unaccustomed Earth (2008) by Jhumpa Lahiri somehow sucked me into each story but also left me satisfied with their brief length. This was my first foray into Lahiri's writing, although I have seen the movie The Namesake, but I am now looking forward to reading Interpreter of Maladies (1999).

Unaccustomed Earth consists of eight short stories, the last three of which center around the lives of two recurring characters, Hema and Kaushik. The stories focus on the private, family dramas that change our lives and shape our personalities but are rarely detected by those around us. The first story describes a father's week-long visit to see his daughter after his wife, her mother, unexpectedly dies. It's amazing what true and different emotions and themes Lahiri could pack into this short story. There's the loss of a parent and a spouse, the staleness of marriage and roles in the marriage, the push and pull of cultural expectations, the constantly changing roles of parent, caretaker, and child, the silence that surrounds important issues, and understanding and forgiveness. The other stories explore an aging marriage, the love (or crush) of an unhappily married woman, alcoholism, and a housemate's view of a failing relationship. The final three stories visit Hema and Kaushik at different turning points of their lives.

I sometimes have a hard time describing books that I've really liked. I don't have anything negative to say, and anything I could say to describe it wouldn't be as good as actually reading the stories. These weren't exactly page-turners, but quiet, insightful, and emotional stories about people that I could relate to, feel for, and understand. I enjoyed reading them and was very impressed by my first reading of Lahiri's work.

#66 - "Ghosts of Chicago" by John McNally

I understand that choosing books because of the first letter of the title, in order to read a book starting with every letter of the alphabet is kind of ridiculous. Or utterly pointless. While browsing at the library, I've picked up a couple of books that looked interesting but I probably wouldn't otherwise have read. And so far I have been pleasantly surprised; Ghosts of Chicago (2008) by John McNally is no exception. I needed a 'G' and there it was on the display table: shiny and new; interesting cover; positive blurbs; short stories. That's all I needed.

Although the title had me slightly concerned that I would be reading actual ghost stories, Ghosts of Chicago does not have supernatural characters or events. Instead, the characters in McNally's seventeen short stories are haunted by their own desires, obsessions, and problems. This can make for a sometimes uncomfortable and depressing read, but I was impressed by McNally's writing and creativity. Every story quickly drew me in, and the characters felt real, even when I couldn't understand--or regretted--their actions.

My last foray into short stories was The Best American Short Stories where I decided that short stories were not my favorite format because I didn't have enough time to get involved with the characters or plot. So, in some ways, Ghosts of Chicago was an improvement for me. The similar settings of the Chicago area, with the relatively dark and somber themes winding through each of the stories created more of a "whole" product. I felt less disjointed and scattered as I read this book. However, I still found myself yearning for more information, and I still felt I was jumping so quickly from story to story that the individual stories couldn't make a deep impression on me.

I was most impressed by McNally's range and creativity. Whether the protagonist is a man, a woman, or a child, McNally gets inside the character's head with surprising realism. The stories range from realistic, to unlikely to almost surreal. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly was going on in "Remains of the Night," a story that involves superheros and creepy bugs and (most likely?) mental illness. I also found "Contributor's Notes" very entertaining. McNally uses his own name as the protagonist and I was trying to figure out what the story was saying about him and then he twisted it all around at the end. And "Return Policy," a sad and bittersweet story about a man who we get to know in slow increments. Although I'm still not completely sold on short stories, I would recommend Ghosts of Chicago for those who enjoy them.

#32 "The Best American Short Stories" ed. by Salman Rushdie

I'm pretty sure I came across The Best American Short Stories (2oo8) when I was browsing in the bookstore one day. I rarely read short stories, so I figured this book might be a nice change of pace and expose me to some new writers and writing styles that I've been missing. The 2008 edition of this series is edited by Salman Rushdie and consists of twenty short stories by twenty different authors. There are also short notes from the authors at the end of the book, which were helpful in getting the authors' reasons and inspirations for their stories. I haven't read any of Rushdie's books, but I've certainly heard of him, so I figured I could trust him to pick out some short stories for me to read.

I think I've decided that I'm not super excited about the short story format. There's no question that all the stories I read were good and many were moving and thought provoking. And I plan on reading the 2009 version of Best American Short Stories. I also appreciate how difficult it must be for writers to create characters and stories that mean something with so few words. On the whole, though, I think I prefer the depth and length of the novel, mainly because once I get invested in characters, I don't like to lose them again so quickly.

So, in the interests of time and space, I think I'll just mention some of my favorites stories. These were not necessarily the best written of the bunch, just the ones with the most relatable characters and stories that really spoke to me.

Child's Play by Alice Munro - This was probably my favorite story in the entire book. Munro managed to create full, believable characters and describe a life-changing event and its effects throughout their lives in one short story.

The King of Sentences by Jonathan Lethem - Two aspiring writers seek out their favorite author. This story made me laugh out loud, and was the one I had the most fun reading.

Puppy by George Saunders - One of the more complex and intriguing stories. Explores how people view themselves and how others view you all within the framework of a relatively disturbing tale.

Quality of Life by Christine Sneed - This one I found disturbing simply because of some parallels between the protagonist's life and mine. It was weirdly too personal at the beginning and kind of made me think about what I want to do with my life.

Missionaries by Bradford Tice - An interesting story. What I agreed with most was Tice's statement in the notes that, "[o]ne of the cheerless realities of organized religion, in my secular opinion, is that often its spokespersons, the advocates of faith, end up seeming like used-car salesmen, while the truly devout go voiceless." His story reflects this belief.

Some other notable stories include Admiral by T.C. Boyle and Man and Wife by Katie Chase, which both still have me thinking. I also enjoyed the characters, especially the main character in Virgins by Danielle Evans. The main character was likeable, strong, and understandable, even when she might be making mistakes.

#26 - "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson

I recently watched Will Smith’s version of I am Legend, which made me curious enough about the original story to consider expanding my reading to the horror genre. Whether movies or books, horror is probably my least favorite. The only horror movie I’ve seen in the last five years was Shaun of the Dead, and I’m not even sure if that one counts. But I’ve been reading so many books lately, it’s a good excuse to branch out and read some things I wouldn’t otherwise.

Like most of my reading material, I picked up I am Legend at the library. Fortunately the copy I found had I am Legend as well as ten other short stories written by Richard Matheson. This was fortunate because I am Legend has only 170 pages, and even though I don’t mind flouting the reading contest rules when appropriate, I don’t want to do it for every book I read. So, the ten other short stories added another 150 pages to the book, making it more than adequate in length.

I’ll start with the title story and reason for reading this book in the first place, I am Legend (1954). Robert Neville is alone in the world, having survived an epidemic that swept the earth, killing people and turning them into vampire creatures. The creatures cannot stand the sun and go into a coma-like state during the day, but at night they come and attack his embattled house. Robert Neville’s life consists of the monotonous tasks of daily survival, constant loneliness and despair, killing as many vampires and diseased individuals as he can, as well as learning as much as possible about what’s happened to everyone.

Despite my general aversion to horror stories, I enjoyed reading I am Legend. Neville’s daily survival is interesting, and Matheson slowly leaks out information about Neville, his past, his present, and the specifics about the vampires so that the book often reads like a mystery. I also liked comparing the book and the movie. The movie changed the location to NYC, changed the cause of the disease, and changed some of the aspects of the disease for story purposes. Most of these changes, I think, made for a better movie. Seeing Robert Neville tearing through a deserted and lonely Times Square is much more visually captivating—horrific C.G. deer notwithstanding—than seeing him wander around a nondescript suburb. The movie also captured Neville’s loneliness and solitude quite well, managing to have the same feeling of the book, without being tied down to all the particulars. The main difference between the two is the ending. The book’s ending fits the story perfectly and ironically, making the entire story meaningful and more memorable, but the movie strays too far from the book for its last chapter and suffers by comparison. And I say this after also having seen the alternate end on DVD. Of course, now that I’ve seen both, I’m having a hard time remembering which was the “original” movie ending, but I prefer to selectively remember only the first 2/3 of the movie anyway.

I was not as impressed by the ten other short stories included in this book. The problem might again have been the genre, but I did not find them nearly as absorbing or thoughtful as the main story. I guess they were all generally well-written and the characters were often interesting enough that they weren’t painful to read about, but I was glad when I finally finished. Merely throwing in the undead or talking about funerals doesn’t do anything for me. Only one story even kind of scared me, and I think that’s because it was about a young, single woman who was attacked in her apartment—even though she was attacked by a miniature doll, so even then I wasn’t that scared.

One other issue I had with Matheson’s writing was the way he wrote about women, which I’m sure was partly a product of the times when he wrote. The 1950’s weren’t exactly a banner year for women’s issues. In the book I am Legend, Robert Neville states when he finally meets another human—a woman—that he would have “violated” her if it had been a couple years earlier because, y’know, men have needs. I tried to imagine Will Smith raping the woman he meets up with in the movie because he’s horny, and it didn’t work. Perhaps this is just a sign that men have improved in the last 50 years, or at least the men I know.

Matheson’s most annoying take on women is in his short story entitled From Shadowed Places where a rich, playboy has a curse put on him by a Zulu witch doctor while he is trophy hunting in Africa. Fortunately his fiance has an old friend from school who spent some time in Africa, learning under a witch doctor, and knows how to deal with these things. The playboy is wary because she is black and a woman but doesn’t have much of a choice. Fortunately she is a busty, black woman and she saves him by dancing around naked in front of him with his fiance and father-in-law watching, and then having sex with him and drawing the demon into herself. I sometimes felt as if I were reading the script to a really bad porno movie. Besides the fact that there didn’t seem to be anything more to this story than Matheson’s weird sex fantasy, I was also bothered by the fact that he persistently defined the women in the story as feeling shamed. The woman who saved his life felt “shamed” when she walked into the room topless. And then later in the story his fiance felt “shamed,” perhaps because she felt she shouldn’t have resisted when she watched her friend have sex with her husband-to-be. I didn’t appreciate the constant connection between women’s sexuality and shame, and I’m sure it didn’t help that I didn’t particularly like most of his short stories.