Fantasy short stories

Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction by Sharyn November


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Short stories by a number of really great award-winning authors, writing about magic, faerie, unreality in the face of the normal.
Although written for a YA audience, these stories will entertain and amuse adults.
My favorites were The Baby in the Night Deposit Boox by Megan Whalen Turner and Little Dot by Diana Wynne Jones, but others were fascinating too.

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Misc

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber. 2007, William Morrow. 466 pp Fiction

Jake Mishkin is an intellectual property lawyer, whose friendship with English professor Mickey Haas involves him in a literary puzzle featuring William Shakespeare, the rare book trade, and a cast of thousands. This thriller is a cross between The Da Vinci Code and a Garrison Keillor monologue. There is absolutely nothing straight-forward in the telling of this story, from the plot to the integrity of the characters.

Brave Men by Ernie Pyle. 1944/2001, University of Nebraska. 513 pp Non-fiction
Ernie Pyle recorded World War II on the day-to-day human level, from the standpoint of the citizen soldier. Brave Men is a collection of his columns for Scripps Howard Newspapers from the fighting in Europe during 1943-44. It gives an immediacy even now to the history of the war.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice. 2006, Dutton. 352 pp Fiction
"I met Charlotte in London one afternoon while waity for a bus. Just look at that sentence! That in itself is the first extraordinary thing, as I took the bus as rarely as once or twice a year, and even then it was only for the novelty value of not traveling in a car or train. It was mid-November 1954, and as cold as I had ever known London." And so Penelope meets Charlotte, and her aunt Clare and cousin Harry, and gets to kiss Johnny Ray, and a host of other events. This is sort of chick lit set in the 1950s, a kinder, gentler, chick lit.

Pig Perfect: Encounters with Remarkable Swine and Some Great Ways to Cook Them by Peter Kaminsky. 2005, Hyperion. Non-fiction
Kaminsky is off in search of the perfect ham. It takes him from Kentucky, to Burgundy; from North Carolina to Andalusia. He does barbecue and soul food and French cuisine (and shares a few of the recipes. He rails against the pork agri-business in the United States--and extols the wonders of what is often called heritage pork. Just reading this makes one hungry.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. 2008, Alfred A. Knopf. 333 pp Short Stories
This book of eight stories is just terrific. As in her book Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri's characters are often fish out of water, suspended between the familiar and the unknown or the uncomfortable. Even coping well with a new life doesn't always mean everything is well. There are many secrets here. I especially enjoyed the second story "Heaven-Hell".

There are some really good books out there.

Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 by Annie Proulx. 2004, Scribner. 219 pp Short stories
Annie Proulx's stories are about people whose lives aren't quite under control through no fault of their own. The bittersweet in life, mixed with the all to human foibles of her characters can add up to some painfully amusing stories. Her turn of phrase and her choice of scenes is spot on.

The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig. 2008, Harcourt. 406 pp Fiction
Take a college football team, undefeated in 1941, and place ten of it's starting lineup into various parts of the action around the world in World War II. The eleventh man is assigned the job of observing and reporting on them, and on their lives and deaths. This is a very readable book, with characters you will care about.

I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass. 2008, Pantheon . 287 pp Fiction

The story of two sisters, twisted apart by men and temperament, twisted together by birth and family. Louisa and Clement are nothing alike, and yet they share so many of the same things. Add to that a back story of a great-great-aunt and her sisters and you will find more ssisterly living than you know what to do with. If you have a sister you love, read this book. If you have a sister you hate, read this book. Another excellent book by the author of The Three Junes.

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich. 2008, HarperCollins. 311 pp Fiction

Told in multiple voices, the old mystery of a North Dakota murder in a community with both whites and Ojibwe members. This book teases and pries at truths and injustices, leaving both in various states of exposure.

The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty. 1942/1998 Library of America 87 pp Fiction
Take the Grimm's fairy tale, cross it with American folk lore, add more than a dash of Southern Comfort and you have a wonderful time. There is the twist of the alligator's tail to this story and a charming cadence to the language. A Hoot and a Holler for this oldie.