Say You're One of Them

I picked up Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them for the silly reason of liking the cover. I tried reading it a while ago before I abandoned it. The spine once again caught my eye and I tried again, immediately drawn in by Akpan's prose. It's a tough book to get through though, so I had to continue to put it down, to take a break from the extreme heaviness of it. The book is a collection of short stories (two of which are extremely long) about the desolate living conditions of children in Africa. I read a review that called it "poverty porn," stating that a person can't really like this book as there is nothing remotely enjoyable about it, which is a fair argument. The stories are beyond heartbreaking; they are brutal. I wasn't entirely prepared for that with the praise on the back of the book that included the word "jubilant" and said it showed the resilience of children. But when things are so agonizing, why should a child be expected to be resilient, to bounce back from that?

Say You're One of Them is a difficult book to recommend since it's the kind of book you want to set aside and forget about, to pretend life is not so harsh for so many. But of course that's what I love about fiction: that it opens the reader up to other worlds, shows life from another's perspective, and leaves the reader with a heart full of empathy... and this book did just that. It pulled me from my comfortable life and introduced me to the horror of life for some children in Africa.

Love In Infant Monkeys

A couple of months ago I responded to a flyer of someone new to town looking to start a book club. I suppose officially I joined, but have yet to make it to a meeting and still haven't met anyone in it. I am hoping to remedy this situation this month as we discuss the first book selection I've actually finished--Lydia Millet's Love in Infant Monkeys. Millet's writing is simple, yet flawless and her collection of short stories all revolve around famous people and animals. The stories are inspired by actual events, yet are all works of fiction. The collection is slim and the stories are quick but interesting reads exploring the relationship between man and animal.  My favorites were the title story and "The Lady and the Dragon." There were none that I did not like, though I wanted to like "Tesla and Wife" more than I actually did. Nothing in the collection blew me away and yet I found it a fast, enjoyable read.

The Girls' Guide To Hunting and Fishing

I read Melissa Bank's The Wonder Spot a couple years ago and enjoyed it, so I picked up her first book, The Girls' Guide To Hunting and Fishing. Bank did not disappoint. I was in a bit of a reading slump--one of those times when everything you pick up seems bland and nothing grabs you. And though this book wasn't exceptionally exciting or interesting, I was hooked by the first page as I loved the character's voice. Thankfully that character, Jane Rosenal, is carried throughout the seven interconnected stories so the reader can follow her through her life as she navigates her way through relationships. Bank writes with humor and poignancy, with that ability to write about something that makes you shake your head even though you did or thought the same thing yourself before. I loved this book and am looking forward to when she comes out with another book, be it a novel or short story collection, either will suffice.

Blasphemy

I was excited to see Sherman Alexie had a new book coming out, slightly less excited when I found out it was a collection of short stories. But Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories did not disappoint. For a book of short stories the collection is pretty thick and the range of both length and breadth of the stories vary greatly. And yet there is a theme that holds all the stories together--they are all about identity, most about Native American characters grappling with who they are, were, or fear they will become. Many of the stories have a heaviness to them, thematically speaking. There is a sadness humming quietly in the background of most of the stories, even those sprinkled generously with humor. They're all very readable though, sucking the reader in almost immediately to feel for these characters, for these situations. My two favorite stories in the collection are "Breaking and Entering," a story I would love to discuss but can't without giving anything away and "The Search Engine," a story about a Native American girl who is smitten by a Native American writer and goes searching for him. I'd like to read both stories again sometime, if not the entire collection. He really is that good.

This Is How You Lose Her

I couldn't wait for Junot Diaz's new short story collection, This Is How You Lose Her, to come out. I kept hearing so much about it, about him, and the excitement built and built until I didn't think I could stand it. I only had to wait a week to get it from the library, but my impatience made it seem much, much longer.

The funny thing was once I started reading, I couldn't remember why I was salivating over it so much. I adored Diaz's novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but had lukewarm feelings about his first short story collection, Drown. I enjoy Diaz's writing and the honesty that accompanies his prose, but sometimes I find the way his characters talk and/or think about women to be very unpalatable, particularly regarding the character of Yunior, who reappears again and again in Diaz's work. My favorite story in this collection is The Cheater's Guide to Love and I liked its (also the book's) final line, a bittersweet ending.

After I set down the book and had time to reconcile my feelings, I realize that my literary side loved it while my feminist side hated it. In the end my opposing feelings toward it balance one another out and I have rather neutral feelings about This is How You Lose Her. It definitely has both virtues and shortcomings, which makes it a delightfully flawed, accessible read.

The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God

I've been a book club slacker and haven't made it to the last couple meetings. I try to read the books anyway, even if I can't make it to the meetings, but that doesn't always happen. The latest pick, which I'm still not sure if I'll be able to make it for, was Etgar Keret's The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God and Other Stories.

With the exception of the last piece, the stories are all very short and some are much better than others. (I probably liked "Jetlag" and "Good Intentions" the best and I wasn't wild about the longer piece, "Kneller's Happy Campers" about an afterlife for people who committed suicide.) I think there can be a nice punch packed in a short, short story, but as a whole, I think that very short stories (2-4 pages) are extremely limiting and not conducive to much depth of any kind. The cover calls them "warped and wonderful" short stories. I probably wouldn't have used the word "warped" to describe them, but also can't argue with it. It's a short book (130 pages) with a lot of blank pages, so it's a quick read. The book states that Keret is "undoubtedly the most popular writer among Israeli youth" and I can understand the large draw to his work by a younger generation as it's witty and a bit dark, interesting and creative.

Good Bones and Simple Murders

I've been reading a long novel for a couple weeks. It's good enough that I want to keep reading, but slow enough that I keep putting it down. I found Margaret Atwood's Good Bones and Simple Murders at the library and thought it would be perfect to dip into. It is a collection of rather short stories, some are only a page or two. They aren't your typical short stories and are difficult to define. They are extraordinarily inventive though and brimming with Atwood's trademark voice. It may be a bit of a stretch, but I felt the theme linking the stories was they were largely about how we tell stories. She gives the perspective of characters like the Little Red Hen and Gertrude from Hamlet. I loved "There Was Once," which is the voice of two people, one trying to tell a fairytale-like story and the other interrupting about the stereotypes being perpetuated in the tale. I also loved "Happy Endings," which begins: "John and Mary meet. What happens next?" It goes on to look at different possible scenarios. I adore Margaret Atwood and her unmatched wit so I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to her fans. (Though it may not be the best introduction to the uninitiated.)

out of the girls' room and into the night

My temporary inability to commit to a novel was forgotten with Thisbe Nissen's out of the girls' room and into the night. I read Nissen's first novel about ten years ago and her second novel last summer. I like the way she writes-- nothing earth-shattering, but it's good. It seems like she's comfortable with her voice so the writing comes off very natural. I found this collection of short stories used a while back and decided to give it a try when I was in my reading slump. There weren't any stories I didn't like, though there were a couple of two page stories that were lacking and felt unfinished to me. I especially enjoyed "The Mushroom Girl," "Flowers in the Dustbin, Poison in the Human Machine," and "819 Walnut." It wasn't the best short story collection I've read, but I wasn't disappointed either.

Blueprints for Building Better Girls

Elissa's Schappell's Blueprints for Building Better Girls is another book I found via "Book Page." It is a collection of short stories that all feature women in different stages of their lives. I loved how the stories overlapped. For example, a character who was mentioned in passing in one story would later be featured in another set ten years later. Like book ends, the first and last story both feature the same character, narrating her story in first person. I really enjoyed Schappell's prose and the stories she told. My favorites were probably "Elephant" (about two mothers who bond at a park), "The Joy of Cooking" (about a mother fretting about her daughter who has battled anorexia), and "I'm Only Going to Tell You This Once" (about a mother worrying about her son who has fallen hard for a girl that reminds the mother of herself when she was young and about how badly she hurt two men in particular). I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in women's experiences and identity.

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

The only bad thing about reading a really great book is that it is difficult to find something to read after as most books seem flat. After trying and tossing a couple aside, I decided to pick up a collection of short stories.

I had to start a new label for collections of short stories as I tend to shy away from the genre. I have gone so far to say that I hate short stories (with the exception of those by Jhumpa Lahiri and Lorrie Moore). I picked up Maile Meloy's Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It because when I saw Ann Patchett last summer she said Meloy is probably her favorite writer and specifically mentioned this book. I couldn't resist the urge to read the favorite writer of one of my favorite writers.

I have to amend my statement on short stories as I realize how much I love them when they are well written. I enjoyed almost all of the stories (though I wasn't all that crazy about "Agustin") and there were a couple ("Lovely Rita," "Two-Step," and "The Girlfriend") that I especially liked. I will definitely be reading more of Meloy's work in the future and will put this new label to good use. It probably won't be too long before I venture in the genre again.