I think I might have to stop saying things like, “I don’t really like short stories” because the last few books of short stories have been pretty darn good. Then again, not everyone can tell a story like Holly Black… The Poison Eaters was excellent. I don’t think there was a single story that I didn’t like. A couple of them, I LOVED. The story set in the Philippines was perfect. The story about the three sisters, fabulous. Every single one of them – fabulous.
I’m not a big fan of short stories but I loved Bloodchild and other stories. No real surprise since I’m an Octavia Butler fan.
Quick, interesting, nice author’s notes after each story. More authors should include such things.
I did read Oprah’s book selection, Say You’re One of Them. I’m at BlogHer talking about it – and I may or may not be cursing both Oprah and my mother for forcing me to read this.
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Ah Francesca Lia Block…. Blood Roses was not your best but it wasn’t bad either.
I pulled it from the shelf at the library just because I miss Michelle Belle and also to remind me that I never sent her the books that I swore I had bought for her for Christmas… and then couldn’t find.
Short stories about a bunch of girls. Typical Block ie fantasy, dark thoughts, deep feelings. TW couldn’t finish it, which is not surprising.
Every year I look forward to Zandria’s end of year reading list because Zan reads a lot of non-fiction. Every year I scroll through her “read” list and pull a few non-fictions from her list and add them to my “must read” list.
The first for this year is I Was Told There’d Be Cake.
I was ambivalent. Essays can either be excellent or really horrible. I was pretty sure this one wasn’t going to be horrible, I saw too many good reviews. Still, I worried. For about three minutes and then I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the reading.
Thank you, Zan.
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Sassymonkey was right about Let It Snow but not so much right about The Worst Noel. I was pretty darn bored all the way through it – and TW didn’t even bother to read it all.
The only interesting thing I can say about this one is that I’ve decided I really do not like Anne Patchett which is too bad since I really liked Bel Canto. (Did I read the Magician’s Assistant? Have I read Run? Heck, I dunno anymore.)
Thank freaking goodness I am very, very familiar with the work of women like Judy Grahn, Audre Lourde, Adrienne Rich etc etc etc. If I was not familiar with their work, I would still be reading Chloe plus Olivia well into the new year.
800 pages of lesbian lit. Aye yi yi. Text book style lesbian lit. Oy.
This was one hell of a lesbian anthology and if I had it to do all over again, I’d have read an author a day or skipped around a bit based on what my preference of the day might have been. Trying to read it straight through was not a fun experience and reading lesbian lit SHOULD be a fun experience.
By page 500, I was sick of lesbians… sick of masking… sick of the romantic friendship… sick of the man trapped in the womans body… I did not even want to think about the dangerous flowers or the amazons at that point. I just wanted it done. lol
There are some great writers in this anthology, some I’ve never read and a few I’ve never heard of. Great anthology, really. Just don’t try to read it straight through.
Please! No MORE Short Stories! I cannot take it anymore.
When I started Women in their Beds, TW said “Why are you reading THAT?” Ugh. My heart sunk. She had bought the book, after all. She’d read it, after all. Still, I had hope. We don’t always agree on books.
Ugh.
This is the problem with choosing books for a challenge based on something like “choosing some from every color”, lol. This is also what happens when you buy books simply because you like their titles or like their covers. This is also what happens when you buy a book, hate it and leave it on your shelf anyway.
I think that’s going to be my next “challenge” – get rid of the stuff we both really hated (except for that one book that I want to burn… I don’t want anyone to read it so I’m going to keep it here, hidden in the rainbow of books where I can keep an eye on it and make sure nobody else is harmed by reading it.)
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On Tuesday, Prince J said several times — “No more short stories, YAY!” or ” Thank goodness we are finished with short stories!” The boy is not a fan of short stories and I can understand that. Some short stories for kids and teens really really stink. But, some are fantastic.
That sums up how I felt about Black Juice. I loved some of the stories, others I wanted to just sleep through.
The elephants – loved.
Wooden bride – loved.
Yowlinins – loved.
The tar pits – fascinated but not sure I loved it. I’d like to read the book, she should write the short story into a book.
Darn it. I enjoyed the Murder Most Crafty short stories quite a bit but I’m disappointed because I’m dumb.
When I put the book on my From the Stacks challenge list, for some reason I thought it was one of the Maggody Murder Mysteries. Boo! TW has been enjoying that series for ages and I’ve never read one – I was looking forward to FINALLY getting a crack at one of them. Oh well, another time maybe.
Anyway, about these short stories, most of them were pretty good. Some were dumb. Some were good but felt rushed but that’s what happens with some short stories, isn’t it? I had some weird dream about candles last night after finishing the book – probably related to the one about wax being poured down the chick’s nose and throat. Yuk, not a good way to die, ya know?
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