Wonderful collection of short essays and stories
341725
Deirdre Thurston's collection of essays and short stories is a delightful escape for summer reading. A combination of universal themes of friendship, love and loss, guilt and memories overlaid with a strong dose of New Zealand phraseology takes the reader down familiar paths that often end with an unusual twist.

"Love Story," a nostalgic memory of a grandmother, is triggered by an elderly couple who sit next to the narrator in a movie theater. From the way the woman is dressed to the scent of talc, the narrator indulges is a series of memories, often wondering if the woman sitting near her has similar memories.

Painful memories of birthdays past where narrators don't receive recognition or gifts they want. Celebrations of a daughter turning twenty-one. A longing to learn to ride a bike when the narrator thinks she's too old and plump. Each story, each essay is a small gem waiting for you to find and polish it.
4637339
I came to Wallace through his fiction, which I love, but after reading this collection I realized I like his nonfiction even more.

His command of the language, his insight, and his laugh-out-loud wit are all just as much in evidence in his essays, but the essays have the advantage of being more coherent, and shorter.

The title essay, Consider the Lobster, is one of my favorites.  Originally published in Gourmet magazine--amazingly--it describes a lobster festival in Maine in all its comical details before musing about the ethics of cooking and eating the creatures.  Wallace somehow manages to combine hilarity with deep compassion; I found it one of the most persuasive anti-animal cruelty pieces I've ever read, although I don't think Wallace thought of it as that, so much as just musings about the subject he was commissioned to write about.  But when Wallace muses, he often comes up with fascinating angles.

There are other essays in the collection I enjoyed almost as much--one about Updike and his narcissism, for example--and several that I didn't find as interesting.  The long piece about the adult movie industry just didn't do it for me, nor did his lengthy and byzantinely-footnoted essay about a right-wing talk radio host.  Sometimes the level of detail-within-detail just isn't justified for me by the subject matter, but of course, others may find the subjects of those essays more interesting than I did.  But anyone who appreciates well-crafted, thoughtful, and funny prose should find something in the collection that's appealing.  As soon as I finished it, I started his earlier collection, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, which says something about how much I enjoyed this one.
153156
This collection of short stories is a great find and perfect companion. The author's stories include a combination of variety, history, humanity, and intrigue. His characters come to life through dialogue; I found myself experiencing a full range of emotions as I got to know them. As someone with a very demanding job, this was a great book to read as time allowed. The stories have common threads but can be read one at a time, as schedules allow. The author's writing is engaging and captivating and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future!
2516021
I really enjoyed this collection of essays.  It is honest and engaging and told in Chabon's unique and wonderfully decorated style.
223517
Raising Wild has become one of my favorite collections of essays. Branch is funny, thoughtful, and deeply humble about the challenging project of A). raising kids and B). living with humility in the natural world. The book blends the two projects together, and as in the best American essays, the two seemingly disparate things inform each other so much that--voila--new, fresh, and unexpected insights are discovered. Branch's prose has a terrific forward momentum, too. You'll feel like you're walking briskly alongside the author, engaged in a meaningful, hilarious, existential conversation.
3072369
What a delightful collection of essays! A trusted narrator takes you into a world filled with flawed people making their way through the world. As I writer, I learned how essays can work as a form of memoir, by sharing snapshot stories grounded in an author's interpretation of the truth. This book made me laugh aloud and cry with frustration. I could not put this book down. It's characters will linger in my memory. This book is also a great primer for Chicanx/Latinx Studies or for anyone who wants to read about the experiences of Latinx immigrants and their children. I typically pick up books at the library and if they resonate with me, I will add them to my permanent library. I am delighted to have this collection of essays on my shelf.
4298051
I hesitated slightly between 4 and 5 stars, and decided on 5 because the best essays in this collection are very good, although a couple are less good. The essays are primarily about Oregon and the Rogue River country. They're moderately autobiographical and mostly in first-person, rather like most science journalism--although he's a writer rather than a journalist, so these are more like literary journalism.

The collection opens with an essay on collecting agates, maybe the weakest essay but with some interesting info about them. Then comes an essay on the afterlife of salmon, in the context of the Cow Creek Indian band, for whom salmon are ritually important. It gets a bit complicated but this is an entertaining read. Then comes an essay on learning about Anna's Hummingbird, which is fascinating. Then is one on mining gold in the Rogue Rover by suction machine--small scale and not particularly environmentally disruptive; there's a section of the river that's open for mining. The next good essay, "The Carcass Toss," describes disposing of dead salmon from the hatchery (after mating, the fish die; the females are put back in the river for anglers and the males "tossed). Most natural salmon runs have greatly shrunk or become extinct, and when once the dead salmon give a shot of nitrogen and other nutrients into the ecosystem, now the fish are tossed into streams to mimic that natural process--it really is important despite what it may sound like.

There's an essay on chanterelle mushrooms, which doubles as an essay on etymology--word people will like it, other readers might want to skip it. Then there's a long essay titled "Homestead," in which he and his wife spend some months on an inholding in a protected area on the Rogue River, this being a sort of odd fellowship for a writer. This is by far the best essay overall, with excellent description of living there, managing chores (that's part of their duties), being careful of bears and snakes, delighting in the woods and birds and wildlife.

I'd say Neely is a writer to watch.
3009212
My only regret after reading "Toddler" is that it wasn't in print when my son (now a teenager) was small. Reading a few of these short and wonderfully written essays every evening at bedtime, I got the warm fuzzies and was reminded of the growing pains of my own early motherhood. It's all here -- the joyful, in-your-scrapbook moments as well as the jaw-grinding frustrations of living with a tiny pre-school person.

Familiar voices in the book include the likes of Louise Erdrich ("Blue Jay's Dance") and Joyce Maynard, plus countless new writers whose contributions to "Mommy Lit" are worthy of anthologizing. Editor and author Jennifer Margulis has done a marvelous job of collecting stories that will appeal to all new parents, as well as older ones like me who live vicariously through the well-written chronicles of others. I've purchased additional copies of this book to give as shower gifts this spring.
3193885
I enjoyed this collection of essays very much. I also found the included pattern very useful. It's written for a hot-water bottle cozy, but with minor adaptation I turned it into a lovely baby snuggle sacque.
4561940
Auchincloss is a wonderful writer and I highly recommend this collection of short stories of Manhattan's Social Register circle - it is not only charming, but insightful.
3958053
I found this book to be a very entertaining collection of short stories and poems.
2669027
Yes, the short story is alive and well. It is no longer a medium of popular entertainment but it lives on in numerous small literary magazines and anthologies, in devoted readers, and in a rising generation of great new short story writers.

This collection includes a wide range of styles and voices, but all are brilliantly done, accessible and engaging. Many of the newer short story voices are included as well as a few of the old masters, such as Hawthorne and Chekhov. Some of the writers are not afraid to break the rules--there are stories with omniscient point of view and stories that span several decades--but these authors know what they are doing and the stories work--brilliantly. The short stories are grouped into sections based on the life cycle, with short and helpful introductory comments.

The book includes delightful short interviews with three of the authors, which will be especially appealing to the authors among us. The Fiction Gallery is one of the finest collections of short stories I have ever read. I recommend it most highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
2361955
Felice Picano is perhaps one of the most prolific writers on the GLBT literary scene. His work has excelled in the forms of poetry, plays, or written prose - fiction or non. His collection of personal essays True Stories: People and Places from My Past (Chelsea Station Editions - 2011) is a beautifully put together anthology of the various people he's met throughout a fascinating life. In his latest collection, True Stories Too: People and Place from My Past, Picano once again revisits those individuals and special locales that have resonated over the years, and shares a range of emotions associated with each.
  As with the first collection, True Stories Too is a delightful read. The subjects are fascinating, not only as insight to other people and foreign places, but also a (potentially) unintentional look into the author's fascinating life and events that have helped shape him as well. True Stories Too is not only well written, but continues to support the prolific reputation of good writing that we have come to expect from Felice Picano
788352
I've always a lover of travel and a lover of a good story, and this collection of 30+ tales from women writers around the world braids the two together into a sometimes humorous sometimes poignant anthology. From editor Lavinia Spaulding's introduction recounting of when she first identified herself as a a traveler, I was hooked. The stories left me searching my own travel memories as well as yearning to book my next trip.  An excellent and compelling collection to take with you on your next journey or to enjoy bedside.
3334112
This anthology of short stories written by accomplished writers from around the globe is a compilation of the diverse experiences that people face in their daily lives. While the stories tug at the heart, the writing is thoughtful and provocative, the cultural insight rich, and the authors do an incredible job of transporting the reader to the various countries around the globe where these stories are set. I do not typically review books on Amazon, but felt the one review of this book is unjust in that it does not speak to the power of the stories or the immense amount of intercultural learning one gets out of reading this text.

As a professor of intercultural and comparative education, I plan to use this anthology in future courses as it speaks to realities that many people within Western cultures are not aware of or have not had exposure to. The stories are targeted and each chapter could serve as a basis for a different topic such as immigration and migration, gender and women's issues, poverty and inequality, and development.

Anyone who enjoys the writing of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jhumpa Lahiri will get a great deal out of this selection of short stories by them and other writers.
2135698
I was impressed by the variety of essays in this book.

Yes I have a soft spot for things that mention the Pacific Northwest but the breadth of topics covered from schizophrenia to jobs to death really blew me away. There was little transition between essays that often read like stories but I think it worked really well.

It's an enjoyable read that gets to some dark and heavy places but is so worth it.
607068
What a marvelous collection of short stories! I enjoyed the review on Literary Fiction Book Review and decided I wanted to read this for myself. The writing is superb, the characters incredibly well articulated and the plot beautifully managed in a short space of time. Each story is highly unique and incredibly engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed each story and look forward to this author's next publication.