barbara the slut and other people. lauren holmes. (321)

i decided to read barbara the slut and other people, after seeing it all over instagram. also, i loved that the cover had slut in hot pink sprayed painted across it.  it looked a feminist manifesto!  and since i judge books by a cover, i had high expectations, and sadly this collection of short stories did not meet them.

i hate to be mean because holmes is a published writer and i am just some no name reader, but these stories didn't move me like the blurbs on the books claimed would happen.  i felt as if i was part of some writers workshop (see:  hbo girls season four). in fact, it was as if holmes was hannah, basically just writing her life.  don't get me wrong, i mean i get that all authors use their life as a basis for the life, but at least there seems to be some value other than just the story.  

barbara the slut read like that one co-worker's random life stories, it was interesting to her, but you are wondering as you listen to the recounting, so what is the point of this story?!??  and i know this sounds harsh, but i just felt the stories lacked any real depth.  it really felt like she just took incidents from her life and turned them into stories, which is fine, but just wasn't for me.  i mean i have always thought of doing just that but always figured the stories that no one else would find them interesting. 

i should also say that not all the stories are horrible, i did enjoy two of them.  the title story "barbara the slut" should be required reading for high school girls, though maybe edit out barbara's logic about sleeping with a guy only once to have to not deal with trust issues.  i should add that was a huge issue i had with the story, barbara was intelligent and a compassionate kid (she was helpful with her autistic brother), yet her logic about sex was horrible.  anyway, i did appreciate its lesson on slut shaming, mean girls need to read this and realize they need to stop hating on other girls.  and why can't they get that boys lie?!?! anyway, i felt bad for barbara, but luckily she was heading to college, so wouldn't have to deal with any of the pettiness of high school, though i hope she learned that sex with trust is a real thing.

another story, i was surprised that i really enjoyed was "my humans".  i was surprised, because i do not like dogs, but i loved reading a story from the perspective of a dog.  i thought that was very clever.  way to go, holmes.  i also loved that the dog discovered the cheating first, when jenna came home smelling different.  i have to add once a cheater, always a cheater.

a couple of other thoughts, that kid in "jerks" was a real jerk.  i also hate parents that are in denial about their kids being horrible.  though the mother in that story was a jerk, so its only logical that she was raising one.  i can add another horrible parent was the mom in  "i will crawl to raleigh if i have to", trying to blame her child's stealing on another kid.  really?  i have to add most of these stories had bad mothers, wonder what holmes is trying to say there?

last but not least, i know i should have been all about "desert hearts", a lawyer that gives up the corporate world to work in a sex shop posing as lesbian.  i mean i guess it could have been cool, but really i think the world has revolved enough that straight people can work in LGBT sex shops without it being an issue.  i mean, this would have been a cool story if it was like the early 90s.

i hate to be a hater, but though enjoyable this book wasn't as exciting as it's front cover claimed it would be.

fortune smiles. adam johnson. (312)

i picked up fortune smiles after seeing it on carrie brownstein's instagram and i am glad i did.  it's a wonderful collection of short stories, all heartwrenching yet witty.  i had never heard of johnson prior to this, even though he is a pulitzer winner. however, i now plan on reading his pulitzer-prize winning novel, the orphan master's son. this collection was that good.

johnson is an excellent storyteller, and though each story was enjoyable, my favorites were "interesting facts", "nirvana", and "dark meadows".

"interesting facts" was interesting because i wasn't sure if it was autobiographical. the novel opened with the narrator had a book reading and being obsessed with breast.  initially, you assume he was some pervert, but it turns out she was a woman that had lost her breast to breast cancer.  it is then revealed that the narrator's husband was a pulitzer prize winner for a novel about north korea, just like adam johnson! i had to google to see whether or not his wife battled cancer, it turned out she did.  i also discovered that johnson explained in an interview that this story was a "violation of his family".  and knowing that his wife had cancer made this story a little difficult to read.  the reason being that it's a little sixth sense, in the way that you realize that the narrator was a ghost. if written by johnson's wife, it would be a sad yet beautiful story that demonstrates the stress and worries a mother has when her death comes earlier than expected in the form of a disease like cancer.  however, written by johnson himself, it seems awkward for him to imagine her dead and then as a ghosts however, one can see it as an exercise in which he deals with the possibility of losing his wife and how he would move on yet still remain loyal to her.  a beautifully written story and my favorite of the collection.

in "interesting facts", the wife was angry because her husband stole a character that he helped developed for her novel and turned him into the narrator for his own story, "dark meadows". "dark meadows" was another favorite of mine, disturbing yet intriguing.  "dark meadows" was about mr. roses who reminded me of dexter.  he was filled with knowledge of computers and child pornography. though he didn't out right destroy sexual predators, he did help a cop figure out a way to track down people that downloaded child pornography.  he also helped protected his neighbors, two young girls, from a peeping tom, though he also had to safe them from himself.  though creepy, at his very essence, mr. roses was not a bad guy, he too was a victim, raped as a child by his sea scouts leader.  his child

pornography obsession fueled by the need to find photos that his rapist took of him.  this story was disturbing yet hopeful, kind of like watching an episode of law and order: svu, you are exposed to sick and twisted crimes, yet are hopeful that these people will be stopped.  mr. roses was a tragic character that i hope got help and started using his computer skills to help

stop child pornography.

in "dark meadows", there was this great moment when the girls sing themselves a lullaby, though mr. roses did not recognize it initially, i saw it was nirvana's "where did you sleep last night?"  this was kurt's second appearance, in this collection, his first came in the story, "nirvana".  in this story, a man's wife was suffering from guillain-barré syndrome, which left her bed ridden and immobile.  the only comfort she found was listening to nirvana and smoking pot.  the husband was plagued by a promise he made to help her commit suicide when it all got too much.  to help him cope worn this, he created an app, he reconstructed a recently assassinated president that could converse with him and was a hologram via an iprojector.  the hologram was able to talk via a library of speeches and interviews.  he then decided to create one of kurt cobain for his wife.  this technology seemed like the opening of pandora's box, though comforting, it would do more harm, in the long run. it's seems amazing to think that our love could live forever, but it's not really them, just the shell of the person they once were.  we are currently a society obsessed with recording our lives, but the technology in this story is too extreme for me.

all in all, this collection of stories was great and i highly recommend it.  and i definitely plan on reading more books recommended by carrie brownstein.

in the country. mia alvar. (310)

i was excited when i learned of in the country, because mia alvar is filipino and being filipino myself, i had to read her book.  i must add that though racially i am filipino, culturally i am more american, a blend of all of the cultures in my household and that i interacted with growing up.  due to this, i was not anticipating identifying completely with alvar's characters but being able to recognize their experience.

reading this collection of short stories, i realized that i know nothing about filipino history.  as i read "old boy" and "in the country", i was confused by the politics i read.  i know that the philippines like most southeast asian countries had a dictatorship, however, i don't know who it was? was it marcos? i only know imelda because of her shoes and that david bryne album.  i really need to study up on this.  i would like to think that i will study of the history of the philippines but i probably won't.  i have some much to read already, and not the biggest fan of non-fiction, but will try.  

it would have be nice to know if the senator in "old girl" and "in the country" was based on an actual person.  i enjoyed both stories though i really did not like the senator, reading about his arrogant ways and his selfless wife, i was frustrated as i read. i also expected him to die in a bombing since he was set to run the boston marathon, but this was a different time.

before i go on, i have to admit that filipino males are not protrayed in the greatest light in these stories, which unfortunately i can related to.  my father is filipino, and though without him i would not be here, he was a dead best dad.  furthermore, he too had a shadow family, a term i learned of in a story of the same name. the story goes that my dad wanted to marry my mom when she was pregnant with me, yet, i have a half sister that is about a year younger than me, so you do the math.  in the stories, the men are greedy, dominate, drive by sex, lazy, and selfish.  yet oddly enough, and sadly, the women in the stories allow them to be as such.  i haven't read any of the author's interviews, but i wonder if this was intended.

another thing that this collection covered was filipinos working in the middle east.  i learned of this a couple years ago, when i worked for a saudi family that had two filipino nannies.  they, of course, took a liking to me, because i was filipino as well and once shared adobo with me.  reading this collection, it was interesting to see how long this has been occurring. it was also interesting to see why filipinos are nurses, i didn't know that the government had called for them to be educated as such to help supply the world with nurses!

so my favorite stories were "in the country", i think it demonstrated how corrupt the government was and how it crushed the spirit of the people

of the phillippines.  i sympathized with the milagros and it was sad to see how her son's life ended.

"the miracle worker" was enjoyable story because it demonstrated that though you can everything money can by, the most valuable thing is hope.  it was also disheartening to read about what the maid did to the baby.

i really liked old girl in "old girl", though her husband was a monster.  i was happy that she became president in "in the country".

overall, this collection of short stories demonstrated just how hardworking and how truly dedicated the women of the phillippines are.  they support and care for the men and as we see help keep the country great. 

i hope to read more form alvar in the future and am happy there is a female filipino writer, i can read!

the wilds. julia elliot. (263)

i actually had no idea what i was checking out when i picked up julia elloitt's the wilds, because it was a blind date book!  i had seen on the brooklyn library's instagram that they did a blind date books for valentine's day and shared it on my facebook.  my friend rovia told me that the beale library in bakersfield was doing it as well and of course i went to check it out.

so cute right.  i ended up picking up this book, because it was genre-bending!

and i wish the library had an actual dating service because i ended up enjoying this book.  it's a collection of short stories that are dark and weird, kind of southern gothic meets sci-fi, but very interesting!

my favorite stories were:

"the rapture", the story of two popular girls whose parents (in an attempt to teach them a lesson on life) forced them to spend the night for a classmate's birthday party.  the classmate was at the bottom of the social ladder and family was odd, an overly religious mother, a gay uncle who used to be a model, and grandmother who was religious but also

some sort of witch.  their stay was filled with creepiness and ended with a blondie reference (the story is called "the rapture.")

"LIMBs" it's a beautiful store with some amazing technology from the future.  a woman, elise mood, is in a nursing home, where she received treatment to help stimulate her memory which she is losing to alzheimer's.  in addition to this, elise was also given "leg intuitive motion bionics" or limbs to help her walk around.     while walking around the facility, an old flame ran into her.  initially, she did not remember him but then things to start to come back, as does memories of her husband.  elise and her husband had a rough life due to an injury he had and though he did cheat on him.  in the end, elise realized her husband was in the nursing home too and one day she escaped the home with him. 

"jaws" was a sad story of having to cope with our parents aging.  it's tough realizing the people that cared for you all your life will start to grow old and need your help.

"organisms" was educational for me.  i learned about a parasite that acts as the tongue of a fish (without the fish knowing) and how it lives by eating the food the fish catches.  it's actually quite scary how parasite organisms take over a body.  this story was like an episode of "the twilight zone" and would make an excellent movie! it was the story of three people but centered around an organism that is taking over the bodies of teens, the side effects are an appetite for junk food and long periods of electronic stimulation (ie video games and tv) sounds just like being a teen right?  which makes it even more difficult

to stop!

"the love machine" reminded me of  "her" and bj novak's short story, "sophia", was about a machine that loves.  it's funny when love is broken down to science, it's interesting to see our behaviors when it comes to love is framed by our knowledge and stimuli around us.

all of the stories are interesting and wierd and dark.  "feral" was about wild dogs that plague a town and a woman falling for a wild dogs expert. "the wilds"

was about a young girl that turns wild like a werewolf with a neighborhood boy. "regeneration at mukti" was about a resort where people go to cleanse their bodies and souls by having all of the horrible negativity and evils in their soul become manifested on their skin as warts and sores, etc. "caveman diet" poked fun at all or these trends to get back to some normal way of life by returning to primitive means.  "end of the world" was about a band getting back together and a woman getting closure from an old relationship.

all in all, a great collection of short stories and i can't wait for my blind date next year!!!

mr. fox. helen oyeyemi. (249)

i decided to pick up helen oyeyemi's mr. fox after it was listed on a flavorpill post about the 50 best fabulist books everyone should read.  flavorpill described it as a "a wandering, meta fairy tale about creativity, inspiration, and the fact that when you chop somebody’s head off in real life, they don’t actually become a prince."  fairy tales and head choppings!  i'm in.

the premise for the book was intriguing, one day mr. fox, an author with a tendencies to kill the females in his works, is invited to play a literary game with his muse, mary.  mary, a voice he created during the war to keep his morale up has evolved into a person.  they take turns creating stories for each other, her goal to have mr. fox fall in love with her and vice versa.  everything is fun and games until mr. fox's real life wife, daphne begins to get involved.

it sounds like a fun read, but i felt lacked execution.  perhaps i focused too much on looking for mr. fox, mary, and daphne in the stories which resulted in my displeasure.  i just did not see any cohesion that constitute it as a novel.  instead,a i think mr. fox would have worked better as a collection of short stories in which the lead characters shared the same name.  there is no denying that oyeyemi is an amazing writer.  i absolutely loved the chapter, "my daughter the racist" which centered around a mother and daughter in a war-torn, taliban-terrorized village in the middle east befriend an american solider much to the outrage of the village.  it's a beautiful story about human connection and tolerance.  i have also i discovered upon googling (to find the actual setting of the book) that it won the BBC national short story award, which is great, but makes me wonder how it fits into the novel.  it really didn't, but it does not make it a bad story, just a bad novel.

the other chapter that i enjoyed was "the training at madame de silentio's" which was the story of two boys, charles wolf and charlie wulf.  they were too mischievous boys that were sent to an academy that which was like a finishing school, turning boys into world-class husbands for wealthy wives.   they were taught things such as: "strong handshakes, silence, rudimentary car mechanics, how to mow the lawn, explosive displays of authority, sports and nutrition against impotence"  i personally enjoy the role reversals here.  

the other chapters though entertaining and well-written did not come together for an outstanding overall novel.  there is no denying oyeyemi's talent, but mr. fox is not her best work.

the lottery and other stories. shirley jackson. (216)

after reading we always lived in the castle, i decided to check out shirley jackson's other works.  i am too chicken shit to read the house on haunting hill, so instead decided to check out her short story, "the lottery".  wikipedia claimed it as "one of the most famous short stories in American literature", so i decided to give it a read.  it did take me a while to build up the courage to read it.  though we always lived in the castle was more creepy and demented then outright scary, i was still weary of reading "the lottery". i wasn't sure what to expect.

if you have never read "the lottery", stop right here and go read it.  it won't take you long.  also stop here if you plan on reading it because a there are spoilers.

***spoilers****

turns out, i was worried for nothing.  "the lottery" though demented did not scare me like i had anticipated.  in fact, it was a little lackluster, though i blame the hunger games for my lack of shock, i knew someone was going to die.  "the lottery" is the story of a lottery; every year, in order to reap a good harvest of corn, the village, as all villages do, gather for the lottery.  there was talk among the villagers that some villages had stopped it, but their talk disapproved of the breaking of tradition.  the whole village gathered and all the heads of the family, picked a piece of paper from a black box (sounds like the katniss and her story, right?).  the family with the black dot must then picked again.  then the family member with the black dot is  . . . stoned to death.  shocking and demented, but not that surprising since in the hunger games someone is elected to die to benefit the collective.  i wonder if collins was inspired by "the lottery", i mean as i read, i felt like i was reading the hunger games.  but jackson, the better writer, had the guts to kill the person, sending home the message of how dangerous outdated traditions can be.  i feel like every analysis that i read about jackson's "the lottery" and her a handful of other short stories, mentioned her call against conformity, and that is clearly seen in this story.  a great story, and i think i would have found it absolutely brilliant, if my mind had not been tainted by the hunger games first.

i ended up reading the rest of the stories in this collection (it is the year of the short story).  i was expecting them to be dark and scary like ghost stories, but they really weren't.  i mean they were dark, jackson is american gothic (though i am not truly sure of what is meant by the term because i never finished flannery o'connor's collection of short stories).  they were enjoyable reads and many contained very important morals.

one of the darker ones i enjoyed was "the daemon lover", which i discovered takes its name from scottish ballad about a man james harris (the name harris also appears in alot of stories, i am not sure why, i almost felt like jackson's stories came from the same universe, think pixar universe, and so harris' mentioned were all the same person!) who lures a lover away from her family and husband.  in the short story, a woman, was waiting for her lover, jamie or james harris.  they are to be married that day but he never shows up.  she then went on a wild goose chase after him.  at first, you feel bad for her because she can not find him, but then you start to question if she is sane.  she ended up outside of an apartment where she hears voices.  it is then shared that she returns to the apartment every day trying to find him.  so yes in fact, she was crazy.

another i loved was "charles". i knew the ending before i read it, simply from having to deal with kids all the time.  the story is told from the perspective of a mother, whose son has just started kindergarten.  the son came home every day with outrageous stories of a little boy, charles.  charles was constantly in trouble.  in the end, the mother learned from the teacher that there is no charles!!  i really wish that this short story could be included in parent handbooks for every school year! so many times parents do not realize that their kids are the troublemakers.

"the seven types of ambiguity" broke my heart, since i am a book lover.  the setting of a story is a bookstore.  there was a very well-educated and well-read young man that wanted to purchase a beautiful copy of "the seven types of ambiguity."  on this visit, a man, who was less educated but rich came into the store to purchase books to start reading since he never had a chance to before.  the young man recommended books to him.  the young man left the store, and at the register, the rich man inquires about the book he was looking at.  i hoped he was purchasing it for the young man but he purchased it for himself!  i was so upset at the owner for allowing him to buy it, it was obvious the young man loved the book and the rich man was buying it for vanity purposes.  it broke my heart.  demonstrating how some seek knowledge for personal betterment and others for vanity sake's.  another story that shared this same lesson was "afternoon in linen", in which a grandmother attempted to brag about how well rounded and educated her granddaughter, was embarrassed when her granddaughter confessed to copying a poem out of a book.

the other two stories that i enjoyed touched upon racial prejudice.  the first, "after you, my dear alphonse",  was the story of a little boy johnny that brought home his friend boyd for lunch.  boyd was black and johnny's mother though trying to be kind, was extremely ignorant and racist.  she inquired about boyd's family but all of her questions are based on black stereotypes.  she asked if his father worked, he did.  she assumed he was a factory worker, but he was a foreman.  she questioned his mother not working, but then her son johnny pointed out that she didn't either!  her questions continued in this vein, she assumed he had many brothers and sister and that his family was poor.  she went so far as to try to send used clothes home with him.  boyd politely explained that he did not need them, johnny's mother then became upset for her refusing his charity.  thankfully, the boys saw her actions as being a bit "screwy".  there are two lesson in this story, one that we should believe stereotypes and secondly, our charity should be for the benefit of the individual, it should not be a means for the giver to the feel superior for helping others.

the other story "flower garden", was the story of a woman, mrs. winnings and the neighbor that moved into a house she loved.  mrs. winnings came from a well-to-do family that i would describe as uppity but a better term would be traditional.  at first, she was desperate to be the new neighbors' friend.  but after an incident in which winning's and the neighbor's son harassed a half-black child, their friendship diminishes.  the neighbor apologized for the her son's behavior and asked the boy to help her in his garden.  the boy's father did not allow him but he began to work in the garden.  since he was black, the neighbors began to shun the new neighbor when at first they were so kind to her.  the most disappointing was mrs. winnings, who completely abandoned the new neighbor due to tradition and the community's discrimination against blacks.  the story ended sadly with the new neighbor wanting to move.  though i guess to really understand how racism can destroy lives, lives must be destroyed.  again in this story, we see the destructive nature of conformity, especially in relation to upholding traditions of racism and discrimination.

these are the stories that i enjoyed the most.  not all of them are winners, for example, i was bored with "elizabeth"(though i know how it is to wake up one day and wonder how you ended up where you are in life, see: mid-life crisis), "the renegade", and "pillar of salt" (though i think this was to demonstrate how destructive new york can be.)

a good collection, i would pick it up for the stories that i mentioned and pass over the rest.

the other language. francesca marciano. (209)

flavorpill listed the other language as a must read for april.  i thought the cover was cute and the jhumpa lahiri blurb was a positive sign so i decided to check it out.

and glad i did, you can judge a book by a cover!  it's a wonderful collection of short stories that made me want to travel to italy. well more like buy a home in an old italian village like "the presence of men".

like other collections i have read and loved this year, every story felt complete like a collection of mini novels.  they reminded me of lahiri's short stories as well.

my absolute favorite was "quantum theory".  it's the story of two people that keep on randomly running into each other.  and it's random, the last time they met is in new york.  they originally met at a party, but things didn't head anywhere.  however, that first encounter is often looked upon with regret based upon their chemistry when they randomly run into each other.  it's a beautiful story of what could have been, though in the end they recognize all that they do have and find the most value in that.  they also learn that "love has many faces."

i also enjoyed "chanel". the story of an up-and-coming film director that decided on a whim to buy a chanel dress for an awards ceremony she was attending.  however, the ceremony was not televised so she did not wear the dress and sadly her career never took off.  the dress sat in her closet, as a reminder of what she never achieved in life.  in the end, she was going to sell but ended up saving it as a reminder of all the greatness she had in life:

perhaps she just needed to remind herself more often how that gold was still floating above her head, it's minuscule particles visible only when pierced by a certain light

i loved the ending of the title story, "the other language". after reading about summers spent in greece and meeting up with long-lost friends, in the end it was simply a wife recanting her childhood to her husband.  she returning to her memories yet only telling him parts she wanted to reveal.  the other language was a coming-of-age story in which emma, the main character, learned that life is not always as it appears and that not all that glitters is gold.  after the death of her mother, her father took her and her siblings to a small greek village where they recover and have an enjoyable summer, intrigued by the people they encounter.  emma, after being unable to communicate with two english boys, learn english when she returned to rome. on the next trip, the return back to greece wanting to create their previous summer, but sadly it is not the same.  emma, in fact, lost her virginity to one of the english boys (sadly not the one she liked and it was more like rape) but the worse was discovering that her mother had committed suicide.  its tough lesson knowing that the world can be a source of suffering versus pleasure.  though tragic she did see the silver lining that her learning english helped her end up where she was today.  

i loved "the italian system" and would read it in the book within the story was a real book.  i wonder if marciano toyed with the idea of actually writing it but then just used it in this short story instead.  it's the story of a woman that is writing about how italians stay so chic only to return to italy to see how americanized it is.  boo americanization!  (this is my sediment not the author's.)

all the story are truly wonderful.  and this is an excellent collection of short stories.  and the cover would make any bookshelf look cute! (i have actually debated buying it just to display on a bookshelf.  lol)

innocent eréndira and other stories. gabriel garcía márquez.

as i have mentioned before in this blog,  gabriel garcía márquez's one hundred years of solitude is one of my all-time favorite books.  when he passed away on may 17, i was sadden, and then next day on a visit to strand bookstore (i was in nyc) i purchased innocent eréndira and other stories in honor of him. it was in a book tote that i purchased and so kind of forgot about it, but i came across it and decided to finally read it.

i have mixed feelings about this collection of short stories.  the first three stories, i absolutely adored, but the rest of the stories bored me a bit.  his writing was not poor in the later, i did not find the topics interesting or compelling.

so lets start with the good.  the first three stories, "innocent eréndira and her heartless grandmother", "the sea of lost time" and "death constant beyond love" were written in 1972, 1961, and 1970 respectively.  they were written around one hundred years and contained that mythical, magical realism that caused me to fall in love with garcía márquez's work.  growing up, i went through a period in which i loved greek mythology, and this is soft spot for myths is why i  love garcía márquez's work.  one hundred years  and these stories remind me of myths, they are filled magical seas and lands, individuals with special talents and gifts, and the crossing between the dreamworld and reality.  i quickly become lost in these stories, caught up in their magic. 

the title story,  innocent eréndira and her heartless grandmother is the story of eréndira, a young girl who was a slave to her grandmother and as the title states, she was heartless.  poor eréndira, worked all day and night taking care of fat grandmother, and one evening, her wind of misfortune, caused their mansion to burn down.  since eréndira caused the fire, she had to pay her grandmother back.  i hate to be such a prude but i was shocked by how eréndira earned her money.  her grandmother turned her into  a whore, she sold her body! i know i was so shocked to read that!  eréndira did fall in love with a magical young man, and he saved her on his second attempt.  but they do not end up together, which i found disappointing but i think in order to escape her misfortune she had to escape everything.

"the sea of lost time", i enjoyed as well, specifically the actual sea, which held a village and the dead, including the most beautiful woman in the world, old jacob's dead wife.  the sex in this story shocked me too, there was a prostitute that slept with 100 at $5 a piece.  but i did enjoy tobias and his wife sex life being described as doing it as earthworms and rabbits.  lol.   i liked "death constant beyond love" for it's ending, though again my inner prude was shocked that a father gave up his daughter like that.  enjoyable tales though my inner prude blushed as i read.

after those three stories, i began to lose interest in the collection.  his stories from the 40's and 50's were not for me.  i didn't enjoy the topic of death.  i understand, as a child, i was always frightened of death because i imagined that i would be conscious of the world around me.  this fear would keep me up at night.  it was though garcía márquez's stories from this time was his confrontation of this fear.  each story is told from a spirit/ghost/energy's perspective that has died.  they were well-written, but the subject matter didn't interest me.  "eva is inside her cat" was just bizarre, why didn't she just return to the cat, reincarnation is better than nothing.  though i must admit that they were not all bad, i did enjoy "eyes of a blue dog", the story of lovers that meet in their dreams but can not remember the next day so they can meet in real life.  i also liked "someone has been disarranging these roses", this spirit was fine with his death and simply wanted to put roses on his grave.  all the other stories were good because they were written by garcía márquez but they did not remind me why i love his work.

check out this collection of stories, and i won't judge you if you only read the first three.

the unamericans. molly antopol. (198)

i first heard of the unamericans from my friend, lisa.  molly antopol is her friend's daughter, and lisa attended a book party for it.  then, i saw it listed on flavorrpill, so i decided to check it out.

as i mentioned before, 2014 has become the year of the short story for me and i can honestly say this is the best collection of short stories, i have read this year.  yes, i dare say, even better than lorrie moore, well bark, on par with self-help.  in fact, as i read, i had the same feelings of awe and love as i did when i read jhumpa lahiri's interpreter of maladies.  i, became invested in every single story, and each story felt complete.  i read somewhere that each story felt like a novel and that is an excellent description of the unamericans (sorry i feel bad for plagiarizing someone, but i honestly don't know where i read that, but i am letting you know it was not my original thought.)  but this collection was truly great, it will definitely be in the top 5 (it's currently in the top 3) greatest books i have read this year.

surprisingly i enjoyed every story in this collections.  usually, there is one that is awkward and you wonder why it was included, or one that ended too abruptly, or took an odd turned that ruined the story, but this was not the case.  every story was extremely well-written, as i mentioned before, i became invested in every character and their stories.

though there was not a bad story, i will admit that the opening to "retrospective", the final story, worried me.  i thought i was going to become bored, but luckily eva's daughter played a small role.  by the end, with the mention of eva's smile in her paintings, i knew this tale had a tragic ending.    

but again every story was enjoyable in their own way and i as i looked through to find my favorites, i want to list them all.  but i will narrow it down.  highlights for me were "my grandmother tells me this story", "the quietest man", and "the unknown soldier".

"my grandmother tells me this story" is exactly that a story told by a grandmother to a granddaughter that is meddling in things she is too young to be worried about.  the grandmother shared about how she escaped from a uniform factory in nazi-occupied poland and met a young boy who would become the young girl's grandfather.  the grandfather was the leader of a gang of boys, yiddish underground, and though they derail trains and steal, he has a moral compass and only took what was needed.  i do not want to give too much away, but in an attempt to prove herself, the grandmother does something that she regrets and that will haunt her forever.  it is a sad, tale but the one of the boundaries that humans were pushed to during the holocaust.

"the quietest man" is the story of a young playwright and her father.  the father was nervous because his daughter wrote a play about their family and since he was absent during her childhood, he was worried that it will reveal him as a deadbeat dad.  he did not want to be ridicule though he knew that it would be a true portrayal.  however, in the end it was revealed that the daughter's play is actually in tribute to him.  he was part of an anti-government movement in prague and he and her mother along with two others published a journal.  when he was called in for questioning, he did not reveal anyone's name thus earning the nickname "the quietest man."  his daughter hoping to make herself a part of this important event, asked him if she was there during the meetings of those in charge of the journal.  sadly, he lies to her, which broke my heart and just demonstrated what a horrible father he was.  ironically he should have just kept quiet.

"the unknown soldier" is the story of an actor that was blacklisted and served time during the mccarthy era.  he is fresh out of prison and wanting to reconnect with his son.  i won't go into too much detail (i feel like i did on that last one and i really want people to read this collection.)

i can't stress enough that this is the best collection of short stories i read this year.  antopol was national book foundation's 5 under 35 honoree.  she is very deserving of this title and i look forward to seeing more from her.

the fun parts: stories. sam lipsyte (195)

this cover is too dark for a good picture. i'm sorry.  i picked up sam lipsyte's the fun parts because bj novak endorsed it on his instagram.  though i am heartbroken that he no longer follows me on there, i will continue to read the books that he recommends via it.  

i hadn't heard of lipyste prior to bj's post, but i learned from the front cover that he is a writer for time magazine and has written for the new yorker, the paris review and playboy.  a nice variety and make sense because his work is witty and very tongue-in-cheek.

the stories were very interesting and twisted.  i enjoyed "deniers", the story of a daughter of a holocaust survivor that wanted to connect with her father who refused to tell her about it.  in the end, she ended up dating an ex-nazi, in an attempt to help reform him. i enjoyed the premise of "the republic of empathy", it demonstrated six degrees of separation, how we are linked in life, though i didn't get the ending.  or maybe i just wasn't intelligent enough, maybe it's supposed to be that all humans are connected but in the end it doesn't save mankind, it just an odd series of coincidences.  so that story was actually very deep as well.  i liked the idea of the male doula and imagined morgan from the mindy project as the doulo.  i also enjoyed snacks and exploration of how shitty it is to be fat.  also it demonstrated of how violence and hate is really just self-hate.  

the rest of the stories were well written but not my cup of tea.  lipstye is a great writer as demonstrated by the list of publications he worked for.  i enjoyed his references post pop culture and literary.  my favorite one was from "the republic of empathy", "she has nice, soft-looking hair, which is a tell-me-about-the-rabbits-george thing to say, but what can you do?"  lol.  well played!

enjoyable read, didn't completely wow me, but since this is the year of the short story, glad that i read these.

bark: stories. lorrie moore. (191)

bark is the third book i have read by lorrie moore for my personal goal of reading all of her books.  it is also moore's most recent book.  and though i am not familiar with her entire catalog, so far this is my least favorite.  i didn't enjoy this collection of short stories as much as i did self-help and birds of america.  the stories are melancholy, but then again my favorite story in birds was, so i am also going to blame it on age.  moore's characters are divorced or in trial separations, or struggling to connect to their teenage kids or connecting too well.  i couldn't relate to them because i haven't been through their life experiences (btw, i need to google but with all of the divorcees in this book, i wonder if moore went through one.)  though i must admit that that wasn't the complete problem for the most part i felt that moore's witty that i enjoyed in her previous works was missing in this one.

i will give her kudos for the clever title.  bark, a multiple meaning word, is utilized in every story somehow.  my favorite use of bark was in the last story, thank you for having me, in which it is explained that the bark of the brain (which does look like bark) is grey but the inside is white.  i never knew that the outside of layer of the brain was called bark! 

of all the stores, i enjoyed "the juniper tree" the most.  it is the story of woman who does not visit her friend, robin, on the eve of robin's death.  i was disappointed with that character for not going, it was extremely selfish of her to not put forth the effort.  as result of her not seeing robrin before she died, she then has a dream in which she is reunited with robin's ghost.  an obvious display of her needing to settle her conscience.  the exchange with the robin's ghost and the friends was odd.  however, what stood out for me was the story at the end.  the woman shared how she visited robin at her home one day and when she left, robin smashed her own face into a pie.  robin explained "i always wanted to do that, and now i have."  i admired robin for that, you have to do what you want in life regardless of how silly or messy it might be.  better to live than to regret.  this story is also dedicated to nietzchka keene, who i hope did the pie thing in real life.

and i guess the overarching theme of bark is regret.  all of the characters are dealing with some form of regret and guilt.  and i guess moore wants us to know that is tarnishes the soul, which explains why i found these stories depressing.   one of moore's characters addressed regret directly in the story, "subject to search". the story is a conversation between a spy and his lover before he leaves for a mission.  i didn't find the story particularly interesting but there was a great quote in the flashback at the end of the story.  at a christmas party when the spy and his lover were still with their spouses (actually they might still be with them), the woman tells the spy "unless you have a life of great importance . . . regrets are stupid, crumpled-up tickets that has already left town."  and i think this is the heart of this collection.  we are to see the errors of the characters and their regrets and learn to not regret and to move out.  all of these individuals are stuck somehow and holding onto something that can now never be realized and instead of moving on, they simply stay wallowing in their regret.  though i should clarify that i think moore wants us to regret what we never did not regret what we have done.  we should hit ourself with the pie and regret, not regret that we never hit ourself with a pie.  actually maybe instead of a divorce, moore just went through a mid-life crisis like the gentleman in the first story.

in this light, i appreciate the life lesson that moore is expressing but at the end of the day, i just wasn't entertained by her stories.  

other than the brain bark, the circus/regret quotes, the only other entertainment i found was in foes, the exchange between the elderly couple in the story: 

"let's make a dash for it now!"

"let's scream 'fire!'"

"let's fake heart attacks!"

"do you have any pot?"

"we flew here--remember? i wouldn't bring pot on an airplane."

"we're losing our sense of adventure. in all things."

"this is an adventure!"

"you see, that's what i mean."

how great is that?  that is the moore wit i love but was absent in this book.  i mean maybe i will read it in 15 years and i will be in tears but right now, it wasn't for me.  but i will take the pie lesson to heart and do what i always want to do.

oh and ps i was totally grossed about by the mom and son in debarking.  ewwwwww.

birds of america. lorrie moore. (188)

after reading lorrie moore's self-help earlier this year, i decided to read the rest of her works.  i then saw that bj novak mentioned birds of america in an interview, so decided to start there for my next read.  and yes bj novak aka @picturesoftext totally liked my picture on instagram (he follows me!)

i must admit that birds of america did not wow me right off the bat like i had expected.  i was really wow-ed by self-help, and though the writing is great but spoke to me.  

i valued the mother-daughter dynamic of which is more than i can say about some people, i allowed me to step back and see my mother as a person versus an annoyance.  that sounds harsh but it is true, we are often overwhelmed by our parents that we forget that they are human too with fears and needs.  we, children are so selfish assuming that they are their simply to provide for us since that is the role they have had since birth, we never think of their life before their title as mother.  

i enjoyed the raccoon story of dance in america:

"we have raccoons sometimes in our chimney," explains simone . . . "and once we tried to smoke them out.  we lit a fire, knowing they were there, but we hoped that the smoke would cause them to scurry out the top and never come back.  instead, they caught on fire and came crashing down into our living room, all charred and in flames and running madly around until they dropped dead." simone swallows some wine. "love affairs are like that," she says.  "they are all like that."

so true about love affairs, sometimes people tell us they don't want us and yet we go crashing full head into heartache and rejection.  i am usually the raccoon, professing my love that someone doesn't want, but still tries to pursue them and ending up killing my heart.

i adored the introduction to community life because up until high school, i would mispronounce library.

"when olena was a little girl, she had called them lie-berries--a fibbing fruit, a story store--and now she had a job in one."  and how cute, a story store!  i also enjoyed the tom swifties (which i had never heard of prior to this story) that olena and her co-workers came up with:

"i have to go to the hardware store, he said wrenchingly."

"would you like a soda? he asked spritely."

"this hot dog's awful, she said frankly."

"she's a real dog, he said cattily."

"i like a good sled dog, she said huskily."

so clever!

real estate was an odd little story but i did love that one of the characters sang "you are my lucky star" from singin' in the rain which is my favorite songs from that musical!

great writing but nothing that truly wow'd me . . . until i read people like that are the only people here.  a tragic yet beautiful story of a mother and father dealing with their infant son's cancer.  throughout the story the father tells the mother that she should take notes since she is a writer.  due to this, i googled to see if this was based on moore's actual life (i know, i know, all novels and stories are semi-autobiographical) and it was based on her life.  after i learned this, i recognized that the beauty of this piece is due to its honesty.  the mother, father and baby are called just that which makes the story relatable and less specific to moore though it is a story straight from her life.  she captured the confusion, pain, stress, and emotions of having a loved one in the hospital.  i had flashbacks to when my grandma bea was in the heart hospital as i read.  it really makes you wonder why we suffer so much as humans, how god can put anyone through any of this.  not only the person that is ill but their family members as well.  it seemed insensitive when the surgeon's explained that the mother would suffer more than the baby during this time, but it is true.  i am not a mother but was able to empathizes with the mother in the story since moore did not shy away from all the thoughts that a mother in this situation, good and bad.  thankfully the baby comes out of this story well.  though i did feel as though moore sold her soul a bit with the ending, in which the story closes with "there are the notes.  now where is the money?"  which i mean if moore was being completely honest, let her sell this story for money for her son, i would contribute.  and though it is difficult for anyone to be completely honest, i am glad that moore shared this story.

all in all, an enjoyable collection and look forward to reading more from moore.   

fraud. david rakoff. (163)

it never fails.  my last book of a year ends being the first book of the year.  but hey! it's only the 2nd day of the year and i got my first book in!

after reading love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish, i decided to read the rest of rakoff's work and started with his collection of stories, fraud.  

i will have to say that right off the back, i fell in love with him and his allusions and imagery.  see:  "i tear my medicine cabinet a part like billie holiday and still only uncover one xanax." and this was in the second paragraph, i knew i would have some fun!  and i did! for the most part.  i have to admit that there were times that i got a little bored and rakoff got a little too debbie downer and snarky for me.

but lets share what i loved!

i loved the story of him at the kibbutz.  and i am glad he stuck up for himself at the chicken farm.  my ex-stepdad's uncle used to have chicken farm for eggs and the smell was disgusting!!! rakoff was right!  but that wasn't the point of his story.  i gave him an applause when after hearing the workers refer to him as she in hebrew, rakoff told them back in hebrew, "you're right . . . she doesn't like the chickens."  a great little classy middle finger!

also appreciated his little line, "i'm crazy about the food chain and love being on top of it."  

i found the story, "hidden people" about the hidden people of iceland really interesting.  primarily, because i now believe that björk, jonsi, so of course sigur rós, and of monsters and men are not icelandic people but rather hidden people!  i have seen björk and jónsi in concert and they are like little woodland fairies on stage.  it's almost like they reveal their hidden people selves up on stage. their music is enchanting and sounds otherworldly.  and check out their costumes:

i know hidden people dress like regular people only dated but still i think this is how they actually dress.  and i love all of the music but their something magical about them that i can never describe properly which i guess just adds to this theory.  it makes more sense that they are hidden people but their music is definitely out of this world.

i enjoyed his story, "extrordinary alien", because i do love canadians.  my favorite canadians include michael cera, alanis morissette, and robin scherbasky (though she isn't real).  and i just learned on wikipedia that kim cattrall, frank gehry (!!!), and ellen page are canadian!  way to go canada!

i absolutely loved "christmas freud"!!! what a clever idea for a barney's window.  a little odd but clever!  i also loved how they turned into actual sessions.  i wish christmas freud became a thing because let's face it, therapy sessions would be helpful during the drain of holiday season.  also i googled for an image of rakoff in his window but unfortunately didn't come across anything.

i really enjoyed the article about the teachers for austria, "we call it australia".  it made me consider going to another country to teach english, we'll see.  his story about tokyo also gave me an itch to travel.

the last story, "i used to bank here, but that was long, long ago" almost brought me to tears.  (i would have cried but i was on a greyhound from vegas, i was too tired to be that emotional).  it was a sad story considering rakoff's fate.  the story centers around him finding sperm he had stored because he was starting treatment for hodgkin's.  this hit close to home for me because as i get older and have yet to find someone to reproduce with, i might have to freeze my eggs and i never considered how expensive it will be.  hopefully it will not come to that.     

rakoff also discussed his treatment and the memories he had of his treatment.  he discussed how he glossed over the pain he felt which resulted his in his memories being eschewed.  i thought about that in terms of my grandma, i have been in denial about her being gone and i wonder what my memories will be of this time in the future.  everything now feels so far away but it has been two months since she first went into the hospital.  i worry one day that everything i have hidden away during this time will all come flooding out.  its okay if it does, because it needs to be realized but i am just not ready yet.

i hate to end on such a solemn note but its mirrors fraud so i guess its okay that it does.  but an enjoyable read, not something to digest all at once but to leave near a bed to occasionally pick up.

  

 

unaccustomed earth. jhumpa lahiri (147)

(i forgot got to take a picture of the book i checked out.)

as seen in previous post, i am on a jhumpa lahiri kick.  prior to this i read, the namesake, and afterward will read the lowland.  i am actually proud of myself for reading her works in order of publication!  (sorry it's the same things that excite bookworms).

unaccustomed earth is another collection of short stories, and after having read both a novel and her collections of short stories, i have to say i think she is a better short story writer.  her novel seemed to meander around, uncertain of where to go or now to end.  in retrospect, i felt like things would go off on a tangent and not truly enhance the overall story.  whereas her short stories are concise and to the point which actually allows for a deeper emotional experience.  

if you haven't read this, i would stop here.  highly recommend this collection of short stories, which you should read and experience on your own first.  my post does go i to a lot of detail and has some spoilers.

i absolutely loved part two of the book:  "hems and kaushik".  i was not ready for the ending, and as much as i wanted it to end happily ever after, i know that it wasn't the way things were meant to be and i would have been unsatisfied with a fairy tale ending.  

"hema and kaushik" is three stories.  the first story, "once in a lifetime" is told from hema's perspective. it tells the story of how as an adolescent she fell in love with kaushik, when his family returned to the united states and lived with hema's family while they looked for a home.  kaushik discovered a family's burial area in the woods behind hema's family's home and there he shared with her that his mother is dying from cancer.  something she never shared with her family even when they complained about kaushik's family overstaying their welcome. 

the second story, "year's end", is the story of kaushik dealing with his father remarrying after his mother's death.  his father needing companionship, married a woman from india with two daughter from a previous marriage.  kaushik, initially unable to accept the marriage initially began to accepted it due to his two stepsisters.  however, one night while babysitting the girls, they discover a hidden box of photos of his mother.  overwhelmed by the memory of his mother and his father's new life, he attacks the girls verbally and leaves the house.  he ends up never returning home and begins a career as a photojournalist.

the final story, "going ashore", told from hema's perspective, as fate, would have it, hema and kaushik's path cross again in rome at a friend's lunch party.  they began a relationship but hema is to be married.  kaushik asked her to stay with him but hema realized does not ask her to marry him so she refuses.  a doomed fate as foreshadowed by the leaving of her grandmother's bracelet at airport security.  and sadly in the very end, kaushik died due to an earthquake in thailand.  it broke my heart that things ended this way.  i really wanted them to be together, but life doesn't always work out the way we want them to.  and sometimes we have to thing with our head as opposed to our heart.  furthermore, i was impressed that lahiri had me on a rollercoaster of emotions in just three stories, i kind wished she had turned hema and kaushik into a novel.  i also secretly hope that mira nair turns it into a movie.

the other stories were just as sad and emotional, the same beauty of "the interpreter of maladies" can be found in this collection as well.  four stories compose the first part of the book. i enjoyed "only goodness". it demonstrated what can occur when children are overindulged and addiction is ignored. it was sad that how the family was ill-equipped to deal with addiction and did not get the brother the help that he needed.

"hell-heaven" was my favorite because it demonstrated how often we forget that our parents have a history as well.  it's the story of a young girl and how her mother was secretly in love with a family friend, pranab chankarborty.  her love almost resulted tragically after pranab married an american.  the mother planned on setting herself on fire, overwhelmed by grief and love lost but a neighbor with a simple compliment ended up stopping her.  a story the narrator was told after a man broke her heart. 

but yes, another beautiful work by jhumpa lahiri.

interpreter of maladies. jhumpa lahiri.

i bought "interpreter of maladies" a while back at a $1 bookstore.  it had been sitting on my shelf but went on my to-read list when i saw this on mindy kaling's instagram:

and since i love mindy and think we could be BFF if we ever met, i decided to finally read "interpreter of maladies".

i must admit that at first i thought it was a novel, but then during the first story realized it was a collection of stories.  this disappointed me at first.  a book has to be a truly amazing collection of short stories for me to finish.  if there is a bad story, reading then becomes tedious and kind of ruins my attitude and ability with the rest of the book.  (see:  me reading the complete stories of flannery o'connor-  i will give her another try in the future.). but i didn't have to worry about that with this book because each story was truly amazing/beautiful.  i mean it did win the pulitzer so i should have known i was in for a treat.

every though the stories are short, you become invested in the characters and their lives.  each story was very emotional, i had to pause after each story to allow myself to process what i had read.  and though every story was different, they shared a theme of loneliness, longing, and love.  these stories demonstrated how we often suffer throughout life and the best option for us is not always the easiest but in the end we are better for taking the most challenging route.  many of the characters also learn that what they thought they wanted out of life is not what the needed.  each character has some void which they are trying to fill which regardless of what it may be is ultimately love.  

i know i have used the adjective alot in this post but these stories are beautiful.  i would rehash them here but you should pick it up for yourself and read it.

i will say the stories that i enjoyed the most were:

"the third and final continent" (i loved mrs. croft)

"a temporary matter" (it was only 20 pages but quite the emotional roller coaster, it had me teary-eyed in the end. which is a testament to lahiri's great writing)

"mrs. sen's" (partially due to her inability to drive")

"a real durwan" (which demonstrated that "you don't know what you've got til it's gone")

a truly beautiful (yes that adjective again) read.  please pick it up and enjoy.

palo alto. james franco. (127)

i read online that james franco was doing a fundraiser, kinda like kickstarter but not, to turn his collection of short stories, "palo alto" into a movie.  

before i go on, quick rant about celebrities doing kickstarters.  seriously?!?! doesn't the general public give you enough money by watching your movies and tv shows?  i mean don't you already get paid a ridiculous amount of money for acting yet you are begging common folk for money?  fund your own projects, you can afford it!

back to "palo alto", though i didn't agree with his fundraising, i was excited about reading his work.  i admire his acting and he seems to be pretty intelligent and cultured.  he did go to UCLA and he sat with marina abramovic during her piece "the artist is present" (he was featured in the doc).  so i had pretty high expectations for his writing, but his fundraiser should have been a red flag.

i mean it did seem odd that james franco would have to do a kickstarter with all of his hollywood success but this collection of stories was horrible.  so bad that its no wonder he couldn't find anyone in hollywood to back it, you would have to be an idiot to.  it was bad.  it was like a sad attempt to be "jesus' son" but whereas denis johnson has talent and a way with words, franco has nothing.

i mean i knew it was going to be horrible after reading the first line of the first story, "halloween":

ten years ago, my sophomore year in high school, i killed a woman on halloween.

i swear to god, i am not making this up.  that was the first line.  it reminded me of that "girls" episode when hannah goes to the reading for her old professor and she reads that poorly-written and forced story about her online boyfriend dying.  and her first line is about him dying and she doesn't get a reaction so she repeats the line about him dying assuming people didn't catch it the first time.  so embarrassing.  in my head, i imagined franco repeating "killed" for a reaction and for effect.  

so that line set the tone for the rest of the stories and after that i couldn't take anything seriously.  everything felt forced.  i know what franco was trying to write, he wanted to create some great beat manifesto for generation y but sadly didn't come close.  i mean franco did capture the pretentious ignorance of gen y hipsters.  it was shocking yet lacked any real depth or edge.  it was all self-righteous intensity, kinda like hipsters.  franco's characters were soulless druggies yet would namecheck kerouac, faulkner, and hemingway.  it was as if the mention of their names would result in literary greatness, instead franco just came off like a wannabe beat.

his characters were  bad people, i was disgusted by everything i had read in  the story.  they were bad just for the shock value versus finding a deeper truth.  it was full of lines that i am sure franco wanted his readers' minds to explode as they read but everything was overdone and cliché.

franco's stories were filled with bad stereotypes as well.  the second story is the tale of girl who is . . . good at math!  what girls can't be good at math?!?!  or the slutty asian girl who will love you long time.  there was also a lot of half breeds and even a mormon.  but a mormon who knows nothing about scriptures (mormons, even the bad ones can discuss scriptures).  and just way too many bat shitty crazy boys with too much time and drugs on their hands.

and i mean i get wayward youth, i enjoyed "a clockwork orange" and "trainspotting".  i revered sal paradise.  but there was nothing enjoyable or enlightening about the reckless youth of "palo alto".  it was so bad that i now have a better appreciation for "jesus' son".

but i will add i did enjoy one thing.  i genuinely enjoyed franco's mention of the children books author bill peet.  i actually checked out a handful of his books because they are alluded to in a story.  though i did not believe anyone would let a druggie do service hours at a library.  

but in the end, i am glad i read "palo alto" because now i won't waste my money to help fund a film version or pay for a movie ticket to see it.