reading notes

four chapbooks of short fiction by four women by Amy L. Clark, Elizabeth Ellen, Kathy Fish, and Claudia Smith ISBN: 9780978984830 This book is the answer to why I sometimes comb through the shelves at small, independent bookstores reading every title on every spine: I never know when I’ll uncover a gem, something I’ve never [...]

by Pasha Malla ISBN: 9781593762384 This big fat collection of stories (thirteeen stories clocking in at just over three hundred pages) surprised me, not always in a good way. I like odd. Strange doesn’t put me off, it usually pulls me in, unless it is just strange for the sake of being strange in that [...]

by Kevin Brockmeier ISBN: 9780307387769 This collection of thirteen stories is hard to describe. There are fables (“A Fable Ending in the Sound of a Thousand Parakeets” is stunning), some are science fiction (“The Lady with the Pet Tribble” is probably best example of Brockmeier’s humor), and one is a choose your own adventure format [...]