Good Reading in Little Packages
Lory and I made some Two Sides resolutions at the turn of the year. Among them was reading twenty-three books. There wasn’t a list, but we talked about some possibilities. Lory thought a book of short stories might be part of the mix.
Without thought or planning, I find myself reading two books of short stories. I don’t read a lot of short stories. I often think I should read more; I enjoy it when I do read them, but it just doesn’t seem to happen very often. What was I saying? Oh yeah, I find myself reading two books of short stories.
The first is Rags & Bones; New Twists on Timeless Tales edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt. I’m a big fan of fairy tale retellings. A hot trend right now is retellings of Greek myths. A kind of obscure retelling that is a favorite of mine is John Gardner’s Grendel; Beowulf from the monster’s point of view.
Back to the short stories – Rags & Bones is all retellings. A few are fairy tales; the rest are a variety of different stories. I know about half of the original writers and fewer of the rewriters. I’m about three-quarters of the way through, and my two favorites are the ones written by the editors. Pratt’s The Cold Corner is an interesting take on the many turning points we each have in our lives. Marr’s The Awakening is a thought-provoking selchie (selkie) story.
The second book, Nothing But You: Love Stories From The New Yorker edited by Roger Angell of sports writing fame. This is a book I ended up with after my parents died. I have no idea why they had it; I can’t imagine either of them reading it. It is my current car book and I’m only about a fifth of the way through it.
Two interesting things for me so far. In one story, there is a character who is writing a book “about the relationship of economics to architectural style.” It reminded me of something long forgotten. I had a writing assignment in junior high school and the topic I chose was ‘Architecture and the American Economy’. I remember Mr. Alsop, the ‘cool’ teacher saying that it sounded like a difficult topic, but if I wanted to tackle it…
I know T.H. White for his Arthurian books and The Making of the President 1960, but one story mentions his book The Goshawk, which led me to discover a bunch of his books I knew nothing about. The Goshawk sounds very interesting; I need to get to it sometime.
Short stories can be interesting and enjoyable, and they have the advantage being able to be read in small chunks. Do you have a favorite book of short stories? Let us know at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com