Week in Review (33) and Short Story Sunday - Week 2

Random Thoughts

I am experiencing book overload. There is so much that I want to read and there is just not enough time for everything! I have received books in the mail this week and made a trip to the library, so I do not lack for reading material. The thing is that they are all books I really want to read and I don't have enough time to read everything... You would think this would have prevented me from, I don't know, buying more books! But, I bought more books... I had to get The Lantern for the read-along in October, so that seems to have lead to more purchases. I know I won't get books for my birthday, so I figured I would treat myself. The timing of the read-along just meant the books are arriving a bit before my birthday.

Challenge News

I am still mainly concentrating on the R.I.P. Challenge, but I am attempting to work on the Reading Swap, too. I finished When She Woke. The review of that will be up on Wednesday. I read Breathers and Radiant Shadows, which both count for R.I.P., too. Then, I read The Monk which counts for R.I.P. and the Reading Swap.

Weekly Reads

200.When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (Completed September 14, 2011)
201. Breathers by S.G. Browne (Completed September 15, 2011)
202. Radiant Shadows: A Wicked Lovely Book (Book 4) by Melissa Marr (Completed September 15, 2011)
203. The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis (Completed September 16, 2011)

204. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff (Completed September 17, 2011)

Weekly Posts

Week in Review (32) and Short Story Sunday

Group Read: A Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - The Final Post

BBAW - Day 1: Community

Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Review: Dead Rules by Randy Russell

BBAW - Day 4: Reading and Blogging

Friday Reads - 10th Edition

'The Fellowship of the Ring' Read-Along - Part 2

New Additions

Bought:

Once all of my birthday purchases I arrive, I will do a separate post...

Borrowed:

The Beggar's Garden: Stories by Michael Christie

Bumped by Megan McCafferty

The Free World by David Bezmogis

Heartless by Gail Carriger (They bought this before book 3... Hopefully book 3 arrives soon!)

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Red Glove by Holly Black

Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers

Better Living Through Plastic Explosives: Stories by Zsuzsi Gartner

Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris

Monoceros by Suzette Mayr

Thieves and Kings Volume 2 by Mark Oakley

Loaded:

Nothing this week...

Received:

Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge (Harper Collins Canada)

Wildwood by Colin Meloy (Harper Collins Canada)

Dark Eden by Patrick Carmen (Harper Collins Canada)

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (From Stephanie from Stephanie's Written Word)

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Mount Everest by Wade Davis (Random House Canada)

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Short Story Sunday - Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman - Week 2

In the introduction to Neil Gaiman's short story collection -- a wildly diverse assortment of horror, sci-fi, dark fantasy, poetry, and speculative fiction -- he explains the book's title: "Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs and human hearts and dreams, are fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks."

Noteworthy selections in this undeniably exceptional collection include the Hugo Award winning "A Study in Emerald," which deftly blends Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's late-19th-century England with gruesome Lovecraftian horror; the Locus Award winning "October in the Chair"; an homage to Ray Bradbury that features the months of the year personified; and "How to Talk to Girls at Parties," a tale featuring two oversexed teenagers from an all-boys school in South London who stumble into a party full of what they take to be hot chicks but are in reality alien tourists! Also included are a brilliant American Gods novella ("Monarch of the Glen") and "Strange Little Girls," a series of, well, strange very short stories that first appeared in a Tori Amos tour book.

Like his previous short story collection (1998's critically acclaimed Smoke and Mirrors), Gaiman's Fragile Things is anything but; this is a powerhouse compilation that proves once again that Gaiman is a true master of short fiction. It's fitting that he dedicates this collection to three short story icons -- Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, and Robert Sheckley.

This is the second week of the read-along of Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman as part of the R.I.P. Challenge VI.

Stories Read This Week:

'The Hidden Chamber'

'Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire'

'The Flints of Memory Lane'

'Closing Time'

Thoughts:

I have found myself involved in a lot of projects this month, so I am actually read a story a day out of this collection now. This means that when I post could be way after I have actually read the story. I am trying to remember to write up a post every time I finish four stories, but that might not always happen knowing me...

'The Hidden Chamber'

When I read about this in the Introduction I was thinking about how he says it is going to be 'Gothic' and a retelling of something like 'Bluebeard'. Then, I got to the part about it being a poem and I was disappointed. I would have much rather had a Gothic retelling of 'Bluebeard' as a story. It has not been very long since I finished this poem and it has all ready left me. I even tried reading it aloud in the hopes it would stick with me longer. That didn't appear to work either! I am thinking I will just never be much of a poetry person.

'Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire'

That is an insanely long title for a short story, I must say. In the Introduction Gaiman points out that he wrote this story a while ago, but when he tried to get it published there was no real interest. Twenty years later the story went out to win awards and be included in best-of anthologies. That says something about an early attempt at writing! This was a fun story. There is a certain favourite writing advice about writing what you know, but the author of this story is having a hard time with that. We get a glimpse into his writing process and you quickly learn that what he knows is not what we know. It makes for a fun story!

'The Flints of Memory Lane'

This is a ghost story. It is too short of a story to go into much detail without ruining it, so I will leave it at that. I enjoyed it, though, but then I like ghost stories for most part. **Note: This was longer, but I was talking about the wrong story. The comment will reappear in the future for the correct story!

'Closing Time'

This story was interesting. You remember when you are young and will basically do anything to prove that you are just like your peers? Well, this story takes that idea and puts a very interesting spin on it. The narrator tells it like a ghost story, but it was something that really happened to him. It just goes to show you that very interesting things happen to rather ordinary people. I enjoy the idea of a group of people sitting around at a bar telling ghost stories. It is very atmospheric.