books and reading – Page 66

The Best Short Stories 2021

Title: The Best Short Stories 2021

Editor: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Genre: short story collection

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

I don’t read a ton of story collections, but I’m always pleased after I finish one. I love discovering new authors whose story has stuck with me. And I think it’s so much more challenging to write a short story than a novel. You have so little space to make an impact on the reader. I broke this book up into chunks, reading one or two stories a day, and that method worked really well for me. Overall, I really enjoyed these stories.

From Goodreads: Twenty prizewinning stories selected from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year–continuing the O. Henry Prize’s century-long tradition of literary excellence.

Now entering its second century, the prestigious annual story anthology has a new title, a new look, and a new guest editor. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and young emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Adichie, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.

Featured in this collection: Daphne Palasi Andreades – David Means- Sindya Bhanoo- Crystal Wilkinson- Alice Jolly- David Rabe- Karina Sainz Borgo (translator, Elizabeth Bryer) – Jamel Brinkley- Tessa Hadley – Adachioma Ezeano- Anthony Doerr- Tiphanie Yanique – Joan Silber – Jowhor Ile – Emma Cline – Asali Solomon – Ben Hinshaw – Caroline Albertine Minor (translator, Caroline Waight) – Jianan Qian – Sally Rooney

Several of these stories really stuck with me, particularly the ones from Daphne Palasi Andreades, Crystal Wilkinson, Jamal Brinkley, and Jianan Qian, all of who are new to me. I’ve never read any of their other works. But you really can’t go wrong with this collection. Each one has something that you’ll enjoy. I’m glad I picked this one up.

Black Cop’s Kid

Inside the NBA Bubble

And Then There Were None

Title: Red Clocks

Author: Leni Zumas

Genre: dystopian

Finally, not a celebrity memoir! And this one was from my favorite genre- dystopia. And although I’ve read better ones, this one was really interesting. You follow five different women who all live in the same town in Oregon. They all live in a world where abortion is illegal, and the Personhood Amendment rules the land. Sound familiar?? Ugh. These women are tangentially related, which becomes more prevalent as the book progresses.

From Goodreads: Five women. One question. What is a woman for?

In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom.

Ro, a single high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own, while also writing a biography of Eivør, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted daughter of doting parents and one of Ro’s best students, who finds herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling homeopath, or “mender,” who brings all their fates together when she’s arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt.

I’m not sure how this book would be on audio because it has a stream-of-consciousness feel to it. The characters insert random internal thoughts into their conversations, which is easy to follow since they are italicized but in audio would be a nightmare. I really enjoyed this book, though. I loved seeing how the women all came together and helped each other out. The world they live in is terrifying but very real. There is no reason to think we aren’t headed on that same path.