#53 – Moral Disorder

08Dec06

Moral Disorder Margaret Atwood Short Stories Read from 12/5/06 – 12/8/06 My grade: 6 This exceeded my expectations. Atwood and I run 50/50, so when I saw it was Atwood AND short stories, I was a little worried. But, it was readable and didn’t turn insane and empty like Oryx and Crake . The stories [...]

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#45 – Part A: Short Stories

21Oct06

There are, by my count, 8 short stories in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006. But I’m not sure about my categorizations. One of the short stories is in graphic format. One or two might be true (who can tell?). But here’s what I thought, anyway: Shipwreck, by Cat Bohannon Apparently this is the author’s [...]

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#45 – The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006

21Oct06

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 Dave Eggers Anthology Read from 10/9/06 – 10/21/06 My grade: 10 Love! Dave Eggers and his high school student crew did an amazing job. He included bits from the internet, The Daily Show, a screenplay, comics, etc. Plus, amazing short stories, articles, and book excerpts. They were, almost without [...]

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#40 – Malgudi Days

14Sep06

Malgudi Days R.K. Narayan Short Stories Read from 9/12/06 – 9/14/06 My grade: 6 I realized while grading this that I totally bump all the grades up for effort. I think “well, I didn’t like it, but he clearly tried and/or is talented, so…” I think that’s okay, but it does explain why I tend [...]

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#15 – Runaway

22Apr06

Runaway Alice Munro Short Stories Read from 3/27 – 4/13 My grade: 6 All right-thinking people love Alice Munro’s short stories. She is, without a doubt, a great writer. She picks up on subtle things that other writers ignore, and she’s willing to write a whole story about something pretty minor, using some little event [...]

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#40 – How We Are Hungry

21Nov05

How We Are Hungry Dave Eggers Short Stories Read 11/2/05 – 11/5/05 My Grade: 9 I’m really loving short stories right now. This was more depressing than I expected – I always expect Eggers to be funny, for some reason. Once I adjusted, though, it was great. The mini-stories here were great – especially in [...]

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#38 – Samuel Johnson Is Indignant

21Nov05

Samuel Johnson Is Indignant Lydia Davis Short Stories Read 10/26/05 – 10/28/05 My Grade: 5 This was disappointing. Instead of many 10-25 page short stories, most of the “stories” are less than a page. And even the longer ones weren’t good. They were depressing and too introspective. I just didn’t like them very much. There [...]

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#21 – After the Plague and Other Stories

15Jul05

After the Plauge and Other Stories T.C. Boyle Short Stories Read from 6/28/05 – 7/15/05 My Grade: 9 Termination Dust – 10. Alaskan date auction, and the main character seems really nice until he sort of reveals that he might be a little crazy. And the ending is great – imagining those two in that [...]

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