Heidi Pitlor

The Best American Short Stories, edited this year by Min Jin Lee, is a wonderful collection that offers an encouraging snapshot of the state of short fiction today. If you like the short form, this will be a welcome addition to your library.

I sometimes have a hard time explaining to friends why I enjoy these annual anthologies, which includes the essay collections as well. I think reading the introduction helped me to better understand my own rationale. I like short stories a lot but often find myself using them as filler in my days. This doesn't mean I don't value them, but I spend a good bit of time reading, and sometimes I don't want to dive back into a longer work, whether a novel or a nonfiction book, because I just don't have the time. Stories, and essays for that matter, are what I turn to. They offer a short fully contained read while also giving me something to think about when I put it down. I look forward to these annual anthologies mainly because I know I miss so much good short fiction and this both offers me twenty to read now and an additional hundred to find. Those searches usually result in my finding new (to me) writers and new publications I can put on my radar for future reading. If you appreciate the form itself as much as the actual plot in a given story, you'll love this, and other, such anthologies.

I found this collection to be a particularly appealing one, it seemed to be more focused on simply finding good stories rather than necessarily being a themed collection. I love themed collections but when I am discovering new writers I am just as interested in the style and this volume offered me a wide range. I think what does tie these together is the contemporary settings, the fact we understand the worlds most of these characters inhabit, even if also a very different part of the world.

Relatable characters you become invested in, situations that might be different from anything you've experienced yet contain elements that we can all appreciate from similar incidents in our own lives. If these elements of short stories appeal to you, and you want to discover new writers, this anthology is for you.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mere)

Just another typical family book where they get together for a special birthday for the father Joe, together on the coast of Maine at Jake and Liz's house. The families three women (2 sisters-in-laws and one sister) are pregnant at the same time.

Jake (who is married to Liz) and Daniel (who is married to Brenda) each had their quirks and different personalities and Hilary the daughter was definitely different and didn't know who the father was.

I wasn't a big fan of this family especially Ellen and Joe, the parents and she was annoying to me. You can tell she was annoyed with him a lot especially when he brought his turtle Babe to the celebration.

The ending was not “tight” enough for me but everything can't always be black or white in an ending I guess.… (mere)