Mary Paumier Jones

After noting some of the big name authors with stories in this collection, I was excited. Ultimately, it was a let down. Sure, the writing was topnotch in many cases, but the stories themselves were a little bland. I read this over the course of months - it was my book in the car, being read when I waited to pick my kids up from school or when my wife made a quick stop at a store - but I looked through the titles again when I finally finished and nothing rang a bell. On the other hand, the Moth collection I read much the same way had easily a half dozen stories still in my mind long after reading them. Long and short for In Short - it's just OK.… (mehr)

I've had this book traveling around on my shelves for over a decade (my notes say that I picked it up at the Newton dump when taking the recycling down for my old fabrication job). It took me this long to figure out how to read it.
I like to give short stories their proper due- to read one in a sitting, and let it sit for a bit before reading the next. These stories, though are SO short- between one and four pages, they take no more than a few minutes to read, and yet each still deserves the proper time to think about it. I finally got it.
This book is the best bathroom reading I have ever had. It's improved my days for several months, one or two stories a day. I will go back to reading dumb comics in the bathroom, now that I've finished it, but I will miss the brief moments of beauty that this book imparted on my day.
As always with an anthology, some stories grabbed me more than others, but the average is pretty high, here.… (mehr)