#519 Bravery- Charles Baxter

#519 Bravery- Charles Baxter

“Despite what other girls said, all boys were not alike: you had to make your way through their variables blindly, guessing at hidden qualities, the ones you could live with.”

Susan married Elijah, a good-guy, a sweet man, a loving, caring doctor. “He was the only man she ever loved and she was still trying to get used to it.”

After marriage they took a trip to Prague, where they wanted to conceive their first child. Susan kept seeing the sweetness, and tenderness of her husband and knew that he would make a good father, but something bothered her. In the plaza one day a crazy woman grabbed her and told her that she would have a son and she would become jealous of her husband, of the woman inside him.

When her son was born, she did in fact resent Elijah’s tenderness, his ability to sooth the child, and became insistent that he not ever feed the child, that was a mother’s job and he could not take that from her. The fight made him angry and when he came home that night bloody from a fight, he told her a story about saving a girl from being attacked. She didn’t believe the story—he might have made it up to make her think he was more of a man—but it still made her happy…at least for one more day.

Notable Passage: “Prague wasn’t Kafka’s birthplace for nothing.”

#518 Occupation Force- Frank Herbert

#518 Occupation Force- Frank Herbert

In the classic style of a Frank Herbert Sci-Fi story, we open with a General being awoken and told that an alien ship is orbiting earth and is about to attack. Now all the leaders of the world have gathered. Unaware of the alien ship’s intentions there is a break of two camps:

-Majority opinion: a hostile ship on a mission to conquer earth.

-Minority opinion: a cautious visitor from space.

When a scout ship arrives and asks for landing instructions the communication is surprisingly polite and spoken in perfect English. The “aliens” that greet the General also appear to be human. When the visitors begin talk of colonization of Earth, it is not at all what the General thinks. Surprise…mind=blown!

Rating: 7-7-7-7 Total=28

#517 Ambitious Sophomore- Kurt Vonnegut

#517 Ambitious Sophomore- Kurt Vonnegut

The Lincoln High School marching band is the pride of the community. The hundred piece band is marching in the parade and is poised to once again win the prize. It’s leader, Mr. Helmholtz has only one problem…money. He spends too much too fast and he needs to buy one more uniform, a special uniform that will enable the stage-stricken piccolo player, Leroy, to play his best.

“Helmholtz often gave the impression of a man lost in dreams, but there was a side to him that was as tough as a rhinoceros. It was the side that raised money for the band.”

A deal was struck, the uniform purchased and the band was in position to march to another victory. But tragedy struck before the competition and the special uniform was ruined. As it turned out no uniform was needed, Leroy found inspiration in an obvious place.

“That wasn’t school spirit—that was the love song of the full-bodied American male.”

Rating: 7-7-7-8 Total= 29

#516 Cherry Bomb- Maxine Clair

#516 Cherry Bomb- Maxine Clair

A hot tragic summer. This is a coming of age story. A group of children, barely teens, maybe a bit younger tramp around looking for trouble, trying to be kids. Eddy has lost an eye from a cherry bomb accident. His sister, the story’s narrator has two prized possessions, the last cherry bomb and her private diary. In that diary she tells about Nick, Eddy’s best friend and the boy that wants to get fresh with her.

This is the summer that they will all remember. This is the summer where they learn that there are worse things than getting hurt by a cherry bomb. As soon as you get old enough to have something to write about in your diary, you may be too old for such childish pursuits.

Notable Passage: “I am in this world, but not of it. I am in this world”

Rating: 7-6-8-7 Total= 28

#515 Everything We Know About the Bomber- Rebecca Makkai

#515 Everything We Know About the Bomber- Rebecca Makkai

Once again, I really want to urge people to read this collection, Music for Wartime. This is a string of paragraphs of the bits of stuff we learn from the barrage of TV news coverage during a bombing—it’s disaster porn. The needless facts about a bombers life, the endless ephemera that gest thrown at us keep our attention.

This isn’t exactly a new idea, but Makkai does it perfectly, shapes a reality of reality television that shouldn’t look like a fun house mirror but does anyway. Any coverage of a horrible attack or a bombing or a shooting somehow devolves quickly into a lesson on how NOT to cover the news. There is no way we need to know about a third grade report card of an alleged mass murderer…but there it is BREAKING NEWS: KILLER FAILED ART CLASS AS A KID!

What’s worse is that “News” stations are willing to get it wrong, and then correct later. They report a rumor about a person that ends up being false (and sometimes ends with death threats of an innocent person) and don’t think it’s morally reprehensible because they weren’t trying to report facts, they were merely relaying quotes from involved persons near the scene.

Important topic, great social commentary here. In a collection filled with war stories from past generations, the juxtaposition of something this current is powerful.

Notable Passage: “We plan to learn more. We plan to keep updated. We plan to look for patterns…we will repeat these facts till they sound like history. We’ll repeat them till they sound lie fate.”

Rating: 9-7-9-9 Total= 34

#514 The Sad Sweet Story of Sugar Lips Shine Hot, The Man with the Portable Promised Land- Toure

#514 The Sad Sweet Story of Sugar Lips Shine Hot, The Man with the Portable Promised Land- Toure

For two months in the summer of 1942 there wasn’t a sax player around that was as hot as Harlem’s Sugar Lips Shinehot. He blew the roof off the clubs and couldn’t walk down the street without crowds of fans looking for a handshake or an autograph.

“Time slid on and men from the record-makin companies came callin wit contracts and promises bout makin him a big-time star. And Sugar Lips was bout to sign one ah them contracts when somethin butted in.”

After a night at the club Sugar Lips was beat up by a pair of drunken sailers looking for trouble. He was beat up so bad, he could  no longer play the sax. In his despair the Reverend Scratch shows up and offers his salvation. So she makes a deal with this devil and is granted The Portable Promised Land, all white people everywhere are now invisible to Sugar Lips, he can’t see them, ever.

That’s the true story-- “If I’m lyin, I’m flyin. And I ain’t seen a feather all day.”

Notable Passage: “When you a negro white folks is like doors. You got to go through them to get most anywhere…and when there ain’t no door the door is jus bein built.”

Rating: 7-7-6-7 Total= 27

#513 Pool Night- Amy Hempel

#513 Pool Night- Amy Hempel

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. This is a story about a family's loss, regret, and time. They have experienced a house fire and a flood.

“When the wires touched the water, that part of town went black. This was the thing we watched—the city going dark along the path of the flood…It was not supposed to reach us…and then it did.”

Nobody thinks tragedy will happen to them. Now that it has, they look for answers and memories in a photo book, the one they still have. Each person has their own view of time:

-What I lose will always be lost.

-His problem is the past…he says only do things you have done before and liked.

-I thought the present was the safer bet.

-We can only die in the future…right now we are always alive.

-I made those seconds live.

Fire and water, some things we cannot control, but some we can.

Rating: 8-7-7-8 Total= 30

#512 I’m Pretty Comfortable, But I Could Be a Little More Comfortable- Lydia Davis

#512 I’m Pretty Comfortable, But I Could Be a Little More Comfortable- Lydia Davis

Ok, I’m stretching the definition of “Short Story” for this one, but hey—with a thousand days to play with, why not have some fun? This is a rambling list of everyday situations, occurrences, observations that we, as privileged members of twenty-first century America may think about during the course of the day—minor annoyances that, if rectified, might make the day go just a little bit smoother.

-The shower is too cold

-A man is coughing during the concert

-I’m a little tense

-I bought sour cream by mistake

-This apple has brown spots on it

-The clock is ticking very loudly

and a little self-awareness thrown in

-I cant decide whether to go on reading this book

As you can see by the title, these aren’t major problems but, c’mon you know how annoying they are! I guess the reader will have a variety of reactions to each individual item, but will probably go one of two ways on full reading—it will either make the reader tense and anxious about all the small things to think about, or it will calm the reader down and see exactly how small and petty these trifles actually are. Hopefully, most will see the latter.

Rating: 6-7-6-6 Total= 25

#511 Thoughts of a Bridesmaid- Katherine Heiny

#511 Thoughts of a Bridesmaid- Katherine Heiny

The title of this one pretty much explains it. The thoughts of this bridesmaid, Fern, are broken down into easy to read topics. These are snapshots of all the little moments that happen between the bride and the bridesmaid during the wedding weekend.

Fern and Haley have been friends since college, Fern being the less popular, less outgoing, less beautiful—at least according to her account. Touching at times, funny at others—never being a bridesmaid myself, I can only guess this is a typical experience. I did laugh pretty hard at her description of herself in the bridesmaid dress:

“I look at myself in the mirror. I look like an unsuccessful prostitute.”

Rating: 8-7-8-6 Total= 29

#510 Nausea 1979- Haruki Murakami

#510 Nausea 1979- Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is talking to a friend with an odd story. This friend has a very unique philosophy on life and friendship. He likes to sleep with his friend's wives and girlfriends. He doesn’t have relationships with them, and doesn’t want them to break up, but he finds no moral issue with it either. In fact he thinks it helps their friendship.

“It was the act of sleeping with his friends’ girlfriends and wives that really turned him on…[he] had absolutely no interest in tricking [his] friends—in turning them into cuckolds, that sort of thing. Sleeping with their woman makes [him] feel closer to them. It’s a family thing.”

The problems he is having don’t seem to revolve around the infidelities of friendship. Once for forty straight days, he vomited every day. He could only hold down enough food so he wouldn't starve. Strange phone calls accompanied the sickness. No matter where he went or tried to hide, both the phone calls and the vomiting continued. Then just like that it stopped.

The vomiting could have been a prank, or could have been retribution from one of his friends, or it could have been his own guilt. Since it only happened when he was alone, maybe he was sick of being alone. It is never revealed.

Because Murakami inserted himself into this one, I’d like for minute to think that this was a story about him talking to a potential character in one of his books. When discussing what all this meant he says:

“Anyway it’s a just a theory. I can give you hundreds of those. The problem is which theory you’re willing to accept. And what you learn from it.”

Murakami has often written shorter pieces that go on to evolve into larger things. I think he’s telling this character to think about this idea and predicament I put you in, and lets see if it goes anywhere. Very Meta.

Notable Passage: “Things that start for no reason end for no reason. And the opposite can be true.”

Rating: 8-9-9-8 Total= 34

#509 For a Long Time This Was Griselda’s Story-Anthony Doerr

#509 For a Long Time This Was Griselda’s Story-Anthony Doerr

The Carnival is at the fairgrounds outside Boise, Idaho. Griselda takes her little sister. She is enthralled by the mysterious metal-eater, amazed at the things she has never seen. She abandons her sister and leaves with the metal eater, not to return for twenty years.

Her legend grows amongst the town folk. So when she comes back to perform, the house is sold out. She was always beautiful and different, but now she is everything they dream about. She fulfills all of their personal desire for adventure and excitement; she embodies that which they cannot do themselves. However, to her sister and mother—all they wanted was Griselda the daughter and sister—she is nothing more than a runaway, someone that has betrayed their love.

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29

#508 A Fine Mist of Blood- Michael Connelly

#508 A Fine Mist of Blood- Michael Connelly

Connely uses his Detective Harry Bosch for this one, the same detective used in many of his mystery novels. This time he’s working a cold case, actually two cold cases. The LAPD has put together a DEATH squad that has digitized all the forensic details of their unsolved cases. Harry gets a hit that links two muders.

Diane Gables was a cursory witness in two old cases, but nothing much came out of either one. When Harry catches her in a seemingly innocent lie, he knows immediately that she was the killer. She falls in his web and it turns out that she is a vigilante targeting abusive men.

This story discusses the fine line between punishment and retribution, revenge versus justice.

Rating: 7-6-7-6 Total= 26

#507 Phoenix- Chuck Palahniuk

#507 Phoenix- Chuck Palahniuk

Rachel is away from home for the first time in her three-year old daughters life. April feels betrayed and she is giving her mother the silent treatment. Each night when she calls up to speak with April, there is nothing but silence on the end of the line. She begins to suspect that either April is hurt or her husband, Ted is purposely holding a grudge and punishing her.

We learn of two tragedies. Despite Rachel asking to get rid of the filthy cat during her pregnancy, it was too late. Toxoplasma from the cat’s dander and feces caused their daughter to be born blind. One year later, the cat is set on fire when the fireplace is turned on causing the house to burn down and the cat to perish. Blame is everywhere, but kept silent.

Over the course of the story we see exactly how Rachel feels about her husband:

-Rachel feels a respect for her daughter that she’s never felt for her husband-

-Rachel is used to explaining things to Ted. She knew he’d never be brilliant. That was his chief charm…She’d married him for all the reasons she might hire a long-term employee-

-She explains to her daughter how the only problem with marrying a spineless, lazy, stupid man is that you could be stuck with him the rest of your life-

-I only chose your father because he is weak. I married him because I could push him around-

Yes, yes—such a touching modern love story.

Rating: 8-7-7-6 Total= 28