#656 Red-Winged Blackbirds- J. California Cooper

#656 Red-Winged Blackbirds- J. California Cooper

This is a story about taking control of your own life. A girl is orphaned when her mother and father are killed by the KKK. Her father had just stood up to the father of the boy that tried to rape the girl, and that set their fate.

She didn’t let anyone take her, but lived under the school until she was old enough to get a job. After working for a diner she made herself a proprietor of a boarding house. She had what she wanted, all except a child. She wouldn’t have a child of her own, so she set out to find one that needed a mother.

“I was scared for her, but I was proud of her! I like people who take control over their own life! Don’t just let life happen to them…but fight back to have some say-so of their own, bout their own life.”

If we can choose our own paths, and choose our own jobs, why not choose our own families? The most powerful thing we can do is make our own decisions. 

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

#284 The Thing About Cassandra- Neil Gaiman

#284 The Thing About Cassandra- Neil Gaiman

It’s funny how themes emerge from stories and books you read at the same time. You see a theme in one, and then, bam…the next book you read there it is again. Mostly it's that your eyes are open to that theme, the taste is still on your tongue, but sometimes its very cool coincidence.

A few days ago I read Kavita Through Glass, where we spent the whole story following along with a narrator’s perspective only to be shown at the end that the important view was through the other character’s eyes. This story is very much the same.

Stuart Innes is a model and an artist. He’s single and doesn’t seem to have the drive to find himself a woman. Suddenly he hears rumors that his first girlfriend, Cassandra has reappeared, and has been looking for him. She was perfect, the one all others were judged against…the only problem is that he made her up. So who is this woman then, well…that’s where the fun is.

We limit ourselves sometime by the fantasies we create, and we are defined by the lies we tell. That sounds like a good summary for this story, but really its just a good story, no need to over think it.

Notable Passage: “People think they’re buying the art, but really, they’re buying the story.”

Rating: 9-10-10-9 Total=38

#261 Doo Wop- Jabari Asim

#261 Doo Wop- Jabari Asim

Ray Mortimer is a violent, crooked cop. “Crossing Sarah street, Mortimer loses himself in a fog of memories. So many ass-kickings, all in the name of peace.”

Charlotte is “A Petite southern lady with a brain for science will of steel.”

And Guts is a hard-hitting killer.

Tonight their three paths will cross. Their fates will converge, and somebody will die. Is it random, is it justice, is it destiny?

“It’s all about choices…tonight I stopped. Another day I might have kept on going. Who’s to say how it all comes out in the end? Damned if you doo-wop, damned if you don’t.”

Notable Passage: “Danger always has a scent, though most of us miss it.”

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

#247 Chance Traveler- Haruki Murakami

#247 Chance Traveler- Haruki Murakami

This is Murakami telling us a story, as Murakami the narrator. Like many of his stories, it breathes better as the story progresses. You’re not sure how or when it happens, but somewhere along the way, you’re caught in a trance, like a day dream or a brief moment of hypnosis.

The story itself, isn’t my favorite of his. It’s about acceptance, fate and coincidence. Things that are around us all the time, but we may not acknowledge or see them until we must.

This is the last Murakami story I will write about for a while. This collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is worth the read, although I much prefer his novels. For his stories to truly develop, he needs space and pacing that just cant be given in the short form.

Rating: 9-7-7-8 Total= 31