20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

The short story is a different animal than the novel, and Joe Hill does a good job with the form in his collection, 20th Century Ghosts. The stories are self-contained, and the characters developed enough for the plot. Not all of the stories, such as the slice-of-life Better than Home, are traditional horror. Others -- Best New Horror with its Twilight Zone twist, and 20th Century Ghost about a haunted movie house -- fit more closely with the genre. Recommended for fans of Shirley Jackson's short stories.

Where's the love?

Love in Infant Monkeys was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This Friday evening at Auntie's Book Store, Lydia Millet will be reading from this hilarious and tragic story collection based on animals and their direct or indirect influence on celebrities (starring, as fictional characters: Madonna, Noam Chomsky, Sharon Stone, Thomas Edison). The reading is FREE. Definitely recommended. 7 PM.

Awesome Literary Collections of 2009

This last year was rife with beautifully written short story collections, perfect for the adult reader that longs for something literary. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order:

The Thing Around Your Neck, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

These stories detail the Nigerian woman’s experience, whether she is living, somewhat forlornly and guiltily, in North America, or dealing with change and suffering in the country of her origin. One of my favorite reads this last year.

Pieces for the Left Hand, by J. Robert Lennon

Lennon’s quixotic collection finally found a home here in the United States, this time at the impressive independent, Graywolf Press (Pieces was previously only published in the U.K.). These stories – normally no longer than a page each – are beautiful, menacing and crushingly intelligent. The writing, line by line, is expertly wrought. Fans of his might also enjoy his novel, Castle, which also came out in 2009.

Nothing Right, by Antonya Nelson

Nelson’s stories frequent such venerable magazines as The New Yorker, and for good reason. The relationships in this collection are convoluted – painful but loving – such as in “Party of One”, where a woman, Emily, seeks to protect her sister from a painful breakup, despite knowing that her sister previously slept with Emily’s own husband. Nelson manages to write realism without sacrificing hilarity and interest. A great read for anyone who might be fans of Lorrie Moore or Alice Munro.

Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing: Stories, by Lydia Peele

Peelle writes most of these stories from a masculine perspective, something I would normally find disingenuous, but she does so masterfully, and the result is a collection that is as sharp and addictive as Richard Ford's Rock Springs. Having never been to the south, I kept interchanging the scenery with that of the Northwest -- so much of the collection is fixated on the outdoors, on the strange flightly disconnect between man and nature, and for one story in particular, revolving around a ghostlike mountain lion, I perfectly envisioned the forests of Northern Idaho. Barely any moments exist indoors -- and yet the stories are still so internal to the characters. Fantastic.

Too Much Happiness, by Alice Munro

Munro is a master storyteller, arguably the best living writer in North America. These stories begin with the domestic and arc into sheer drama. In the first story, a bereft woman reconnects with the mentally-disturbed husband that murdered their children. In another, a college student is urged by her roommate to dine with the roommate’s estranged wealthy lover, resulting in a bizarrely refined evening of humiliation. What I love about Munro is her ability to carve such universal human emotions into her characters – despite the strange circumstances – making them seem so alive. Reading her work – which is ultimately so compassionate, so generous – is always cathartic, always life-changing – exactly what great literature should be.

There Once Was a Woman Who Tried to Kill her Neighbor’s Baby: Fairy Tales, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

This renowned Russian writer serves up a collection as dark and eyebrow-raising as its title suggests. I ordered this book after reading "Hygiene" in Harper’s Magazine, a story in which a plague descends upon a village and a family gruesomely turns against one another to avoid getting sick. The stories are not necessarily deep or moving, but they are speedy, comic and creepy. Of course, this is not a collection for the weak-hearted. Macomber fans would not be pleased, but Stephen King fans might be…

Where the Money Went, by Kevin Canty

If you’ve got a manly literary type roaming the stacks – especially someone who enjoys James Crumley, Jim Harrison, Richard Hugo or any of the fly-fishing, Montana-outdoorsy set – tell them about Kevin Canty. His novels are great, but where he really masters his craft are his short stories. Also, I’m a sucker for any book with a mermaid on the cover.

Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, by Maile Meloy

To put it alliteratively, Meloy’s writing is melodic. In clean, serene sentences, she unfolds the petals of her characters’ desires. A young girl longs to grow up, almost managing to do so in one evening with a lusty business associate of her father’s. A lonely rancher’s desire for a law student leads to a frantic drive across wintry Montana. With stories this diverse and moving, it’s no wonder that Meloy’s collection was selected as one of the Top 10 Books of 2010 by The New York Times. For music fans, you might be interested to know that her brother, Colin, founded the band The Decemberists.

Happy reading!

Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library by Ed D'Angelo

I finished this book last week. I posted my review on my blog. For anyone interested in democracy and how it pertains to the public library, this is a great, short read. Lots of big ideas. Here's the link.

Locke & Key

The late H.P. Lovecraft's stories are horror classics. He created an entire mythology (often referred to as the Mythos or the Cthulhu Mythos) filled with monsters, throwbacks, and non-Euclidean geometry. He then opened his world up, inviting other authors to play in his sandbox. And play they did. I came late to the fandom, but I'm here now. Which is why I know that, if you're looking for a place to start fresh, you don't want to go to a town called Lovecraft. That's what the Locke family does in the comic/graphic novel series Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.

Following their father's murder, the Locke kids (teens Tyler and Kinsey, and younger Bode) and their mother move to Keyhouse, the Locke family manse. It's there that Bode discovers the ghost key, that lets him separate from his body. There are lots of other keys at Keyhouse, and the epilogues in each collection tell us about them, and about the histories of Keyhouse and the Lockes.

This is a story that works very well in graphic format. Rodriguez's illustrations fit beautifully with Hill's story to show us what is happening and draw us into the story. The artwork enhances the suspense in the story, shocking the reader for effect rather than for shock's own sake. The characters' emotions are captured and clearly expressed in the artwork, not leaving the reader to guess whether someone is amazed or disgusted. The lettering is also well done, without a distracting amount of font changes and jagged speech bubbles.

The story unfolds at a reasonable pace, not so fast that the reader loses track of what's going on -- no mean feat given the flashbacks and changing perspectives -- but never so slow as to risk losing interest. It also follows its own rules. The reader isn't left saying, "Wait a minute. That shouldn't have happened."

By the end of volume 2 of the collected works (Head Games), it's clear that this is a "kids save the world" story. Most of the adults are clueless or incompetent. (Mom after Bode uses the Head Key: "Put the top of your head back on, Bode. Should we have fettuccine for dinner?" No, seriously, the top of his head was gone. You could look inside and see his memories.) The ones who might actually be able to help are quickly dealt with by the forces of evil.

The violence is graphic in both senses of the word, and there is some sex. I would recommend this series to adult horror fans without reservation. It would probably also appeal to older teens, and may be a good choice for reluctant readers.

Preview volume 1, Welcome to Lovecraft, here.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

This year's Spokane is Reading choice is the story of a dog who longs to be reincarnated as a man. The narrator, Enzo, is a philosophical and insightful dog, given to TV watching. He's highly anthropomorphized (having human characteristics ascribed to a non-human), though not in a syrupy, oh-so-sweet way. He believes he has the soul of a man and tries to behave humanly. He understands and realizes things that his human family does not, but, lacking the ability to speak, he is unable to tell them what they need to know. (He does suggest that a device like the one Steven Hawking had would remedy this, and fantasizes more than once about what he would say if only he could.) His voice is consistent throughout the story, as are those of the humans whose conversations he recounts. Weighing in at over 300 pages, the book is a fast read with short chapters.

Spoiler -- highlight to read spoilers: The dog dies, but the last chapter has a little boy with the same name, presumably Enzo reincarnated.

Must read science

Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City by Eric W. Sanderson (2009)

It has been a long time since I read a book with a natural history focus, and I was pleased at both how much I remembered from school and how much there was to learn again. While the title of the book is self-explanatory, the gist of it is anything but. This is more than a retelling of New York City based on primary documents and geographical reporting. Sanderson is able to cut through much of the historical clutter to bring the reader a clear-cut version of Manhattan before it was a city.

The true claim to fame of this book is the illustrations. Using the British Headquarters Map (1782-83), Sanderson was able to recreate the topography of the island as it appeared to Henry Hudson in 1609 when he landed on the island. As he studied the map, Sanderson found that it was assembled incorrectly at the National Archives of the United Kingdom. Using a computer imaging program, he realigned the map to its correct placement and voila, he had a “topographical and historical encyclopedia” of Manhattan before development. He used this map and other historical documents to create GIS points and layers that correspond to the current Manhattan. The result was a series of side-by-side images of the current Manhattan landscape and the landscape of Mannahatta (the original Lanape name for the island) circa 1609.

The illustrations are extraordinary and breathtaking. Although I read each chapter, looking through the images and reading the captions will fascinate even the cursorily curious. His research into the ways of life of the original inhabitants is intriguing and provides more in-depth analysis of this remarkable place. He ends the book with some thoughts about the future and sustainability in such a dense environment. This book was truly awesome, and it receives my highest seal of approval.