I’ve decided to pull quotes from the stories instead, so I don’t have to think of intelligent things to say.
Also, I found a few multi-author short story compilations on my shelf I’ve never read. I usually don’t like multi-author compilations (because the style varies too widely for me to enjoy it), but this challenge seemed like a good way to make my way through a couple of these on my shelf. So stories 2 through 7 inclusive are from McSweeney’s 32.
Isn’t it nice that February divides so nicely into four weeks exactly? Anyways, number $$\iff$$ date.
WEEK ONE
- There Is No Time In Waterloo by Sheila Heti conceived with Margaux Williamson: People who know almost nothing about what they’re talking about are often more enthusiastic than the ones who know a lot.
- Oblast by J. Erin Sweeney: According to the news reports Niko is encouraged not to read, his father is responsible for the worst massacre the region has endured in this century.
- The Black Square by Chris Adrian: This is not MERELY a suicide.
- Eighth Wonder by Chris Bachelder: It was a Fun Trivia that dome engineers claimed they could make it snow.
- Raw Water by Wells Tower: Then Rodney went downstairs and poured himself some cereal and turned the television on.
- Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr: He spoke English as if each word were a tiny egg he had to deliver carefully through his teeth.
- Lying Under The Apple Tree by Alice Munroe: [I]t would put me in the category of such girls. Those who wore women’s oxford shoes and lisle stockings and rolled their hair.