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Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category

Kim Fu–“For John” [The 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar #6] (2024)

Posted in Art, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Kim Fu, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 6, 2024] “For John”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

Ten years of stories! Yikes, where does the time go?
When the first Short Story Advent Calendar launched, in 2015, we frankly had no clue we’d still be sitting here today, continuing to offer up batches of tasty stories fresh from the oven. To celebrate this milestone, we’ve packed the 10th SSAC with a mix of new and familiar names—ideal company for those chilly winter nights ahead.

The author of this story was Kim Fu.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.  And this one opens:

It’s December 6. Kim Fu, author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, is building up an impressive collection of landscapes.

This was a weird little story that I quite liked. (more…)

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Katya Apekina–“My Smell Journal [orange peels, ink, coffee filters]” [The 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar #5] (2012)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Katya Apekina, Pregnancy, Short Story, Smells, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 5, 2024] “My Smell Journal [orange peels, ink, coffee filters]”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

Ten years of stories! Yikes, where does the time go?
When the first Short Story Advent Calendar launched, in 2015, we frankly had no clue we’d still be sitting here today, continuing to offer up batches of tasty stories fresh from the oven. To celebrate this milestone, we’ve packed the 10th SSAC with a mix of new and familiar names—ideal company for those chilly winter nights ahead.

The author of this story was Katya Apekina.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.  And this one opens:

It’s December 5. Katya Apekina, author of Mother Doll, is picking up notes of damp potato chip.

I enjoyed the conceit of this story.  The narrator has found an old device that records smells (because smells trigger memories, etc). (more…)

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J. Robert Lennon–“Vandring” [The 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar #4] (2024)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, J. Robert Lennon, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 4, 2024] “Vandring”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

Ten years of stories! Yikes, where does the time go?
When the first Short Story Advent Calendar launched, in 2015, we frankly had no clue we’d still be sitting here today, continuing to offer up batches of tasty stories fresh from the oven. To celebrate this milestone, we’ve packed the 10th SSAC with a mix of new and familiar names—ideal company for those chilly winter nights ahead.

The author of this story was J. Robert Lennon.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.  This one opens with:

It’s December 4. J. Robert Lennon, author of Hard Girls, does a series of wrist and arm stretches to prevent injury.

I have read some books by J. Robert Lennon and indeed, have some on my shelf that I intended to read but never got around to.

This story confused me right from the get go (I assume deliberately so). (more…)

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Ed Park–“Eat, Pray, Click” [The 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar #3] (2024)

Posted in Books about writers, Canadian Content, Christmas, Ed Park, Hingston & Olsen, Short Story, Technology, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 3, 2024] “Eat, Pray, Click”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

Ten years of stories! Yikes, where does the time go?
When the first Short Story Advent Calendar launched, in 2015, we frankly had no clue we’d still be sitting here today, continuing to offer up batches of tasty stories fresh from the oven. To celebrate this milestone, we’ve packed the 10th SSAC with a mix of new and familiar names—ideal company for those chilly winter nights ahead.

The author of this story was Ed Park.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview. And this one opens:

It’s December 3. Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams, chooses his own adventure.

This is a very brief story set in ten brief sections.

In the first we learn that the Kindle has been hacked many times over.  Animated scorpions run amok across The Corrections.  The Glass Castle turns Swedish in the middle of chapter three.  But his friend Rolph was the first to hack the system. (more…)

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Katherine Heiny–“The Hookup” [The 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar #2] (2018)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Hungary, Katherine Heiny, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 2, 2024] “The Hookup”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

Ten years of stories! Yikes, where does the time go?
When the first Short Story Advent Calendar launched, in 2015, we frankly had no clue we’d still be sitting here today, continuing to offer up batches of tasty stories fresh from the oven. To celebrate this milestone, we’ve packed the 10th SSAC with a mix of new and familiar names—ideal company for those chilly winter nights ahead.

The author of this story was Katherine Heiny.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.  And this one opens:

It’s December 2. Katherine Heiny, author of Games and Rituals, saves the good china for the CIA.

This story is about a Hungarian family living in the United States.  I have recently started working with a Hungarian woman, so this was a really fun story to read right now. (more…)

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Robin Sloan–“In the Stacks” [The 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar #1] (2023)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Library Related, Robin Sloan, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 1, 2024] “In the Stacks”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

Ten years of stories! Yikes, where does the time go?
When the first Short Story Advent Calendar launched, in 2015, we frankly had no clue we’d still be sitting here today, continuing to offer up batches of tasty stories fresh from the oven. To celebrate this milestone, we’ve packed the 10th SSAC with a mix of new and familiar names—ideal company for those chilly winter nights ahead.

The author of this story was Robin Sloan.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.  Although today doesn’t have an interview just this blurb:

It’s December 1. To officially kick off the 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar, here’s a story about librarians, patrons, and one unusual musical instrument, from the author of Moonbound.

I didn’t realize that I knew Robin Sloan’s work, but I read Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore about ten years ago and loved it.  I’m going to have to put his other books on my list, especially Moonbound.

This short story was fantastic. (more…)

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César Aira–Artforum (2014) [translated 2020]

Posted in Art, Artforum, Artists, César Aira, Collecting, Katherine Silver, Magazines, Regrets, Short Story, Translation, Translators on August 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: .

[READ: August 6, 2024] Artforum

I’d been a pretty avid reader of César Aira.  Of course it is impossible to read everything he’s written.  Not only because most of his books haven’t been translated into English but because his bio blurb states “he has published at least one hundred books.”

So, yea.  I assumed that my library would have all of the ones I hadn’t read yet (about 5) but i was surprised they only had this one.

So this book is a collection of stories/essays/musings/thoughts mostly centered around the magazine Artforum.  They were written between 1983 and 2013.  They are gathered in a (very) vague narrative style.  But they all deal with his obsession with this magazine.

Aira is a weird writer.  His books are short.  They seem to be stream of consciousness–as if he starts writing, lets his thoughts go where they will and then just stops.  These short pieces are more focused, but not all of them are focused.  He’s a fun read to be sure. (more…)

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Sarah McLachlan: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th Anniversary Tour / Feist (TD Pavilion @ The Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, June 26, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Feist, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Sarah McLachlan on June 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 24, 2024] Sarah McLachlan / Feist

I was a big fan of Sarah McLachlan’s music in the 1990s.  I went to a Lilith Fair and loved her for bringing female artists together on a tour and really breaking barriers.

This album is an especially wonderful album from start to finish.

But I also knew I would never go to this show–it was just way out of my wheelhouse these days.   And I don’t love the Mann Center for shows like this.  But it turns out that one of my college friends was there and it would have been fun to see her. (more…)

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Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (肉包不吃肉) [Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat]–Remnants of Filth / Yuwu (余污) [Pollution] Book 2 (2019) [translation 2023]

Posted in China, Danmei, Drinking, 肉包不吃肉, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Magic, Magical Realism, Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat, Military, Romance, Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou, Rui, Sex, Translation, Violence, Yu on May 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: May 13, 2023] Remnants of Filth Book 2

I didn’t expect to read any more books in this series, but then book 2 came to my desk and I had to see what happened next.  Now I’m half way into the series and I’m very curious how it will play out.  But I’m quite certain I’ll never see Part 3.  Incidentally, our library had books 2-4 of Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou’s more noteworthy series The Husky and the White Cat Shizun (why don’t we have book one?)

So, it’s been a while, what did I say last time?

The author of this book is Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (or Roubaobuchirou).  In Chinese that is 肉包不吃肉 which literally translates into Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat.  This last phrase is what she is commonly known as in the United States.

This book is danmei.  According to The Guardian:

Danmei is romantic fiction about men or male beings – ghosts, foxes, even a mushroom – falling in love, written almost exclusively by and for straight women and is the most popular genre of fiction in China.

This series is about two soldiers.  Mo Xi and Gu Mang.

The two were friends and then lovers when they were younger.  They fought together and they loved each other.  This was largely forbidden and no one knew of their relationship.

And then (and we don’t know why in this book), Gu Mang switched sides.  He joined forces with the enemy.  And on the battlefield when Mo Xi and Gu Mang faced each other, Gu Mang stabbed his friend and lover in the heart.  There’s magic in these books, and Mo Xi survived.

In book one, Mo Xi brought Gu Mang out of the slavery he was stuck in.  Mo Xi has to do some twisting of reality for people to believe that he is holding on to Gu Mang for reasonably reasons but Mo Xi is so virtuous, no one questions his motives. (more…)

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Kazu Kibuishi–Amulet: Book Nine: Waverider (2024)

Posted in Aliens, Alternate Reality, Children's Books, Completed Series, Death, Dystopia, Ghosts, Graphic Novel, Kazu Kibuishi, Mystery, Outer Space, Robots, Supernatural, Superstitions, Technology on February 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: February 2, 2024] Amulet: Waverider

It has been SIX YEARS since the previous book came out.  This has been a hotly anticipated release around our house as I got my wife into it and she has gotten a bunch of her students into it.  It’s crazy to think that the students who were reading the books in fifth grade are now in high school.

This book follows Emily as she combats the evil Ikol.  I had assumed that Ikol was the inverse of Loki, but later in the book he explains that it is an acronym–the Intelligent Kinematic Operations Laboratory (the place he was born).

But Emily’s plan is to undo all of the wicked things that Ikol has done to the citizens of this world.  Mostly that involves getting people to look inside of themselves and see their true nature.

Meanwhile Trellis and the elves are heading bac into their own territory.  They are smuggled in as sick prisoners suffering from (I love this) Empathitis.  When they get to the castle, it turns out that Gabilan is in power.  He expects a fight from Trellis, but Trellis says no, he is there to serve the rightfully appointed king.  Everyone is shocked. (more…)

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