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Archive for the ‘Short Story’ Category

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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Arthur Conan Doyle–“The Copper Beeches” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1892)

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, Mystery, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story on April 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: March 24, 2024] “The Cooper Beeches”

The final story in this collection is spooky and very creepy.  It starts quietly enough.

A young woman comes in to see Holmes.  She is quite upset about a job offer.  She is being hired to look after a child for a gregarious and wealthy man and his quiet wife.  He had a daughter with his previous wife but she is in Philadelphia.  Now, he has a child with his new wife and he is looking for someone to watch the child and to help with his wife’s needs and whims.

It’s a little odd, but what’s very odd is the huge amount of money he’s willing to pay (four times as much as anyone else) and the very weird fact that he asks her to cut off her beautiful hair.  What does he think?

There’s nothing that Holmes can do right now, so he wishes her luck. But he confides to Watson that he thinks it’s a very bad idea. And he points out amusingly that if this appointment was in the city it wouldn’t be as scary but being in the middle of nowhere is where all the more horrible things happen.

It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside….
The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger.

A short time later she reaches out to Holmes and wants to talk to him.  They meet and she tells him that the house is crazy.  She has found a length of hair that is just like hers and there is a wing of the house that is totally locked up.  The master of the house has asked her to put on a specific (used) dress.  And finally, when she expressed an interest in the locked area, he was menacing about insisting that she stay away from it.

I guessed what Conan Doyle had in mind but didn’t really imagine that he’d go through with the crazy idea–Conan Doyle is (I think) pretty out there with some of his ideas, but again I wonder if he was ahead of the curve or if there are other lesser known stories that deal with unusual storylines.

My suspicions were correct about what was going on, but as with the Noble Bachelor, he had more (unexpected to me) details to throw into the story.

And that’s the end of this book.  In a little while I’m going to bust into his next collection of short stories The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

~~~~~

The four novels of the canon:

  1. A Study in Scarlet (1887)
  2. The Sign of the Four (1890)
  3. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
  4. The Valley of Fear (1915)

The 56 short stories are collected in five books:

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
  2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
  3. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
  4. His Last Bow (1917)
  5. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) contains 12 stories published in The Strand between July 1891 and June 1892

  1. “A Scandal in Bohemia” (June 1891)
  2. “The Red-Headed League” (August 1891)
  3. “A Case of Identity” (September 1891)
  4. “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” (October 1891)
  5. “The Five Orange Pips” (November 1891)
  6. “The Man with the Twisted Lip” (December 1891)
  7. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” (January 1892)
  8. “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (February 1892)
  9. “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” (March 1892)
  10. “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor” (April 1892)
  11. “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” (May 1892)
  12. “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” (June 1892)

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Arthur Conan Doyle–“The Beryl Coronet” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1892)

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, Mystery, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story, Thieves on April 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: March 24, 2024] “The Beryl Coronet”

The eleventh story in this collection sees Holmes getting back to his old sleuthing skills–he even uses a magnifying glass!

The Beryl Coronet is a gold crown studded with jewels.  It is worth a fortune.  The backstory is that a banker has come to see Holmes.  He is so bad-looking that Watson presumes him to be a destitute alcoholic when he arrives.  But he is, in fact, head of the bank.  He says that he was recently approached by a man who needed a lot of money immediately.  Normally the bank would say no, but the man produced this crown (which is a national treasure) as collateral.

The banker said okay, but then was so nervous about it being stolen in the bank that he brought it to his house (which cannot possibly be more safe than a bank).

He proceeded to tell his son and niece (long story short: her parents are dead, he’s like a father to her).

Later that night, the banker hears a ruckus and his son (who is kind of a lazy boy and has recently asked for money) is seen in the anteroom with the crown (now broken).  The banker freaks out and accuses his son of theft.  The son says nothing, just gets offended and walks off.  The niece (whom the banker had often times implored to marry his son) rushes to his defense.

The banker is freaked, obviously, as the crown is ruined and three jewels are missing.

Holmes does some lengthy detection and figures things out.  The son is obviously innocent.  The thief is cleverly alluded to and there is much hand wringing.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit–even if the banker (once the crown part is recovered) is still left with a broken crown! (more…)

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Arthur Conan Doyle–“The Noble Bachelor” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1892)

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, Mystery, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story, Weddings on April 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: March 24, 2024] “The Noble Bachelor”

The tenth story in this collection is another one where Holmes doesn’t really do a lot.  The story is sort of a celebrity scandal.  I had to wonder, after reading this, if Conan Doyle was the first person to use this conceit in a mystery.

The story is a fairly simple one, but there’s lot of details thrown in to throw one of the scent, I assume.

This is the story of a failed wedding.  The bride left the groom at the altar.  But she had been in the church a few minutes before the wedding began.  And she hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

Some back story is that the man is a Lord, the woman is American.  Her father struck it rich in the gold rush and is probably worth more than the Lord.  They had met when he travelled to California.  And then she travelled to England where they met again and were engaged.  I love the way this is worded: “I met her several times, became engaged to her….”

The only thing that the Lord noticed on the day of the wedding was that she dropped her bouquet and a person in one of the pews handed it to her.  And that a woman who he once was involved with was seen with his bride to be just before she disappeared.

The police come in and say that they found her clothes in the river and assume she was killed.  They also found a note with the initials of the woman who was last seen with her.

Holmes obviously dismisses everyone’s ideas and quickly comes to conclusion of what happened.  But it is the note with the initials that leads him to be able to put things to right.

I more or less guessed what was going to happen from the start, but the details are quite good and interesting as he does twist things a little.

It’s a minor spoiler to say that someone has followed her from America, but I’m curious if this was t he first time that someone had written a story where her past caught up with her in quite this way.

~~~~~

The four novels of the canon:

  1. A Study in Scarlet (1887)
  2. The Sign of the Four (1890)
  3. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
  4. The Valley of Fear (1915)

The 56 short stories are collected in five books:

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
  2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
  3. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
  4. His Last Bow (1917)
  5. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) contains 12 stories published in The Strand between July 1891 and June 1892

  1. “A Scandal in Bohemia” (June 1891)
  2. “The Red-Headed League” (August 1891)
  3. “A Case of Identity” (September 1891)
  4. “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” (October 1891)
  5. “The Five Orange Pips” (November 1891)
  6. “The Man with the Twisted Lip” (December 1891)
  7. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” (January 1892)
  8. “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (February 1892)
  9. “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” (March 1892)
  10. “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor” (April 1892)
  11. “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” (May 1892)
  12. “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” (June 1892)

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Arthur Conan Doyle–“The Engineer’s Thumb” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1892)

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, Murder, Mystery, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story, Technology on April 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: March 24, 2024] “The Engineer’s Thumb”

The ninth story in this collection is one where even Watson admits that Holmes doesn’t really “do” very much.  The story reads a bit more like a (tame) horror story than a mystery.

A man comes running into Watson’s office with his hand all bloody.  He has had his thumb chopped off!  He recounts his story and when Holmes hears about it, he sets about trying to unpack what happened,

The man Victor Hatherley, was offered 50 guinea by Colonel Lysander Stark to come examine Stark’s hydraulic press which was broken.  Stark claimed it was to compress fuller’s earth (what? even the definition doesn’t help what would be going on here–uses include as absorbents for oil, grease, and animal waste, and as a carrier for pesticides and fertilizers.  Hatherley was suspicious about this fuller’s earth story, but figured, hey 50 bucks is 50 bucks, so he goes to check it out.

It’s all incredibly hush hush of course, and when Hatherley checks things out, he also seems to discover what Stark is up to.  Stark tries to crush him with the very press that he fixed (!) and then, when Stark gets away, he swings an axe at him (hence the thumb).

The bulk of the story is in recounting Hatherley’s story.  It’s not even clear that Holmes could “do” anything.  But it turns out that Holmes has read about a counterfeiting operation in town.  He puts two and two together and figures that the press is actually for printing coins.

They head to the house (which is where Holmes does his real deducing because he figures out where it was despite Hatherley being blindfolded, but it has been burnt down.

The question is whether or not the police can track down the thieves.

This wa sa pretty exciting story and well told, but it’s not a great example of Holmes’ detection.

~~~~~

The four novels of the canon:

  1. A Study in Scarlet (1887)
  2. The Sign of the Four (1890)
  3. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
  4. The Valley of Fear (1915)

The 56 short stories are collected in five books:

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
  2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
  3. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
  4. His Last Bow (1917)
  5. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) contains 12 stories published in The Strand between July 1891 and June 1892

  1. “A Scandal in Bohemia” (June 1891)
  2. “The Red-Headed League” (August 1891)
  3. “A Case of Identity” (September 1891)
  4. “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” (October 1891)
  5. “The Five Orange Pips” (November 1891)
  6. “The Man with the Twisted Lip” (December 1891)
  7. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” (January 1892)
  8. “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (February 1892)
  9. “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” (March 1892)
  10. “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor” (April 1892)
  11. “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” (May 1892)
  12. “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” (June 1892)

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