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Archive for the ‘Short Story’ Category

Ben Okri–“The Secret Source” (New Yorker, September 19, 2022)

Posted in Ben Okri, Death, Dystopia, Mind control, New Yorker, Short Story, Water on January 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: January 2, 2024] “The Secret Source”

This story is set in a dystopian future.

It began a little broadly but soon it was made clear that something was wrong with the world’s water.

There wasn’t enough of it and everyone had to ration the water–fifteen minutes per day per household.

And then one day the main character Fisher noticed that the water was viscous and almost a little slimy.  Clearly someone (the government?) was putting something in the water?

This explained why everyone–from the opposition party to comedians seemed so compliant, so passive these days.  If the water was tainted…  they must do something.  But who could they trust?

No one, clearly. (more…)

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Joan Silber–“Evolution” (New Yorker, September 12, 2022)

Posted in Death, Hitchhiking, Joan Silber, New York City, New Yorker, Sex, Sexism, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on January 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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[READ: January 2, 2024] “Evolution”

I used to read a New Yorker story every week.  And then life caught up with me.   I haven’t read them in a while, but after reading the Short Story Advent Calendar, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed reading a short story, so I grabbed a handful of magazines from my unread stack (1 resolution for 2024 is to read all the magazines in this enormous pile) and started with this one.

I didn’t love this story probably because it started as one thing and turned into something else (evolution much?).

Set in 1974, the story opens wit Cara dancing on a fire escape in New York City.  She slipped and broke her leg.  She has a terrible memory of the hospital and a guy who had been sitting with a friend but who just left him there. (more…)

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Drew Buxton–“So Much Heart” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #25] (2023)

Posted in Bigfoot, Canadian Content, Christmas, Drew Buxton, Hingston & Olsen, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 25, 2023] “So Much Heart”

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

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Drew Buxton.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 25. To officially conclude the 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar, here is a story about family, friends, and mysterious suitcases stuffed full of cash.

This story features both Bigfoot and D.B. Cooper.

Set in Oregon, two young kids Collin and Shelley go into the woods with a film camera looking for Bigfoot. (more…)

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Willa Cather–“The Burglar’s Christmas” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #24] (1896)

Posted in Burglary, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Parenting, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Willa Cather on December 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 24, 2023] “The Burglar’s Christmas”

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

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Willa Cather.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 24. Willa Cather, author of O Pioneers! and My Antonia, died in 1947. “The Burglar’s Christmas” first appeared, under a pseudonym, in Home Monthly in 1896.

Yesterday was grifters, today it’s burglars. (more…)

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David Ryan–“Holiday” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #23] (2023)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, David Ryan, Hingston & Olsen, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 23, 2023] “Holiday”

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

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was David Ryan.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 23. David Ryan, author of Animals in Motion, would like to open a chequing account.

I happened to be listening to an audio book about a family of grifters–something that I feel like I don’t hear about all that often.  And yet here was a random short story in this collection that is also about a grifter.

Jeremy and Sophia are in bed together.  They have been a couple for a short time, and Sophia has just told him the Lost in the Bank story (her parents lost her in a bank).  Jeremy: Were they high?  Sophia: Probably. (more…)

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Anton Chekov–“Boys” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #22] (1887)

Posted in Anton Chekhov, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 22, 2023] “Boys”

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

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Anton Chekhov.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 22. Anton Chekhov, one of the greatest Russian writers of all time, died in 1904. His story “At Christmas Time” appeared in the 2016 Short Story Advent Calendar, among other places.

This story was translated by Constance Garnett (who died in 1946). (more…)

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Binnie Kirshenbaum–“The Gift of the Magi Revisited” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #21] (2020)

Posted in Binnie Kirshenbaum, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 21, 2023] “The Gift of the Magi Revisited”

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

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Binnie Kirshenbaum.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 21. Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Rabbits for Food, can’t find the receipt, so will settle for store credit.

I was concerned when I saw the title of this one because it’s a lot to reference a stone-cold classic in the title of your story and then say you are revisiting it.  I feared the worst: either Kirshenbaum would try to improve on the story or she would make a kind of anti-Gift of the Magi, which would be negative and nasty. (more…)

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Leopoldine Core–“The Skull” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #20] (2023)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Leopoldine Core, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 20, 2023] “The Skull”

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

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Leopoldine Core.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 20. Leopoldine Core, author of When Watched, steers clear of Facebook Marketplace.

This was a short story about, yes, a skull.  (more…)

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Michael LaPointe–“Private Hands” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #19] (2021)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Jimi Hendrix, Museum of the Dandelion, Provenance, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, The Walrus on December 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 19, 2023] “Private Hands”

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

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Michael LaPointe.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 19. Michael LaPointe, author of The Creep, has a line on a shoe once worn by Jerry Garcia.

I’ve read a lot of short stories over the years and I keep this blog as a way to remember them.  But it’s cool when I can start a story and recognize it.  I read this story over two and a half years ago in The Walrus, but it rang familiar after the first few paragraphs.  Interesting that i didn’t remember how it ended.

Harvey has a lot of rarities that he sells.  He is trying to sell a 1963 Fender Strat that Jimi Hendrix played at the Juggy Sound Studio.  He asks $500,000 but he knows it’s too much (Harvey overpaid for it and wants to make some money back). (more…)

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Colin Winnette–“Ghost Mountain Island Murder Mystery” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #18] (2014)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, Colin Winnette, Hingston & Olsen, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 18, 2023] “Ghost Mountain Island Murder Mystery”

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

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Colin Winnette.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 18. Colin Winnette, author of Users, isn’t sure that the snake is part of the experience.

(more…)

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