Possible Side Effects

by Augusten Burroughs.

Quickie Recap: Burroughs shows us yet more sides him with awesome stories, my favourite possibly being the one about how he fell in love with an unlovable puppy.

Quickie Review: Not a one-trick pony! Yeah, he wrote that crazy-popular Running With Scissors, but he's not just one of the dozens capitalizing on a crazy childhood. He's a legitimate writer with things to say beyond the "hey, look at me and my eccentric ways" that are dominating the best-seller lists these days. Actually, I thought Dry was even better than Running, and this collection of little essays is yet more proof that he's an author, not just a victim.

Quickie Recommendation: Keep buying Burroughs.

The Thing Around Your Neck

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Quickie Recap: These 12 stories span between America and Africa, and offer up a variety of experiences but are linked by their intimacy, their excellence, their fine detail.

Quickie Review: This was my first taste of Adichie and it was quite satisfying. The stories are powerful, offering careful slices of lives worth observing. 'The American Embassy' was for me particularly memorable but each story gives a taste of culture and humanity in stirring ways.

Quickie recommendation: Yes.

My Father's Tears

and other stories, by John Updike.

Quickie Recap: In this collection of short stories, Updike is in the mood for reminiscing. They look back at past loves, high school, raising families, travels, surviving suburbia.

Quickie Review: Although these stories do focus primarily on aged characters, you never get a morbid feeling. These people are living. They are remembering, and taking stock. They have learned from life even if the reader sometimes has to infer the lessons. I fell in love with Updike for his short stories more than a decade ago and every time I get my hands on more I do my own remembering: that he is a master of this medium.

Quickie Recommendation: Always a delight.

Nocturnes

Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Quickie Recap: 5 short stories, each related in some way to a love of music, some stories overlapping briefly, if not in content then in theme.

Quickie Review: Beautiful. I found it absolutely lovely that there stories each had a similar feel to them. Each one was precious - each, I felt, deserved to stand alone, could have been fleshed out into whole novels, could have held my attention for oodles longer. And that`s not to say that I felt unsatisfied by any of them, because they were perfection as they were.

Quickie Recommendation: For me, this is a rarity - short stories that I really loved.

Moral Disorder

by Margaret Atwood

Quickie Recap: The stories are all about the same woman, from different periods in her life, and told from different perspectives.

Quickie Review: It's Atwood, so of course it's good. I found it fairly straight-forward, with moments of bitterness and sweetness both. When I first dove in, I was in love. It was easy to get into, but because the stories are related, it almost reads like a novel, a novel which in the end lacks that final punch. It left me wanting to know more about the other relationships that get woven into the stories. I wanted a bit of closure.

Quickie Recommendation: I don't consider it her best, but I'm sure even her worst is far above much of the tripe they sell in Chapters.

Holidays on Ice

by David Sedaris

Quickie Recap: Christmas in some families is a time of tradition and warmth and celebration. But if you've got a family half of crazy as mine, if you veer toward the untraditional, then you'll have an appreciation for these stories.

Quickie Review: You may have already heard Sedaris read his Santa Land Diaries and you can be glad to read them here again. If not, you're in for a treat because Sedaris working as an elf in a Macy's department store = pure comedy gold. He's also included some other holiday gems, some of them never before published, so yay!

Quickie Recommendation: I laughed out loud, what more do you want?

Alice Munro's Best

Selected Stories, by Alice Munro.

Quickie Recap: Alice Munro offers up some great great pieces to love and re-explore.

Quickie Review: Munro is a goddess of Canadian literature. Many of these stories were familiar to me, like old friends with whom you instantly take up the relationship where it left off. Others were less known to me and gave me new opportunity to appreciate her genius. The Bear Came Over the Mountain struck me in particular - it has recently been transformed into a wonderful movie by Sarah Polley but still stands on its own as a brave short story.

Quickie Recommendation: A resounding Canadian yes.

Sex is Red

Stories by Bill Gaston.

Quickie Recap: How can you really recap a book of short stories, except to say that there's a range of emotion here that is quite impressive. However, there is a unifying theme of internal struggle, a feeling of alienation, a yearning for something that perhaps was never quite yours to begin with.

Quickie Review: I would agree that sex is red, but sex isn't the only thing that's red, and in the story in question, I doubt whether it's only sex being referred to. There are shades of subtlety, of quiet revenge, of quiet rage, even, for lives lived not quite right. I was bowled over by the very first story and just kept on truckin, delighted to have found a new (to me) Canadian voice that actually has something to say.

Quickie Recommendation: Worth the perusal.

Literary Lapses

by Stephen Leacock.

Quickie Recap: This is Leacock's first collection of comic stories, self-published according to the afterword by Robertson Davies, and full of gems, according to me.

Quickie Review: I liked best the one story that Robertson Davies did not: Number Fifty-Six. Other than that, Davies and I seem to agree largely that Leacock is a national treasure, always a funny man, and a great read besides.

Quickie Recommendation: Never a let down.

Blackouts

Stories by Craig Boyko.

Quickie recap: Short stories that really span in content - from the arcade to domestic disputes, and even all the way to a post-war Russia - this book is bursting with stories waiting to be told.

Quickie review: I immediately felt like Boyko must be an interesting person because anyone who can put himself into so many diverse skins must be tolerant, observant, and talented. This is an excellent carry-around book because each story is easily digestible. You don't need an enormous time commitment or attention span, you can just dive right in and take any one on its own - you could even read them out of sequence, and that's exactly what I plan to do on my second read-through. I'll definitely be looking out for more from this guy.

Quickie recommendation: Ben oui.

Bang Crunch Stories

by Neil Smith.

Quickie recap: A small collection of short stories that are wise and fairly pared down, definitely original (although believable in their everyday settings), surprisingly funny in parts, melancholy in others, and above all, well written.

Quickie review: I wasn't prepared for how well or how much I would like this author and these stories. Right out of the gates, the first story, 'Isolettes', it quietly throttles you. It's the kind of story that tiptoes around you, and before you know it, it's got you by the balls. 'Scrapbook' is achingly a propos. The writing is tight. And as for 'The Butterfly Box' (by far my favourite) - well, it's an event. It was for me. It reminded me that you don't know anything until the last word is read. The last word can change everything. The last word can make you immediately flip back to the first word and begin again to get a fuller appreciation. The stories are outwardly unassuming, they're not fantastical or attention-grabbing, but they simmer. They give you little light bulb moments. They're what people mean by 'the joy of reading.'

Quickie recommendation: Yeah, I liked em.

Four Letter Word

Original Love Letters, Edited by Joshua Knelman & Rosalind Porter.

Quickie recap: A selection of outstanding authors including Leonard Cohen, Miriam Toews, Audrey Niffeneggeter, Joseph Boyden, Douglas Coupland and Margaret Atwood all contribute original, fictional love letters.

Quickie review: Oh my, writers are full of shit. Just full of it. I mean, they each receive a plea to send in a love letter, and each one thinks, hey, I'm a Big Important Writer. I'm going to show everyone how brilliant and original I am by re-interpreting the mandate. I'm so impressive I can't possibly write just a love letter, I have to be clever and unexpected. Except all writers are full of shit. They all seem to have had the same idea. Pity too, because time and again, the greatest pieces of writing in this book are the actual honest-to-goodness love letters. But you know what? They're all pretty amazing, even the pieces of shit are amazing. Even the Coupland is amazing! And there are some pieces in here with such fervent, inspired writing that I have felt compelled to jot down some names. In fact, a couple of them were so insanely good that I was almost dumb-founded to have never heard of them before, and thankful to have the chance to do so. I laughed, I cried, I thought about the word love and what exactly it means. I thought about the love letters I have written, and those I've received, and those I will be inspired to send in the near-future. I got lost, very lost, in a very good book. I buzzed through it and when finished I felt sad and lonely for about 10 seconds before I realized I could simply start over again, and so I did....and many of them are even better with the second reading. It may only be February, but I guarantee that this book will remain in my top reads of 2008. I liked it for its lack of schmaltz. I loved it for its wit, its lament, its yearning, its accuracy. Oh, the accuracy, the heart-breaking accuracy.

Quickie recommendation: This is not chick lit. This is not lovey-dovey. This is a work of art and you'd be stupid to let it go to someone else.

Quickie plug: Join Operation Love Letter if you dare.

Everything's Eventual

14 Dark Tales, by Stephen King.

Quickie recap: A book of short, "spine-chilling" stories, including "Riding the Bullet", which is apparently notable because it was first released as an e-book, and "1408", notable because they somehow stretched a few pages into an entire (and I'm guessing lame) movie.

Quickie review: This book was completely forgettable. I just finished, and yet I find that I have to thumb through just to recall some of the stories that I read just days ago. The only story that I could recount in any way is the one that left me most puzzled, since it was not "spine-chilling" , or even remotely scary. It was just a dude in a motel room contemplating suicide. And barely even that. And then nothing happened. Nothing. Did King forget to finish it? Or did it fall into the galleys by accident before printing? Nobody knows. The rest are pretty functional cliches for their genre. If this book had one redeeming factor, I would say that the little blurbs that precede the story does give some insight into King's inspiration, or frame of mind when writing each piece, and while I may not be a devoted fan, I'm always glad that someone is getting the printed word down on the page, and as the cover reminds me, Stephen King is a BESTSELLER, and who am I? Just a girl who'd rather be reading Proust.

Quickie recommendation: Nah.

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

By Melissa Bank.

Quickie recap: Love\lust\dating\relationships - they're a lifelong learning adventure and Jane is still playing the game, probably not any more successfully at 45 than at 15, but by god she tries, and boy do we really pull for her.

Quickie review: I like to read and reread this book, not because it's the second coming of women's lit, but because I find it cute, and it's a relief to hear about someone else's blunders, cringe at someone else's mistakes, and feel butterflies for someone else's crush.

Quickie recommendation: What can I say, except we all need guilty pleasures.

Stories From the Vinyl Cafe

By Stuart McLean.

Quickie recap: You may know Dave and Morley from Stuart McLean's radio show on the CBC - if you don't, you can always scurry over and get yourself in on the podcasts. Dave and Morley live and love in Toronto, and get themselves into frequent hilarious-type situations, kinda like me, only with less swearing and more family values.

Quickie review: I was first introduced to the Vinyl Cafe because it was an answer to a Trivial Pursuit question that I didn't know. I hate not knowing. So I looked up Mr. McLean and the gang who run this fictional record store and I've been hooked ever since. These stories are originally broadcast on the radio and are great to listen to in that capacity. To that end, they're not great literature. The sentences are not always complete, the grammar is off. I buy these books because they're great to read aloud, and that's how they come alive. They're meant to be conversational. They're sweet and funny and hearty, and if you have a snowy Sunday afternoon and a nice little afghan, than all you need is this book to have a little piece of perfection.

Quickie recommendation: Yup.

TheWhite Album

by Joan Didion.

Quickie recap: Through a series of literary essays, Didion recounts her life and life in general during the 1960s - unrest, paranoia, drugs, psychological difficulties, the whole thing.

Quickie review: Didion has a distinct style and is gifted at observing the world around her. She can put her finger on exactly the thing that bugs everyone without our really being able to distinguish it. Does that make sense? If the 60s had a pulse, then Joan had her finger on it and was willing to tell the rest of us just where we stood. This book is an exciting throwback, and Didion is always a pleasure to read.

Quickie recommendation: Sure thing.

In Persuasion Nation

by George Saunders.

Quickie recap: Collection of short stories, including: the despondency of characters forced to shill products in commercials, where TV characters go to die, how death saves religious fanatics from themselves.

Quickie review: Almost any collection will struggle to remain consistent, and this was no different, but I was drawn in by the first story and was impressed by the high caliber of writing, page after page. These stories were compelling and fresh; truly I don't think I've read anything so different but still worthy in a long while.

Quickie recommendation: Yuppers.

Winesburg, Ohio

by Sherwood Anderson.

Quickie recap: A bunch of people live in the smallish town of Winesburg, Ohio.

Quickie review: Plotless, this book contained a series of character sketches, some interconnected, some not, of the people who lived in Winesburg. At the outset, I enjoyed the rich detail, but I found that an entire book's worth just felt tedious after a while. As a collection of short stories, I felt it unsatisfying and uneven. Without a doubt, Anderson is a master, but I quickly fell out of love with this book - it lost steam and I lost the will to keep reading.

Quickie recommendation: I was left disappointed.