Tag Archives: Short Stories

Barker House, by David Moloney

Posted on by

Barker House is a fictional work of interconnected short stories that follow the lives of nine Corrections Officers in New Hampshire. These are not short stories about a Corrections Unit; each story is about a moment in the life of a Corrections Officer.

All of the nine characters tell a solemn story; their unifying trait deriving from their job as a corrections officer. The reader is invited to briefly observe the officers and their day from a distance, since the stories are short and only go so far. Though each character works as an officer at Barker House, not all stories take place there. For example, one story takes place at a strip club.

This was an okay read. Most of the stories I thought were okay, though a few of them I thought were good. Overall, I felt like the novel was missing something that would bring it home.

Barker House is David Moloney’s debut novel. Visit his website.

Read BookPage’s review or Publisher Weekly’s review for Barker House.

Visit the publishers page for Barker House.

You can read an excerpt of Barker House near the bottom of this MVmag article.

https://youtu.be/VBV6GQcjVqY

Other writing by David Moloney includes fiction Dzole, Our Champion.

Follow David Moloney on Twitter.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. Opinions are my own.

|Purchase on Amazon| Goodreads Review|

Stateway’s Garden, by Jasmon Drain

Posted on by

“She was a mother of two, who wished at that moment to forget her children and live a life with this man, in his dreams, dreams she didn’t know black men even considered.” -Jasmon Drain, Stateway’s Garden

Tracey and his older brother, Jacob, know nothing other than growing up in Chicago’s housing project known as the Stateway Gardens. Surrounded by crime and poverty, Tracy holds on tight to his dreams of a bright future. While some see the building as a symbol of failure, Tracy remembers it as home.

The book is told in separate stories rather than chapters. All of the stories revolve around or are somehow related to Tracy and Jacob.

Overall: Initially, the stories were hard to get into it. I had a hard time reading the first part of this book; it felt choppy and I felt removed from the characters because of the narration style. The only story in the beginning that I liked was “Solane”. I didn’t like any stories again until after halfway. Admittedly, the last few stories were hard to put down. At that point, both Tracy and Jacob were older and no longer children. Things then began to come to life. In the end, I was all in my emotions and completely invested in the characters. I wish the entire book had been that way  so I could have gotten to know them better during their childhood.

Stateway’s Garden is Jasmon Drain’s first book. Read more about it here.

More about the Stateway Gardens:

Click here to read short accounts as told by the residents who lived there.

A view of Stateway Gardens First floor:

Drug dealers place of word in the Stateway Garden. Click here to read the article.
A view of April’s kitchen in her Stateway Garden apartment. Click here to read the full story.

|Purchase on Amazon | Goodreads Review |

The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories, by Sam Pink

Posted on by

This contains one short story that made sense and had a purpose. Mostly they are incoherent and have no end goal. There is a lot of babble. There is a two page story about him jumping rope, the end. A few stories reminded me of people talking about what happened at a party the night before or what happened at work earlier that day. For example, the opening story is the narrator and two others in the alley drinking, smoking, and chatting it up while watching a rat scurry about.

I recommend this book to no one. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!

| Amazon | Goodreads Review |

Can You Feel This? by Julie Orringer

Posted on by

“If a baby is dead, is it said to have been born?”

The main character suffers from placenta previa during her pregnancy. Both her and her husband, Ky, are worried about the survival of the baby. While prepping for her C-section to avoid complications, she remembers her painful childhood and the complications with her own mother. How will she mother her child when she wasn’t mothered herself? Is she prepared? She worries about the challenges she will face after the baby is born and is concerned about mental illness. Will she be like her mother? The secrets she has kept about her own mother and the death of her mother haunt her during and after birth.

“And now the baby lives out in the world, his cord cut: a newborn with a mother whose mother came undone.”

Part of the Inheritance series from Amazon Original Stories, this short story projects an eerie image of a past mother-daughter relationship. Will the cycle between mother and child now be broken?

(Note–This story is told in second person POV. The narrator addresses the reader as “you”.) Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. Opinions are my own.

Taken from her author’s website, visit here.

Read Publisher’s Weekly article about Julie Orringer’s novel The Flight Portfolio.

20 Question Interview with Julie Orringer for Oprah readers.

Julie Orrinder discusses how she writes with WriterMag.

|Purchase on Amazon| Goodreads Review|

The Lion’s Den, by Anthony Marra

Posted on by

The Lion’s Den is an expression of irony and intentions, and an austere reflection of familial forgiveness that tests the boundaries of protection and love.
A fragrant display of a complicated father-son relationship is epitomized in this 28 page short story. Do two wrongs make a right?

Michael returns home to live with his parents after losing his job and becoming evicted, though to those around it seems an act of familial love since his dad is in his last stages of cancer. Michael is asked to speak at his former school, and after he accepts he reflects on his school days and the stages of his development into an adult. He recalls his fathers arrest during this time and the strain it had on their family for many years after. As a desperate and angry twenty-two year old, Michael had written and published a memoir about his father that exposed his fathers poor choices. Now, in the last stage of his life, Michael’s dad has one last unexpected arrangement waiting for Michael.

Has time and experience healed their relationship? Will Michael always see his dad as a felon? Is Michael any different than his father, Michael having exposed his dad through a memoir while his dad illegally exposed private NSA documents? How do we measure immorality and crime?

The Lion’s Den is part of the Amazon Original Series, Inheritance. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

Taken from the Lyceum Agency website.

Visit the Lyceum Agency page to view more about author Anthony Marra.

Visit Penguin Random House to view Anthony Marra’s author page.

| Purchase on Amazon| Goodreads Review|

Everything My Mother Taught Me, by Alice Hoffman

Posted on by

More than a tale about mother and daughter, this short story dives into questions of nature vs. nurture. Having grown up with shameless and unethical mother, the main character, 12 year old Adeline, comes to face the reality of her inheritance: an inheritance of genetics. Revenge falls into her hands, and Adeline must then confront her own principles.

The story begins shortly after Adeline’s caring father passes away. She is left under the care of her nefarious mother, who continues a pattern of dishonorable behavior. In 1908 her mother then moves her to a lighthouse, where her mother begins working as a housekeeper for the lighthouse keepers. Adeline is treated poorly and wickedly by her mother during this time. Not long after beginning work, her mom begins an affair with one of the lighthouse keepers. Then, Adeline decides to take things into her own hands. But, will extracting revenge make her any better than her mom?

This short story is 28 pages. It is appropriate for the secondary classroom and post-secondary classroom, and would serve a meaningful purpose since it has many literary elements and tools. There is no foul language and there are no vulgar details about the mother’s affair. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and setting created by the author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

This image was taken from Simon & Schuster.

To view all of Alice Hoffman’s books, click here.

|Purchase on Amazon| Goodreads Review|

Universal Love, by Alexander Weinstein

Posted on by

Does technology benefit deep meaningful relationships, or does it strip us of that intimacy? How do we find a positive balance? In these short stories, the reader examines layers of technological advancement possibilities and the effect on family, relationships, and life’s purpose. Will technology replace parenting? Or, has that process already began? In the future, will we need an active physical military to go abroad for tours or will gamers connected to drones suffice? Should we be able to choose our emotions and our memories? Will making connections with friends depend on access to apps and immersive reality?

Universal Love is comprised of eleven short stories. Out of the eleven short stories, I found three that were very strong and completely original. The technology that had conquered the near future was believable and, in some cases, very close to situations that occur today. The themes were easy to relate to, but the characters felt out of reach. In most of the stories, it was hard to connect and invest in the characters. Two of stories that I did not enjoy at all, and one I enjoyed but did not like the ending. The rest I enjoyed. 

Short stories: “The Year of Nostalgia” 1-15% (holographic replacements), “Beijing” 15-23% (patching memories), “Comfort Porn” 23-36% (friendships vs. virtual friends), “We Only Wanted Their Happiness” 36-39% (technology replaces family time), “Purple Heart” 39-50% (virtual tech for war), “True Love Testimonials” 50%-55%- (sex app), “Childhood” 55-65% (robot children), “Sanctuary” 65-71% (future border crisis), “Infinite Realities” 71-83% (multiverse), “Mountain Song” 83-90% (thought control), “Islanders” 90-100% (flooded world)

*There are explicit sexual situations and sexual language used in a couple of these stories. *
Thanks to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and Alexander Weinstein for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

|Purchase on Amazon|Goodreads Review|

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Posted on by

The main character, Olive, picks up shortly after where she left off in the previous novel, Olive Kitteridge. While this is the second novel in the series, it can easily be read as a standalone because she recaps the main events that happened in the first novel. However, I recommend reading the first novel in order to appreciate some of the returning characters.

Life’s transitions, juxtapositions, and troubles are celebrated through Olive and the other characters. I found the last half of the novel to be extremely emotional. Olive is reaching a fragile point in her life and begins to calculate its significance and purpose. What makes a full life? As Olive ages, she continues to engage in the boulevard of life while trying to amount her existence.

“But here was the world, screeching its beauty at her day after day, and she felt grateful for it.”

In Olive, Again there are thirteen short stories. Out of the 13 short stories, 5 of those are Olive’s direct story. In the remaining 8 stories, Olive makes an appearance in some shape or form. Each short story relates to the central theme of the novel to some degree and occur near or in the setting of Maine.
Topics include suicide, sexual freedom, family, adultery, and aging.

I love Olive, Again and recommend to lovers of literary sagas and contemporary fiction . Thank you to Elizabeth Strout, Random House, and NetGalley for a copy. Opinions are my own.

To learn more about Elizabeth’s Strout’s book tour for Olive, Again click here.

More on this:

Boston Globe article says Olive “gets better with age”.

Visit Elizabeth Strout’s website.

Review for Olive Kitteridge (#1)

|Purchase on Amazon|Goodreads Review|

Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout

Posted on by

“People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.”

I absolutely loved this novel compromised of short stories. Taken from your normal everyday situations, the lush phrases and varied character dimensions created an emotional and heartfelt journey of small-town people experiencing small changes in life that often have the biggest impact. At times, I wanted to eat the words off the page.

An appearance from Olive Kitteridge in each short story is what makes for such an enjoyable read. Her character orbits around her strong personality and unparalleled voice. Each story begs the spirit to rekindle emotions that make us appreciate life, although most stories are sad, melancholy, or starkly realistic.

“…that one of those things getting older was knowing that so many moments weren’t just moments, they were gifts.”

It is deeply expressive to the value of life and how the beauty of the world changes as we do. Respectfully, I do feel like you must be a certain age or experienced certain things in order to truly appreciate this piece of literature to its full capacity.

I recommend this piece of literature for those who enjoy contemporary American fiction, short stories, and psychological literary fiction.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. To read more about this, click here.

Elizbeth Strout accepting the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Olive Kitteridge. Photo taken from https://www.pulitzer.org
The book was later developed into a miniseries by HBO. A preview can be watched below.

|Purchase on Amazon| Goodreads Review |