Short stories for a short memory....


A Reader's Respite has probably mentioned our increasing enjoyment of the short story format. We're pretty convinced that this is directly related to our decreasing attention span these days.

When the opportunity arose for us to take a gander at local author Midge Raymond's collection of short stories entitled Forgetting English, we jumped on it. After all, anyone who resides in Seattle with a big fat orange cat (oh, and her husband, but it was the cat that made us smile) and writes stories is a woman after our own heart.

Each of Raymond's eight stories involve a North American woman searching for a part of herself in a foreign land. Character-centric in the extreme, the various locales (Africa, Antarctica, Tonga, etc) serve as a catalyst for these women in their time of uncertainty. The writing is beautiful.

The short story format fascinates A Reader's Respite because of it's tendency to invite serious thought. Unlike a full-length novel which draws us inside of another world and makes us a part of that world, the short story is a small bite of another life that provokes lingering thought long after the last page is turned.

In other words, a good short story gives us something to chew on for a while.

Besides brownies.



In our case, that's a good thing.






A Reader's Respite's compliance with new FDC Regulation:

This wonderful short story collection was sent to us by a publicist, free of charge. That's right...not a penny came out of our own pocket. Gratis or not, this book was subject to the same snarkiness that all books we read are subjected to. If you don't believe us, flip through some past reviews.







Sound like something you'd be interested in? If so, just leave us a comment saying so and on December 15th, we'll draw one random winner to receive this little collection of stories. Just be sure to check back here to see if you won, please, since A Reader's Respite just doesn't have the time to track you down this holiday season!

13 comments:

  1. Sounds like a wonderful collection.

    By the way, I have an award for you.

    http://carolsnotebook.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/awards-3/

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  2. Sooo, is FDC for Federal Dumb Committee or a typo? I prefer the former. Wonder when my pal Harriet's going to start complying on all her review blogs.

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  3. I do love short stories! They're a great way to discover great new authors. :)

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  4. What you need is a division of labor. You chew on the short stories, and I'll chew on the brownies! And I presume your secretary Viggo bakes them? Yes, please have them delivered by him, that would be very nice!

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  5. Sounds a wonderful collection. BTW the chocolate brownies look scrumptious!

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  6. Definitely something I'm interested in!!

    freda.mans[at]sympatico.ca

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  7. Brownies and an interesting book...life is sweet.

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  8. I know I am in this phase of short stories! I would love to read this one!
    Sounds like a great read.

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  9. I don't normally choose short story collections, but I enjoy having a book around that I can 'dip' into, w/o committing myself to hundreds of pages. Thanks for the giveaway.
    lcbrower40(at)gmail(dot)com

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  10. Ah, I'm finding that as I get older and my attention span shrinks that I enjoy more and more short stories!

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  11. Yummmmm..brownies!

    And I always feel cheated on short stories. If they are good, I want more of them. If they are bad, I feel like "what is the point." I guess perhaps I just haven't read any really good short stories.

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  12. Sometimes short stories are just what I'm in the mood for...and brownies, too :)

    karenk
    kmkuka(at)yahoo(Dot)Com

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Fire away!