Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules
Where the Door is Always Open and the Welcome Mat is Out by Patricia Highsmith, read by Cherry Jones: Mildred is rushing around frantically to prepare for her sister Edith’s visit. The reader was great, but the story itself was pretty boring. Maybe it was because I just wasn’t all that interested in the characters, or maybe because all the minutia felt excessively detailed.
Bullet In the Brain by Tobias Wolff, read by Toby Wherry: A fascinating little vignette that stretches out an instant of time into a fully coherent narrative, and it ended at just the right spot too.
Gryphon by Charles Baxter, read by David Sedaris: A new substitute teacher with crazy ideas. Sedaris did an excellent job, which is kind of surprising since he tends to narrate in a sort of monotone, but somehow he managed to get across everything with subtle changes in pitch and inflection. Probably my favorite of the batch.
In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried by Amy Hempel, read by Mary-Louise Parker: I’ll be perfectly honest here: I had a whole lot of trouble following this one. Maybe I was just distracted, but I have absolutely no idea what it was about.
Cosmopolitan written and read by Akhil Sharma: A somewhat strange tale about an older Indian man attempting to have an affair with his American neighbor. Sharma probably should not have read his own story, as his cadence tended toward the droning, but I still very much enjoyed the story, and the ending made me smile.
In all, not a bad collection. These are the sorts of stories we’d read in creative writing classes, which gave me weird flashbacks from time to time, but it was a nice break from the string of novels I’d been listening to lately.
Also posted on BookCrossing.
by Suzanne Collins (unabridged audiobook read by Carolyn McCormick; 11 hours 11 minutes on 9 discs): In a kind of 
by Ezra Barany: This was described to me as sort of a Jewish Da Vinci Code and, truth be told, that was enough to get me interested. Nathan discovers that his landlord is spying on him, his name (and several other things) are encoded in a certain book of the Torah, and several people are after him for some weird and vaguely religious reason. Okay, so maybe my synopsis isn’t a good sell, but the fact is that I plowed through this book in record time. Nathan is likable and often very funny, and the action kept me turning the pages. Do I believe prophecy is encoded in the Torah? Doesn’t matter. It was fun and crazy and I look forward to Barany’s next thriller.
by Mark Whiteway: When we last saw them, Shann and Boxx were stranded on a strange shore on the far side of their planet. They meet some Kelanni from this new land and attempt to continue their quest for the piece of ancient technology to defeat The Prophet who oppresses their people. The physics of this world is explained in more depth, giving it a far more science fiction feel than the first book, which could easily be considered fantasy. We learn a bit more about the character’s emotions and personal histories, including the introduction of young scientist Rael. I like him, but for some reason Book One gave me the impression that something might develop between Shann and Lyall. That’s not evident here, alas. I am, however, still hopelessly in love with Alondo and still have no idea who Oliah is and why I’m supposed to care about her. But I might just be jealous. :)
by Elle Newmark: It’s 1947, and Evie’s marriage has been failing ever since her husband returned from World War II, shellshocked and haunted. He wins a grant to document the end of the British Raj in India, so he takes his wife and young son to live in the small village of Masoorla. Behind a loose brick in the kitchen, Evie discovers letters between two young women written in the 1850s. Intrigued and perhaps more than a little in need of distraction, she searches out more information about the correspondents and what happened to them. The interwoven tales at the beginning and end of the British Raj fascinated me, as did the candid descriptions of life in colonial India. I loved most of the characters, and while at times the story was just heartbreaking, I had trouble putting it down. I had to know what happened to Adela and Felicity, whether Evie would leave, if Martin would be killed in an uprising. The ending was perhaps a little too tidy, but it was very sweet and satisfying nonetheless. I closed the book with a smile on my face, glad to have read it. That’s really all I can ask for in a novel.
by Spencer Baum: When Kevin skips his first day of high school, he never imagines the sort of impact it will have on his life. He meets a couple of other kids, they eat magic sap, they gain super powers, and all of it is somehow linked to Turquoise Mountain and its mysterious Hum that only certain people can hear. Throw in termites, fire ants, espresso, and a healthy dose of conspiracy theories, and you’ve got yourself one strange little tale. Still, I kind of enjoyed it. It’s certainly unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Sure, there were times when it felt like the author had been given a list of objects and told to write a story around them, but as a fan of writing challenges I can appreciate that aspect as well. I’m not sure who I’d recommend this to, though. Espresso fanatics? Budding entomologists? I don’t know. But if you’d looking for some young adult fantasy that doesn’t follow the same old formula, try this one on for size.
by Meg Rosoff (unabridged audiobook read by Kim Mai Guest; 5 hours on 4 discs): Rebellious American teenager Daisy is sent to England to live with her aunt and cousins, and a somewhat nebulous world war breaks out soon thereafter. It felt a bit like the author was wondering what would happen if World War II broke out today, except without actually picking specific countries to go to war with. Of course, the enemy’s identity isn’t all that important, since Daisy is the narrator and has little interest in politics anyway. The story is told well, with some horrific scenes, some sad scenes, and some happy scenes, and all in all I found it a perfectly believable representation of how such a person would deal with such a situation. I was somewhat confused by the weird psychic powers held by some of the characters, if only because everything else in the tale was completely realistic. In short, I’m having difficulty summing up my feelings about this book. It was almost equal parts trivial and serious, narrated by a character with whom I only somewhat sympathized. I’m glad to have read this, but I’m not sure I’d necessarily recommend it to anyone else. If I were to recommend it at all, I’d definitely go with the audio version, as I believe the punctuation issues in the print would drive me absolutely bats.
by Gary Ghislain: Yeah, what you thought just now was pretty much what I thought when I picked up this book: “wait, what?” And that is, truth to tell, pretty much how I feel now that I’ve finished reading it. David’s father is a therapist for troubled teens whose latest client, the lovely Zelda, claims to be an alien searching for her Chosen One. This Chosen One turns out to be none other than famous actor Johnny Depp, but David follows her on her quest, more out of dumbstruck love than anything else. Soon they’re on a madcap adventure through Paris involving some stolen cars, underage sex, and burning gas stations. The whole thing is pretty ridiculous. I can see some parents objecting to the mature content, but this book has ‘80s teen comedy written all over it. It’s a bizarre and somewhat shallow story, and over all I think I enjoyed it. You might too.
by Commander Pants: Oliver is an outreach counselor for the mentally ill, which mainly involves making sure they get to their doctor appointments. His clients include Abbey, who may or may not have multiple personalities; Greg, who may or may not be turning into his therapist; and Doc, who may or may not be communicating with aliens who demand Big Macs. Meanwhile, the ultra-charismatic Jeremy, who may or may not be Jesus, has opened a new age shop and started a television show on public access to spread his message of selfishness. Confused? Believe it or not, the story wasn’t so difficult to follow as long as you just went with it, accepting whatever bizarre new twist was thrown at you. (I’ve found a similar approach is helpful when reading Douglas Adams novels.) This is a bizarre tale of religion, drugs, sex, extraterrestrials, mental illness, and fast food, full of cynical humor and truly strange characters. I would suggest that anyone who is very sensitive about any of these issues (most especially religion) give this one a miss, but if you’re more cynical and/or apathetic, you might find the insanity rather enjoyable. I’ll be curious to see if Commander Pants writes anything else, or if he chooses a different pen name for each novel.