Jennifer Baker (2)

A solid collection of diverse authors and stories.

"Link," Courttia Newland: A Doctor Who-esque sci-fi story in which the main character, Aaron, is linked to others - but he finds out he's not the one calling the shots.

He'd thought he was smart, the leader, the one who'd called them all, when really, from the start, it was her. (23)

"A Sheltered Woman," Yiyun Li: Aunti Mei works as a live-in nanny for newborns, replacing one Ma and Baby set with another. Her current client says she to has postpartum depression, and Auntie Mei contemplates taking the baby, but does not.

She has been brought up in two worlds: the world of her grandmother and her mother, and that of everyone else; each world had sheltered her from the other, and to lose one was to be turned, against her wish, into a permanent resident of the other. (46)

"High Pursuit," Mitchell S. Jackson: A boy quits his job at a car wash and follows his older brother's example to make money.

"We believe what we want to." (56)

"Do Us Part," Nelly Rosario: A married couple runs a health clinic together; a strange occurrence helps them save their fraying relationship.

"Mine," Alexander Chee: A gay man returns to his Maine hometown and discovers a surprising truth about his own past. One of my favorites in the collection.

Derrick, [Katie's] boyfriend, loved her like it was a star-crossed romance, even though it had worked out. He seemed afraid of losing her even while in her arms. (96)

I don't think I knew until then what a family was or could be, despite having been in one all this time. That it was something you built to keep what you loved from the depredations of time and the world and how they would lead all you loved to ruin and death, no matter what. (108)

"Wisdom," Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond: A young man who has been kicked out of his small village stews in Lagos, until people he tries to rob take him in and make him family.

"Boy/Gamin," Brandon Taylor: The coming-of-age in stages (five years old, twelve, high school) of a boy named Jackson in Montgomery, Alabama. Another of my favorites.

"The Kontrabida," Mia Alvar: A pharmacist returns to his parents in a suburb of Manila to help his mother with his dying father. Though she seems to fulfill the role she always has, in fact she takes action - retribution for long years of abuse.

"The African-American Special," Jason Reynolds: First-person narrative of a bartender with a talkative regular called Fortune, who has opinions on the (black, white) kids these days.

"Long Enough to Drown," Glendaliz Camacho: A woman becomes involved with the brother of a man she was dating when he commits suicide.

Nothing makes Brandon feel as alive as picking up what people who died left behind. (195)

I stopped short of feeling sympathy for a Confederate soldier, but it is unfair what we march people through. Unrealistic what we expect them to come back from. (195)

"If A Bird Can Be A Ghost," Allison Mills: Shelly's grandma teaches her about ghosts; how to catch them, how to free them. When Shelly's mother dies, she tries to find her ghost, then accepts she has to let go. Lovely.

"Last Rites," Dennis Norris III: The Reverend has been in a car crash and is now trapped in a flipped car; Someone will come. Someone will find me. He pictures the rescue in detail as he remembers his son as a young boy and as the young man he is now, and remembers his wife's death.

"Moosehide," Carleigh Baker: A couple goes on an excursion to the Arctic Circle, which proves tougher than either of them expected. They could cut their trip short and go home; will they?

"Surrender," Hasanthika Sirisena: Sunil was born in Sri Lanka but raised in America, so when he returns to Sri Lanka for work with his 13-year-old daughter, Emily, she is quicker to pick up on the language and customs than he is. His bonding attempt with their cook, Amara, goes south.

She was also, especially in the past few years, an alien. He'd expected his child to be an extension of him - the better part. She would be the blank slate on which he'd write the things he'd learned about life, a means for correcting all the mistakes. Instead, she seemed to contain a whole other world, replete with foreign signs and cues, and someone had forgotten to provide Sunil with the guidebook. (265-266)… (meer)