Elizabeth Merrick

This was a fun collection of short stories to read...it certainly is not "chick lit." It turned me on to a slew of new (to me) authors I can't wait check out. I thought the approaches of Carolyn Ferrell and Judy Budnitz were particularly creative, got me excited about starting up my first Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book, and of course I'm eternally devoted to Aimee Bender--although the story selected for this book is not as fanciful as those in her other collections. My favorite is possibly "Selling the General" by Jennifer Egan, which initially, when I heard her on NPR (where I found out about this collection--Talk of the Nation), didn't spark much curiosity, but the read was really fabulous. The only two stories I didn't much care for were those of Binnie Kirshenbaum (the story itself was so-so, but the last two lines made me want to vomit) and Lynne Tillman (I just stopped reading it...felt too ostentatious for my liking, abstract enough to make me not care). Overall, though, this is a provocative and entertaining read. Check it out!… (meer)