I am so a Maeve Binchy groupie. But short stories are almost painful for me to read. ( )

I was in a funk and not really in the mood to read much else so I went back and re-read two other short story collections by Maeve Binchy this past weekend. Then I saw there was a brand new collection that has been put out and I decided to just go for it and bought and read this new collection in less than a day. Although I finished it before I went home from work yesterday, I still re-read several of the stories that I found the most moving or at least left me thinking.

There are 36 short stories in this volume and although one is a repeat that was in her short story collection, London Transports, I still thought all of them were ridiculously good.

The collection is also divided into several sections. Section 1: Friends and Enemies



section 2: Love and Marriage, section 3: Your Cheating Heart, section 4: Relatives and Other Strangers, section 5: Work and No Play, and section 6: Holidays.

Be forewarned, the Love and Marriage one was pretty dark. Heck there were a lot of dark aspects to these stories and I for one loved them. I like when an author doesn't just have things wrap up in a pretty bow at the end. Life isn't like that, and I like that in just a few short pages Maeve Binchy can get you completely immersed in a story, make you feel sympathy or despise the character you are reading about in just a few short sentences.

I am just going to highlight my favorites instead of doing a mini-review of all 36 stories.

"Picnic at St. Paul's"-The main character Catherine was a better person than me. I felt sort of horrified by this story of a woman who has her life overrun by a friend she hasn't seen in almost a decade because she keeps sending her friends to stay with her while they are traveling through. At first you think this may be an unexpected meet cute/love at first sight story...

"Living Well"-I have been here. Your the poor friend trying your best to be there for a friend who keeps putting up with mess from their partner. In this story we have the character of Gina trying her best to get her friend Orla to get over her horrible boyfriend Eddie. Too bad things don't exactly work out the way she hoped.

"Someone's Got to Tell Her"-I absolutely loved how this story is a one way conversation that you the reader are on. You don't know what the other person is saying, but you can get clued in based on what the main character is saying and responding to. Also in just a few short lines here and there you realize that the main character (name unknown) is a ridiculous stuck up and prejudice person. I almost laughed at the ending.

"The Bargain"-This really touched me a lot. I think because I grew up in a small town and remember how hard it was to move to the city and be around so many people. The main character, Cara, has the opposite problem. She's fallen in love and now has to think about whether she is ready to move to the country. I loved the resolution in this story.

"Audrey"-Told from the point of view of a cat named Audrey. I laughed from beginning to end and now have been side eyeing my cat Junior. Maybe she really is trying to tell me something when she's meowing....

"A Tactful Conversation"-Wow. I loved the main character of Beth who was no holds barred with her new lover's children.

"The Custardly Case"- This story was heartbreaking to me. The main character in this is a little boy named Bernard who has no idea how his world is going to unravel. Readers will quickly get clued into what is happening here though. I was personally outraged by the resolution in this story too.

"The Consultant Aunt"- Holy cow. The aunt in this story could give lessons to Cathy from East of Eden on how to be diabolical.

"The Dream Holiday"-What I liked about this story is that quite quickly you become aware of the group's interactions with each other and you realize that all of them seem to be blind about the reality of their situations. I really did love how the story wrapped up in this one. ( )

I started reading but couldn't get into it. ( )

There are a few gems in this short-story collection, and the readers of the audio book version are excellent, but overall this was a disappointment. I've enjoyed many of Maeve Binchy's novels, and several of these stories felt like practice runs for those books. The plots have too many repeated themes (not to mention jobs, dialogue, and even character names). This one is for die-hard fans only. ( )

This book once again shows Maeve Binchy's talent as a story writer. She certainly knows how to tell a good yarn. I would have scored this higher but I am not a great fan of short stories, but having said that there are some very good stories in this book. ( )