Another collection of wonderful short stories. Bradbury shines forth with complete brilliance as usual. ( )

• The Kilimanjaro Device
S'okay. I'm not a Hemingway fan. I liked The Old Man and the Sea but it's all I've read and my impression is that he has an anachronistic and unhealthy view of masculinity and I'm not really interested in learning more.
• The Terrible Conflagration Up at the Place
Hilarious. I don't remember Bradbury being funny.
• Tomorrow's Child
Interesting mostly for the anachronisms. It was 1989 and they drove helicopters and smoked on the way home from having a baby, plus a bunch of other amusements. The world has certainly improved since whenever this was written.
• The Women
2023-12-06: Meh. Dated. Dark. Could be read as misogynist if you're the kind of asshole that's looking for misogyny but I think it was just dated.
• The Inspired Chicken Motel
2023-12-06: Damn but Bradbury can write.
• Downwind from Gettysburg
2023-12-08: This one blew right past me. I get the gist of it but it didn't land.
• Yes, We'll Gather at the River
2023-12-08: Meh
• The Cold Wind and the Warm
2023-12-08: Amusing.
• Night Call, Collect
2023-12-08: Meh.
• The Haunting of the New
2023-12-10: S'okay.
• I Sing the Body Electric!
2023-12-10: Fine writing. That emotional/vivid/poetic/nostalgic thing that he does so amazingly well is on display in this one and The Inspired Chicken Motel earlier. I don't really care about either of the stories but damn, his writing is amazing.
• The Tombling Day
2023-12-13: Whee-hooo! I'm younger than any of them what's dead!
• Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby's Is a Friend of Mine
2023-12-20: This was the best in the book.
• Heavy-Set
2023-12-20: Memory vague but it was odd and unappealing.
• The Man in the Rorschach Shirt
2023-12-20: Pleasant enough. The shrink needed a shrink though.
• Henry the Ninth
2023-12-20: Okay, didn't do anything for me.
• The Lost City of Mars
2023-12-20: Meh. Dated and not interesting.
• Christus Apollo
2023-12-20: Skimmed a bit and then skipped it. ( )

Collection of 29 short stories named after a line in Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. It is also the title of one of the stories. It is a combination of science fiction, fantasy, and realistic fiction. These stories are creative, including such topics as an alternate history of Lincoln’s assassination involving a robot, a family who buys an “electric grandmother” (precursor to artificial intelligence of today) to take care of house and children, and a man who stays to watch over Great Britain after the population relocates to a warmer climate. I particularly enjoy the way the author handles endings. Even in a story of few words, there is a sense of closure. This is one of the better collections of short stories I have read.

My favorites are:

"The Terrible Conflagration Up at the Place” – a group of men are about to burn the house of a prosperous couple during “The Troubles.” The elderly, disoriented owner, whom they call His Lordship, asks them to spare his artwork. I will not spoil it, but the ending is priceless.

"Tomorrow's Child" – a woman gives birth to a child in the shape of a blue pyramid. His parents ask doctors to figure out if there is a way to reshape him into the form of a human baby. In the end they must make a difficult decision.

“Night Call, Collect” – a eighty-year-old man is stranded alone on Mars. Many years ago, he recorded his voice so he could call himself later and not feel so lonely. The ending can be interpreted in a couple different ways. ( )

Favorite two: Haunting of the New, Electric Grandmother.

The writing was great, and I liked almost all the stories, but there were only a few that I "really liked" based simply I think on the content of what they happened to be about. ( )

Classic Bradbury - funny, frightening, touching, and always sung onto the page with furious poetry. Not quite his best, but better than most everyone else's. ( )