Labours of Hercules

The Labours Of Hercules
by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure I would like this as I'm not a huge fan of short stories, but these were interconnected enough that the book was a coherent whole.
The stories are of Poirot's (presumably) last 12 cases which he decides he will choose to fit the pattern of the classical labors of Hercules. These are mostly cases of missing items or people, and several have clever twists to them.
There is a funny bit in the Cerberus story where Poirot is in the London tube and he is not pleased, among other things he comments on women knitting in the tube.

Review: Stone Mattress

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"These nine tales owe a debt to tales through the ages. Calling a piece of short fiction a 'tale' removes it at least slightly from the realm of mundane works and days, as it evokes the world of the folk tale, the wonder tale, and the long-ago teller of tales. We may safely assume that all tales are fiction, whereas a 'story' might well be a true story about what we usually agree to call 'real life,' as well as a short story that keeps within the boundaries of social realism. The Ancient Mariner tells a tale. 'Give me a copper coin and I will tell you a golden tale,' the later Robertson Davies was fond of saying." (Acknowledgements, p. 271)

The first three tales in this collection are interconnected as they each focus on a person within a single social circle. I love story cycles like that because you get to see things from multiple angles. I don't usually find short stories very satisfying because it feels like as soon as I get to know the characters the story is over. Cycles like this solve that problem. Another of the tales revisits the women in The Robber Bride, which was like visiting old friends. I loved 'The Freeze-Dried Groom," it was super twisty and odd and I loved the way the narrator kept doing CSI assesments on his day.

I am counting this toward the 10th Canadian Book Challenge.

Deal Me In!

Bibliophilopolis is hosting a short story challenge in 2017 (the 7th annual) in which you select which short story to read based on a list and a card draw.
To select my stories I gathered some TBR collections of stories from my shelves and decided on a theme for each suit to guide my choices. If I post about any of the stories during the year I will come back to this post and add links to the story posts. My plan is to draw my card each Wednesday evening.

HEARTS (Writers & Writing)
These essays all come from Vanity Fair's Writers on Writers which I got for Christmas --Thanks Mom!)

A= "Salman Rushdie" by Martin Amis [1-4-2017]
1= "Eudora Welty" by Willie Morris
2= "Josephine Tey" by Francis Wheen [1-25-2017]
3= "Ward Just" by David Halberstam [12-4-17]
4= "His Jewish Question" by Arthur Miller
5= "Dorthy Parker" by Christopher Hitchens [12-4-17]
6= "Kay Thompson" by Marie Brenner
7= "Willa Cather" by Truman Capote
8= "Reynolds Price" by Anne Tyler
9= "Grace Metalious" by Michael Callahan [7-22-17]
10= "e. e. cummings" by Susan Cheever [7-22-17]
J= "Ishmael Beah" by Dave Eggers
Q= "Judy Blume" by Meg Wolitzer
K= "Christopher Hitchens" by Salman Rushdie

SPADES (Noir)
I have several volumes from the Akashic Noir series in my TBR pile and these stories come from those books.

A= "The Confidential Informant" by George Pelecanos (DC) [11-23-17]
1= "Pretty Little Parasite" by David Corbett (Las Vegas)
2= "The Third Circle" by Frank Norris (San Francisco 2)
3= "The Bottom Line" by James Grady (DC) [11-22-17]
4= "Knives in the Dark" by Don Herron (San Francisco 2) [2-16-17]
5= "Disappear" by Jaq Greenspon (Las Vegas)
6= "The Scorched Face" by Dashiell Hammett (San Francisco 2)
7= "Solomon's Alley" by Robert Andrews (DC) [11-21-17]
8= "East of the Sun" by Jennifer Howard (DC) [11-23-17]
9= "Deceptions" by Marcia Muller (San Francisco 2) [1-22-2017]
10= "Atomic City" by Nora Pierce (Las Vegas)
J= "Coyote Hunt" by Ruben Castaneda (DC) [11-21-17]
Q= "The Black Hole of San Francisco" by Mark Twain (San Francisco 2)
K= "Murder is Academic" by Felicia Campbell (Las Vegas)

CLUBS (Grab bag)
These are essays and stories from various books (Wreck of the Godspeed by J. P. Kelly; Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman; and The Dolphin Reader) with no particular connection to each other.

A= "The Wreck of the Godspeed" by James Patrick Kelly
1= "Technology and Democracy" by Daniel Boorstin
2= "The Case of Death and Honey" by Neil Gaiman [7-17-17]
3= "Are Women Human?" by Dorthy Sayers
4= "Jerusalem" by Neil Gaiman  [7-17-17]
5= "Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor
6= "The Dark Side of Town" by James Patrick Kelly [1-11-17]
7= "We are the Crazy Lady and other Feisty Feminist Tales" by Cynthia Ozick
8= "Professions for Women" by Virginia Woolf
9= "Art for Art's Sake" by E. M. Forster
10= "Sightseer" by Walker Percy
J= "Orange" by Neil Gaiman  [7-15-17]
Q= "Writing and Typing" by John Kenneth Galbraith
K= "Diamonds and Pearls: A Fairy Tale" by Neil Gaiman [7-22-17]

DIAMONDS (Art and Artists)
These stories come from the Everyman's Pocket Classics Collection Stories of Art and Artists which was a gift last Christmas --Thanks Vicki!)

A= "How Wang-Fo was Saved" by Marguerite Yourcenar
1= "The Oval Portrait" by Edgar Allan Poe
2= "A Portrait" by Guy de Maupassant
3= "The Red-haired Girl" by Penelope Fitzgerald
4= "The Real Thing" by Henry James [2-1-2017]
5= "The Limner" by Julian Barnes
6= "Varengeville" by William Boyd
7= "A Brush" by John Berger [8-8-17]
8= "Two Potters" by Doris Lessing [7-22-17]
9= "A Lamia in the Cevennes" by A. S. Byatt
10= "Rembrandt's Hat" by Bernard Malamud [8-8-17]
J= "Jonas, or The Artist at Work" by Albert Camus [2-8-2017]
Q= "The Painter" by Hermann Hesse
K= "The Artist of the Beautiful" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Review: Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories

Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"I will have to come to grips with the real world, which is composed, I know, not of words but of drainpipes, holes in the ground, furiously multiplying weeds, hunks of granite, stacks of more or less heavy matter which must be moved from one point to the other, usually uphill." --"Unearthing Suite"

I was vaguely unsatisfied by each of these stories because I wanted to know more. They were not, for the most part, complete narrative arcs, but rather glimpses into the minds and lives of various women and they seemed rather voyeuristic. Taken as a group the women depicted in each tale blended together a bit, which is unfortunate as each could probably have sustained her own novel.

This is my 13th book for the 8th Canadian Book Challenge.

Lisa's Review: Coming Home

Coming Home: Stories from the Northwest Territories
Forward by Richard Van Camp

My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Coming Home is a collection of 17 short stories (11 fiction and 6 non-fiction) from authors in the Northwest Territories. The authors range from very experienced to newbies.

This is only my second time reading a collection of short stories. My first experience was not a favorable one, so I wasn't sure if short stories is a genre for me. After finishing Coming Home, I'm definitely not ready to throw in the towel on short stories - I found this collection was quite enjoyable to read. I liked the different range and types of stories presented - from gaining historical perspective, to picturing the landscape of the NWT, to more modern stories. I also appreciated that each story was followed by a short bio of the author.

A few of the stories that I enjoyed most:

• Born a Girl by Richard Van Camp (fiction); A heart-wrenching story of being different, bullying, and the revealing consequences 
• Haunted Hill Mine by Cathy Jewison (fiction); An amusing story of a questionable entrepreneur who runs a haunted tour business. I was impressed with how the author painted such distinct characters in just a few pages. I was amused & satisfied by the ending. 
• Beauty of the Butte by Karen McColl (non-fiction); This story gave me a very vivid picture of the beautiful scenery as a group of friends make a weekend summit of Nahanni Butte.
• Children of the Strike by Jamesie Fournier (non-fiction); The author recounts this story of the Giant Mine strike & labor dispute in the early '90s (his father worked at the mine). This story compelled me to read a little further into the history of these events, as I can't recall having seen them in the news.     

This is my tenth book read for the 7th Annual Canadian Book Challenge. I also have to give a shout out to John Mutford who runs the challenge & read the submissions and helped pick the stories to be included in this collection.

Lisa's Review: Hellgoing: Stories

Hellgoing by Lynn Coady

My Rating: 2 of 5 Stars

I don't have a lot of experience reading short stories, but after learning last year's Giller Prize winner was from my home province, I decided this might be a good opportunity to expand into the genre (and a copy made its way under my Christmas tree).

Hellgoing is a collection of nine short stories that give glimpses into each of the main characters' lives, their observations, and relationships with those around them. I did not entirely enjoy these stories. I did like Coady's style of writing - her flow made for easy reading - but the content of the stories did not engage me. The characters had depth, but I did not find them likeable. I know that not all characters in books and stories need to be (or should be) likeable, but after nine stories I found myself happy that I was finally finished. I've read other reviews of this book, and it seems there are a many glowing reviews, so maybe I just didn't 'get it' or maybe short stories aren't for me. In reading other reviews that were less favorable, a common theme for reviewers was surprise, stating that Coady's other works are excellent. So that, coupled with the fact that I did like her writing style won't discourage me from checking out her other books.    

This is my sixth book read for the 7th Annual Canadian Book Challenge.

Review: Lord Peter

Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My major issue with this book, which is a collection of short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, has more to do with me than with the book. I don't really find short stories very satisfactory, especially when they are about a character I already know. Sayers is a wonderful writer and these tales are tidy little puzzles (for the most part) that Lord Peter ties up neatly by the end, but the usual extra stuff about Freddy and Bunter and the Dowager Duchess of Denver's goings-on are omitted from this shorter form and I missed them. I had read some of these stories before (this is the complete collection of Lord Peter Wimsey stories which is why I wanted it for my Sayers shelf), but some were new to me. The final story, "Talboys" was first published here and isn't really a mystery at all but it a fun story about domestic life later in Lord Peter's relationship with Harriett Vane.

I got this book as a completion prize for the Vintage Mystery Challenge last year and am counting it toward the What's in a Name 7 Challenge to cover the category "a forename or names." This completes one goal for the Spring into a Good Book Challenge.

Review: Best American Mystery Stories 1997

The Best American Mystery Stories 1997
edited by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a collection of stories about crime, and brutality, and suffering. It is not a collection of mystery stories. It was edited by Robert B. Parker, who ought to know a mystery story when he sees one, but his introduction to this collection raised doubts and the collection itself proves that his understanding of what constitutes a mystery is a lot different than mine.

Setting aside the expectation that there would be a mystery involved, some of the stories were quite good. Jonathan Kellerman's "The Things We Do for Love" was very well crafted and had an amazing ending. I found the world through the eyes of "Lou Monahan, County Prosector" fascinating as Andrew Klavan wrote it. Allen Steele's story "Doblin's Lecture" was a powerful piece that ended in a way that made me think. I also really liked "Mrs. Feeley is Quite Mad" by Mabel Maney.

If you can't deal with stories where bad stuff happens to kids, or to adults for that matter, this is not a book for you.

I read this as part of the 2014 TBR Pile Challenge.