Stories: All-New Tales edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio

This collection of stories covers a wide range of genres and a wide range of authors. Mostly the stories leaned toward the fantastic or toward horror. I mostly enjoyed this collection, but I don't know that any stuck out so much that I am going to track down more by that author specifically on that story's account. It's really an impressive collection of essays.

Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman

This collection of fairy tales is selected from the Grimm brothers' final 1857 anthology of fairy tales. Pullman has translated (and in some cases adapted) the stories to tell what he considers to be the best fairy tale. There are a lot of familiar tales and a number of unfamiliar ones too--and all of them are classified and given a place in folklore through helpful end notes. These fairy tales have their own standards--their standards are not those of modern literature, for example--and they rely heavily on a system that rewards and punishes characters for their actions. At times the stories are gruesome, at times unrealistic, and at times they do not take the familiar routes to the stories, but this collection is well-worth a read.

Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader edited by Brian Carpenter and Tom Franklin

This anthology collects short stories, excerpts of novels, and excerpts of autobiographical writing from what the editors describe as the rough south or grit lit genre. Indeed, the anthology shines in its generic formulation: the introduction and headnotes to each story help clarify what rough south means. In this case, it's contemporary (so Faulkner and O'Connor aren't here), it tends to be white and poor and created by outrageous autobiographical stories instead of academic training (although some of the later writers have participated in various MFA programs and other forms of higher education--and this experience raises ambivalent feelings in them), and it often features a kind of toughness or grit. I enjoyed the stories; some were better than others, but it was a fairly engaging collection all in all. Harry Crews's and Dorothy Allison's writings stand out as gems.

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner

This collection is united by the idea of werewolves and Christmas. The number of stories that started with someone spending the holidays alone for whatever reason got old really quick (even the Sookie story starts that way--a story, I might add, that also appears in the collection of Sookie stories). There were two that focused on Santa Claus that I thought were well-done and interesting: in one, a werewolf eats Rudolph and gets put in his place and in another, a couple of vampires discover that Santa is actually a vampire. I enjoyed the Kitty story by Carrie Vaughn.

Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P.N. Elrod

This collection of nine short stories is united by its protagonists: they're all somewhat morally ambiguous protectors of the weak (by choice or by compulsion). The Jim Butcher story ("Even Hand") features John Marcone instead of Harry Dresden and was really excellent. I also loved "Even a Rabbit Will Bite" by Rachel Caine about the last dragonslayer in an age that doesn't really need her anymore. "Rookwood and Mrs. King" by Lillith Saintcrow, "Dark Lady" by P.N. Elrod, "The Beacon" by Shannon Butcher, and "A Questionable Client" by Ilona Andrews were all intriguing--I'd especially be interested in the series associated with Elrod's and Andrews's stories. Some of the other stories (apparently part of stories) were really opaque: the magical systems, worlds, and rules were weird and not clearly explained and the characters had lots of missing backstory.

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron edited by Jonathan Strahan

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories about witches. It's worth noting that Neil Gaiman's contribution is a short poem rather than a story. I picked up the collection for the Bigfoot story by Jim Butcher (which didn't disappoint)--but I enjoyed most of the stories in the anthology (usually there's a dud or two). I particularly enjoyed both Jane Yolen's "Andersen's Witch" and Ellen Kushner's "Threefold World" which posit witchcraft as part of the reason for the creations of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and the Finnish epic, The Kalevala, respectively.

Bloodline by Ernest Gaines

This volume collects five stories by Ernest Gaines that mostly focus on the problem of becoming a man or asserting your position in a society that is designed to tear you down because of your race. Gaines's characters don't just turn to violence or protest, however: living or working within the society while calmly refusing to accept indignities or charity seems to be more of the model his characters work with.

Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan

This collection of short stories, mostly set in the fictional neighborhood of Tims Creek, North Carolina, delights with its beauty, humor, and meta-fictional commentary. The stories feature a wide range of protagonists, and gradually set out a depiction of a community with memorable characters. I particularly loved "Clarence and the Dead (and What do they tell you, Clarene? and The Dead Speak to Clarence)," "Things of This World ; or, Angels Unawares," and "Let the Dead Bury Their Dead; Being the Annotated Oral History of the Former Maroon Society called Snatchit and then Tearshirt and later the Town of Tims Creek, North Carolina [circa 1854-1985]." The stories show the magic inherent in everyday life and satirize academic attempts to interpret or explain the community.

The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor

This volume gathers all of Flannery O'Connor's published short stories. They are nothing short of brilliant. Every time I read "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," I see new details to admire and enhance my reading of the story. I think one of the reasons I admire these stories so much, is that O'Connor is so good at getting inside a person's head and exploding all his or her prejudices, bigotries, and limitations for the reader. It's not like she has a great deal of sympathy for these characters: she really doesn't hold back on her criticism, but on the other hand, she knows them so well that you have to think that she must like some part of them at least a little bit. Really magnificent: these stories are the work of a master of the form and the human condition.

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz

This book continues the story of Yunior (protagonist of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao). In a series of short stories, we see various instances of Yunior in love. This love is not all the same--some of it is familial love (for his mother, for his brother) and some of it is romantic--although Yunior can't ever seem to treat the women he loves with respect or honesty. The collection comes together slowly, because the stories are not in chronological order. The first and the last story--both dealing with Yunior coping with a girlfriend (in one case, a fiancée) breaking up with him after she discovers he's been cheating--were particularly moving, as was "The Pura Principle" which told about Yunior's brother Rafa and his brief marriage. A brief, but moving, collection.

The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston

This collection of stories spans a wide range of time (from Hurston's early 30s to just before her death) and includes all her published short fiction and a number of unpublished stories as well (including one, "A Woman in Gaul" which was almost burned after Hurston's death). It also covers a wide range of subjects and genres: some stories draw heavily on the Southern, African-American folklore that Hurston collected professionally, some are set in Harlem, some are fantastical--bordering on magical realism, and some are non-fictional, anthropological pieces. One of the themes that carries throughout the stories is the question of understanding (and language's role in that understanding)--can we really understand each other? how can we use language (or laughter) to both reveal and hide parts of ourselves to protect ourselves from the world? The figure of John (the trickster who came from Africa and outwits Massa despite being enslaved) is key to many of the stories. This collection contains some real gems and demonstrates the range and skill of Hurston's career.

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter

These stories are like icebergs: they're deeper than they first appear on the surface. For example, "Old Mortality" seems like a bildungsroman about Miranda growing up, but as we look deeper at the stories she's told, we see the destructive way the family has used romance and fiction to replace history and lived experience: stories about Aunt Amy (a tragic belle figure who died young) crowd out memories of the Civil War. I also really enjoyed "Noon Wine"--when the mysterious hired hand's past catches up with him, Mr. Thompson realizes both the extent to which he can be moved to act and the extent to which his motivations may be mistrusted by his community. Many of the stories feature great character development--a strong collection.

Cane by Jean Toomer

This book crosses all sorts of lines, both generic and social. It's a collection of short stories, dramatic pieces, and poetry that explores the conditions of culture in the United States. The first section is about life in the South and has a feminine feel; the second section is about life in the North and is masculine and sterile, and the third section is about a Northerner coming South, and has a synthesis. The book tries to rewrite our ur-myths from the rape fantasies that spurred lynching (instead of Southern white men needing to protect white womanhood, the real sin, according to the story, is hiding the root story, that of desire between a white man and a black woman), to Genesis itself (refigured in "Blood Burning Moon."). The book imagines that a Messiah figure could be replaced by an artist who might offer absolution for all the violence that marks US culture. Cane never fully gives us this healing, restorative art, however. Instead, we get the fragments. The poet can gather the fragments, but the collection implies that we need a community to assemble them into a whole. A beautiful, troubling, and ultimately moving meditation on race, culture, and the United States.

The Conjure Stories by Charles W. Chesnutt

These stories are told in a frame narrative: a white couple, John and Annie, move from Ohio to North Carolina in an attempt to improve her health and to make money farming. When they arrive in the South, they find their plantation is home to Uncle Julius, an African American who was born into slavery and who tells a series of stories about life before the Civil War. Although Uncle Julius may seem like an Uncle Remus figure, John quickly realizes that Julius's stories have a point: he tells the stories as a way of attempting to manipulate John and Annie. While John sees the smaller point, he lacks the emotional intelligence to see the larger ones: Julius's stories expose that although slavery is over, many of the same inequalities still persist in the South. The stories are folktales in which conjure features heavily: many have enslaved and white characters seeking redress for wrongs through magical means (metamorphoses into animals, trees, and other people are common). This conjure (which echoes the Latin for with the law) metaphorically demonstrates what slavery did legally and what Jim Crow statutes did quasi-legally: they turned people into things and established color lines which it might mean death to cross. Julius's stories invite John and the reader to transgress and cross these lines, to imagine what life is like outside of ourselves. While John has difficulty seeing this offer, much of the hope in the stories is that the reader can do what John cannot.

Looking for Jake by China Miéville

This collection of stories covers a wide range of fantasy; there's one set in Bas-Lag (home of Perdido Street Station, Iron Council, and The Scar), there are a number set in various post-apocalyptic Londons (including The Tain, a novella about vampires and people captured in mirrors), and even an illustrated story. I really enjoyed "'Tis the Season" about a world in which Christmas is so trademarked that you have to buy permission to celebrate. The stories were all good. Once again Miéville shows off his endlessly inventive and entertaining imagination.

The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan

Although there's a quiz and a word search, this book mostly contains short stories: there's one starring Percy and Annabeth between the Greek and Roman series, one featuring Luke before he came to Camp Half-Blood, one starring Leo making Festus the dragon into the Argo II, and ends with one written by Rick's son Haley about what happens to a demi-god who fought for Kronos after their defeat. I enjoyed all of the stories--they are good light reading, and they helped put me in the mood for The Mark of Athena, which comes out in October. Haley's story is just as good as his dad's.

Communion Town by Sam Thompson

This book tells the story of an unnamed, but intricately described, city through the eyes of several of its residents. Even the person of the narration changes from chapter to chapter. The place is all that connects each story to the next--but the city changes in the eyes of each of its beholders. I really enjoyed these stories--they are entertaining in their own rights, and cross many different genres. What links them thematically is the question of what is our humanity, what links us together as people. There's a sense of the city-dwellers' fear of what lurks at night and what lurks below the surface, and I thought that part in particular was very well handled.

Hex Appeal edited by P. N. Elrod

I really enjoyed this anthology. I picked it up for the Jim Butcher story, which was excellent, but I really liked most of the other entries as well. Lots of morally ambiguous characters, lots of witches. The magic systems were all straightforward enough that I didn't have a lot of trouble getting into the worlds (sometimes a problem with anthologies) and even the parts of larger series were clear without familiarity with those series. I'll be on the lookout for other anthologies by this editor.

Armored edited by John Joseph Adams

This anthology centers its stories around characters in body armor. Most of this armor is highly intelligent and can help the user make decisions, or even make decisions for the user (if for example, its occupant is harmed during battle or in the military). A few were alternative histories (for example, one was set in Australia during the nineteenth century, another was during the Spanish Civil War). I'm not as fond of the straight battle stories, but many had interesting twists (for example, a general who kept turning up when he wasn't expected, a planet of man-eating plants). I read this anthology for the new Brandon Sanderson story, which was okay, but not as good as his other work.

Blood Lite III: Aftertaste edited by Kevin J. Anderson

This collection was better than the first two because fewer of the stories fell flat. I still think that there's a high percentage of stories that don't quite get the humor, but Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden story was great. The shorter stories (such as the contract provided by the Maleficium software company) were often funnier (and more unique in execution) than the longer ones. I might suggest that Harry Dresden fans just read the Jim Butcher story, rather than spend all the time with the whole collection.