I got sidetracked on my Carol Shields short stories. Although I do plan on finishing the book before the end of the year, I won’t make it by the end of June to count it for the Canadian Challenge. I’ll just use it for Canadian Challenge #2 and substitute something else for the first Canadian Challenge.
I have started on another book of short stories that I’m excited about. I’ve read the first two stories in The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards, and I enjoyed both of them very much.
“The Great Chain of Being” is about the power of a person’s name. If a person’s name is changed to one with a good meaning (or a bad meaning), does it change who the person is inside? When Eshlaini’s brothers and sisters are all given a special name by their father, she wants one, too — until one is given to her that brings her dishonor. Can she rise above the stigma her new name brings? I loved this one!
“Spring, Mountain, Sea” are actually the names of the three children of an American man and an Asian woman — I think she was Vietnamese. This story chronicles the lives of the couple and how they deal with others’ prejudice of her background and also how Jade Moon battles with her isolation, loneliness, and homesickness. This one was also very good.
This book’s writing has pleasantly surprised me. I hope to write about 2-3 stories from it each week on Mondays.
I have this sitting on my to-read pile. I’ve been enjoying short stories this year; it’d been a long time since I read any. I just finished a collection called Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer. It was uneven; I liked some stories while other were just okay.
[...] I read the first two stories of this book back in May and enjoyed them very much. You can read my review of those two here. [...]