Oddities and Endings

by Kathie Giorgio

Oddities & Endings is a collection of forty of Giorgio’s stories, the majority of which originally appeared in literary magazines. A few special “never before seen” stories specifically written for this collection are included as well. Oddities & Endings; The Collected Stories of Kathie Giorgio delivers everything its title promises. Kathie Giorgio’s first published short story, accepted when she was fifteen years old, launched a career that has now spanned forty years.

Giorgio’s stories are filled with quirky characters doused with a heaping helping of humanity. Readers will recognize these characters from their own lives and possibly from the reflections they see in their mirrors every morning. There’s the woman who battles loneliness by searching for dead birds during her lunch hour, bringing them home to her special angels’ cemetery in her back yard. The man who becomes obsessed with finding the voice already recorded on his newly purchased answering machine. The woman who decides to dub herself a widow and gain new friends and sympathy at a retirement village in Florida. And the couple who struggle to restore intimacy after the husband’s emergency surgery leaves him with a stoma and colostomy bag he names Mick, creating an odd threesome in bed. Plus many more, covering the full spectrum of the oh so human spectrum.

320 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2016

About the author

KATHIE GIORGIO is the author of a total of fifteen books: eight novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry collections. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and poetry and awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Silver Pen Award for Literary Excellence, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award In Fiction. Her poem “Light” won runner-up in the 2021 Rosebud Magazine Poetry Prize, and her work has also been incorporated into many visual art and musical events. Kathie is the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC, an international creative writing studio. She lives with her husband, mystery writer Michael Giorgio, and their daughter Olivia, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Three of her adult children, Christopher, Andy, and Olivia, live close by, along with her solo granddaughter, Maya Mae. One adult child, Katie, has wandered off to Louisiana and lives among the mathematicians and alligators.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddities and Endings” is an appropriate title for this collection of short stories by an author I consider a friend and one of the most original writers I have ever encountered. These stories are not for the squeamish. Some are horrifying: the father having sex with his infant daughter, the man who feels compelled to expose his penis to people, the woman who collects dead birds. Others, such as the story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, are beautiful. Many focus on loneliness, such as the woman who pretends to be a widow to get more attention or the woman who sends text messages to herself. Some are just quirky, like the one in which a woman panics because her mother was cremated without her amputated leg. She is determined to find that leg and reunite it with the rest of the body. Giorgio goes whether other writers don’t dare to go. Sometimes I had to set this book aside for a while to let the shock subside, but wow, what a collection.

[Alice Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an intriguing and fascinating collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors. The stories are an eclectic mix, ranging from light to dark, humorous to sad, touching and poignant, and all of them satisfying. I couldn't put the book down, and I highly recommend it. Every story is well worth your time.