How to Predict the Weather

by Aaron Burch

Ranging from lyrical commands to surreal narratives, Aaron Burch's short fictions swirl with whimsy, meditation, sadness, and hope; blur the line between real and imagined; and focus on loss of lovers, of family members, and even of one's self! From the founder and editor of the literary journal Hobart .

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

102 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

AARON BURCH grew up in Tacoma, WA. He is the author of the memoir/literary analysis Stephen King’s The Body; a short story collection, Backswing; and a novella, How to Predict the Weather. He is the founding editor of Hobart, which he edited from 2001–2022, and more recently he founded and edits HAD and WAS (Words & Sports). He lives in Ann Arbor, MI.

His first novel, YEAR OF THE BUFFALO, was released in November 2022 from American Buffalo Books, which is available here:

https://americanbuffalobooks.org/

Reviews

[Clifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess that I picked up Aaron Burch’s How to Predict the Weather out of my to-be-read pile (one of many, in truth) because it was short. I know Aaron, and so I’d intended to read it eventually anyway, but brevity is what drew me to it last night. And I liked it a lot. The book is extremely hard to categorize. It reads a bit like a collection of poetry (at about 100 pages in a small format, it’s about the right length). But it’s all prose, and the individual pieces are of two types. There are the instructions, in italics. And then there is the narrative of the unnamed man and woman and the trials and tribulations of their relationship. Since these latter pieces have, more or less, an overall narrative arc, leavened by the italicized instructions, the effect is of one cohesive short work—a novella in flash, maybe. Cool cover, too. There’s a lot to like about this little book.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

so I've had two important revelations today:

1. I gave a book 4 stars that I should have given five stars which is now skewing all my other reviews down a star. (this books star rating has been corrected for this issue thereby giving it an additional star at least for the time being.

2. my current book goal is very stressful and gave me kind of a heart attack when it told me I was a book behind earlier today.

I have no idea where I bought this book or how I came upon it to be completely honest, but it's little and it's cute. I've been meaning to fit it in for a while and a freak out like this is the perfect time for a hundred page book. I was going to go to bed at 11 tonight, but I was like 15 pages from the end of this so that went out the window.

this reminds me of anthropology by dan rhodes it's a sad book it's about losing something, it's about relationships. It is about how flying is just falling and missing the ground. yeah I went there, and in my head it makes sense, deal.

this is an amazing use of the short form. go read it now.

[Janell Zimmerer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This small collection packs a punch. The lyrical insights mixed with the ever changing weather, awakens the spirit.

[Casey]

This short collection is made up of flash fiction, some of which reads like poetry. Many of the stories are loosely related, using a lot of the same metaphors--birds, clouds, etc--and some have hints of being different snapshots of the same couple/relationship. Despite the stories being so short, I found myself reading them in short chunks. Several of the stories really stick out, mostly because of really lovely language. My favorite was a story about a woman whose hands are turning into birds, so she asks her boyfriend to cut off her hands so the birds can fly away. Some of the metaphors and "instructions" are a little too obscure for my taste. Typos abound. Lots of potential in this author, lovely, memorable, I hate to use this word but: "haunting"...

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as part instructions and part demonstration of how to try navigating life and relating to people in it. I have no idea if that is the way I was supposed to read it, but I really liked it this way. The prose felt very gentle, but that greatly magnified the sharp moments. Definitely, there are sharp moments just as there are sad moments and moments of drifting. The structure is interesting. It gave me an autumn like floating feel that carried me from beginning to end, and then left me wandering back around throughout.

[Leesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love this collection b/c of reasons and some of those reasons are: stars, whiskey, parking lots, folding paper birds, fireworks, clouds and boys loving girls. aaron's writing is that beautiful mix of simple and thinky. and he writes the kinda stories that i wanna read over and over again and that is my v. favorite thing abt reading/writing.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A combination of beautiful and quirky. Subtle, introspective. Very, very nice.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, visceral, dreamlike work here.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such careful, thoughtful prose! I love how the instructions break up the narrative.

[Carol Tilley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what it all means, but there's beautiful poetry amid the prose.