Puzzles Presents: Ultimate Reading Challenge 2015 discussion

Post the title, description, and your opinion of the book of short stories you read.

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

In turn horrifying and breathtakingly lyrical, Yiyun Li, a new and talented young Chinese writer, confronts the silence that dominated the history of her country, and illuminates how mythology, politics, history and culture intersect with personality. She leaves us with an enduring vision of a country undergoing tremendous change.


I liked a lot. This is a book you must read calmly. The stories can be related to everybody, maybe someone in you family, in your workplace, your friends... No matter where you are from, you probably will relate to something she wrote.

My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

a collection of holiday stories (Christmas, New Year's Eve, Hanukkah) from some of today's best known authors for young adults. I enjoyed this overall, some stories more than others, but it took me a long time to read it. In many cases, I felt that the story was plot driven with little character development and just as I read enough to care about the characters, the story ended. That was frustrating so I repeatedly put it down in favor of some other book. Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten White was one of the stronger entries. Overall, this was good but not great.

Dear Life by Alice Munro

This collection of short stories focuses on simple tales of everyday life, including coming home from war, a train ride, and a teacher and doctor become involved. The final four stories are nearly autobiographical and are closely tied together.

Alice Munro has a knack for expressing profound emotion by using frank and uncluttered language. Her prose is at times plaintive and contemplative, yet she also imbues wonder, hope, and endurance within her succinct style. She's a more positive, elaborate Hemingway; she actually wants her characters to enjoy life, however mundane their lives are.

Also, this collection encourages me to both read more Munro books and to read more short stories. I am a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Philip K. Dick. To be honest, Munro was outside my area of usual choices, so this was a good challenge!

In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians by Michael Cart is a book of short stories edited by a librarian! It may only be amusing to those who love libraries but there are quite a lot of notable authors who have contributed to this compilation. There are a variety of genres and authors represented that will speak to a mix of readers. The first short story, called “A General in the Library” by Italo Calvino, was my favorite. It is a simple story about how spending time in a library can subtly influence those who wish to destroy or censor it.