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"Jumping Monkey Hill"
This story is full of the angst of a woman and author who has to push back against those who doubt the authenticity of her story and that of others, saying they are 'not real stories about real people' or 'don't represent the real Africa,' even though each tells a different story of a person in Africa, written by a true African, based on that writer's experiences and observations.

In "A Private Experience," a story about a deadly riot in the market in Kano, Adiche powerfully critiques human divisions--religious, economic, ethnic--and the prejudices and stereotypes that deepen them to weeks of fear, misunderstanding, and hate. The encounter of two characters divided proves that personal experiences with those unlike ourselves can bridge these divides.

"Cell One" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

The narrator's privileged, coddled brother begins stealing from the family when he sees his friends stealing from neighbors. He is never held accountable, and his behavior grows more entitled and risky. The boys around him form cults, and the violence between groups escalates at their posh school, drawing the attention of a corrupt, dangerous police force excited to punish them.

"Invisible forms of resistance for which subjugated peasants have been famous in all times and places: 'foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, feigned ignorance, desertion, pilfering, smuggling, poaching' (Scott 1989: 5)" (27).

"In a system where life is subordinated to the production of profit, the accumulation of labor-power can only be achieved with the maximum of violence so that, in Maria Mies' words, violence itself becomes the most productive force" (16).

"The Lord of Misrule" by M. Rickert

Terrifying in the dark reality it paints of a corrupted spirit and every parent's worst nightmare...the sudden loss of a child

"Gravé of Small Birds" by Kaaron Warren

Food and feasting in a beatific small town interrupted by a jealous rage and a "murder" of birds for the Winter Solstice...

"Löyly Sow-na" by Josh Malerman

The greatest horror (hope?) just might be facing the truth about yourself.

"Daughter of a Ghost" by Leslie Jamison

"This is why fairy takes are more forgiving than sentimental novels. They let darkness into the frame. Finding darkness in another story is so much less lonely than fearing the darkness is yours alone."

Representation matters in more ways than one; it pushes back against the internal "imposter" story we tell ourselves.

"The Long Trick" by Leslie Jamison

This is a story of longing, yearning for memories and futures and places that aren't your own and may never be. It's about how wondering, 'what if?' can pull you away from your own presence and the people who love you. It's being thankful for those who show you how to rest your weary searching feet, to choose to remain when you feel compelled to run.

"Return to Bear Creek Lodge" by Tananarive Due

There's a reason Ms. Due is one of my favorite horror writers; her suspense pulls at you from the start, dragging you toward the inevitable. You couldn't fight it if you tried. Add to that the cultural and personal significance of her characters and their trauma, and her stories should be required reading. This story of a creature in the snow will linger.

"If there are Americans who are good, who will not cheat and kill, why do they not send after these robbers and punish them? And how is it they make laws with cheat? It was the American law which took Temecula away from [Native Americans], and gave it to those men! The law was on the side of the thieves... It is a people that steals, and that kills for money."

"[Americans] have power, and great riches... Money is all that they think of. You get money, they will commit any crime, even murder."

"Maximum Exposure" by Leslie Jamison

What's beyond the edges of a photograph, a map, a painting? What happened before or after the story inside the book or the snapping of the photo? Where do I come from? What will my children's children's children be like? If you've ever felt compelled to understand the entire picture, flaws and all, this essay will resonate with you.

"Dry and Ready" by Glen Hirshberg

This one beautifully illustrates the heaviness of grief, both for the lost and the living who have lost themselves. It contrasts the joy and regret that memory brings and links those contrasts to the gifts and burdens we pass through the generations.

"The Ones He Takes" by Benjamin Percy

Santa brings joy to children on Christmas...at least most children. But someone must build the toys.

"The Importance of a Tidy Home" by Christopher Golden

How tidy is your home? Prepare it for the new year, or the Schnabelperchten of Salzberg will eviscerate you! I've worried about cleaning my home for visitors, but this story takes the horror of an unexpected visit to a new level.

"Up in Jaffna" & "No Tongue Can Tell" each feature a civil war-- our very own Civil War and the more recent one in Sri Lanka. Each one examines our warring desires to both witness and ignore the tragedies and traumas of war...to never forget and to sweep away the rubble to build hotels and encourage industry...to feel empathy and to disassociate.

This one's going to be amazing...I can tell. What society and people do and have done to children is unconscionable.

"Sweet Everlasting" by M. T. Anderson

Climax is a peak for a reason---whoever reaches it must, necessarily descend. If they do not, if they must forever remain at this great height, it will lose all of its luster. So be careful what you wish for! Pleasure cannot last forever, there must be pain and discontent; otherwise, there is no pleasure after all.

"Sim Life" by Leslie Jamison

This essay traverses the complex human desire to both inhabit life and leave it, to experience life in all of its trials and to live a life with different challenges, to simultaneously escape life and to live it more fully than our circumstances allow. I realize that I have lived many 'second lives' in the pages of books or through the eyes of others in an endless scroll.

"A Recording for Carole Before It All Goes" by Jason Reynolds

Collecting memories, the everyday ones & the big ones, can so powerfully change the experience of losing someone. In this story, a young person collects stories for their grandmother who is forgetting things slowly due to Alzheimer's, and while, ostensibly, they're doing it for Grandma, it's also a powerful way to keep her even when she's gone.

"We Are Looking For Home" by A.S. King

For contentment, for belonging, for acceptance, for uniqueness. We so often fail, doomed in our efforts by inner doubts and demons that lie and bully and mislead. We covet confidence and surety, and that same confidence and surety leads to self doubt. It's hard to break out of this loop, but home is on the outside.

"Layover Story" by Leslie Jamison

Other people's lives "hold more than [we] could ever possibly see," so keep showing up for each other "with grace."

"We Tell Ourselves Stories in order To Live Again" by Leslie Jamison

Many voracious readers argue that stories offer travels to places, periods, and perspectives we haven't and may never experience in our lives. Here, Jamison assets the same about other stories we tell ourselves--the real or imagined or misremembered narratives that build our identity. In essence, we are ourselves, and we are all interconnected.

"Pool Bandits" by G. Neri

It's a 1970's summer, heat visible in the air and not a raindrop in sight. Kids roam the streets, the beaches, the ditches, and the backyards of people on vacation. There's freedom in sneaking into fences, draining pools to share the bowl...full days of trying and failing until you can fly.

"La Concha" e.E. Charlton-Trujillo

A collection of jars, of titles, of small moments together in a closet of the self, protected from His abuse and a mother's seeming death. This one reflects life and poetry. Beautiful.

"Take It From Me" David Levithan
It's interesting to think about the things people collect and the emotion it brings them. David's collection, I think, made then feel connected to people and the world around him, while his friend's box of doubts served the same function as a journal. I wonder about my own collections, real or figurative, and what they give to me.

"52 Blue"
Nature is itself and separate from us, but what we feel for nature and because of nature... that's real, too. I enjoyed exploring this idea with Leslie Jamison, pondering what I've projected onto nature as a balm for whatever's going on inside me at the time and how my projection blocks potential truths. I also love what she says about metaphor and how it provides companionship, resonance, and kinship.

"Play House" by Anna-Marie McLemore

I grew increasingly more tense as the men arrived and grew in number, there to "protect" but, in fact, a threat to the two lone and beautiful women too polite to refuse to play hostess. I felt the threat in my bones, wanting to pull the protective circle of other women together, while in the story, the other women ripped the vulnerable women apart with their eyes.