So Late In The Day ~ Claire Keegan

 

White Cat, Black Dog ~ Kelly Link

 Read the first 2 short stories but then a very definite

DNF and WINS (wish I never started)

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye ~ A. S. Byatt

 

** OK

Wordy and lecturing rather than beguiling storytelling

The New World (Chaos Walking 0.5) ~ Patrick Ness

 

Broken ~ Don Winslow

This Is Not A Drill ~ Paul Carter

The Nasty Bits ~ Anthony Bourdain

Don't Tell Mum ~ Paul Carter

Florida ~ Lauren Groff

Drown ~ Junot Diaz

Arrival ~ Ted Chiang

** OK **

The Refugees ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen

Norse Mythology ~ Neil Gaiman

**OK **

Ye gods!  Yawn!
Informative but not engaging

I know I am meant to swoon with joy because it is by (spoken in reverent terms) ... Neil Gaiman ... but no, no swooning on my part.  I felt very let down by something that I had been eagerly anticipating.  

While it definitely added to my scant knowledge of Norse mythology, it was not an engaging read.  It felt more like a lowly translation by someone not adept at either language.

The short story format was fine but it, combined with the language used, made it seem more of a children's version than a richly detailed, magical presentation of Norse mythology.  It was all too simplistic.  Dialogue in particular was poorly done - was he initially planning a graphic novel?  And if there is an argument that it was a written presentation of oral storytelling, then I would have fallen asleep around the fire.  It was informative but not colourful, it was peopled with characters but had no charisma, it was paraphrasing rather than engaging storytelling.  

Get In Trouble ~ Kelly Link

** OK **

Trigger Warning ~ Neil Gaiman

Short Stories And Disturbances

**** RECOMMEND ****

Interpreter of Maladies ~ Jhumpa Lahiri

**** RECOMMEND ****

The Witch and other tales retold ~ Jean Thompson

** OK **

Nice ... just nice
Not a stretch, not witty or clever

Between Here And The Yellow Sea ~ Nic Pizzolatto

- UNFINISHED -

didn't grab me...or leave me wanting more ... have only read the first 2 ... will come back to it before I rate it

How a Mother Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales ~ Kate Bernheimer

x NO x

- UNFINISHED -

Hope I was open minded ... think I gave it a fair go.  Did not like her previous book at all ... got this on the Kindle for Alphie

Read two of the short stories ... stinkers ... enough for me

Love this quote from a review :

The writing is deliberately sparse, intended, Bernheimer said, to leave “nonrepresentational space, meant to allow lucid encounters”

Yep ... that is another way of describing this self righteous wankiness  ... so instead of a review I will just leave a representational space

The Pacific War Companion ~ Daniel Marston (ed)

** OK **