I feel like I should apologize to Julie Orringer, the author of "How to Breathe Underwater" for her low toaster pasty rating.  I feel like I’m breaking up with someone.  She is a brilliant writer, she really is.  Short stories really should be my favorite genre.  I love that it doesn’t take forever to read them, & that you get to read a lot of different works from the same author.  However, my problems with almost all short stories is how dark they are.  Apparently, they just don’t have enough room for goodness or humanity.  Instead it seems to be "Look how good of a writer I am, I can suck your will to live in only 32 pages".

I’m not scared of alien movies, or those featuring ghosts or monsters.  There is however one thing that always make me uncomfortable, creepy children.  The kids who see ghosts, or point to ghosts, or who are possessed by ghosts, or otherwise evil, always bother me.  I try to avoid them at all costs.  However, they seem to be a given in most short stories, & therein lies the problem.  It’s not you it’s me.

Tags: reading, short-stories, writing, gilmore-girls, tv, book-club, book-review