Even if you don't normally like short stories...

books:


	• Jigs & Reels: Stories (P.S.) Joanne Harris Harper Perennial, 2006 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Quirky-charactered strange stories

Jigs and Reels starts out strong, with five, five-star reads out of the first ten stories: a high school reunion...of witches, endearing elderly escapees, Cinderella's sister side of the story, a fearsome free spirit and a wrongly accused man. But the rest rang from science fiction to weird to somewhere in between: number mania, an obsessed gamer, disabled swimmers, "Every Tuesday's Freak Day at the Body in Question;" and a writer encounters the castoffs characters of his never finished stories. Those who like the unusual, will probably love this collection. Best feature: the author provides a brief intro to each story telling how, when, where, or why the idea for it came about. Mainstream readers may prefer: New Sudden Fiction edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas or Runaway by Alice Munro. Strange short story fans might also like: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami.

for more information click here

Even if you don't normally like short stories...

I have to admit, I am usually disappointed in short stories. I really like to sit down and relax with a book and I sometimes feel cheated with short stories. This book is not like that! Harris is a fabulous writer and each story is coupled with a little blurb about where she got the idea for the tale. This is the perfect book for anyone like me who normally doesn't like to read short stories and I promise you, like me, you'll go in search of another collection that will make you feel like this one did!

for more information click here

An interesting collection

Like most short story collections, the individual stories vary in length and quality. It is hard to categorize the stories as they cover a range of topics and human emotions. Some deal with the supernatural and some with people's desires. The author notes that she finds it hard to write short stories. I have personally found that writing short stories is easy, but finding editors to publish them is extremely hard. Perhaps that is why the author has published them as a collection. Some are longer, complete stories; and some seem to be more in the category of short scenes.

I particularly liked the man contemplating suicide who decided to indulge himself in things he would have never otherwise have done, e.g., two leather-clad blondes in a parked vehicle. And then their is the story about the ugly sister, and her feelings about Cinderella. There is the woman trying to use an ancient cookbook who obtains some very, very strange results. There is the class reunion, but a class from a rather strange school.

Overall, the author is very creative, and has let her mind wander in some strange directions. But that makes for a collection of good stories.

for more information click here

Fantastical!

The stories in this book cover a wide range of subjects and styles, as others have noted. But all -- both the realistic and the magical stories -- are written with a magic touch. Some are darkly funny, some just plain dark, some are quirky, and some are sweet. All of them speak to the soul in some way.

Here are just a few examples: two women from a nursing home help each other bust out to go shopping; the actress who perennially plays an ugly stepsister (and comes to inhabit the role) explains why the stepsisters get a bum rap; a man undergoes a transformation while eating a meal in Naples; a class reunion of witches goes funnily awry, yet does not look that different from any other class reunion; a woman dares to try recipes from an old cookbook.

I enjoyed every story immensely, even if the transition from one to another was sometimes jolting. That jolt was actually part of the fun! And I did enjoy Ms. Harris's little quotes at the beginning of each story telling us what inspired her to write it. I'm always interested in how people come up with ideas for stories.

If you'd like a really fun collection of stories that will tickle your brain just a little as well as your funny bone, pick this one up!

for more information click here

Dark & light, by the author of Chocolat

In this collection of 22 short stories and vignettes, Joanne Harris gives us insights into some strange stories and some strange people. Not all are strange, but those that aren't are at least out of the ordinary. Most will not give you nightmares or make the reader uneasy. Well, except . . .

"Waiting for Gandalf" may be a bit predictable, but maybe that's the problem. In "Fish" it seems like the newly married couple are getting what they deserve. The characters in "The Little Mermaid" are more than bizarre, but it's easy to be sympathetic to some. The most positive story is "Faith and Hope Go Shopping," whose elderly characters are delightful.

This collection is a quick read and very different from the usual run of short stories. Harris has a talent for making the bizarre seem almost ordinary.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

Each of the twenty-two tales in this enchanting collection is a surprise and a delight, melding the poignant and the possible with the outrageous, the magical, and, sometimes, the eerily haunting. Wolf men, dolphin women, defiant old ladies, and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear -- in Jigs & Reels the miraculous goes hand in hand with the mundane, the sour with the sweet, and the beautiful, the grotesque, the seductive, and the disturbing are never more than one step away. Whether she's exploring the myth of beauty, the pain of infidelity, or the wonder of late-life romance, Joanne Harris once again proves herself a master of the storyteller's trade.

for more information click here

hot