The Secret Goldfish: Stories4 reviews David Means Fourth Estate, 2004 A Terrific Collection! + An act of Hubris! Means co-ops Salinger + A Stellar Collection This inventive collection of stories revolves around the off-kilter - either something happens that cannot be explained or the characters are bewildered about how they came to be where they are. In the title story, a goldfish survives for nine years despite the odds in a murky, nearly airless tank ...             The Lemon Table: Stories17 reviews Julian Barnes Knopf, 2004 Brilliant but brace yourself + THE LEMON TABLE Is Full of Golden Apples + Minutely detailed, beautifully paced, and often wryly fun. + Julian Barnes ages             Beyond the Curve (Modern Japanese Writers Series)5 reviews Kobo Abe Kodansha International (JPN), 1993 One of Japan's greatest literary exports! + Hit and miss, but mostly hit + Beyond realism + Really good             The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories79 reviews Aimee Bender Anchor, 1999 She's not weird, it's surrealism! + Lovely imagery + Kicked a little bit of *%& + Freaks have feelings, too.             The Circus in Winter21 reviews Cathy Day Harcourt, 2004 Read this instead of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS + I love the circus, but the elephants make me sad. + A beautiful web. + Delicate and Beautiful + I do love the circus!             Former Virgin4 reviews Cris Mazza Fiction Collective 2, 1997 This is Mazza at Her Finest + Captivating + Kudos to Cris + former virgin             The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003 (Prize Stories (O Henry Awards))6 reviews Anchor, 2003 And now for something completely different . . . + A Solid Anthology + Like an assortment of fine dark chocolates + Worth reading, better than last year             The Stories of Richard Bausch4 reviews Richard Bausch HarperCollins, 2003 Pain Soup + A treat for short story readers! + Jewel Cut Say your goal is to locate a short story writer in relation to his peers. Start by imagining a map of a valley, with Mount Munro at one end and Mount Carver at the other. Mount Munro, after Alice, is the summit of capacious stories that range widely across time and space, containing fully laid ...             Japanese Baseball and Other Stories3 reviews W. P. Kinsella Thistledown Press, 2000 For Baseball Lovers Everywhere + Stories of love and lost opportunities + Not for baseball fans If you love THE GAME from stickball to the show, you will love this read. The character of Yossi Liebowitz grabs your attention and holds you for a terrific look inside the heart of the greatest game on Earth.             The Best American Short Stories 2004 (The Best American Series)15 reviews Houghton Mifflin, 2004 Another fine anthology from BASS + Not an easy read, but always worth your time + Portrait of America The 2004 Best American Short Stories collection, edited by Lorrie Moore, is the fattest BASS anthology yet. With stories by Sherman Alexie, T.C. Boyle, Deborah Eisenberg, Paula Fox, Jill McCorkle, Alice Munro, Annie Proulx, John Edgar Wideman, and John Updike, among others, the collection features ...             Drown79 reviews Junot Díaz Riverhead Trade, 1997 immigrant stories about the American myth + Quick easy read... + If you grew up on the streets, you might find some of these stories redundant This is the first book by the 2008 Pulitzer-winning author of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." It's a collection of short stories that are set between the 1970's and 1990's in the Dominican Republic, the Bronx and in a variety of Northern NJ towns. In "Ysrael," two brothers walk to ...             Sometimes I Dream in Italian34 reviews Rita Ciresi Delacorte Press, 2000 Not What I Expected + About a girl.. This book was beautifully written, although sometimes a bit confusing. You really felt for the characters. My biggest problem with the book was that I read the back cover and expected something light-hearted and happy to read when I was sad. After reading the book I felt even worse. It was ...             Dillinger in Hollywood: New and Selected Short Stories1 review John Sayles Nation Books, 2004 Unpretentious Stories by the Noted Screenwriter John Sayles, better known as a screenwriter and filmmaker, has been quietly publishing short stories since the 1980's. In this collection, he has compiled ten stories written over the span of twenty-four years, the oldest of which lends its title to the book. Some of these stories focus on the ...             Light Action in the Caribbean: Stories8 reviews Barry Lopez Knopf, 2000 Rich, poetic, slices of life + eclectic and thought-provoking + Lopez... + A true pleasure to read!             The Bridegroom: Stories26 reviews Ha Jin Pantheon, 2000 Upheaval + A Major Literary Force Early in His Career + A Resemblance Of Various Emotions + Please do not eat the soup             The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories9 reviews Anchor, 2004 The best anthology of short fiction I"ve read in a while + Fantastic! + The Best Anthology of Contemporary Fiction to Date + man...             Birds of America: Stories84 reviews Lorrie Moore Picador, 1999 A Christmas Appreciation of Lorrie Moore + For anyone with a child interned at the hospital... + Discovering Lorrie Moore + What wonderful stories!             The Middle of the Night13 reviews Daniel Stolar Picador, 2003 Stolar is Stellar! + A wonderful discovery! + The emotional states that keep us awake at night + I hope to read more by this talented writer! + Excellent Collection of Short Stories             Bottom of the Ninth: Great Contemporary Baseball Short Stories (Writing Baseball)3 reviews John McNally Southern Illinois University Press, 2003 Fiction and Baseball - A Perfect Pairing + Literary Baseball In this marvelous anthology of short stories about baseball, editor John McNally has assembled the fiction of contemporary writers, from Patricia Highsmith to André Dubus to Stuart Dybek, who share a fascination with the game and its influence on those who play it. Because these writers have ...             Demonology44 reviews Rick Moody Little, Brown and Company, 2001 Writing a lot but saying very little Rick Moody has talent. "The Mansion on the Hill," the first story in Demonology, evidences this talent extremely well. To start off with such a funny, poignant and heartbreaking story sucks you right in and makes you wonder what other treats will follow. Unfortunately for you, however, what ...