Books on the Nightstand, Episode 3 (20:55)
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In Episode 3 of the Books on the Nightstand Podcast:
- Michael tells us about his weekend at Comic-Con, and Ann makes a shocking confession.
- We discuss the bad rap given to short stories, and talk about our favorite story collections. If you think you don’t like short stories, we dare you to give one of these a try!
- And we preview two new books that hit the shelves on May 6th: Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian and The Mysterious Montague, by Leigh Montville.
The story about Unaccustomed Earth debuting on the New York Times Bestseller list at #1 appeared on the New York Times’ Paper Cuts blog on April 10. The essay about short stories that Michael referenced is from Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends.
Full details of all of the books discussed are below. Thanks for listening!
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We encourage you to write down or print out the title information and shop at your local bookstore. Titles link to LibraryThing, a social networking site that allows you to catalog your home library. LibraryThing also links to various online purchasing options. Here are the books from this post:
Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan, Vertigo trade paperback, $12.99, ISBN 978-1-4012-0315-3
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, Knopf hardcover, $25.00, ISBN 978-0-307-26573-9
Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon, McSweeney’s hardcover, $24.00, ISBN 978-1-932-41689-3
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender, Anchor Books trade paperback, $12.95, ISBN 978-0-385-49216-4
Things that Fall From the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier, Vintage trade paperback, $13.95, ISBN 978-0-375-72769-6
First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan, Vintage trade paperback, $12.95, ISBN 978-0-679-75019-2
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom, Vintage trade paperback, $12.95, ISBN 978-0-375-70557-1
Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff, Knopf hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-4000-4459-7
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian, Shaye Areheart Books hardcover, $25.00, ISBN 978-0-307-39495-8
The Mysterious Montague by Leigh Montville, Doubleday hardcover, $26.00, ISBN 978-0-385-52033-1(all information is for the U.S. editions).
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Hi,
I read about your podcast in Publisher’s Weekly. I’m not a big short story fan, but I really like
Connie Willis. She can write a complete story.
Thanks for the podcast!
Hi Chris,
Thanks so much for coming over and leaving a comment!
I’ve had Connie Willis on my ‘to read’ list forever — at least 10 years. Guess I need to get to it. Thanks for the recommendation.
Ann
It’s interesting for me to hear that short stories apparently originated or were more prevalent in genre fiction. Being a reader of mainly literary fiction, I’ve always had this notion that short stories don’t exist outside the literary genre. Now I learned it’s not the case
Most of the people who tell me they don’t like short stories, or are not accustomed to reading them, say it’s because the “experience” feels incomplete. But in my case it doesn’t really feel that way, perhaps because most of the stories I’ve read (or listened to) came from The New Yorker and so I’m used to stories that are not essentially plot-driven but still evoke a lot of emotion. And ironically, it’s actually the process of going through one identifiable experience (however short it may be) that I particularly love about short stories. Like I always say about books I love, it’s more about the whole experience and less about the actual ending.