American Housewife (2016), a collection of short stories by Helen Ellis, is the Literary Wives bloggers' pick for this month. It is witty, poignant, hilarious, dark, timely, and accessible. Please see more of the Literary Wives discussion at the following blogs. Naomi of Consumed by Ink Kay of What Me Read Lynn of Smoke & Mirrors Ariel of One... Continue Reading →
Being afraid is exhilarating. I had just dashed up the carpeted stairs of our hundred-year-old house, pushing the laundry chute closed as I passed. I made it to my purple room and crashed into my dresser. I began scooping up all of the contents, throwing them into my small My Little Pony suitcase. I could... Continue Reading →
“My dad’s not gay! You’re a liar!” I had never spoken to anybody with such violence, but I did so now to Jenny, a childhood friend. We were settled in her bedroom, and the emptiness of the newly painted room echoed the grief that rang out in my voice. The walls seemed to be closing... Continue Reading →
Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000), a woman who did not start writing until after her sixtieth birthday in the 1970s, was not what scholars would consider a traditional modernist. She did not write during modernism’s height, did not help to create the significant change of that era, and did not fraternize with other modernists. However, she did... Continue Reading →
I read Half in Love (2003)! If you have read my post on Maile Meloy, you would know that I’ve read all of Meloy’s work except her first book of short stories, Half in Love. My library never obtained it and I never bought it, until now. And I’m not half in love with Meloy’s... Continue Reading →
I first encountered the short story collection A Simplified Map of the Real World (2013) by Stevan Allred when I got an email from the editor. She is Laura Stanfill, whom I’ve met through blogging and whom I would call friend. When she got to the story that names the collection, she immediately thought of... Continue Reading →
I’ve read a few different short story collections by Ernest Hemingway. Here are my musings on some of the specific stories in those collections. “Soldier’s Home,” from the collection In Our Time (1925), is a product of Modernism, a literary and social movement surrounding World War I in which the world experienced dramatic change. Harold... Continue Reading →
I first read Maile Meloy's work through a short story in an anthology I had purchased during my Master’s program. I took my oldest daughter to the park at that time (she was younger and my only one), and I sat on a picnic blanket and read while she played. It was a warm spring... Continue Reading →
The Bookshelf of Emily J. 