Month: February 2015

February 26, 2015

The New Yorker: “Ba Baboon” by Thomas Pierce

June 2, 2014: “Ba Baboon” by Thomas Pierce I’m still getting caught up on the 2014 stories and hadn’t read this one yet, so…
February 25, 2015

Teaching Old and New Stories Together

Against my better judgment, I agreed to teach a fiction workshop this winter in Charlottesville at WriterHouse. The class is fun and the “students”…
February 24, 2015

2015 Reading: A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison

A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison This novel is the February selection of my bookclub, Reading Liberally. Our discussion this week should be…
February 20, 2015

Reading Liberally — a political bookclub

Five years ago, I started the Staunton chapter of Reading Liberally, an offshoot of the national orgazination Living Liberally (which includes the more popular group…
February 19, 2015

The New Yorker: “Kino” by Haruki Murakami

February 23 & March 2, 2015: “Kino” by Haruki Murakami The story is about a Japanese man who works for a sporting goods company…
February 17, 2015

The New Yorker: “Camilo” by Alejandro Zambra

May 26, 2014: “Camilo” by Alejandro Zambra In this story, the narrator is a young boy when his father’s godson comes to visit for…
February 16, 2015

2015 Reading: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery I’m not sure what to think of this book. On the one hand, I recognize that much…
February 16, 2015

The New Yorker: “The Waitress” by Robert Coover

May 19, 2014: “The Waitress” by Robert Coover The Q&A with Robert Coover doesn’t help. I’m just not a fan of these reimagined fairy…
February 15, 2015

The New Yorker: “Labyrinth” by Amelia Gray

February 16, 2015: “Labyrinth” by Amelia Gray In the Q&A with Amelia Gray we learn that the story is a retelling of the Theseus…
February 14, 2015

The New Yorker: “The Fugitive” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya

May 12, 2014: “The Fugitive” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya Q&A with Lyudmila Ulitskaya It’s unfair, I suppose, to apply American standards of story-telling to a…