It appears self’s books have been available on kindle for a few years. She never knew!
Two of the four:
The cover of The Lost Language is a detail of a painting by the late, great Filipino artist Santiago Bose.
Category: short story collections
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Loving the narrators in this collection — so far, all young women at loose ends, unsure of themselves and mostly just going with the flow.
This narrator lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Not too sure what she does for a living, but she makes enough to pay a very cheap rent, and to watch movies by herself. She meets a young man named Paul, and he invites her to a party at his place.
The next night I was in Fort Greene. It was less than two miles from Williamsburg, but I had to take the train to Manhattan and back to get there. Paul’s apartment was in the basement — cavernous with almost no light.
His roommate Ralph answered the door: “Oh hey, come on in. Paul told us all about you. Hey Paul,” he yelled, “she’s here.” It was the kind of party I hadn’t been to since high school in Portland: eight people sitting around with beer, listening to loud music. They even wore the same clothes: concert t-shirts and black pants, flannel shirts and Levis. The music playing was punk from the late 70s: the Jam, the Clash, the Buzzcocks. The friends — all guys and one loud brashy girl — were all jovial and trashed. “You want a beer?” one guy Mickey said.
— Safe Places: Stories, p. 35 -
Thank you, University of Massachusetts Press for publishing this book, self is enjoying it sooooo much!
My friend Farhad called me last year because he was sick from headaches and vomit, and no one knew what was wrong. No doctor could cure him. I read his leaves and I said, “Farhad, you will die in seven months if you do not stop eating so much lamb.”
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I’m thinking how I shouldn’t have eaten the first slice. I hate pizza in the summer, but she talked me into it. When I don’t eat in the morning, my stomach’s flat as the beach — a valley with hip bones for mountains — but now it’ll be a round little hill and I won’t be able to see past it to my toes.
— A Perfect Day at Riis Park, Story # 2 in Safe Places
Self picked up this collection almost a year ago. Where does the time go? She had Kerry sign the book for her at AWP Philadelphia. And now it’s almost time for AWP Seattle. Self would like to finish it before she gets on the plane for Seattle. She doesn’t think that will be a problem, because the voice in these stories is just . . . WOW.
Stay tuned.
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Love that there is this collection of scenes which did not make it to The Daevad Trilogy, but are so fully realized this can be considered Book 4 of the trilogy. Ha!
Currently reading Story # 8, which focuses on her faaaaavorite character. Not since The Goblin Emperor has she encountered a hero so beguiling.
- “You’ve not challenged just any warrior, beast . . . this is the Afshin-slayer, Aliyazad al Qahtani.”
Thrilling stuff!
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Pulled the old switcheroo because she couldn’t endure being terrorized by The Terror, especially since EVERYONE ON THE EXPEDITION DIES. This is not a spoiler since, unless you’ve had your head under a rock, all you have to do is google the main characters and you can learn all about their fates on Wikipedia.
Her current read is Fuentes’ short story collection Are We Ever Our Own.
There were babies born without surnames, and girls who walked unimpeded into the ocean, their white nightgowns floating in the waves.
— “The Burial of Fidelia Armando Cassell”, Story # 2 in Are We Ever Our Own
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K: A Novel, by Ted O’Connell (Santa Fe Writers Project, 2020)
Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, 2011)
Like Water and Other Stories, by Olga Zilberbourg (WTAW Press, 2019)
Your Nostalgia is Killing Me, by John Weir (Red Hen Press, 2022)
The Accomplice, by Joseph Kanon (Atria Books, 2019)
How High We Go In the Dark, by Sequoia Nagamatsu (William Morrow, 2022)
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Self will aim to read 38 books.
Her 2022 Reading Challenge was 37 books, and she overshot that by a mile. Well, just by 11 books. But it is only November.
Here are her five-star reads, so far 2022:
- K: A Novel, by Ted O’Connell
- Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
- Circe, by Madeline Miller
- Like Water and Other Stories, by Olga Zilberbourg
- Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me: Stories, by John Weir
Kanlaon 