Library Staff Directory
Posted Jun 30, 2015
Happy 4th of July! Hopefully many of you are making your way to someplace relaxing for the long weekend - even if that's just your own backyard. With all the food, fun and family, you don't need to set aside your reading. Just switch it up with a book of short stories you can take anywhere and read in those all-too-brief snatches of free time you have this holiday weekend.
Here are some highly recommended new collections:
Music for Wartime by Rebecca Makkai
If the success of her first two novels and much anthologized short stories is any indication, Makkai can tell a stirring tale. The stories in this book move across time and geography easily, from war-torn eastern Europe to the rural Pennsylvania set of a reality show. Each resonates deeply with messages about the way we affect one another with our actions, however accidentally.
The Wonder Garden by Lauren Acampora
The linked stories in Acampora's first collection plant us firmly in the suburban town of Old Cranbury. Residents keep secrets hidden, are burdened by the weight of long-abandoned dreams, are stunned when their dry routines are suddenly shaken loose. Though it may sound cliche, Acampora's methods of dismantling suburban myths are anything but.
Charlie Martz and Other Stories: The Unpublished Stories by Elmore Leonard
When master crime and western author Leonard died last year, he left behind a collection of previously unpublished stories. Now gather together for the first time, the stories from his early years show an author experimenting with the craft before settling into a pattern that will set him on the path to fame. From mystery to western to realistic, the stories are a must for die-hard fans and a great entree for those new to Leonard's writing.
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