Patricia Abbott (pattinase): Short Story Wedneday

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Short Story Wedneday

Kevin Tipple

4 comments:

Rick Robinson said...: Thanks for listing me, Patti. Fingers crossed on your procedure.; 11:45 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: Ditto to what Rick said.

Short story collections keep pouring in here. New arrivals include HILDEGARDE WITHERS: FINAL RIDDLES? by Stuart Palmer, a Crippen & Landru Lost Classics edition, plus Edward D. Hoch's THE NIGHT MY FRIEND, a collection of his non series stories from the 1960s. From the library I borrowed Hilma Wolitzer's TODAY A WOMAN WENT MAD IN THE SUPERMARKET. And I downloaded DEATH AT SEA: Montalbano's Early Cases by Andrea Camilleri. I have Marly Swick's first collection, MONOGAMY, in the mail. I'm sure there will be more.

Have to go out now but will report on recent short story reading after lunch.; 12:00 PM
Todd Mason said...: Nothing you mention, Jeff, lacks interest. I'm spoiled for choice here, in terms of what I want to read or reread next, myself...and then there are the other tasks to attend to, family as well as dental business.

Thanks for posting, Patti, and further good hopes for your upcoming activity...and for Megan's potential award, as I managed to forget to mention previously.; 12:56 PM
Jeff Meyerson said...: Currently reading Otto Penzler's (edited) BIG BOOK OF GHOST STORIES, which included a Donald Westlake story I'd never read, "In at the Death," August Derleth's "Pacific 421," Robert Weinberg's "Midnight El," and David Morrell's "But At My Back I Always Hear," as well as stories by Twain, Hawthorne, E> F> Benson, Paul Ernst, and Washington Irving.

Also Patricia Highsmith's SLOWLY, SLOWLY IN THE WIND, which has the odd "Woodrow Wilson's Necktie." This guy goes regularly to this Madame Tussaud-like Wax Museum and smiles at the various exhibits. Then one day he decided to stay late and murder the three people working there. (He took Wilson's necktie from an exhibit previously.) Another more depressing story is about a young couple living in a slum tenement with their four young children when she discovers she is pregnant again. (Her husband is Catholic and doesn't believe in "artificial" birth control.) She goes for an abortion, but of course they are illegal them. Highsmith paints quite the picture of their awful life ("Those Awful Dawns" is the title), but as in the Wax Museum story, where she goes with it and the ending are not what you'd expect.

Lastly, Edward D. Hoch's THE NIGHT PEOPLE is a group of his non series stories.; 2:46 PM