First, my response to the monumentally silly Caitlin Flanagan article about teen girls and reading is over at Guys Lit Wire. I still can't believe The Atlantic published this.
Moving on, some of my favorite reading comes via short stories and especially short stories by fantasy and science fiction authors. When it comes to anthologies you need look no further than the annual collections
In the current volume, the twenty-first you will find Kij Johnson, Lisa Tuttle, MT Anderson, Paul Park, Jeffrey Ford, Holly Black, Elizabeth Hand and M. Rickert whose unsettling "Holiday" will likely give me nightmares for life. (And I mean that as a compliment.) If you're looking for a book for a fantasy and/or horror lover then this is the one to get.
I found A Field Guide to Surreal Botany to be a "jewel box of a title" when I reviewed it earlier this year. The combination of imaginative plant stories and lovely illustrations makes this one really special. Some of my earlier thoughts:
The description, "an anthology of fictional plant species that exist beyond the realm of the real", suggested all sorts of possibilities but nothing - NOTHING - could have prepared me for the final product. This book is flat out gorgeous (Chui's illustrations are elegant dreams and the whole design is reminiscent of a 19th century guide from faux watermarks to sepia toned pages) but it is the cheekiness of the plant descriptions, the humor and deep intellect at work on every page, that put it way over the top for me. It could have just been pure fantasy but the editors clearly had another vision, one that comes as close to an actual field guide as you can get while still remaining firmly fictional.
Mike Resnick's The Other Teddy Roosevelts is an excellent choice for history buffs who will find enough truth in this collection to satisfy the nonfiction side of their brain while also exulting in the new travels of the former president. It doesn't hurt that TR was just the flat out coolest president ever or that Resnick clearly knows his subject inside and out. From my review in the June issue of Bookslut:
The Other Teddy Roosevelts is outstanding historical fiction with a science fiction twist. It presents multiple moving portraits of one of America’s most impressive statesmen and makes him an even more compelling character. Teens should look to Resnick’s stories as another way to enjoy history and view those who made it. Yes, yes, this is fiction but it’s fiction as Teddy Roosevelt would have lived it. The author provides plenty of facts about the former president (in both the introduction and outstanding appendix) to pique interest in further reading and his work will likely bring new fans to someone rarely studied in more than a cursory manner in modern schools. This is just great stuff, from start to finish; I can’t recommend it enough.
Big Mouth House new release of Joan Aiken's Armitage Family Stories, The Serial Garden, is one of the books I think every middle grade and YA reader should be reaching for. My review of it appears in my December column (up any time this week) but I did write about a bit in October when I first finished the book: "In Aiken's world the main characters (Mark and Harriet Armitage) are as likely to getting over whooping cough or going to school as they are to be rescuing a unicorn or dealing with battling druids in the garden. They are the Cassons blended with Harry Potter - and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. (Not the overwriting bits of Harry Potter nor Voldemort, but parts like qwiddich and Hogsmeade.) Aiken is perfect reading for the winter months as you can not help but be cheered by her stories."
It is quite frankly a magical blend of the Penderwicks and everything Elizabeth Enright wrote...but cheekier and not at all sappy. Great stuff.
Theodora Goss is not nearly a big enough name in the literary world so for readers willing to take a chance on someone they are unfamiliar with, I recommend her In the Forest of Forgetting (with an intro by Terri Windling which says a lot). These stories are a bit of fairy tale blending (as in turning fairy tales on their collective heads), Kelly Link surrealism with a fondness for the long ago and faraway. (Long ago in a Victorian sort of way.) I wrote about this one last summer:
The Emily Gray stories were the ones I liked best especially "Lessons with Miss Gray" which brought a group of girls full circle and then followed up with them years later as adults so the reader could see exactly what their relationship with Gray had wrought with adulthood. This was not a tragedy but it did show how little we often understand about life - a wish to please make one's life easier can cause the untimely death of another. I saw this played out in a repeat of Cold Case last night where an exhausted mother prayed for relief from her burdens and was horrified when one of her children died that same night - through no fault of her own. "How can you worship a god who relieves your burden by killing a child?" she asked. Theodora Goss explores that confusing reality in detail and gives the reader so much to think about that your mind fairly spins. I'd love to see a full collection of Emily Gray stories, or even a novel that followed her through time.
She's sort of Mary Poppins with a serious "proceed with caution" sign hanging over her head.
You can read her story "the rapid advance of sorrow" here - Sleeping Beauty as you never knew her. Goss is awesome.
Finally, Neil Gaiman is the master and you have to read his short stories to really appreciate how monumentally talented this man is. His recent collection, Fragile Things, is notable for many reasons but my absolute favorite is "The Problem With Susan", the story of what happened after Narnia and one of the ways that C.S. Lewis got things very very wrong. Not to suggest that he wasn't an amazing writer but still, for many of us the problem with Susan was one that pricked at our conscious for years until Gaiman finally gives us some relief.
One should read Neil Gaiman to learn to write, to love to read, to remember what power a story can have. What joy for those who have not yet discovered him - and what opportunity for those who deliver this perfect gift.
