I had a little reward money to use from Borders so I made my second book purchase of the year yesterday. Granted, it was a little purchase but it’s one more book that’s found it’s way to my shelves.

Being that I want to continue reading more short stories (last year I read three short story collections), I decided to get 50 Great Short Stories. I have probably only read one or two of the stories in this collection so it’ll be great to discover the stories by Dorothy Parker, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, and many others.

I like this short note from the Editor on “What makes a great short story.”:

“The sudden unforgettable revelation of character; the vision of a world through another’s eyes; the glimpse of truth; the capture of a moment in time. All this the short story, at its best, is uniquely capable of conveying, for in its very shortness lies its greatest strength.”

And, how timely that I should get this book now as Eva’s post reminded me of Short Story Monday. I know I’ve heard of it but because I don’t read many short stories I’ve never participated. Maybe, this book will change that.

Well, my plans for a lot of bookbinding this weekend kind of didn’t happen as my husband and I spent a good deal of time organizing the studio. In a way, that was probably for the best as now things feel more in place so hopefully this coming week I can finally tackle my bookbinding projects.

I did spend quite a bit of time with books though and finished The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond. This was such a readable book. The story is about a child that goes missing. The soon-to-be stepmother, Abby, had been out with the little girl taking photographs and in the one instant she turns to take a picture, the little girl is gone. There is a lot of emphasis on memories and photographs which I really enjoyed reading about, although if you look at the Amazon reviews, you’ll see a lot of people found that “boring”. What I’m now trying to figure out is how well I liked the ending. I can’t tell you why I’ve had some issues with it because I’d spoil the book but I’m going to take a bit of time to think on it and then come back with a review.

Speaking of reviews, the year just started and I’m already behind. I’ve finished four books already and I really must tell you about them so those will be coming soon.

Now I had to dive into a couple of books this weekend and I found myself opening the pages and falling into these novels.

• The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. Because I really want to finish my Japanese reading challenge and because I’d had this book on my bookshelf for a while.
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Because BookBrowse sent this to me and wants a review soon. This is quite a chunky book but already I’m swept into the story.
• Birdman by Mo Hayder. Because Melody recently reviewed another Hayder book and it got me thinking that I’ve been meaning to read something by this author for a long time.

Good stories to start the week. Hope you are also starting off your week with some great reads.