The Age of Grief- Smiley (Book #87)

I enjoyed Jane Smiley's writing in this book. She deftly captures human emotion and my favorite in this short story collection was her novella, the namesake of this book which has been made into a major motion picture, "The secret lives of dentists."

Olive Kitteridge-Strout (Book #71)

I've heard so much buzz about this book I couldn't resist picking it up. The book is a series of thirteen short stories of a town called Crosby, Maine. Each story focuses on different characters though Olive somehow is present in each scene. I normally don't like short-stories because I find the endings too vague and unsatisfying but I did not feel that with this book. Olive is a very complicated woman and Strout does a good job with her. For the most part she is a difficult woman, particularly when the stories are not told from her point of view. But when we see her eyes on a situation I kind of get it, even when she's destroying her daughter-in-laws clothing, or being cruel in the words she uses. Overall, I enjoyed this collection of stories and it has left me thinking about other difficult people in my lives. I wonder, like Olive, are they completely incapabable of changign or understanding how they come across? It helps me at least with a degree of empathy.

Runaway- Munro (Book #28)

I like short stories to a certain extent but what I often don't appreciate is the lack of closure most provide. These stories are no different, yet I liked them just the same. There are about seven stories in this collection. Three stories focus on different times in one woman's life and I loved those the most. I wish I had read these stories with a book club because there is so much to talk about and discuss. There is a great degree of depth and symbolism, etc that just makes you wish you could share the reading with someone. I liked reading these very much.