Saturday, August 22, 2009

So, my worst fear of having the responsibility of choosing the book club book has come true - that I pick a book of fiction based on the little bit I know of it, and it turns out to be totally inappropriate. Arg. I didn't realize how many of the stories are about sex and death. Anyway, I hope you have all procrastinated reading it until this week. I'm still not done, but here is my updated list of stories to avoid:
Happy Endings
The Boy
Iguana Hunting
Disappearing
A Lover's Ear
The Verb To Kill
Bigfoot Stole My Wife
I am only up to "Family Album" now, but I'll post any others that I come to.
Next time I think I'll stick with non-fiction :)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

OK, I apologize, but I feel the need to warn you on a couple of stories in this book, since I was the one who chose it. I only read a few of them in school, and now I've found a couple that you probably will want to skip. So, I hope actually that none of you has started reading yet!
One to absolutely avoid is "The Boy" by Joyce Carol Oates, and another red flag would be a pretty bad word on the second page of Margaret Atwood's "Happy Endings." I'll keep you posted on any others I come across that need censoring. But the nice thing about short stories is that you can skip a bad one all together and not miss out on any part critical to the rest of the book.