Bernard MacLaverty

A collection of twelve powerful and moving new stories from one of Ireland's most celebrated writers.

And Other Stories

Blank Pages

         It took me waaaaaaaaay too long to read this book.  I think I won it from a Goodreads giveaway in January of 2022, and I didn’t read it until January of 2023.  Physical books get added to my special TBR shelf and I read them in the order in which they were received.  Because I get the majority of my reading material from the library, and those books have due dates, the physical books don’t take priority.  So, it took me a year, but I finally read it. 

            I have long professed my dislike for short stories.  I can handle them in small quantities, in literary magazines and websites, but an entire anthology of them immediately exhausts me.  However, as a pseudo-writer, I fully understand the appeal of the short story.  I, too, have amassed a pretty decent collection of short stories (they will likely never be read by anybody other than myself), but I can’t knock out a novel to save my life (to be fair, my life has never been threatened by the lack of a completed novel).   I avoid short story books, but every now and then, one will sneak in.

            This book made me think of the Disney movie Fantasia.  If you haven’t seen it (because maybe you live under a rock???), artists painted pictures and scenes based on pieces of music.  It’s a beautiful movie.  This book painted some of the most amazing pictures and scenes, the writing was that good.  While I don’t recall the specifics of any of the stories, I do recall being completely captivated by every word on every page.  This is one of those books I will recommend to every human I know.  Please read this one. 

Kristen Claiborn

         It took me waaaaaaaaay too long to read this book.  I think I won it from a Goodreads giveaway in January of 2022, and I didn’t read it until January of 2023.  Physical books get added to my special TBR shelf and I read them in the order in which they were received.  Because I get the majority of my reading material from the library, and those books have due dates, the physical books don’t take priority.  So, it took me a year, but I finally read it. 

            I have long professed my dislike for short stories.  I can handle them in small quantities, in literary magazines and websites, but an entire anthology of them immediately exhausts me.  However, as a pseudo-writer, I fully understand the appeal of the short story.  I, too, have amassed a pretty decent collection of short stories (they will likely never be read by anybody other than myself), but I can’t knock out a novel to save my life (to be fair, my life has never been threatened by the lack of a completed novel).   I avoid short story books, but every now and then, one will sneak in.

            This book made me think of the Disney movie Fantasia.  If you haven’t seen it (because maybe you live under a rock???), artists painted pictures and scenes based on pieces of music.  It’s a beautiful movie.  This book painted some of the most amazing pictures and scenes, the writing was that good.  While I don’t recall the specifics of any of the stories, I do recall being completely captivated by every word on every page.  This is one of those books I will recommend to every human I know.  Please read this one. 

Blank Pages And Other Stories

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