Excellent collection of short stories - introduced me to some really great authors.

A collection of short stories, curated by David Sedaris, none as funny as his own work. Unfortunately, the audiobook is the abridged version (6 stories) while his actual hardback version has 17. Of these six, I liked three quite a lot:

"Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolff
"Gryphon" by by Charles Baxter
"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolsen is Buried" by Amy Hempel

I'll have to check out the hard copy for more inspiration.

Short stories are my favorite genre, and if anyone asks why, I will give them this collection which is a solid sampling by masters of the form.

Note: The audiobook chapter breakdown is off on Hoopla.

Libby: If I'd read the whole synopsis, I wouldn't have felt so duped. Picked this one from the library because it said David Sedaris was the author. He's just the editor who put these stories together. Mostly, the stories were good, though. #booksin24

was a little difficult to find the motivation to keep reading since none of the stories were connected, overall interesting and entertaining selection of short stories. big fan of how unique many of them are, i’ll probably remember them for way too long.

favs include: interpreter of maladies, where the door is always open, girl w the blackened eye, irish girl, bullet in the brain

Let me begin by saying that I only picked this book up at the store because of the name on the cover: David Sedaris. I like a lot of his writing, so I figured I might like what he likes, as well. The trouble is, I don't love most short story collections. So I knew this would be a challenge.

Did Sedaris' collection pass?

Well, I enjoyed his introduction. I also enjoyed the way the stories connected by sometimes obvious, sometimes tenuous threads. Oftentimes I struggle to understand why stories belong to a given collection, but reading this was like solving a fun puzzle. So as an editor, I have to give Sedaris props: he must read a lot of short stories in order to pull out and select a collection that coheres in such a smooth way.

However, as happens with many short story collections, I didn't love most of the stories. There were a few that did both impress and entertain me, such as "The Girl with the Blackened Eye" by Joyce Carol Oates (an author I already know and love), and "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" by Amy Hempel, but for the most part I made my way through the book without being "swept away."

another good compilation of short stories, courtesy of David Sedaris. Some pretty good authors.

Well-written stories…I find myself wondering “what was the message or the point?” and then start wondering if that is the point…..it is just a well-written story. Nice collection but not sure how they all connected or maybe the point is they are all only connected by being good???

For some reason this Libby version only included five of the stories, even though it says unabridged. None of my fav stories from the collection were included. Weird Libby glitch? On purpose? :,( Anyway, read it before & was just revisiting so oh well.

I like reading short stories, and I like collections such as this to expose me to the works of other authors I might not normally look for. Unforunately, while most (if not all) these stories are well told and interesting in some way, none of them has made a lasting impression with me. Never did I go back to double check an author's name because I wanted more by that person. And some of these authors are "big name" writers!

A worthy cause and a decent collection make this a worthwhile purchase, but the forgettable nature of the works suggest that I don't recommend it.

i like short stories and i like david sedaris and i like books that support charitable causes.

Olivia gave me this as an audio book. It has a boring intrduction by David S. and then four short stories read by different people. I am not sure why David Sedaris felt compelled to read one--his nasel, scratchy voice is kind of annoying. I don't have the authors in front of me. The best was "The welcome mat is always out" or something like that. By Patricia Highsmith. About a woman in New York meeting her sister who is just passing through the city. The other titles elude me. One was about a lonely man who wife leaves him to go back to India. He has a fling with a neighbor. Another is about a very odd substitute teacher. My least favorite was one of those cancer stories which I don't enjoy. But three out of four is pretty decent, I think most would agree.