#55 - Dimanche and Other Stories - Irene Nemirovsky

#55

Title:  Dimanche and Other Stories

Author:   Irene Nemirovsky

Reader:  Cassandra Campbell

Genre:  Short Stories

Category:  Fiction

Rating:  B+

Published:  2010

Dates:   8/23/16 – 8/30/16

Cds/Hrs:  7/8.5

  

The 16 in 16 challenge at my local library has me exploring so many new possibilities in books.  This book actually falls into a couple categories – Short Stories and Translated.   This book will go into Translated since I listened to it during the scheduled 20 day period devoted to reading a translation.    These stories were delightful to listen to.  As the back cover describes the author’s work I agree and quote it here – “This is a gorgeous, gem-like volume with the same attention to detail that won Irene Nemirovsky so many fans.  Written between 1934 and 1942, these ten stories mine the same terrain as her bestselling novels:  a keen eye for the details of social class; the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives; the manners and mannerisms of the French bourgeoisie; and questions of religion and personal identity.  Moving from the drawing rooms of prewar Paris to the lives of men and women in wartime France, here is the beautiful work of a writer at the height of her tragically short career.”

#54 - The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories - H. P. Lovecraft

#54

Title:  The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories

Author:   H. P. Lovecraft

Read by:  William Roberts

Genre: Science Fiction

Category:  Fiction

Rating:  B

CDs/Hours:  4/4.25

Published:  1927

Dates:   8/13/16 - 8/25/15

At the heart of these four stories (The Call of Cthulhu, The Hound, The Dunwich Horror and Dagon), as with all the best of Lovecraft’s work, is the premise that Earth was once inhabited by powerful and evil gods, just waiting for the chance to recolonize the planet.  Cthulhu is just one of these gods, lurking deep beneath the sea until called into being by cult followers who – like all human beings – know not what they do. 

Not until recently has Lovecraft become one of the most influential American writers through his dark and mythic tales that terrify Man.  I continue to the love creepy descriptions of so many macabre scenes!

#53 - Runaway - Alice Munro

#53

Title:  Runaway

Author:   Alice Munro
Read by:  Kymberly Dakin

Genre: Short Stories

Category:  Fiction

Rating:  B

Published:  2004

Date Read:   8/11/16 – 8/22/16

From the back cover – “The stories in this collection are about women of all ages and circumstances.  The runaway of the title story is a young woman who is incapable of leaving her husband.  In another, a country girl emerging into the larger world via a job in a resort hotel discovers in a single moment of insight the limits and lies of passion.  Three stories concern the same woman – in the first she escapes from teaching at a girls’ school into a wild love affair; in the second, she returns with her child to the home of her parents, whose marriage she finally begins to examine; and in the last, her vanished child turns up caught in the grip of a religious cult.  In these and other others Alice Munro’s understanding of the people about whom she writes makes their lives as real as our own.”

I enjoyed Munro’s writing and am wondering why I haven’t read anything by her until now.  Now I will look for her more often in my travels through the local libraries.