Bogormen

Title: Chronicles of Avonlea
Author: L.M. Montgomery
Genre: Short story
Rating: 8/10
# pages: Audiobook, 7'ish hours
Date read: February, 2009

Summary: On Prince Edward Island, where Anne Shirley grew up in the sea-sprayed town of Avonlea, there was no shortage of wonderful stories. There was the case of Ludovic Speed, who wouldn't propose to the woman he had courted for fifteen years until Anne devised a plan to "speed" him up... if it didn't backfire and break his heart. But no one could blame mischievous Anne for the hilarious battle of the sexes that erupted when a man-hating woman and her cat got quarantined in the same house with a woman-hating bachelor and his dog. From sprawling Penhallow Grange, where a family waits nearly forever for two quarreling lovers to break their stubborn silence, to the tumbledown farm of Old Man Shaw, who awaits the retum of his beloved daughter, L. M. Montgomery has written twelve tales of secret hopes and hidden dreams, filled with enchantment and humor.

Review: A selection of cozy, feel-good short stories. I like that LMM doesn't try anything new in her short stories, but that they're just short versions of her novels, and that the atmosphere is the same. My favourite is "Old Lady Lloyd" which - who'd have thunk! - also happens to be the longest ;-)

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Title: The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: fantasy, short stories
Rating: 8/10
# pages: 105
Date read: February, 2009

Summary: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers' attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," "The Warlock's Hairy Heart," "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump," and of course, "The Tale of the Three Brothers."

Review: Cute, old-fashioned fairy-tales. Better than expected, and leaving out the commentary by "Albus Dumbledore" can easily be read without any knowledge of Harry Potter folklore. No better than well-known fairy-tales, but certainly no worse either.

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Title: Horror.dk Author: Various Genre: Horror, short story Rating: 7/10 # pages: 253 Date read: August, 2008

Review: If you need inspiration for ghost-stories to tell on next year's camping trip - look no further. Horror.dk is all you could ask for and contains material enough for several evenings' worth of storytelling, and nightmare fodder for many nights.

Horror.dk is a new short-story collection with horror stories written by some of Denmark's very best genre authors. There is a huge variety in the stories with everything from ghost-stories as I knew them as a kid, through terrifying murder mysteries to psychological thrillers that leave everything to the reader's own hyperactive imagination. But one red thread runs through them all - they all contain an element of the supernatural.

It is almost impossible to pick a favourite story from the anthology, because they each have their highlights, so it really depends on what you're in the mood for here and now. Everybody know you can always count on Dennis Jürgensen to thrill, and The Night Train is no exception. Teddy Vork manages to create a creepy atmosphere without compare in Delila's Ringlets, the end of Stevie by Carina Evytt makes the reader cold to the very marrow of their bones, and if you read Executioner by Kenneth Bøgh Andersen after dark - it's on your own head. Still, I think it's the last short story in the book, Was is a great word by Bernhard Ribbeck I'll find myself returning to most often, because of the depth he manages to introduce to the main character in the just 30 pages the short story takes up.

Horror is a popular genre, but a genre that's difficult to do well. It takes a really talented author to write a good horror-novel as it's far too easy to either switch into 'gore' instead, or end up with a story so laden with surprise antics that the plot disappears completely. Fortunately the 12 authors of this anthology are all so familiar with the horror-genre that, that they manage to avoid both traps, and the reader is left with a thriller that it's impossible to put down.

Horror.dk is published in Denmark on September 1st, 2008 from Tellerup, and has yet to be translated to English.

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Title: Just So Stories Author: Rudyard Kipling Genre: Short-stories Rating: 7/10 # pages: 42 installments on DailyLit Date read: July, 2008

Summary: One of the world's greatest storytellers weaves together an unforgettable collection of animal tales, including how the camel got its hump, how the leopard got its spots, and how even a butterfly stamping his leg can change a man's life.

Review: A selection of delightful stories about the beginning of things. I was quite amused by them. I'd read "The Elephant's Child" as a kid, but didn't know any of the others. I especially loved "How The Alphabet Was Made" which I think is the best of the lot.

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Title: Across the Miles Author: L.M. Montgomery Genre: Short-stories Rating: 9/10 # pages: 254 Date read: May, 2008

Summary: Love notes, marriage proposals, heartfelt promises, honest admissions, cruel deceptions--these are the many variations on the theme of this collection, in which each story hinges on the writing or receiving of a letter. These stories, filled with all the wit and wisdom of L.M. Montgomery, take us back to a time when letters held not only news of friends and family, but the power to change lives.

Review: I think this is my favourite of LMM's short story collections. It's all about letters, diaries or other 'written things' being the main part of the story. I love reading books made up of letters or diaries, so this is right up my alley :) Also, there are a lot of really sweet and romantic stories in there as well.

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Title: Down to a Sunless Sea Author: Mathias B. Freese Genre: Short-stories Rating: 2/5 # pages: 134 Date read: April, 2008

Review: When reading a book you commit to a relationship. You commit to reading the book in the hopes that it in turn will commit to entertain and educate you. The problem or rather the effort in reading a short story collection is that you have to make this commitment again and again and again. Many people are scared off by that as they're afraid the commitment and the time-effort won't be worth it.

And unfortunately in the case of Down to a Sunless Sea, they'd be right. The short stories are dark, disturbing and cynical, which is not a problem in itself, but it seems as if they are dark, disturbing and cynical for the sake of being dark, disturbing and cynical. There's no rhyme or reason behind it.

The common theme that runs through all the stories is growing up, the quest for maturity and the joys and sorrows of coming of age - either slowly through the natural process, or abruptly and harshly through some external influence. While not a unique theme, it is a theme that never grows old and as such is very appropriate for a short story collection. But without explanation one of the stories falls completely outside this category. As a description of Arnold Schwaznegger's childhood and the fact that his father was a Nazi, it reads more like a piece of non-fiction or even propaganda. It is so different from all the other stories that I was forcibly drawn from the flow of the book and back into reality.

Most of the short stories in "Down to a Sunless Sea" would work very well as writing prompts for a longer novelette or even a novel, but when used for short stories they stop too abruptly and some are even inconclusive. While I don't expect all threads to be tied up neatly in any story and especially not a short story, it is rather frustrating when the entire point of the story goes missing because of it.

Fortunately there are exceptions to any rule, and I loved the story Alabaster - the tale of a young boy who meets an ex-concentration camp prisoner, and in his innocence is not ashamed of her tattooed number, but dares read it aloud. Poignant and well-written, I wish all the stories had been like this.

I have no doubt that Mathias Freese is a talented author, as his writing clearly bears witness of this fact. Unfortunately his plot ideas are not really suitable for short stories, and he would be better off sticking to novels.

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