Review Douglas Robbins' "Leaves Piled High" is a collection of short stories covering a wide range of topics. The stories vary dramatically in setting and characters. Although I enjoyed all of the stories, my favorite is "Unhappy Campers," which focuses on a married couple going camping on Labor Day weekend.
An unleashed dog causes a scene that pulls the story in an unexpected direction, and the ending really caught me off guard. The story asks a deep philosophical question that had me thinking long after the story was finished. A lot of the stories have deep themes that make you ponder as you read.
If you're looking for short stories with lots fantasy and action/adventure, this isn't the collection for you. These stories are grounded in reality and capture snippets of life that everyone experiences. I'd recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys thoughtful, character-driven short stories, look no further than "Leaves Piled High."
Review Flash 40: Life’s Moments, by Janelle Jalbert, seems to revolve around the theme that life is comprised of beginnings,
middles, and endings. If you separate these types of events, you get
snapshots
of life -- little stories that provide for the most entertaining of reads.
There
are a multitude of short stories in this book, which keep the reader
interested
because each story is compressed.
There aren't "boring" parts in any of these stories, simply
because
there is no time for them! The stories vary greatly due to the different
characters and plotlines found in each one. Some are about parents;
others are
about teenagers, kids, or adults living on their own. The stories are in
third
person with the narrator carefully recounting each unique story. Life,
death,
love, loss, are all themes that can be found in this book.
Some of my favorite stories are “Gone”, “Means”, and “Lightening Fast”. “Gone” is about a woman
losing her
high school sweetheart and love of her life to cancer. It showcases an
important side of life: death, and what it means to those who are left
behind
to continue living. “Means” lends insight into the stressful life of
being a
teacher and the lack of appreciation and understanding from both the
students and
the principal-and how it can take a toll on everyone involved.
“Lightning Fast” is about a talented basketball player with a bright
future that is crushed once he becomes paralyzed during a fall. He
reinvents
himself with the help of a mentor and ends up turning his life around to
fulfill
goals he thought he could never achieve.
One of my favorite things about these
stories isthat the author did not try to make every one end nicely. Some endings
were abrupt,
others were sad, and some just left you wondering what would happen
next. In
this way, a sense of realism was incorporated into the work. I believe
the
author did this to reflect how life truly is: unpredictable and flawed.
If you're into short stories, then Flash 40 is an absolute must-read!
