false 4 0 false false Mon Dec 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 14:09:07 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 05:24:49 -0800 2008
I was hooked from "Willa", one of two layover-style stories, loving the easy pace of the love and the dread and the resignation. "N" was included, and it was nice to hear the full story after the wildly popular webisode telling through Simon & Schuster and Verizon. "The Gingerbread Girl" and "Mute" were previously read in Esquire, and "Mute" was definitely worth listening to again. I was tickled to death to find "The Cat From Hell" in here, a story I'd read back in grade school in a collection called "MagiCats!"

For me, the weaker tales were "Ayana" about the weight and toll of miracles, and "The Stationary Bike" highlighting the often ignored tragedy of downsizing one's body, though I can vividly recall shopping in the Fresh Approach on Campbell Road for pot roast and wine while listening to the tale end of "The Stationary Bike" so something about it must have have an impression.

"The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates", like "Willa", actually made me cry a little. Shut up, don't tell anyone. Rounding out this collection were "Rest Stop", "The Things They Left Behind" - another 9/11 story, because every modern author seems to need to write one now, "Graduation Afternoon", and "A Very Tight Place", which is classic King.

This was the audio, so I was treated to Holter Graham (one of my new favorites), Jill Eikenberry, Mare Winningham, and George Guidall, among others. ]]>