Alive in Shape and Color edited by Lawrence Block - 3 stars

[Ellen]

Seventeen authors have each chosen a painting that suggests a story to them. Most of the short stories are very good but a few a quite off the wall. I have never read anything by Joyce Carol Oates but if her novels are anything like her tale included in this book, I think I will be avoiding her in the future. There are great stories by some of my favorites like Michael Connelly and Jeffrey Deaver with a few others that have intrigued me to look for other works by these authors. Stories by Lawrence Block, Lee Child, and Joe R. Landsdale were enjoyable. This is quite an eclectic book of short stories and I enjoyed most of it.