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Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories
Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories
Dr. Seuss | 2014 | Children
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Four Great Seuss Tales
This book contains four stories that Dr. Seuss had published in magazines early in his career but were never released in book form. One features Horton, while two others take us to Mulberry Street. The final, which is just two pages, features a very slick salesman.

I was leery of this book since it was released after Dr. Seuss’s death, but I found I enjoyed all four stories. By themselves, they are short, but together, they are quite fun. It certainly helps that these were polished and released by Dr. Seuss himself instead of cobbled together from abandoned notes after his death. The illustrations and rhyme are classic Seuss. Kids and their parents will be glad they gave this collection a chance.
  
Biggles Learns to Fly
Biggles Learns to Fly
W.E. Johns | 1935 | Children
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was going to start this by saying this was the earliest set of the Biggles stories, back in The First World War.

Then I did a bit of research, and discovered that it depends upon how (and what) you are counting as a Biggles story/book - see http://www.biggles.info/

Perhaps, then, it would be better to say that this is the earliest set of any I have read.

Published in 1935, this is (apparently) a collection of 12 separate short stories, all of which are loosely linked together and follows some of Biggles earlier exploits.

I realise I'm not the target audience for these (I'm now too old). I don't care: sometimes it's nice just to re-live your childhood!
  
The Inimitable Jeeves
The Inimitable Jeeves
P.G. Wodehouse | 2007 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
More a collection of short stories that are loosely tied together rather than a novel in it's own right, with most of those stories involving Bertie Wooster's friend Bingo Little - he who falls in love with every other female - in some form or other, and also occasionally including Wooster's cousins Claude and Eustace.

This collection includes Aunt Agatha's attempts to hitch Bertie in France to who-proves-to-be a conman, the cats in the bedroom incident with Sir Roderick Glossop (that continually crops up in other books), Bingo Little's Village Fair play, and (one of) Wooster's sojourn in America that involves stage shows.

As always, it is up to Jeeves to save the day in each and every incident ...
  
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
Carmen Maria Machado | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+
9
6.0 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
Short fiction is hit or miss for me. I think it's actually a harder genre to write than long, sprawling novels. You have to be concise and hard-hitting, and Machado certainly achieves that in her collection here. Her stories are lush with description, beautifully vague and precise at the same time. These stories hit me on a visceral level. And they really span run the gamut: from a retelling of an urban legend ("The Husband Stitch," which plays off of the story about the little girl with a green ribbon around her neck--you know the one), to the centerpiece of the collection, an offbeat, surreal "parody" of Law & Order: SVU entitled "Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order: SVU"). Each one had me stopping after I finished, rereading certain passages, and pouring over the text again. I never do that! I'm a speed reader! But these stories demand that you take your time.

At its heart, Her Body and Other Parties is about women--especially queer women. Machado brings something of herself into each of these stories, or so she has said. The storytellers are often unreliable, but never in a degrading or dismissive way. We see stories overlapped with stories, creating intricate layers of narrative. This is not a book for a casual experience. It demands your attention, and it's good enough to deserve it. A masterful blending of prose, horror, comedy, and magic realism, Her Body and Other Parties will be read in universities for years to come. Mark my words!