The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
He may have done more to change American prose than any other author
of his time, but he certainly knew how to write a damn fine story.
650 pages of them, to be exact. For fans and first-timers, this
collection is sure to please. It might even change the most hardened
Hemingway critic into a believer.
Flannery O’Connor | The Complete Stories
O’Connor’s dry wit and sardonic style mixed with her moralist
vision and pessimistic view of people make her fiction some of the
most entertaining and tantalizing of the 20th century. Southern
towns are full of quirks and quirky people, and O’Connor spares
no one. Don’t miss the classics “A Good Man is Hard to
Find” or “Everything That Rises Must Converge.”
Modest Mouse | Lonesome Crowded West
Indie-rock heroes Modest Mouse hit their target dead center with
this 1997 Up records release. The album is angry in places, thrashing
in places, placid in places, but never fails to be poignant in its
existential wonderings and heart-breaking laments. Look for “Cowboy
Dan,” “Bankrupt on Selling” and “Teeth Like
God’s Shoeshine.”
James McMurtry | Where’d You Hide The Body
James McMurtry’s eclectic style, deadpan delivery and dead-on
characterizations of people in penned-up small towns make for a
great record through-and-through: “Off and Running,” “Rachel’s
Song” and “Levelland” are among the best.
Risk
This classic board game pits players against each other in an all-out
battle for world domination. It may take many hours, even days,
to whittle down your opponents forces, but you’ll emerge a
battle-hardened general if your strategy works. Great for filling
up the bored hours which make up our lives.
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, written before his more famous
All The Pretty Horses, revels in the harsh realities of the American
West, painting a far different picture than singing cowboy Gene
Autrey’s yodels. Harsh, harrowing, and violent, the novel wraps
its readers in a world where waking up is enough to be thankful
for.
