March is my birthday month, so I’m using that, and the fact that you are all basically my captive audience for an hour or so [at story time for grown-ups] to subject you to my new favorite book.
I’m Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking is a collection of short stories by local(ish) author Leyna Krow. She has written a delightful book of tales filled with the strange and familiar. She’s peopled them with astronauts, lovers, dogs, tigers, voyeurs, clones, and lots and lots of squid. Plus, Puget Sound is there too. With the occasional apocalyptic backdrop, Krow explores what it means to be human and at times alone, which in the end unites us all. And did I mention the squid? (Incidentally, squids is also the plural of squid, which pleases me greatly.)
The writing is fresh and playful. And her experiments with form leave you wondering why we haven’t been writing this way all along. Trust me, she is a genius. But you don’t have to take my word for it. The Huffington Post named it one of The Best Fiction Books of 2017.
Don’t worry. If Mom’s love isn’t enough, there’s also this from James at Third Place Ravenna:
A beautiful and strange short story collection by a northwest author. Reading this book is a jarring experience: it forces you to imagine Seattle post-earthquake, for example. But it’s also very funny, and at times downright weird. My favorite story of the collection is about a Californian woman who is convinced that a man at an auto factory in Detroit is pushing a button to make the items in her kitchen drawers fall to the ground in the morning.
Get lost with octopuses in space, time travelers (or immortal people, it’s unclear) at the end of the world, and memories so vivid you couldn’t have made them up– except you did.
