Welcome to Litsy!

To readers who tend to think primarily in terms of liking or disliking characters: these people are fictional. They do not stand before us asking to be liked...They ask to be seen and heard and maybe even understood...let‘s pretend these characters are in fact real...Let us open up at least a little to those we might not like...To me, facing those we might not want to face is crucial to living in a diverse world.

Been looking forward to seeing this goodreads graphic all year! Not sure I enjoyed as many of the books that I read in 2016 but I was more analytical, too. This is my personal best number, and although Litsy folk often go much higher, I'm pretty happy here. :) https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2016/1083872

Am I the only one who has to take a break between finishing one novel (the fantastic Everything I Never Told You!) and starting the next? Short story palate cleansers, you know? In other news, I'm only halfway through this and it's time to buy the 2016 edition already...yikes!

This #FunFridayPhoto says a lot about my lack of a relationship with sports. :p. But I remembered this short story by Ben Fowlkes about a pro-wrestler who might be on his way out, professionally, and the aftermath of losing a big match. I wrote in my GoodReads review that the dialogue cadences built character, and the protagonist's self pity helped me consider the inner lives of these athletes.

Hit or miss collection - they're all well-written pieces but this group seemed to have a lot of stories in the "um, what was *that* about?" category.

Been reading this series for better than 20 years now, and have never—even when Erdrich edited—put 4 stars in a row like this. Also? Nothing at all against Boyle; I probably wouldn't make any of these (annuals) a Pick. But there's always some gold.