Welcome to Litsy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ These thirteen beautifully detailed stories share a common thread of grief and redemption. Every story is strong – my favorites being “Carnations” and “The White Girl,” both are brief snippets, but reach deep into your chest. Urrea elicits such empathy for his characters, addressing race relations in the American west with a variety of literally styles and realistic scenarios. Literal and figurative borders. Solid collection! #bookclub

This was such a great Dollar Tree find! Stories two and three that connected and featured boys from the San Diego barrio were excellent. I also enjoyed his dip into a dystopian story about an American drought. The two magical realism stories weren‘t my favorite, but overall this was a wonderful collection!

I think your book club will enjoy this @britt_brooke ! Thanks for pulling it off my #mountTBR. 💜

Speaking of short stories, @Megabooks @Cinfhen , have you all read this? It‘s the May pick for my IRL #bookclub. One of my friends chose this. She loves Urrea, but I still hadn‘t read him until now. I‘m one story in and absolutely in love! Hope that continues. 🤞🏻

Had a relaxing morning with some egg/cheese/avocado toast and a nice cup of tea. It was a nice, easy start to my day for a change!

I don‘t generally like short stories but it was the only Urrea available through Libby. What a find. Each character so quickly becomes known to you, the terrain they live in feels close, and the situations they find themselves in are complicated. The title story - teenagers who have lived in a drought all of their lives visit a water museum and are overwhelmed by what they see and hear as rain falls - had me imagining their world for days.

Some excellent short stories in this collection. I love hearing Urrea read them to me.

Beautiful short stories. Reading these was a great way to start 2018!

That was the best short story collection I have read in a long time! As always with short stories a few fell flat for me, but two of them made me cry and the title story was just scary. Also, this was my last book for #LitsyAtoZ #LetterU #challengecomplete! @BookishMarginalia although I am still working on a second time through using titles.

Five ebooks, all unread and none paper book on my shelfs for #mexicanormexicanamericanwriters 😳

#maybookflowers

#nextbook #allthebooks #booktowerbedroom #booktowermaze

This was a well done book of short stories. It definitely has been a great crafting companion plus made my 4hr drive bearable last night. The first short story was my favorite. All of them were engaging though. I thought the author did a solid job of narration for the audiobook as well

A small slice of my 2017 TBR for #FunFridayPhoto.

Came home from work with a massive headache. So instead of reading I started a new audiobook and a new beanie. I'm very early into both so I'm withholding judgment. The audiobook is short stories and well the beanie should be a cute little ribbed one. We shall see!

Ha! Took my book out to the pool and found this little guy! Don't worry, he's not real - I couldn't resist taking a picture though when he matches the book so well 🐍😂

It's a gorgeous day, gonna spend it right here with my books ⛱

Short stories are great for the evening commute ☺️

This is just excellent.

I don't know what this story collection is about yet but I *hope* at least one of them is about a whale dancing to a mariachi band. That is totally a museum I would like to visit.

Book club day.

Finally getting this read, since it is due back next week. I love working at a library with an amazing inter library loan department!

These stories are brilliant and hard hitting. I will be reading everything Urrea has and will release!

Here's Baxter with this weeks book haul

I'm impressed that Urrea is such a great fiction writer in addition to his nonfiction!

I loved this collection of stories! Urrea has an ability I make you feel the settings - the heat and dust of the wide open American West roll over you as you're reading. The title story in particular is fantastic. 👌 I definitely recommend it for short story fans!

Urrea certainly knows how to set a scene. "Mountains, too, are doomed to die..." Absolute poetry. Loving this short story collection.

Short stories set in the American southwest and Mexico, these are mostly about real people living quiet lives on the edge of nowhere. They are extraordinary only in their ordinariness. The title story is a chilling, frighteningly possible future.

Been meaning to read Urrea forever! Can't wait to get into this short story collection.