Ghosts and Empties by Lauren Groff
My rating: 5/5 cats
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i’m going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don’t think i will be reviewing each individual story “properly.” i might just do a picture review or—if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can’t be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we’ll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i’m no good at finding them myself unless they’re on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar.
DECEMBER 4
On my nighttime walks the neighbors’ lives reveal themselves, the lit windows domestic aquariums.
this is another lovely story, and i’m so glad i finally took the time to read it. it has been on my to-read radar for a long time and it’s—what? nine pages? yeah, that was a silly thing to have put off. do not put this off (unless you have already used up your free new yorker magazine online visits.)
her words are beautiful things and they are there for you, free of charge…
…the swiftness of youth, these gorgeous changes that insist that not everything is decaying faster than we can love it.
read it for yourself here:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/ghosts-and-empties
DECEMBER 1: FABLE – CHARLES YU
DECEMBER 2: THE REAL DEAL – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 3: THE WAYS OF WALLS AND WORDS – SABRINA VOURVOULIAS
DECEMBER 5: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE – NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER – JOHN SCALZI
DECEMBER 7: A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT – DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 8: DEEP – PHILIP PLAIT
DECEMBER 9: COOKIE JAR – STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 10: THE STORY OF KAO YU – PETER S. BEAGLE
DECEMBER 11: THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES – ALAN BEARD
DECEMBER 12: THE TOMATO THIEF – URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 13: THE JAWS THAT BITE, THE CLAWS THAT CATCH – SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 14: ROLLING IN THE DEEP – JULIO ALEXI GENAO
DECEMBER 15: ANTIHYPOXIANT – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 16: THE AMBUSH – DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 17: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAITOR AND A HALF-SAVAGE – ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 18: THE CHRISTMAS SHOW – PAT CADIGAN
DECEMBER 19: THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS – PAUL CORNELL
DECEMBER 20: THE TRAINS THAT CLIMB THE WINTER TREE – MICHAEL SWANWICK
DECEMBER 21: BLUE IS A DARKNESS WEAKENED BY LIGHT – SARAH MCCARRY
DECEMBER 22: WATERS OF VERSAILLES – KELLY ROBSON
DECEMBER 23: RAZORBACK – URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 24: DIARY OF AN ASSCAN – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 25: CHANGING MEANINGS – SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: SHOGGOTHS IN BLOOM – ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 27: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SUDDEN DEATH – CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
DECEMBER 28: FRIEDRICH THE SNOW MAN – LEWIS SHINER
DECEMBER 29: DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE – EMMY LAYBOURNE
DECEMBER 30: AM I FREE TO GO? – KATHRYN CRAMER
DECEMBER 31: OLD DEAD FUTURES – TINA CONNOLLY
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