Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed, by John Skipp

I hit the last third of this and gave up...some stories were creepy, some were EXCELLENT, and some were blah. I just can't get back into it after putting it down a couple of weeks ago.

An Apple for the Creature, by Charlaine Charlaine

Some nice stories in here about various kinds of "creatures"--not all the stories are scary. Most aren't.

The Angel Esmeralda, by Don DeLillo

Apricot Jam, and Other Stories, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I mostly snagged this so I can say I have read Solzhenitsyn, even if it's not one of his famous publications. These stories are good snapshots of a certain time and place (pre-1950, post-Revolutionary Soviet Union) and while they differ in major details, they are similar in tone. The tone is dismal, somewhat cynical, and angry at the corruption of the country that continued after the fall (and murder) of the Tsar. Nothing changed, except that different people were running things, and poor people still starved.

I didn't finish all the stories. I got through two that were more-or-less centered on the Eastern Front during World War II, and just couldn't swallow anymore. I wouldn't have made it that far if I didn't know some history of the era, though. The most memorable one for was a very depressing story about a young idealistic college graduate trying to teach Russian literature to children; every year the curriculum changes, the ideology changes, the list of "allowed" authors changes...horrible.

Down These Strange Streets (ed. by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois)

Lots of weird short stories. Some good ones, some....not so good. Some of my favorite authors disappointed me, but I found a few new potential authors to check out. Best in the book is the last one, set in Alaska during World War II. Some other intriguing concepts, but as I read the book over the course of 3 months at lunch times at work, several of them have slipped my mind.

Amos Walker, by Loren Estleman (on Nook)

Hard-boiled mysteries set in Detroit and published over the course of 20 years, from the mid-80s up until fairly recently. Good stuff. Really good stuff. I may have to look up Amos' novels. I do like Estleman, always have.

Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King

So humdrum = excellent stories from an engaging author telling tales to keep you on the edge of your seat. Wonderful. The best part is that the good guys almost always win, and the bad guys get what they deserve. Usually.

The Third Bear, by Jeff VanderMeer

Well, if you like really odd stories, these are for you. Weird beyond weird, but well-written, well-plotted, and fun. Except for the creepy-icky one or two, which are just well-written and interesting. Don't be surprised to find talking animals.

Stories : All-New Tales (edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio)

These stories all spring from the question, "And then what happened?" and as such run the gamut from spooky to cliff-hanger to fantasy to straight mystery. Absolutely wonderful--one of the best books I've read in quite awhile.

The Essential Agatha Christie Stories, by Agatha Christie (on CD)

Wow, some of these were really really dated, and some of the people reading them were abominable (Miss Marple lisps?? I don't think so).

Interesting, low-impact listening for the car.

The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer; a retelling by Peter Ackroyd; illustrated by Nick Bantock

I threw this back, not because it wasn't well done, but because I seem to be in a phase of reading brainless books. This required too much work. Too bad: the translation is excellent and readable. I blame myself here, not the book.

By Blood We Live (edited by John Joseph Adams)

Some absolutely wonderful stories here, jumping on the vampire bandwagon. Some really silly, lame ones too, but the good far outweighed the bad.

Rasskazy : New Fiction from a New Russia abbreviated advanced reader's copy (edited by Mikhail Iossel and Jeff Parker)

Good stories. I picked this up at ALA, but it is really only a sampler. I need to find the whole book and read the rest of them.

The Frozen Thames, by Helen Humphreys

Very short, quick read.

Just After Sunset, by Stephen King (on CD)

Some really great stories here (and some that I just didn't quite get). I realized something in the midst of listening to them: King likes happy endings, and he's really an incurable romantic.

Another realization: I'm not a teenager anymore, so the creepy doesn't scare me like it used to. Now, porta-potties....

Go read the book.

Somewhere in the City, by Marcia Muller

A wonderful mixture of stories, not all of which are based on Sharon McCone. There are a couple of supernatural tales, one or two historical stories, and a lot of background around the collective in which McCone works. Nice.

Sisters on the Case (ed. Sara Paretsky)

Good

Killer Year : Stories to Die For -- From the Hottest New Crime Writers (ed. Lee Child)

I love short story mysteries. This is a pretty good combination of basic whodunnits, lots of noir and pseudo-noir, and a couple of completely whacked-out stories. There's even a western.

As the title says, most of these are by brand new authors. Salted among them are stories by some writers with some name recognition. No one huge, but it's nice to see those who've gotten published helping those below them on that ladder.

My favorites: "One Serving of Bad Luck" by Sean Chercover (about outwitting crooked insurance companies in spite of your best witness killing himself) and "Gravity and Need" by Marcus Sakey (about what love means--want? or need?--and what happens when the delicate balance is tipped).

The Best New British Mysteries (ed. by Maxim Jakubowki)

Great stories, all over the map. I do love short stories. Most of the authors in this book are familiar names in mystery fiction: Ian Ranking, H.R.F. Keating, Liza Cody, Val McDermid. Most of the authors don't use their series characters, though some do. I especially liked "School Gate Mums" (Muriel Gray) and "The Cairo Road" (Robert Barnard); the former because it's every mother's happy dream when her kid get picked on, and the latter because it's such a goofy take on Matthew's nativity story.

Fire Watch, by Connie Willis

I love short stories. This is one of those collections that exemplifies why I love them: there is a general theme of futurism/science fiction, but otherwise all of these tales are quite different. There are a couple set in the (more or less) here and now, but most are elsewhere/elsewhen.

There is a story about life on a mining planet, there is a time-travel story about going back to the London Blitz, there is a post-nuclear story, there's an absolutely hysterical story about a really stupid guy that has a zinger of an ending, and a creepy college-students-of-the-future story.

One of the fun things about the copy of the book I read is that someone has penciled in grades next to the titles in the table of contents. "Fire Watch" is an A. And Come from Miles Around is an A--. "Blued Moon" is a B++. I don't agree 100% with all the ratings, but this is why I like library books. You can't get that sense of anonymous community any other way (including ebooks).