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Books I read in September 2026
Oct. 3rd, 2026 04:18 pm Total: 7 books
-- Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams;
-- The Sign of the Beast by Joyce Carol Oates;
-- The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn;
-- The Lady in Chains by Bonnie Quinn;
-- Daisy Miller by Henry James;
-- Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar;
-- Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger, Jr.
Short Stories: 14 stories
-- Amina by Shirley Saad;
-- The Protected One by Samira Azzam;
-- A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez;
-- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates;
-- You'll Apologize If You Have To by Ben Fowlkes;
-- The Conventional Wisdom by Stanley Elkin;
-- Roman Fever by Edith Wharton;
-- A Chinese Boy-Girl by Sui Sin Far;
-- The Wisdom of the New by Sui Sin Far;
-- Pat and Pan by Sui Sin Far;
-- The Passing of Grandison by Charles W. Chesnutt;
-- Mother by Grace Paley;
-- Nebraska by Ron Hansen;
-- The Goophered Grapevine by Charles W. Chesnutt.
The Conventional Wisdom is a very fun short story about a professional boxer who's lost his latest match and takes it out on a snotty rich guy in his neighborhood, only to find out some facts about that rich guy's life that make him extra pathetic--it's weirdly triumphant, because you spend a lot of the story afraid for the main character, worried that this stupid altercation will ruin his life, send him to jail, sever his relationship with his daughter. But in the end it becomes clear the rich guy really isn't in a place to call the police.
You'll Apologize If You Have To is an extremely funny story about a good, normal Jewish man going to hell. Hysterical but also leaves you pondering things, the nature of suffering in particular. Killer last line about seeing your own face reflected in the shiny boils of the people you're helping to torment down in hell.
Mother by Grace Paley is a very short piece of flash fiction; beautifully-written but not much to say about it. "Nebraska" is a well-written but irritating portrait of the state. As I mentioned two months ago, I just really don't gel with location portraits, and this one was particularly dense and meandering.
The rest of these are more-or-less for class, or are by authors I read for class, or are included in textbooks for class but weren't explicitly assigned. Sui Sin Far is a Chinese-American author and I spent a lot of time perusing her short story collection, Mrs. Spring Fragrance; many of the stories there are about the nuances of assimilation. Chesnutt is similar; African-American, but very white-passing, with stories centered around the concept of passing, the North vs. South, free vs. enslaved dichotomies, the stereotypes of Black people in fiction at the time (late 19th Century).
Azzam and Saad's stories are both about Muslim women giving birth, they're very similar, and both are feminist stories. One highlights the fear of not producing a son and the other highlights the patriarchy built into names. Wharton's story was a great companion piece for Daisy Miller, since Daisy dies of "Roman fever," and the short story plays with the same themes of respectability, social rules, class. Marquez's story is a fun fable with no clear moral, and Oates' story is a freaky little tale about the devil coming for a teenage girl. I liked that one so much that I immediately downloaded all the free books by Oates that were available on Kindle Unlimited.
-- Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams;
-- The Sign of the Beast by Joyce Carol Oates;
-- The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn;
-- The Lady in Chains by Bonnie Quinn;
-- Daisy Miller by Henry James;
-- Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar;
-- Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger, Jr.
Short Stories: 14 stories
-- Amina by Shirley Saad;
-- The Protected One by Samira Azzam;
-- A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez;
-- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates;
-- You'll Apologize If You Have To by Ben Fowlkes;
-- The Conventional Wisdom by Stanley Elkin;
-- Roman Fever by Edith Wharton;
-- A Chinese Boy-Girl by Sui Sin Far;
-- The Wisdom of the New by Sui Sin Far;
-- Pat and Pan by Sui Sin Far;
-- The Passing of Grandison by Charles W. Chesnutt;
-- Mother by Grace Paley;
-- Nebraska by Ron Hansen;
-- The Goophered Grapevine by Charles W. Chesnutt.
The Conventional Wisdom is a very fun short story about a professional boxer who's lost his latest match and takes it out on a snotty rich guy in his neighborhood, only to find out some facts about that rich guy's life that make him extra pathetic--it's weirdly triumphant, because you spend a lot of the story afraid for the main character, worried that this stupid altercation will ruin his life, send him to jail, sever his relationship with his daughter. But in the end it becomes clear the rich guy really isn't in a place to call the police.
You'll Apologize If You Have To is an extremely funny story about a good, normal Jewish man going to hell. Hysterical but also leaves you pondering things, the nature of suffering in particular. Killer last line about seeing your own face reflected in the shiny boils of the people you're helping to torment down in hell.
Mother by Grace Paley is a very short piece of flash fiction; beautifully-written but not much to say about it. "Nebraska" is a well-written but irritating portrait of the state. As I mentioned two months ago, I just really don't gel with location portraits, and this one was particularly dense and meandering.
The rest of these are more-or-less for class, or are by authors I read for class, or are included in textbooks for class but weren't explicitly assigned. Sui Sin Far is a Chinese-American author and I spent a lot of time perusing her short story collection, Mrs. Spring Fragrance; many of the stories there are about the nuances of assimilation. Chesnutt is similar; African-American, but very white-passing, with stories centered around the concept of passing, the North vs. South, free vs. enslaved dichotomies, the stereotypes of Black people in fiction at the time (late 19th Century).
Azzam and Saad's stories are both about Muslim women giving birth, they're very similar, and both are feminist stories. One highlights the fear of not producing a son and the other highlights the patriarchy built into names. Wharton's story was a great companion piece for Daisy Miller, since Daisy dies of "Roman fever," and the short story plays with the same themes of respectability, social rules, class. Marquez's story is a fun fable with no clear moral, and Oates' story is a freaky little tale about the devil coming for a teenage girl. I liked that one so much that I immediately downloaded all the free books by Oates that were available on Kindle Unlimited.
