Skipping to the end: this week can fuck off and die already.

I'll agree and drink to that.

Nutty, for middle school kids. But some read at much higher levels and some don't. And I'm trying to thematically link them with novels they are already reading. It's a bear.

The problem is I can't think of short stories easily off the top of my head.

I'm trying to thematically link them with novels they are already reading.

What are the novels and themes?

is that it was written in the 1930s and yet reads like it came out a generation later.

C.L. Moore was in a class by herself. Well, she may have shared that class with Leigh Brackett. It was a small class.

I'd been looking for the out-of-print collection of CL Moore's stories for about ten years when, one spring, I went on a spree of hitting all of the local libraries' Friends of the Library fundraising booksales (each library in the NW 'burbs seemed to be having one on succeeding weekends from March through May), looking for collectible books to invest in. I found some classic romances that I had heard were worth something, but wasn't expecting to find anything in Lake Zurich since I wasn't able to get there until Saturday afternoon. Sure enough, they were completely picked over, and I only reluctantly decided to stick around and look at the general fiction hardcover table. When I saw the Moore collection I quite literally squealed in delight, and garnered some strange looks from other people in the room. Only one dollar, and it was mineallmine!!!

I keep reminding myself that I'm fortunate to be able to have this stuff done and not have to drive the car until a wheel falls off due to finances. But I swear, this is the spendiest couple of months I'll have had in a while (dental bills too!)

And I was thinking of replacing my computer soon. Hnh.

One of my favorite short stories probably doesn't even qualify as a short story. Or maybe it does, I don't know. Fictional essay? It's a page. "On Foot" by Barbara Selfridge in a random anthology called Unholy Alliances.

It's really quite simple and evocative, someone stumbles, falls and two strangers help her up. That's it. Starts out "Who loves the world? You do. And does the world love you? I don't know. It's hard, sometimes, to say yes."

sarameg, months like yours are why I'm looking to finally start an emergency fund in my savings account, just in case. I have nightmares about my car blowing up on me, and my cat needing emergency surgery, and losing my job all at once.

When I bought my condo, I had it put in the documents that I got the earnest money back at closing, rather than having it become part of the down payment and reduce the mortgage amount. It's one of those things that they never recommend, but having a few grand in a savings account is a more than fair trade off for the 20 or 30 bucks extra I'm probably paying on my mortgage each month.

And I can't BELIEVE I didn't mention Grace Paley! One of her stories, "Goodbye and Good Luck," has ben recorded and i heard it on NPR--it would make a noce teaching aid. A terrific story and fun to read.

ETA< And here it is: [link]

In the "insult to injury" category, my watch died. The same watch that died when I was in NM. I was just going to toss it, explaining to my dad that I am death on watches, be they $10 or $100. They die. I replace batteries. They die again. "Oh no, I have a new battery!" and he kindly replaced it for me.

It died again. It's just me.

So I'll keep buying $10 watches.