My 2018 Deal Me In reading list

December 14, 2017 at 1:05 pm (Uncategorized)

(Deal Me In logo above designed by Mannomoi at https://dilettanteartiste.wordpress.com/ follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/callmemanno

What gall it must take for a blogger – who hasn’t even come close to completing his annual reading project for THIS year! – to take time to plan out the next year’s?  Well, gall I got, so here goes! I should note that I am planning to “host” (using that word very loosely, here, basically I’m just going to announce) the 8th Annual Deal Me In Short Story Reading Challenge a week from today, which will be the “shortest” day of the year – at least for us Northern Hemispherians.  So, I thought maybe I should have a list of my own that I could point back to “to get everyone started.”

I’m trying to keep mine relatively simple this year. No grand, overarching theme, and all the stories I already own and have a kindle version of (no more looking desperately while thinking, “which of my anthologies was that story in?!?”). Also of note is that I’ve only read four of these authors before (albeit for one of the four I have devoted a whole suit of stories – in memoriam. I’ll keep deuces wild, and was thinking this year I might allow the wild cards to be re-reads of favorite stories from Deal Me In’s past – or just the past in general.

So, without further ado…here are my 2018 stories/essays:

Suits:

♦♦♦Diamonds♦♦♦

Stories from the anthology “Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet” (“a diverse collection of stories by writers who have lived and worked aorund the globe or traveled extensively. Their connection to these places isn’t casual. The stories go beneath the surface, the way all great fictions do.”)

♦A♦ – Eggs – Susi Wyss (Central African Republic)

♦2♦ – Wild Card – My Island Tale – Rebecca Emin (England) – (week 36)

♦3♦ – The Boy with Fire in His Mouth – William Kelley Woolfitt (Uganda) week 10

♦4♦ – Rue Rachel – David Ebenbach (Canada) week 6

♦5♦ – Heathens – Alden Jones (Costa Rica) – week 29

♦6♦ – The Money Pill – Tim Weed (Cuba)

♦7♦– Visiting Chairman Mao  – Jocelyn Cullity (China) week 8

♦8♦ – When Stars Fell Like Salt Before the Revolution – Jill Widner (Iran)

♦9♦ – Comfort Me with Apples – Rochelle Distelheim (Israel) week 30

♦10♦ – A Husband and Wife are One Satan – Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan)

♦J♦ – Au Lieu des Fleurs – Matthew Pitt (France)

♦Q♦ – The Ring – Marc Nieson (Hungary)

♦K♦ –  Jean – Holly Painter (New Zealand) – week 39

♠♠♠Spades♠♠♠

As I often do, I’m going to devote a suit to dark/horror/sci-fi stories.  These are chosen from several sources, as noted below.

♠A♠ – Unseen – Unfeared – Francis Stevens (from “The Weird” anthology) (week 5)

♠2♠ – Wild – Monsters of Magnitude – Thomas Hardy(!) (week 37)

♠3♠ – Evil Opposite – Naomi Kritzer (from “Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine”)

♠4♠ – The Cage – Jeff Vandermeer (from “The Weird” anthology) (week 47)

♠5♠ – Touched – Kim Sheard (from “Strange New Worlds II” anthology) (week 35)

♠6♠ – The Salamander – Merce Rodoreda (from “The Weird” anthology)

♠7♠ – Mr. Templar – Jason Sizemore (from “Irredeemable”)

♠8♠ –  The Fish of Lijiang – Chen Qiufan (from “Invisble Planets” anthology) (week 1)

♠9♠ –  The Town Manager – Thomas Ligotti (from “The Weird” anthology) (week 38)

♠10♠ – Grave of the Fireflies – Cheng Jingbo (from the “Invisible Planets” anthology)

♠J♠ –  Gods, Fate, and Fractals – William Leisner (from “Strange New Worlds II”) (week 3)

♠Q♠ – Worlds that Flourish – Ben Okri (from “The Weird” anthology) (week 12)

♠K♠ – The History of the Invasion Told in Five Dogs – Kelly Jennings (from F&SF magazine) (week 50)

♥♥♥Hearts♥♥♥

The “Grandmaster” short storyteller William Trevor passed away last year so I’m going to devote a whole suit of stories to feature some of his that are included in William Trevor: Selected Stories. I read his story collection “After Rain” very early in my blogging “career” and it contained several of my all-time favorite stories.

♥A♥– Solitude – William Trevor (week 2)

♥2♥ – Wild – maybe a re-read of a favorite…

♥3♥ – Child’s Play – William Trevor (week 11)

♥4♥ – The Potato Dealer – William Trevor (week 14)

♥5♥ – Of the Cloth – William Trevor (week 34)

♥6♥ – Low Sunday, 1950 – William Trevor (week 43)

♥7♥ – Death of a Professor – William Trevor

♥8♥ – The Hill Bachelors – William Trevor (week 4)

♥9♥ – Justina’s Priest – William Trevor (week 41)

♥10♥ – Rose Wept – William Trevor (week 9)

♥J♥ –  Cheating at Canasta – William Trevor (week 28)

♥Q♥ –  Old Flame – William Trevor

♥K♥ – Sacred Statues – William Trevor – (week 40)

♣♣♣Clubs♣♣♣

Stories from “Russian Emigre Short Stories from Bunin to Yanofsky.” For one prior year’s iteration of Deal Me In, I devoted a suit (also clubs) to stories by Russian authors and to this day it remains one of my all-time favorite DMI suits, so I’m hoping to recapture some of that “magic” in 2018.

♣A♣ – The Visit to the Museum – Vladimir Nabokov (week 13)

♣2♣ – Wild Card – Dethroned – I.N. Potapenko (week 38)

♣3♣ – The Lady from Monte Carlo – Dovid Knut

♣4♣ – The Murder of Valkovsky – Nina Berberova

♣5♣ –  The Tunnel – Irina Guadanini (week 31)

♣6♣ – They Call Her Russia – Vasily Yanovsky

♣7♣ – The Life of Madame Duclos – Irina Odoevtseva

♣8♣ – Atlantis – Vladislav Khodasevich

♣9♣ – A Scattering of Stars – Ivan Lukash

♣10♣ – The Atom Explodes – Georgy Ivanov (week 42)

♣J♣ – The Astrologist – Mark Aldanov

♣Q♣ – Klasson and His Soul – Boris Butkevich (week 32)

♣K♣ – In Paris – Ivan Bunin (week 7)

 

What do YOU think of my selections?  Are YOU thinking about doing Deal Me In in 2018? Look for the “official” announcement post on 12/21!