Mini Reviews, Vol. 2 ~ The Woods (Real, Figurative, & Fantasy)

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson, read by Rob McQuay I’d been meaning to finally read something by Bill Bryson and I was happy to find that my local library’s digital collection includes lots of his titles in ebook and audio formats. I’m not an outdoors person, which is exactly why I chose A Walk in the Woods. Bryson does a wonderful job merging an entertaining narrative with lots of information about the Appalachian Trail, its statistics and history. I laughed out loud, a welcome diversion from some of the other reading materials I’m lately engaged in (not those below). I did find some of the environmental asides a bit heavy-handed, only because they seemed pushy in light of the rest of the tone. But this is definitely not the last book by Bill Bryson that I’ll be reading.

Now that I’m beyond the Triple Dog Dare, I’m back to reading online fiction. So far, there’ve been two great stories in April from Strange Horizons: “This Is a Letter to My Son” by KJ Kabza – I always have an eye out for KJ’s fiction. Luckily, he’s on Twitter! What if we had a choice about how we intrinsically think about ourselves? Would we change? Should we change? Even if we seem to have a really good reason? This is a concise, beautiful near-future science fiction story about those questions. “The Right Sort of Monsters” by Kelly Sandoval – Conversely, Kelly Sandoval was completely new to me (I think…). A fallen god (literally) and a grove of trees that provide a very special type of fruit for childless families. Of course, a sacrifice is required. (Art at left by Galen Dara.) Together, these two stories would make a great Mothers’ Day issue. And I’m counting “The Right Sort of Monsters” as my first official Once Upon a Time read.