Picador Shots

Remember Picador Shots, the small, inexpensive books meant to bring the short story to the masses? There was an an article on them in The Observer recently. Oh, such a wonderful idea and particularly appealing due to my newfound love of the short story.* And what do we have in the post today? Well, books of course, which is starting to become a habit for me (which is heavenly, combining my two greatest loves, books and post). Five books, actually; today I received five Picador Shots in the mail from Bronwyn! I got "Sonata" by Jackie Kay, "Small Mercies" by Tim Winton, "My Lord You" and "Palm Court" by James Salter, "Water from the Sun" and "Discovering Japan" by Bret Easton Ellis, and "Powder" by Matthew Kneale. Oh, UK Book Culture, I miss you to the depths of my deep deep soul. What a thrilling surprise.

*Regarding the short story, you know, I didn't really used to love them. I had read Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood's short stories, but only because you sort of had to if you liked those authors. They were the poor man's novel, in my mind. I had no respect for the form itself, only because I was judging it against the novel and it came up short. I didn't realize that short stories are supposed to do something altogether different. And of course it took Grace Paley to show me what short stories were all about. I am now a convert. Yea yea for Picador Shots!