Making it Up As I Go

I finished 100 Malicious Little Mysteries, and I enjoyed it as much as the others in the series that I’d read- 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories, and 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories. If you couldn’t guess, the series is made up of anthologies of short stories- very short, none more than 3 or 4 pages. The stories in Mysteries were great, I only have one matter of contention with the fine folks who edit/publish/pick the names for these books. The stories in this book weren’t really mysteries, they were closer to horror stories in the Twillight Zone theme. I started reading 100 Hair-raising Little Horror Stories immediately after, and those stories were closer to ghost stories- even though there’s a 100 little Ghost story anthology too. So although the titles of the books are cute- not all that accurate guys. Anyway, the compact, complete little worlds these authors managed to covey in so few words is really pretty incredible.
And, with the completion of that book, I have read 100 books this year! And it’s only October! Yeeha!
I didn’t actually keep reading 100 Hair-Raising little Horror Stories, I will come back to it another time. Instead, I dove into The Mammoth Book of Roaring Twenties Whodunnits, a great collection of mostly murder mysteries set, and in some cases written, in the 1920s. Most of the stories were actually pretty sneaky, and those that were pretty obvious as to the murderer were at least glitzy, carefree, and witty. What really impressed me about this anthology however, was that not all of the stories were about the glitz and glamor. A couple dealt with the gritty violent truth of mafia violence, and a couple dealt with the percieved threat of communism. Overall, great stories.
I’m getting ready to start Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I’m really excited about it, and really hope that I like it as much as I think I will. It’s quite huge, (782 pages) and I’m really hoping I can just slip into it for a good long time.

Current total: 101
Just finished:The Mammoth Book of Roaring Twenties Whodunnits ed. by Mike Ashley
Next Up: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke