64° probably sounds heavenly to most of the country, but here in Phoenix my thinned out desert blood still needs to break out the Nordic sweaters….

#ssac2025 Day 4: Year: 2019 Day: 18 “Amaranth” by Lauren Groff 5⭐️ Loved every single thing about this story…had a very Kill Bill revenge vibe, perfectly executed, in my opinion. Even though you could see the final resolution coming, it was still so satisfying.

#ssac2025 Day 3: Year: 2018 Day: 15 “Snatching Bodies” by Rodrigo Fresán 4⭐️ Still love this quirky, gorgeous little mystery of a story, with it’s interesting way of weaving together social observations, film, sci fi, relationships, and so many other things😎

Just finished Stephen Graham Jones’s The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, and it’s an immediate five star favorite. Vampire story set in the 1912 Montana frontier, weaving in deep Native American threads, this book is tremendous. PS - The audiobook is tremendous as well with three exceptional narrators.

#ssac2025 Day 2: Year: 2021 Day: 12 “Josephine the Singer; or the Mouse Folk” by Franz Kafka .5⭐️ What’s that old saying about when you don’t have anything nice to say? Truly, this story’s inclusion in the always spectacular H & O SSAC series befuddles me. Not my jam apparently

#ssac2025 Day 1: Year: 2017 Day: 7 “Edna in the Rain” by Marie-Helene Bertino 4.5⭐️ Loved this magical realism story when I read it originally, love it even more now realizing it was written by the author of one of favorite books of the past few years, Beautyland.

November came strong on the read front, with two five star reads and a nice overall cross section of works😎

As the season changes and we head into that special time of year, check in on your friends who are reading Lonesome Dove . . . we are not OK.

Just a little timeline cleanse with a gorgeous shot from my hike this morning in the Sonoran Preserve that borders my neighborhood.😎

If you see this, post a fictional artist / band you would go see live.

Interesting work for this month’s book club. Loved aspects of this book, and lines, passages, and ideas from it are sticking with me days after reading, always the sign of a good book to me. Was also frustrated at times by the author’s chaotic style, so I’m looking to this month’s discussion.

Sun down trail walks are the best…

Watching White Christmas and enjoying some Baileys on the rocks with a splash of peppermint mocha Kahlua…NOW it’s Christmas

Day 25, #ssac2024 “The Leaf-Sweeper” by Muriel Spark The unexpected story of the short lived Abolition of Christmas😎 “But perhaps you don’t know how repulsive and loathsome is the ghost of a living man.”

On the doorstep of wrapping up another entertaining and heart warming #SSAC read, I just wanted to thank my cohorts for your wit, your charm, your well read insights, your creativity, and your general good energy and aura. Thank you yet again for making this my favorite December tradition.

Day 23, #ssac2024 “Anaheim” by Jennifer Croft A masterclass in the potential of the form…there are four or five short stories alone within this single story, bravo. “Misuse was the wrong kind of waste. Use and abuse. The right kind of waste was lavishing everyone around you with life.”

Day 22, #ssac2024 “The One With The Multiverse” by Josh Riedel Are memories and nostalgia the actual multiverse?? “It’s easy to forget where you are in towns like this. You can be in one place and believe you’re somewhere else.”

Day 21, #ssac2024 “Wars and Winters” by Hannah Pittard Entitled, toxic ‘masculinity’ with the inevitable side of insecure fragility. “He hadn’t even given me a noun.”

Day 20, #ssac2024 “The Things Eric Eats Before He Eats Himself” by Carmen Maria Machado An entertaining Monty Python-esque parable about our unchecked modern consumerism and the unfillable void. “The jump between murder and cannibalism is, somehow, smaller.”

Day 19, #ssac2024 “Chris Cornell” by Damian Tarnopolsky “The Russian soul is a dark place.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky “Later on I served time as an editor, and discovered the compromised way books came into the world with their teams of midwives.”

Day 18, #ssac2024 “The Exhibition” by Alexandra Wuest So much packed into one small story…art, appropriation, empathy, anxiety, apathy, boredom, and so much more. “Instead it reminded her of a sunrise, which on second thought, she realized, must be a pretty nice way to see oneself.”

Day 17, #ssac2024 “You Again” by Seth Fried This story was like the perfect cup of tea or your favorite song…a tiny slice of perfection that you futilely hope will last forever, but know deep down that it’s fleetingness is part of it’s allure. 5⭐️s, perfect “Mistakes would need to be embraced.”

Day 16, #ssac2024 “Conversation Over The Holidays” by Jessica Westhead Felt timeless to me in portraying the middle aged experience, with all it’s anxieties, and banalities, and small graces. “…everything around them and beneath them felt so solid and sturdy, but now it wasn’t like that anymore.”

Day 15, #ssac2024 “Down Burned Road” by Jacqueline Baker Had trouble connecting with this story, thought I did appreciate the author’s descriptive powers. “Turing seemed to Carrie to have come from nowhere, from no place and no time. Attached, it seemed, the nothing.”

Day 14, #ssac2024 “The Lottery” by Adam O’Fallon Price His one redeeming trait was acknowledging that his wife was smarter than he was. “One in 300 million is another way of saying that something is not going to happen...”

Day 13, #ssac2024 “The Crown Derby Plate” by Marjorie Bowen “I like to say I believe in ghosts so I don't get haunted by one.” - Ella Henderson “…the lonely house with the grave in the garden was dreary enough around which to create a legend.”

Day 12, #ssac2024 “Shopping Cart” by Christopher Boucher The secret life of trolleys…. “But by then I was in a silent room in my mind. I looked around that room for words - “No thanks,” or “OK,” or anything at all - but I couldn’t find any.”

Sure you’re clever, but are you as clever as the folks that name Scotland’s salt trucks?? • For Your Ice Only • Mary Queen Of Salt • Spreddie Van Halen • Dr. Snow • Coldfinger • Carrie Brad-thaw • Lord Coldemort • Creedance Clear Road Survival • I Want To Break Freeze

Day 11, #ssac2024 “Children Of A Careless God” by Elizabeth Gonzalez James Wow…the script for The Secret Life of Pets 3 got DARK🤣🤣🤣 “He wished he’d stayed asleep, that he’d lived a few more moments in the honeyed comfort that he was cared for and loved.”

Day 10, #ssac2024 “Tardy Suit” by Thomas Pierce Talk about a story for our times…felt very art imitating life, with a little Doctor Who fantasy / social commentary sprinkled in for good measure. “Didn’t always do right thing but this time did, hoping.”

Day 9, #ssac2024 “What To Call You” by Casey Plett Loved this story…felt like Bukowski, The Velvet Underground, Kathleen Edwards, and just a pinch of Cormac McCarthy. Quotes in the attached thread…

Day 8, #ssac2024 “Ham” by John Jodzio Just your typical, garden variety story about eagles, processed meats, infidelity, larceny, and the American Dream😎🦅🍖🇺🇸 “The guilt has eclipsed the fun.”

Day 7, #ssac2024 “The Renovation” by Kenan Orhan Jewel of a short story, luxurious with descriptions and imagery, dense with revelatory antecedents, and playful with magical realism. “Now I am in a foreign country, crawling on the floor of the ocean without bones built for the pressure.”

Day 6, #ssac2024 “For John” by Kim Fu Like a Twilight Zone script🏆🏆🏆 “He felt suddenly certain that he would never be able to explain why he found it beautiful, and she would never be able to explain why she found it ugly, and they would remain fundamentally unknowable to each other.”

Kelly and I had a fundraiser to attend tonight for a nonprofit that supports women in crisis, and were greeted by a squadron of javelinas upon our departure (and yes, squadron is the proper term for a group of javelinas😎).

Day 5, #ssac2024 “My Smell Journal [orange peels, ink, coffee filters]” by Katya Apekina Smell is supposed to be the strongest of the senses, mnemonically, and I loved the idea of the journal. “He say, New York feels like a phantom limb.”

Day 4, #ssac2024 “Vandring’ by J. Robert Lennon Perhaps the first great short story I’ve read of/from the Covid era. Captured so many of the varied dispirit elements from that period and the aftermath, and yet somehow, still offered a glimmer of hope. “I felt cheated both by and out of death.”

Here's your daily reminder that bookstores keep the love of reading alive — but they also keep neighborhoods beautiful. They are places to gather, to celebrate stories, to find community. Please do your holiday shopping at your local independent bookstore, if you are lucky enough to still have one.

Day 3, #ssac2024 “Eat Pray Click” by Ed Park The clandestine ghost in the literary machine . . . “Basically, he longed for a text that wasn’t set in stone, something more akin to a living organism - a story with free will.”

Day 2, #ssac2024 “The Hookup” by Katherine Heiny The things we own often end up owning us… “It’s possible that she brought laughter and lightness to this apartment. But then again, maybe not - she was Hungarian, after all.”

What are four Christmas specials to get to know you by?

Day 1, #ssac2024 “In The Stacks” by Robin Sloan Gorgeous, perfect gem of a story to start off this year’s collection. “Oh no. Building it helps me understand it. I wouldn’t get anywhere if I skipped that step.” @ttbrader.bsky.social @barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @mkcanuck.bsky.social

November was a good month..looking forward to a great December and then some TOUGH year end ranking decisions.

Current read, and pretty fantastic so far…

Great win for the Cleveland Browns in the snow tonight🦇

Fantastic evening last night here in Phoenix with Chuck Palahniuk courtesy of Changing Hands BookStore, celebrating Chuck’s newest title, Not Forever But For Now. Great crowd, fun Q & A, and fantastic stories and knowledge nuggets from Chuck. Most unique author nights in the business.