I don’t know how an English major in college and graduate school never read this before, but it has happened. What a story!

Muriel Glass is vacationing in Florida with her husband Seymor who is suffering from PTSD from World War II. In a powerful master class on showing not telling, Salinger gives hints throughout the story that something is just not right with Seymour. Muriel’s mom calls her up and begs her to leave and come home, worried that Seymour’s odd behavior is way more serious than Muriel seems to think it is. But Muriel blows it off, saying that even though a psychiatrist staying at the hotel (who watched Seymour play piano and felt there was something off about him) asked if he was OK, she still thinks he’s alright. Well, aside from him being pale and wearing a robe all the time to, as he says, hide his tattoo (which he doesn’t have). We see Seymour in action when he’s lying on the beach in his robe and befriends a young girl, who he ends up taking out on a float. He compliments her blue swimsuit (it’s really yellow) and tells her about the bananafish who swim into banana-sized holes and eat bananas. It’s an ominous scene b/c you think he’s going to do something to her, but thankfully he doesn’t. He does end up going back to his room, where Muriel is asleep.

I won’t spoil the ending but WOW...again. The tension is strong in this story as the fear for everyone in Seymour’s path keeps increasing. Salinger does a great job building the suspense. Also the little (tattoo, swimsuit color) and big (bananafish, robe) signs of Seymour’s illness as well placed and add to the overall suspense. This is truly a great short story. Compact, wonderfully written, compelling, and entertaining. Just perfect from start to finish.

So here I sit, crying at my computer because this story is just so SO good. Before I write about it, I will say you need to read it if you haven’t. It’s amazing; I'd give it ten stars if I could.

Kan is a young Chinese-American boy whose mother was brought over from China as a mail-order bride. To soothe him one day, his mother uses wrapping paper to make an origami tiger. When she breathes into the design, it comes to life (this is her magic) and becomes Kan’s friend, a tiger named Laohu. Kan’s mother eventually makes him an entire menagerie of animals, all which come to life and become his playmates.

As Kan gets older, the lure of “real” toys like Star Wars figurines, his schoolmates’ and neighbor’s ridiculing about his mother being a “bought” wife, and the vestiges of his Chinese heritage in his own appearance all combine to make him become resentful towards his mother. Add to that her not speaking much Chinese with the usual distance that happens between parents and kids as time goes on and by high school, Kan isn’t talking much to his mother at all. He’s more concerned about his pursuit of the American dream.

Tragedy strikes and, well, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but suffice it to say, this story manages to break your heart, uplift your spirit, and make you believe in magic all at once.

Using a relatable trope (the natural distance and embarassment that usually forms between parents and children as the child gets older and has to make their own way in the world), Liu puts his own fantastical spin on it by making it a story about assimilation, communication, and love. And, in the end, he makes you realize that while life is littered with heartbreak, disappointment, tragedy, and people mistreating others, in the end a glimmer of love can shine through and possibly heal some of the wounds.

This story is unflinching in its subject, but you still can’t look away. I can’t say I enjoyed it, but it was definitely powerful. Three middle-school girls (from a low socio-economic class) play a game with the boys at recess. They wear colored bracelets and the boys come over to choose what sex act they will get from the girls under the bleachers. When a new girl comes to town, unkempt, clutzy, sweet Grace, the girls take her under their wing and in an interesting reversal, connect with her and the innocence they have lost. Their “game” stops and they just enjoy spending time with the new girl. However, as things tend to go, Grace responds to the girls’ adult dress, games, etc. and they end up reluctantly teaching her how to steal, put on makeup, dress provocatively. She then wants to play the bracelet game. The girls are disgusted that their innocent friend has become “dirty.” The story ends with Grace going to the boys with her bracelets on and the girls don’t know what happens to her.

I have a young daughter, so this was an unpleasant to read, but it was still an interesting way to go about telling this tale (many have heard of these types of games). I liked the switch up of these girls responding to innocence; I didn’t expect that. But the progression of Grace from innocent to not I did expect. I also didn’t expect the girls’ dislike of it. This was a very provocative tale that did get me thinking about the sexualization of young girls in today’s society and how a return to innocence might be what they could be looking for. Again, this isn’t for the faint at heart, but it’s definitely intriguing.

I loved this story! It’s another short one but Vonnegut does so much with just a few pages.

George and Hazel Bergeron live in a dystopian society in the year 2081. The 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments have made all people truly equal. Meaning if you’re smart, you're given a radio handicap to wear in your ear that plays a loud sound to continuously interrupt your thoughts. If you’re too pretty, you have to wear an ugly mask. If you’re too strong, you are weighed down with bags of metal balls. These rules are enforced by the US Handicapper General. George and Hazel’s son has been taken away to jail.

They sit one night watching ballerinas on the TV. George, a smart, strong man, has a radio in his ear and bags of weights on him. The dancers on the screen have masks and only dance sort-of OK. No one is any better than the others. A news report comes on saying Harrison escaped and he shows up at the dance studio. He’s wearing ugly glasses, has basically a junkyard of metal on him, he’s 7 feet tall, and has headphones on his head, instead of just a mere speaker. Apparently he's exceptional, all around. What happens? Read this story! It’s great (and I don’t want to spoil much more).

As I said previously through my daily critiques, these dystopia sci-fi stories by Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Ursula LeGuin, and now Vonnegut are a real treat. The visionary ideas and situations that these writers devised (so long ago!) and how well they executed them are extremely entertaining (and sometimes scary!). I loved this one. The idea that in order to truly make all people equal the gov’t literally handicaps them is genius. Like the other authors, Vonnegut explores the consequences of technology, government, human nature, and society. And, like all truly great sci-fi futuristic stories, he includes a great deal of emotion, too. Hazel and George’s reaction is predictable but devastating. Definitely read this one. Highly recommended.

What a fascinating story! Asminov himself considered this the best story he had written and I can see why.

In this tale, we get six different histories that begin on May 21, 2061. In that first history, two men, slightly drunk, share that Earth finally figured out how to use the energy of the sun to power everything, no coal or uranium needed. They go on to ask Multivac, Earth’s main computer, the question, “When will entropy end?” Meaning when will the heat energy of the sun/stars that runs the universe finally die out for good? No more sun, no more stars, no energy at all. They get the answer: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER. As humans and Multivac evolve in the next histories, things change but that answer continues to get asked and the answer is always the same.

How Asminov imagines humans and the computer evolving over time is pretty neat. First humans are bodies living on Earth until they’re eventually consciousnesses that exist independent of their actual bodies. By the end, Multivac has evolved into AC, the only computer on Earth. At that point, all human consciousnesses have merged with AC to create one collective being that is the only thing left when space and time have ended. Now, with all the data finally collected since nothing else exists, AC does an analysis and is able to answer how to “restart” life. With no one left to tell the answer to, AC “shows” it instead. “Let there be light.”

This intriguing mix of science and theology poses a compelling idea: That we are both the created and the creator. It also prescribes to the idea that life--in this case the life of life itself--is cyclical. I love how Asminov thought about this. Not only did he, like the best sci-fi writers of his generation, predict some futuristic ideas that have actually come to pass, he gave them a profundity that makes this story both entertaining and enlightening. I also love the idea that the beliefs of evolution and creation can coexist and, in a way, work together to create the world. Read this one! It’s really good.