Sunday, June 10, 2012

Book Review - The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories

I'm not sure if there is any rule against reviewing a book that  you are a contributor to, but if I don't say anything about my story, will that work?

A few weeks ago, all of us who contributed to The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories were asked to download the book to do some proofing and check for formatting issues, so we have had the opportunity to read all the stories first.

In reading some of the first stories in the collection, I noticed a theme that involved strong women taking charge of their lives. "You Can't be too Careful" by Bob Sanchez features George, who is a bit off his rocker, so to speak, and has made his wife, Lila, live with him in a storm shelter. Duct tape plays an important role in this humorous story that has a bit of an O'Henry twist.

Shon Bacon's story, "I Wanna Get Off Here" brings us the character of Bay, a bus driver and closet writer. She doesn't want to be forever trapped in the abusive relationship with Darryl. He thinks she is too stupid to be anything but a bus driver, but in her heart, Bay knows she is better than that. She needs to find the courage to get him out of her life, and she finds it at The Corner Cafe.

In "What's Next" by Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, the reader meets a woman named Wilson, named so because her mother desperately wanted "a baby with a penis." Wilson has grown up in a little town in Texas near the Gulf  and longs for more than the endless routine of days and nights living with her grandmother, and wondering what happened to her father who died at sea before she was born. How she decides to break that endless cycle is both harrowing and enlightening.

I found these stories of strong women particularly endearing. Maybe because I like to write about strong women. But I also really enjoyed the other stories as well. On her blog, The Fabulousness, Red Tash shares a list of all the stories with a short blurb for each one.

This collection, a collaborative effort with 14  writers is free at Amazon UNTIL MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. You can download it to your Kindle by clicking here: http://www.amzn.to/Cornercafe and read at your leisure!

If you don't have a Kindle, you can download a free Kindle app to many other gadgets like your computer, smartphone, or iPad. Click here: http://bit.ly/CCKindleApps

9 comments:

Leslea said...

Strong women make great stories, don't they?

Red's blog is actually at http://RedTash.com, but thanks for the mention!

Maryannwrites said...

Thanks for stopping by, Red, er, Leslea. I get so confused with all these aliases writers use. LOL I'm glad I linked to the right blog post, though.

Dani said...

It takes strong women to have a blog book tour, that's for sure. We have one man in the list of authors, have you noticed? And what's he out doing? Hahaha.

Helen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Helen Ginger said...

The Corner Cafe is full of great stories. I'm with you, I love a story lead by a strong woman!

Maryannwrites said...

Dani, I think we have forgiven Bob for being a guy. LOL

Seriously, we are such a close, supportive group, I hardly pay attention to gender.

WS Gager said...

Great post Maryann. Strong woman and Bob writing strong women. Great way to do a theme post.
Wendy
W.S. Gager

Maryannwrites said...

Thanks, Wendy. I'm glad this inspiration struck me as I was re-reading some of the stories this morning while I ate breakfast.

LD Masterson said...

Sounds like a great collection. I'm downloading.