Death’s Excellent Vacation
by Charlaine Harris & Various Authors

Death’s Excellent Vacation is a collection of short stories that all have supernatural elements and a vacation theme. I’m not generally a big fan of short stories (I’m a series girl), but with shorts from two series that I follow, I was eager to check it out and see what fun little tales Charlaine Harris and Katie MacAlister had created to go along with their Southern Vampire and Guardian novels.

There are 13 short-stories in the Death’s Excellent Vacation anthology. Here’s my VERY brief thoughts on the ones that I read.

1. Two Blondes – Charlaine Harris – (A Southern Vampire/True Blood story) – I pretty much always love a Sookie story. There was nothing special about this one, just a quick silly romp with Sookie & Pam. I enjoyed it.
2. The Boys Go Fishing – Sarah Smith – I didn’t like this one very much.
3. One for the Money – Jeaniene Frost (Night Huntress story) – I really enjoyed this one! So much so that I will now be checking out the Night Huntress Series!
4. Meanwhile, Far Across the Caspian Sea… - Daniel Stashower – This one didn’t hold my attention, resulting in a DNF.
5. The Innsmouth Nook – A. Lee Martinez – Another DNF
6. Safe and Sound – Jeff Abbott – An enjoyable story.
7. Seeing is Believing – L A Banks – I also enjoyed this one.
8. The Perils of Eferjim – Katie MacAlister (An Aisling Grey Guardian story) – I love this series, and always find Jim entertaining. A fun little Guardian story.
9. Thin Walls – Christopher Golden – This was borderline porn. Well, not really, but there was far more icky sex than I want to read about!
10. The Heart is Always Right – Lilith Saintcrow – I was enjoying this one, but found it dragged on a bit so I skimmed the middle and skipped ahead to the end. Not bad.
11. The Demon in the Dunes – Chris Grabenstein – DNF.
12. Home from America – Sharan Newman – DNF. And this marked the end of my reading this book. I’m not a huge fan of short stories, so this doesn’t really have anything to do with the quality of the stories; I just needed to get back to something a little more in depth.
13. Pirate Dave’s Haunted Amusement Park – Toni L P Kelner – Reviews I read said this one was good, but I never quite got there.

Have you read Death’s Excellent Vacation? What did you think? Are you a fan of anthologies? Do you enjoy short stories based on your favorite series?

Canadian Voices, Volume One
An Anthology of prose and poetry by Emerging Canadian Writers
by Various Authors

Canadian Voices: Volume One is a lovely collection of short stories and poems written by a variety of budding Canadian authors. When I started this book, I sat down with a pack of post-it tabs beside me so I could flag my favourite works in order to highlight them in my review. I quickly realized that this was going to be a waste of time since I was flagging almost every story! Granted there were a few pieces that didn’t work for me, but for the most part this is a fantastic collection of writing that truly highlights the multiculturalism and diversity of Canadians.

I often shy away from short stories because I love to get lost in new worlds and adventures when I’m reading, and with short stories it sometimes feels like they end just as you’re getting absorbed. But with so many great tales packed into this book, I found myself rushing through each story, eager to uncover the next little gem that waited just a few pages away. One of the stories (Spontaneous Adventure by Sally Dillon) brought me to tears with its emotional tale, while another story of family and illness (Joey and the Turtle by Alison E. Bruce) took me through an array of emotions.  An excerpt from the novel Homecoming by Sherry Isaac was so intriguing that I’ve added the book to my wish-list!

Not having read much poetry since I was in school, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got to the poetry section of the book. But I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful collection of prose. I found the poems by Elizabeth Barnes were wonderful, and enjoyed the offerings of Cassie McDaniel, R.G. Condie and John Ambury to name just a few.

With its vast collection of authors and stories, I believe Canadian Voices: Volume One has something for almost every reader to enjoy. I hope to see many people pick this one up (and pass it on!) in an effort to support and promote our country’s remarkable talent.

* I received a copy of this book for review by one of the authors who contributed to the volume.