Tag: novels

New Fiction 2015

Really light on short stories and novels this year. Gotta make up for that in 2016.

Short Stories

  • “Lobster Night” by Russell Banks (2000)
  • “The Hermit’s Story” by Rick Bass (2002)
  • “1-900” by Richard Bausch (2003)
  • “Poor Devil” by Charles Baxter
  • “Lavande” by Ann Beattie (2008)
  • “Off” by Aimee Bender (2005)
  • “Mercy” by Pinckney Benedict
  • “Hypercorporeal War Simulator” by Cara Ellison (2015)
  • “Alice” by Elizabeth Harrower (2015)
  • “Kino” by Haruki Murakami (2015)
  • “Musa” by Kamel Daoud (2015)
  • “Anya” by Karen Smyte (2015)
  • “Five Arrows” by Heinz Insu Fenkl (2015)
  • “Silk Brocade” by Tessa Hadley (2015)
  • “Little Man” by Michael Cunningham (2015)
  • “The Flower” by Louise Erdrich (2015)
  • “Ghosts and Empties” by Lauren Groff (2015)
  • “The Freezer Chest” by Dorthe Nors (2015)
  • “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2015)
  • “Peacetime” by Luke Mogelson (2015)
  • “Major Maybe” by Ann Beattie (2015)
  • “The Grow-Light Blues” by Ben Marcus (2015)
  • “So You’re Just What, Gone?” by Justin Taylor (2015)
  • “Escape from New York” by Zadie Smith (2015)
  • “Love Is Blind and Deaf” by Jonathan Safran Foer (2015)
  • “Quaestio de Centauris” by Primo Levi (2015)
  • “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong (2015)

Novels

  • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)

Comics

  • “Super Mega Buds” by JP Coovert (2014)
  • “Broken Summer” by JP Coovert (2014)

Graphic Novels / Collections

  • Through the Woods by Emily Caroll (2014)
  • Bayou Volume One by Jeremy Love (2009)
  • American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006)
  • Flashbacks: Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury by G. B. Trudeau (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Tears of an Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • A Contract With God by Will Eisner (1978)
  • A Life Force by Will Eisner (1988)
  • Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Killing Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Victory by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Redemption by Yukito Kishiro (1996)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Death by Yukito Kishiro (1997)
  • Batman: Death of the Family by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Jonathan Glapion, Jock, FCO Plascencia, David Baron (2012 – 2013)

Video Games

  • 80 Days by inkle Studios (2014)
  • Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent by Telltale Games (2010)
  • Maniac Mansion by Lucasfilm Games (1989)
  • The Dig by LucasArts (1995)
  • The Wolf Among Us by TellTale Games (2014)
  • F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon by Monolith Productions (2005)
  • The Stanley Parable by Galactic Cafe (2013)
  • Puzzle Agent 2 by Telltale Games (2011)
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Game Studios (2011)
  • Her Story by Sam Barlow (2015)
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain by Kojima Productions (2015)
  • The Simpsons Tapped Out: Halloween 2015 by Electronic Arts (2015)
  • Another World by Éric Chahi (1991)
  • Dropsy by Jay Tholen and A Jolly Corpse (2015)
  • Hylics by Mason Lindroth (2015)
  • The Path by Tale of Tales (2009)
  • Costume Quest 2 by Double Fine Productions (2014)

Short Films

  • “Edmond Was a Donkey” dir. Franck Dion (2012)
  • “Kung Fury” dir. David Sandberg (2015)
  • “The Hidden People” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Down by the Bay” dir. Graham Annable (2014)
  • “Space Wolf” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “The Last Duet on Earth” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “We Sing the Forest Electric” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Principal Skeleton” dir. Graham Annable (2009)
  • “Performance” dir. Graham Annable (2010)
  • “V Day” dir. Graham Annable (2012)
  • “After Hours” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “Pumpkin scrap” dir. Graham Annable (2014)
  • “Dreams of Venus” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “The Webb” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “Holicraze” dir. Graham Annable (2015)

Films

  • A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (2014)
  • Django Unchained dir. Quentin Tarantino (2012)
  • Natural Born Killers dir. Oliver Stone (1994)
  • Seven Dollars on Red dir. Alberto Cardone (1966)
  • Alphaville dir. Jean-Luc Godard (1965)
  • Flirting With Disaster dir. David O. Russell (1996)
  • Hesher dir. Spencer Susser (2010)
  • Lolita dir. Stanley Kubrick (1962)
  • X-Men: First Class dir. Matthew Vaughn (2011)
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past dir. Bryan Singer (2014)
  • Le Mans dir. Lee H. Katzin (1971)
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild dir. Benh Zeitlin (2012)
  • Terminator Salvation dir. Joseph McGinty Nichol (2009)
  • They Met in Bombay dir. Clarence Brown (1939)
  • RED dir. Robert Schwentke (2010)
  • Only Lovers Left Alive dir. Jim Jarmusch (2013)
  • Fast & Furious dir. Justin Lin (2009)
  • Body of Lies dir. Ridley Scott (2008)
  • Cowboys & Aliens dir. Jon Favreau (2011)
  • Clash of the Titans dir. Louis Leterrier (2010)
  • Colossus: The Forbin Project dir. Joseph Sargent (1970)
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron dir. Joss Whedon (2015)
  • Mad Max: Fury Road dir. George Miller (2015)
  • Inside Out dir. Pete Docter (2015)
  • The Tree of Life dir. Terrence Malick (2011)
  • The Judge dir. David Dobkin (2014)
  • Death Warrant dir. Deran Sarafian (1990)
  • Of Mice and Men dir. Gary Sinise (1992)
  • The November Man dir. Roger Donaldson (2014)
  • Patriot Games dir. Phillip Noyce (1992)
  • Clear and Present Danger dir. Phillip Noyce (1994)
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction dir. Michael Bay (2014)
  • National Treasure dir. Jon Turteltaub (2004)
  • Beyond the Law dir. Giorgio Stegani (1968)
  • Gang Related dir. Jim Kouf (1997)
  • Sicario dir. Denis Villeneuve (2015)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture dir. Robert Wise (1979)
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan dir. Nicholas Meyer (1982)
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock dir. Leonard Nimoy (1984)
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home dir. Leonard Nimoy (1986)
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier dir. William Shatner (1989)
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country dir. Nicholas Meyer (1991)
  • Witness dir. Peter Weir (1985)
  • Along Came a Spider dir. Lee Tamahori (2001)
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens dir. J. J. Abrams (2015)
  • Instructions Not Included dir. Eugenio Derbez (2013)
  • Hot Fuzz dir. Edgar Wright (2007)
  • The Hateful Eight dir. Quentin Tarantino (2015)
  • Heaven dir. Tom Twyker (2002)
  • Beasts of No Nation dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga (2015)

TV Episodes

  • The Simpsons – “Halloween of Horror” (2015)
  • The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” (2015)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise – “Broken Bow” (2001)

TV Series

  • Fargo (2014)
  • Bones – Seasons 5 – 9 (2009 – 2013)
  • Freaks and Geeks (2000)
  • True Detective (2014)
  • Bob’s Burgers (2010 – 2015)
  • Archer (2010 – 2014)
  • BoJack Horseman (2014 – 2015)
  • Star Trek (1966 – 1969)
  • Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 – 1974)
  • Jessica Jones (2015)
  • F is for Family (2015)
  • Narcos (2015)

New Fiction 2015

Really light on short stories and novels this year. Gotta make up for that in 2016.

Short Stories

  • “Lobster Night” by Russell Banks (2000)
  • “The Hermit’s Story” by Rick Bass (2002)
  • “1-900” by Richard Bausch (2003)
  • “Poor Devil” by Charles Baxter
  • “Lavande” by Ann Beattie (2008)
  • “Off” by Aimee Bender (2005)
  • “Mercy” by Pinckney Benedict
  • “Hypercorporeal War Simulator” by Cara Ellison (2015)
  • “Alice” by Elizabeth Harrower (2015)
  • “Kino” by Haruki Murakami (2015)
  • “Musa” by Kamel Daoud (2015)
  • “Anya” by Karen Smyte (2015)
  • “Five Arrows” by Heinz Insu Fenkl (2015)
  • “Silk Brocade” by Tessa Hadley (2015)
  • “Little Man” by Michael Cunningham (2015)
  • “The Flower” by Louise Erdrich (2015)
  • “Ghosts and Empties” by Lauren Groff (2015)
  • “The Freezer Chest” by Dorthe Nors (2015)
  • “Apollo” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2015)
  • “Peacetime” by Luke Mogelson (2015)
  • “Major Maybe” by Ann Beattie (2015)
  • “The Grow-Light Blues” by Ben Marcus (2015)
  • “So You’re Just What, Gone?” by Justin Taylor (2015)
  • “Escape from New York” by Zadie Smith (2015)
  • “Love Is Blind and Deaf” by Jonathan Safran Foer (2015)
  • “Quaestio de Centauris” by Primo Levi (2015)
  • “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong (2015)

Novels

  • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)

Comics

  • “Super Mega Buds” by JP Coovert (2014)
  • “Broken Summer” by JP Coovert (2014)

Graphic Novels / Collections

  • Through the Woods by Emily Caroll (2014)
  • Bayou Volume One by Jeremy Love (2009)
  • American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006)
  • Flashbacks: Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury by G. B. Trudeau (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Tears of an Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • A Contract With God by Will Eisner (1978)
  • A Life Force by Will Eisner (1988)
  • Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Killing Angel by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Victory by Yukito Kishiro (1995)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Redemption by Yukito Kishiro (1996)
  • Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Death by Yukito Kishiro (1997)
  • Batman: Death of the Family by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Jonathan Glapion, Jock, FCO Plascencia, David Baron (2012 – 2013)

Video Games

  • 80 Days by inkle Studios (2014)
  • Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent by Telltale Games (2010)
  • Maniac Mansion by Lucasfilm Games (1989)
  • The Dig by LucasArts (1995)
  • The Wolf Among Us by TellTale Games (2014)
  • F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon by Monolith Productions (2005)
  • The Stanley Parable by Galactic Cafe (2013)
  • Puzzle Agent 2 by Telltale Games (2011)
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Game Studios (2011)
  • Her Story by Sam Barlow (2015)
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain by Kojima Productions (2015)
  • The Simpsons Tapped Out: Halloween 2015 by Electronic Arts (2015)
  • Another World by Éric Chahi (1991)
  • Dropsy by Jay Tholen and A Jolly Corpse (2015)
  • Hylics by Mason Lindroth (2015)
  • The Path by Tale of Tales (2009)
  • Costume Quest 2 by Double Fine Productions (2014)

Short Films

  • “Edmond Was a Donkey” dir. Franck Dion (2012)
  • “Kung Fury” dir. David Sandberg (2015)
  • “The Hidden People” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Down by the Bay” dir. Graham Annable (2014)
  • “Space Wolf” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “The Last Duet on Earth” dir. Graham Annable (2007)
  • “We Sing the Forest Electric” dir. Graham Annable (2008)
  • “Principal Skeleton” dir. Graham Annable (2009)
  • “Performance” dir. Graham Annable (2010)
  • “V Day” dir. Graham Annable (2012)
  • “After Hours” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “Pumpkin scrap” dir. Graham Annable (2014)
  • “Dreams of Venus” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “The Webb” dir. Graham Annable (2015)
  • “Holicraze” dir. Graham Annable (2015)

Films

  • A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (2014)
  • Django Unchained dir. Quentin Tarantino (2012)
  • Natural Born Killers dir. Oliver Stone (1994)
  • Seven Dollars on Red dir. Alberto Cardone (1966)
  • Alphaville dir. Jean-Luc Godard (1965)
  • Flirting With Disaster dir. David O. Russell (1996)
  • Hesher dir. Spencer Susser (2010)
  • Lolita dir. Stanley Kubrick (1962)
  • X-Men: First Class dir. Matthew Vaughn (2011)
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past dir. Bryan Singer (2014)
  • Le Mans dir. Lee H. Katzin (1971)
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild dir. Benh Zeitlin (2012)
  • Terminator Salvation dir. Joseph McGinty Nichol (2009)
  • They Met in Bombay dir. Clarence Brown (1939)
  • RED dir. Robert Schwentke (2010)
  • Only Lovers Left Alive dir. Jim Jarmusch (2013)
  • Fast & Furious dir. Justin Lin (2009)
  • Body of Lies dir. Ridley Scott (2008)
  • Cowboys & Aliens dir. Jon Favreau (2011)
  • Clash of the Titans dir. Louis Leterrier (2010)
  • Colossus: The Forbin Project dir. Joseph Sargent (1970)
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron dir. Joss Whedon (2015)
  • Mad Max: Fury Road dir. George Miller (2015)
  • Inside Out dir. Pete Docter (2015)
  • The Tree of Life dir. Terrence Malick (2011)
  • The Judge dir. David Dobkin (2014)
  • Death Warrant dir. Deran Sarafian (1990)
  • Of Mice and Men dir. Gary Sinise (1992)
  • The November Man dir. Roger Donaldson (2014)
  • Patriot Games dir. Phillip Noyce (1992)
  • Clear and Present Danger dir. Phillip Noyce (1994)
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction dir. Michael Bay (2014)
  • National Treasure dir. Jon Turteltaub (2004)
  • Beyond the Law dir. Giorgio Stegani (1968)
  • Gang Related dir. Jim Kouf (1997)
  • Sicario dir. Denis Villeneuve (2015)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture dir. Robert Wise (1979)
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan dir. Nicholas Meyer (1982)
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock dir. Leonard Nimoy (1984)
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home dir. Leonard Nimoy (1986)
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier dir. William Shatner (1989)
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country dir. Nicholas Meyer (1991)
  • Witness dir. Peter Weir (1985)
  • Along Came a Spider dir. Lee Tamahori (2001)
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens dir. J. J. Abrams (2015)
  • Instructions Not Included dir. Eugenio Derbez (2013)
  • Hot Fuzz dir. Edgar Wright (2007)
  • The Hateful Eight dir. Quentin Tarantino (2015)
  • Heaven dir. Tom Twyker (2002)
  • Beasts of No Nation dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga (2015)

TV Episodes

  • The Simpsons – “Halloween of Horror” (2015)
  • The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” (2015)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise – “Broken Bow” (2001)

TV Series

  • Fargo (2014)
  • Bones – Seasons 5 – 9 (2009 – 2013)
  • Freaks and Geeks (2000)
  • True Detective (2014)
  • Bob’s Burgers (2010 – 2015)
  • Archer (2010 – 2014)
  • BoJack Horseman (2014 – 2015)
  • Star Trek (1966 – 1969)
  • Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 – 1974)
  • Jessica Jones (2015)
  • F is for Family (2015)
  • Narcos (2015)

New Fiction 2014

Short Stories

  • “I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife” by Paul Theroux (2013)
  • “Summer of ‘38” by Colm Tóibín (2013)
  • “Zusya on the Roof” by Nicole Krauss (2013)
  • “Samsa in Love” by Haruki Murakami (2013)
  • “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce (1890)
  • “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie (1993)
  • “Rock Springs” by Richard Ford (1987)
  • “Same Place, Same Things” by Tim Gautreux (1991)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe (1839)
  • “An Inch and a Half of Glory” by Dashiell Hammet (2013)
  • “Rough Deeds” by Annie Proulx (2013)
  • “Slide to Unlock” by Ed Park (2013)
  • “Happy Trails” by Sherman Alexie (2013)
  • “Scenes of the Crime” by Cormac McCarthy (2013)
  • “Brotherly Love” by Jhumpa Lahiri (2013)
  • “The Judge’s Will” by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (2013)
  • “Weight Watchers” by Thomas McGuane (2013)
  • “The Last Few Kilometres” by Leonid Tsypkin (2012)
  • “The Christmas Miracle” by Rebecca Curtis (2013)
  • “The Night of the Satellite” by T. Coraghessan Boyle (2013)
  • “The Lost Order” by Rivka Galchen (2013)
  • “Amundsen” by Alice Munro (2012)
  • “The Women” by William Trevor (2013)
  • “The Furies” by Paul Theroux (2013)
  • “Mayfly” by Kevin Canty (2013)
  • “Spilled Salt” by Barbara Neely (1990)
  • “The Laugher” by Heinrich Böll (1966)
  • “The South” by Jorge Luis Borges (1956)
  • “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” by Angela Carter (1979)
  • “The Seamstress” by Gabrielle-Sidonie Colette (19xx)
  • “Amy Foster” by Joseph Conrad (1903)
  • “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro (2013)
  • “Coming Soon” by Steven Milhauser (2013)
  • “Island of Manhattan” by René Marqués (1974)
  • “The Street-Sweeping Show” by Feng Jicai (1982)
  • “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
  • “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell (1917)
  • “Sarzan” by Birago Diop (1947)
  • “Paseo” by José Donoso (1969)
  • “Love Medicine” by Louise Erdrich (1982)
  • “Boys at the Rodeo” by Judy Grahn (1978)
  • “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1843)
  • “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway (1927)
  • “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes (1953)
  • “The Gilded Six-Bits” by Zora Neale Hurston (1933)
  • “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (1948)
  • “A Story for Children” by Svava Jakobsdóttir (1975)
  • “Greville Fane” by Henry James (1892)
  • “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett (1886)
  • “A Report to an Academy” by Franz Kafka (1917)
  • “A Hand in the Grave” by Ghassan Kanafani (1962)
  • “Betel Nut is Bad Magic for Airplanes” by John Kasaipwalova (1972)
  • “The Gold-Legged Frog” by Khamsing Srinawk (1958)
  • “My Mother” by Jamaica Kincaid (1983)
  • “A Bird in the House” by Margaret Laurence (1972)
  • “The Old Chief Mshlanga” by Doris Lessing (1951)
  • “Or Else, the Lightning God” by Catherine Lim (1980)
  • “Half a Day” by Naguib Mahfouz (1989)
  • “Her First Ball” by Katherine Mansfield (1922)
  • “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason (1982)
  • “The Appointment in Samarra” by William Somerset Maugham (1933)
  • “Lush Life” by John McCluskey (1990)
  • “The One Who Goes Farthest Away” by Katherine Min (1990)
  • “Swaddling Clothes” by Mishima Yukio (1966)
  • “How to Become a Writer” by Lorrie Moore (1985)
  • “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison (1983)
  • “Mrs. Plum” by Es’kia Mphahlele (1967)
  • “The Elephant” by Slawomir Mrożek (1962)
  • “And We Sold the Rain” by Carmen Naranjo (1988)
  • “A Horse and Two Goats” by R. K. Narayan (1970)
  • “The Pale Fox” by Ōba Minako (1973)
  • “In the Shadow of War” by Ben Okri (1988)
  • “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen (1953)
  • “Black Girl” by Sembene Ousmane (1962)
  • “Nomad and Viper” by Amos Oz (1963)
  • “The Blue Bouquet” by Octavio Paz (1961)
  • “Mona Lisa” by Cristina Peri Rossi (1983)
  • “Insomnia” by Virgilio Piñera (1956)
  • “Rope” by Katherine Anne Porter (1930)
  • “The Proof” by Rodrigo Rey Rosa (1987)
  • “The Prophet’s Hair” by Salman Rushdie (1994)
  • “Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1953)
  • “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck (1938)
  • “Learning to Swim” by Graham Swift (1982)
  • “The Betrayal” by Véronique Tadjo (1992)
  • “Half and Half” by Amy Tan (1989)
  • “To All Eternity” by Haldun Taner (1948)
  • “The Complete Gentleman” by Amos Tutuola (1952)
  • “Luck” by Mark Twain (1891)
  • “Strange Things Happen Here” by Luisa Valenzuela (1975)
  • “Sunday” by Mario Vargas Llosa (1958)
  • “In Africa There Is a Type of Spider” by Yvonne Vera (2000)
  • “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker (1973)
  • “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty (1941)
  • “Kew Gardens” by Virginia Woolf (1919)
  • “The Daily Woman” by Niaz Zaman (1996)
  • “Pet Milk” by Stuart Dybek (1981)
  • “Saint Marie” by Louise Erdrich (1984)
  • “The Mail Lady” by David Gates (1999)
  • “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amp Hempel (1985)
  • “Cold Snap” by Thom Jones (1995)
  • “The Management of Grief” by Bharati Mukherjee (1988)
  • “Meneseteung” by Alice Munro (1990)
  • “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx (1999)
  • “Strays” by Mark Richard (1989)
  • “Intensive Care” by Lee Smith (1988)
  • “The Way We Live Now” by Susan Sontag (1986)
  • “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan (1989)
  • “First, Body” by Melanie Rae Thon (1997)
  • “Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog” by Stephanie Vaughn (1978)
  • “Fever” by John Edgar Wideman (1989)
  • “Taking Care” by Joy Williams (1972)
  • “Terrified” by C. B. Gilford (1959)
  • “Peter Rugg, the Missing Man” by William Austin
  • “The Wives of the Dead” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” by Herman Melville
  • “The Ghost in the Mill” by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • “Cannibalism in the Cars” by Samuel Clemens
  • “The Storm” by Kate Chopin
  • “The Sheriff’s Children” by Charles Chesnutt
  • “The Middle Years” by Henry James
  • “In a Far Country” by Jack London
  • “Old Woman Magoun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
  • “The Little Regiment” by Stephen Crane
  • “A Journey” by Edith Wharton
  • “The Strength of God” by Sherwood Anderson (1919)
  • “A Death in the Desert” by Willa Cather
  • “Blood-Burning Moon” by Jean Toomer (1923)
  • “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway (1933)
  • “An Alcoholic Case” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1937)
  • “The Girl with a Pimply Face” by William Carlos Williams (1961)
  • “He” by Katherine Anne Porter (1930)
  • “That Evening Sun” by William Faulkner (1931)
  • “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston
  • “Red-Headed Baby” by Langston Hughes (1934)
  • “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright (1987)
  • “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” by Flannery O’Connor (1953)
  • “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison (1948)
  • “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury (1950)
  • “Rain in the Heart” by Peter Taylor (1941)
  • “The Lecture” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1968)
  • “My Son the Murderer” by Bernard Malamud (1968)
  • “Something to Remember Me By” by Saul Bellow (1990)
  • “The Death of Justina” by John Cheever (1960)
  • “Texts” by Ursula K. Le Guin (1990)
  • “The Persistence of Desire” by John Updike (1959)
  • “Alaska” by Alice Adams (1984)
  • “Are These Actual Miles?” by Raymond Carver (1972)
  • “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff (1976)
  • “Big Bertha Stories” by Bobbie Ann Mason (1988)
  • “Fleur” by Louise Erdrich (1988)
  • “Gravity” by David Leavitt (1990)
  • “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros (1989)
  • “Town Smokes” by Pinckney Benedict (1987)

Video Games

  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door dev. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems (2004)
  • The Walking Dead: 400 Days dev. TellTale Games and Skybound Entertainment (2013)
  • Papers, Please dev. Lukas Pope (2013)
  • Actual Sunlight dev. Will O’Neill (2014)
  • Castles in the Sky dev. The Tall Trees (2014)
  • The Walking Dead: Season 2 dev. TellTale Games and Skybound Entertainment (2013-2014)
  • Shovel Knight dev. Yacht Club Games (2014)
  • The Simpsons: Tapped Out dev. Electronic Arts (2012-2014)

Novels

  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)
  • Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (1997)
  • On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
  • The Getaway by Jim Thompson (1958)
  • The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver (1988)
  • Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver (1993)
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

Comics

  • Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven (2008-2009)
  • Black Hole by Charles Burns (1995-2005)
  • “Soup” by Irene Koh (2014)
  • We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (2004)

Films

  • 200 Cigarettes dir. Risa Bramon Garcia (1999)
  • Wild Boys of the Road dir. William A. Wellman (1933)
  • Detour dir. Edgar G. Ulmer (1945)
  • Two-Lane Blacktop dir. Monte Hellman (1971)
  • The Manchurian Candidate dir. John Frankenheimer (1962)
  • Patton dir. Franklin J. Schaffner (1970)
  • Badlands dir. Terrence Malick (1973)
  • On the Road dir. Walter Salles (2012)
  • Smoke Signals dir. Chris Eyre (1998)
  • The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert dir. Stephan Elliott (1994)
  • Cabeza de Vaca dir. Nicolás Echevarría (1991)
  • Ida dir. Pawel Pawlikowski (2013)
  • Pacific Rim dir. Guillermo del Toro (2013)
  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon dir. Michael Bay (2011)
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes dir. Matt Reeves (2014)
  • Edge of Tomorrow dir. Doug Liman (2014)
  • Wicked City dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri (1987)
  • The Equalizer dir. Antoine Fuqua (2014)
  • The Homesman dir. Tommy Lee Jones (2014)
  • The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies dir. Peter Jackson (2014)
  • Godzilla dir. Gareth Edwards (2014)

Short Films

  • “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” dir. Robert Enrico (1962)
  • “I’ll Wait for the Next One” dir. Phillippe Orreindy (2002)
  • “Zen & the Art of Landscaping” dir. David Kartch (2001)
  • “Inja” dir. Steve Pasvolsky (2002)
  • “Kitchen Sink” dir. Alison Maclean (1989)
  • “Gridlock” dir. Dirk Beliën (2001)
  • “Black Rider” dir. Pepe Danquart (1993)
  • “Our Time Is Up” dir. Rob Pearlstein (2004)
  • “Six Shooter” dir. Martin McDonagh (2004)
  • “Spider” dir. Nash Edgerton (2007)
  • “Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade” dir. George Hickenlooper (1994)
  • “More” dir. Mark Osborne (1998)

Television

  • Dexter – Season 8 (2013)
  • Sherlock – Series 3 (2013)
  • Adventure Time – Season 1 (2010)
  • Over the Garden Wall (2014)
  • Bee and Puppycat – Season 1 (2014)

New Fiction 2014

Short Stories

  • “I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife” by Paul Theroux (2013)
  • “Summer of ‘38” by Colm Tóibín (2013)
  • “Zusya on the Roof” by Nicole Krauss (2013)
  • “Samsa in Love” by Haruki Murakami (2013)
  • “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce (1890)
  • “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie (1993)
  • “Rock Springs” by Richard Ford (1987)
  • “Same Place, Same Things” by Tim Gautreux (1991)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe (1839)
  • “An Inch and a Half of Glory” by Dashiell Hammet (2013)
  • “Rough Deeds” by Annie Proulx (2013)
  • “Slide to Unlock” by Ed Park (2013)
  • “Happy Trails” by Sherman Alexie (2013)
  • “Scenes of the Crime” by Cormac McCarthy (2013)
  • “Brotherly Love” by Jhumpa Lahiri (2013)
  • “The Judge’s Will” by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (2013)
  • “Weight Watchers” by Thomas McGuane (2013)
  • “The Last Few Kilometres” by Leonid Tsypkin (2012)
  • “The Christmas Miracle” by Rebecca Curtis (2013)
  • “The Night of the Satellite” by T. Coraghessan Boyle (2013)
  • “The Lost Order” by Rivka Galchen (2013)
  • “Amundsen” by Alice Munro (2012)
  • “The Women” by William Trevor (2013)
  • “The Furies” by Paul Theroux (2013)
  • “Mayfly” by Kevin Canty (2013)
  • “Spilled Salt” by Barbara Neely (1990)
  • “The Laugher” by Heinrich Böll (1966)
  • “The South” by Jorge Luis Borges (1956)
  • “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” by Angela Carter (1979)
  • “The Seamstress” by Gabrielle-Sidonie Colette (19xx)
  • “Amy Foster” by Joseph Conrad (1903)
  • “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro (2013)
  • “Coming Soon” by Steven Milhauser (2013)
  • “Island of Manhattan” by René Marqués (1974)
  • “The Street-Sweeping Show” by Feng Jicai (1982)
  • “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
  • “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell (1917)
  • “Sarzan” by Birago Diop (1947)
  • “Paseo” by José Donoso (1969)
  • “Love Medicine” by Louise Erdrich (1982)
  • “Boys at the Rodeo” by Judy Grahn (1978)
  • “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1843)
  • “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway (1927)
  • “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes (1953)
  • “The Gilded Six-Bits” by Zora Neale Hurston (1933)
  • “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (1948)
  • “A Story for Children” by Svava Jakobsdóttir (1975)
  • “Greville Fane” by Henry James (1892)
  • “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett (1886)
  • “A Report to an Academy” by Franz Kafka (1917)
  • “A Hand in the Grave” by Ghassan Kanafani (1962)
  • “Betel Nut is Bad Magic for Airplanes” by John Kasaipwalova (1972)
  • “The Gold-Legged Frog” by Khamsing Srinawk (1958)
  • “My Mother” by Jamaica Kincaid (1983)
  • “A Bird in the House” by Margaret Laurence (1972)
  • “The Old Chief Mshlanga” by Doris Lessing (1951)
  • “Or Else, the Lightning God” by Catherine Lim (1980)
  • “Half a Day” by Naguib Mahfouz (1989)
  • “Her First Ball” by Katherine Mansfield (1922)
  • “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason (1982)
  • “The Appointment in Samarra” by William Somerset Maugham (1933)
  • “Lush Life” by John McCluskey (1990)
  • “The One Who Goes Farthest Away” by Katherine Min (1990)
  • “Swaddling Clothes” by Mishima Yukio (1966)
  • “How to Become a Writer” by Lorrie Moore (1985)
  • “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison (1983)
  • “Mrs. Plum” by Es’kia Mphahlele (1967)
  • “The Elephant” by Slawomir Mrożek (1962)
  • “And We Sold the Rain” by Carmen Naranjo (1988)
  • “A Horse and Two Goats” by R. K. Narayan (1970)
  • “The Pale Fox” by Ōba Minako (1973)
  • “In the Shadow of War” by Ben Okri (1988)
  • “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen (1953)
  • “Black Girl” by Sembene Ousmane (1962)
  • “Nomad and Viper” by Amos Oz (1963)
  • “The Blue Bouquet” by Octavio Paz (1961)
  • “Mona Lisa” by Cristina Peri Rossi (1983)
  • “Insomnia” by Virgilio Piñera (1956)
  • “Rope” by Katherine Anne Porter (1930)
  • “The Proof” by Rodrigo Rey Rosa (1987)
  • “The Prophet’s Hair” by Salman Rushdie (1994)
  • “Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1953)
  • “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck (1938)
  • “Learning to Swim” by Graham Swift (1982)
  • “The Betrayal” by Véronique Tadjo (1992)
  • “Half and Half” by Amy Tan (1989)
  • “To All Eternity” by Haldun Taner (1948)
  • “The Complete Gentleman” by Amos Tutuola (1952)
  • “Luck” by Mark Twain (1891)
  • “Strange Things Happen Here” by Luisa Valenzuela (1975)
  • “Sunday” by Mario Vargas Llosa (1958)
  • “In Africa There Is a Type of Spider” by Yvonne Vera (2000)
  • “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker (1973)
  • “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty (1941)
  • “Kew Gardens” by Virginia Woolf (1919)
  • “The Daily Woman” by Niaz Zaman (1996)
  • “Pet Milk” by Stuart Dybek (1981)
  • “Saint Marie” by Louise Erdrich (1984)
  • “The Mail Lady” by David Gates (1999)
  • “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amp Hempel (1985)
  • “Cold Snap” by Thom Jones (1995)
  • “The Management of Grief” by Bharati Mukherjee (1988)
  • “Meneseteung” by Alice Munro (1990)
  • “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx (1999)
  • “Strays” by Mark Richard (1989)
  • “Intensive Care” by Lee Smith (1988)
  • “The Way We Live Now” by Susan Sontag (1986)
  • “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan (1989)
  • “First, Body” by Melanie Rae Thon (1997)
  • “Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog” by Stephanie Vaughn (1978)
  • “Fever” by John Edgar Wideman (1989)
  • “Taking Care” by Joy Williams (1972)
  • “Terrified” by C. B. Gilford (1959)
  • “Peter Rugg, the Missing Man” by William Austin
  • “The Wives of the Dead” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” by Herman Melville
  • “The Ghost in the Mill” by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • “Cannibalism in the Cars” by Samuel Clemens
  • “The Storm” by Kate Chopin
  • “The Sheriff’s Children” by Charles Chesnutt
  • “The Middle Years” by Henry James
  • “In a Far Country” by Jack London
  • “Old Woman Magoun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
  • “The Little Regiment” by Stephen Crane
  • “A Journey” by Edith Wharton
  • “The Strength of God” by Sherwood Anderson (1919)
  • “A Death in the Desert” by Willa Cather
  • “Blood-Burning Moon” by Jean Toomer (1923)
  • “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway (1933)
  • “An Alcoholic Case” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1937)
  • “The Girl with a Pimply Face” by William Carlos Williams (1961)
  • “He” by Katherine Anne Porter (1930)
  • “That Evening Sun” by William Faulkner (1931)
  • “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston
  • “Red-Headed Baby” by Langston Hughes (1934)
  • “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright (1987)
  • “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” by Flannery O’Connor (1953)
  • “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison (1948)
  • “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury (1950)
  • “Rain in the Heart” by Peter Taylor (1941)
  • “The Lecture” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1968)
  • “My Son the Murderer” by Bernard Malamud (1968)
  • “Something to Remember Me By” by Saul Bellow (1990)
  • “The Death of Justina” by John Cheever (1960)
  • “Texts” by Ursula K. Le Guin (1990)
  • “The Persistence of Desire” by John Updike (1959)
  • “Alaska” by Alice Adams (1984)
  • “Are These Actual Miles?” by Raymond Carver (1972)
  • “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff (1976)
  • “Big Bertha Stories” by Bobbie Ann Mason (1988)
  • “Fleur” by Louise Erdrich (1988)
  • “Gravity” by David Leavitt (1990)
  • “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros (1989)
  • “Town Smokes” by Pinckney Benedict (1987)

Video Games

  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door dev. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems (2004)
  • The Walking Dead: 400 Days dev. TellTale Games and Skybound Entertainment (2013)
  • Papers, Please dev. Lukas Pope (2013)
  • Actual Sunlight dev. Will O’Neill (2014)
  • Castles in the Sky dev. The Tall Trees (2014)
  • The Walking Dead: Season 2 dev. TellTale Games and Skybound Entertainment (2013-2014)
  • Shovel Knight dev. Yacht Club Games (2014)
  • The Simpsons: Tapped Out dev. Electronic Arts (2012-2014)

Novels

  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)
  • Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (1997)
  • On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
  • The Getaway by Jim Thompson (1958)
  • The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver (1988)
  • Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver (1993)
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

Comics

  • Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven (2008-2009)
  • Black Hole by Charles Burns (1995-2005)
  • “Soup” by Irene Koh (2014)
  • We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (2004)

Films

  • 200 Cigarettes dir. Risa Bramon Garcia (1999)
  • Wild Boys of the Road dir. William A. Wellman (1933)
  • Detour dir. Edgar G. Ulmer (1945)
  • Two-Lane Blacktop dir. Monte Hellman (1971)
  • The Manchurian Candidate dir. John Frankenheimer (1962)
  • Patton dir. Franklin J. Schaffner (1970)
  • Badlands dir. Terrence Malick (1973)
  • On the Road dir. Walter Salles (2012)
  • Smoke Signals dir. Chris Eyre (1998)
  • The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert dir. Stephan Elliott (1994)
  • Cabeza de Vaca dir. Nicolás Echevarría (1991)
  • Ida dir. Pawel Pawlikowski (2013)
  • Pacific Rim dir. Guillermo del Toro (2013)
  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon dir. Michael Bay (2011)
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes dir. Matt Reeves (2014)
  • Edge of Tomorrow dir. Doug Liman (2014)
  • Wicked City dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri (1987)
  • The Equalizer dir. Antoine Fuqua (2014)
  • The Homesman dir. Tommy Lee Jones (2014)
  • The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies dir. Peter Jackson (2014)
  • Godzilla dir. Gareth Edwards (2014)

Short Films

  • “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” dir. Robert Enrico (1962)
  • “I’ll Wait for the Next One” dir. Phillippe Orreindy (2002)
  • “Zen & the Art of Landscaping” dir. David Kartch (2001)
  • “Inja” dir. Steve Pasvolsky (2002)
  • “Kitchen Sink” dir. Alison Maclean (1989)
  • “Gridlock” dir. Dirk Beliën (2001)
  • “Black Rider” dir. Pepe Danquart (1993)
  • “Our Time Is Up” dir. Rob Pearlstein (2004)
  • “Six Shooter” dir. Martin McDonagh (2004)
  • “Spider” dir. Nash Edgerton (2007)
  • “Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade” dir. George Hickenlooper (1994)
  • “More” dir. Mark Osborne (1998)

Television

  • Dexter – Season 8 (2013)
  • Sherlock – Series 3 (2013)
  • Adventure Time – Season 1 (2010)
  • Over the Garden Wall (2014)
  • Bee and Puppycat – Season 1 (2014)

New Fiction 2013

Short stories.

  • “Katania” by Lara Vapnyar
  • “The Unseeing Eye” by Hanan Al-Shaykh
  • “B. Traven Is Alive and Well in Cuernavaca” by Rudolfo A. Anaya
  • “Dancing Girls” by Margaret Atwood
  • “Bad Dreams” by Tessa Hadley
  • “Within a Grove” by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke
  • “Find the Bad Guy” by Jeffrey Euginedes
  • “Hands” by Sherwood Anderson
  • “Kilifi Creek” by Lionel Shriver
  • “Two Sisters” by Ama Ata Aidoo
  • “The Late Novels of Gene Hackman” by Rivka Galchen
  • “The Kugelmass Episode” by Woody Allen
  • “All Ahead of Them” by Tobias Wolff
  • “Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe
  • “And of Clay Are We Created” by Isabel Allende
  • “Roadkill” Romesh Gunesekera
  • “Benji” by Chinelo Okparanta
  • “From a Farther Room” by David Gilbert
  • “The Breeze” by Joshua Ferris
  • “Marjorie Lemke” by Sarah Braunstein
  • “We Didn’t Like Him” by Akhil Sharma
  • “Valentine” by Tessa Hadley
  • “Kattekopen” by Will Mackin
  • “Checking Out” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • “Blues Roses” by Frances Hwang
  • “By Fire” Tahar Ben Jelloun
  • “Experience” by Tessa Hadley
  • “The Heron” by Dorthe Nors
  • “The Casserole” by Thomas McGuane
  • “Birnam Wood” by T. Coraghessan Boyle
  • “The Embassy of Cambodia” by Zadie Smith
  • “The Gray Goose” by Jonathan Lethem
  • “Mexican Manifesto” by Roberto Bolaño
  • “Art Appreciation” by Fiona McFarlane
  • “The Colonel’s Daughter” by Robert Coover
  • “Stars” by Thomas McGuane
  • “Mastiff” by Joyce Carol Oates
  • “Collectors” by Daniel Alarcón
  • “The Dark Arts” by Ben Marcus
  • “Paranoia” by Shirley Jackson
  • “Victory” by Yu Hua
  • “The Fragments” by Joshua Ferris
  • “Meet the President” by Zadie Smith

Video games.

  • The Cave by Double Fine Productions and Sega
  • Call of Juarez: Gunslinger by Techland and Ubisoft
  • The Last of Us by Naughty Dog and Sony
  • Tomb Raider by Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix
  • King of the Hill by Flying Tiger Entertainment and Fox
  • The Simpsons: Itchy & Scratchy Land by G5 Entertainment, Alex Mauer, and EA
  • The Simpsons Game for Nintedo DS by Amaze Entertainment and EA
  • Hotline Miami by Dennaton Interactive
  • RoboCop vs. The Terminator by Virgin Games
  • The Simpsons Arcadefor iOS by IronMonkey Studios and EA

Novels.

  • The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
  • The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
  • Tampa by Alissa Nutting
  • A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Movies.

  • 12 Years a Slave
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
  • The Cabin in the Woods
  • Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Television.

  • Breaking Bad
  • Californication
  • Dexter

New Fiction 2013

Short stories.

  • “Katania” by Lara Vapnyar
  • “The Unseeing Eye” by Hanan Al-Shaykh
  • “B. Traven Is Alive and Well in Cuernavaca” by Rudolfo A. Anaya
  • “Dancing Girls” by Margaret Atwood
  • “Bad Dreams” by Tessa Hadley
  • “Within a Grove” by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke
  • “Find the Bad Guy” by Jeffrey Euginedes
  • “Hands” by Sherwood Anderson
  • “Kilifi Creek” by Lionel Shriver
  • “Two Sisters” by Ama Ata Aidoo
  • “The Late Novels of Gene Hackman” by Rivka Galchen
  • “The Kugelmass Episode” by Woody Allen
  • “All Ahead of Them” by Tobias Wolff
  • “Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe
  • “And of Clay Are We Created” by Isabel Allende
  • “Roadkill” Romesh Gunesekera
  • “Benji” by Chinelo Okparanta
  • “From a Farther Room” by David Gilbert
  • “The Breeze” by Joshua Ferris
  • “Marjorie Lemke” by Sarah Braunstein
  • “We Didn’t Like Him” by Akhil Sharma
  • “Valentine” by Tessa Hadley
  • “Kattekopen” by Will Mackin
  • “Checking Out” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • “Blues Roses” by Frances Hwang
  • “By Fire” Tahar Ben Jelloun
  • “Experience” by Tessa Hadley
  • “The Heron” by Dorthe Nors
  • “The Casserole” by Thomas McGuane
  • “Birnam Wood” by T. Coraghessan Boyle
  • “The Embassy of Cambodia” by Zadie Smith
  • “The Gray Goose” by Jonathan Lethem
  • “Mexican Manifesto” by Roberto Bolaño
  • “Art Appreciation” by Fiona McFarlane
  • “The Colonel’s Daughter” by Robert Coover
  • “Stars” by Thomas McGuane
  • “Mastiff” by Joyce Carol Oates
  • “Collectors” by Daniel Alarcón
  • “The Dark Arts” by Ben Marcus
  • “Paranoia” by Shirley Jackson
  • “Victory” by Yu Hua
  • “The Fragments” by Joshua Ferris
  • “Meet the President” by Zadie Smith

Video games.

  • The Cave by Double Fine Productions and Sega
  • Call of Juarez: Gunslinger by Techland and Ubisoft
  • The Last of Us by Naughty Dog and Sony
  • Tomb Raider by Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix
  • King of the Hill by Flying Tiger Entertainment and Fox
  • The Simpsons: Itchy & Scratchy Land by G5 Entertainment, Alex Mauer, and EA
  • The Simpsons Game for Nintedo DS by Amaze Entertainment and EA
  • Hotline Miami by Dennaton Interactive
  • RoboCop vs. The Terminator by Virgin Games
  • The Simpsons Arcadefor iOS by IronMonkey Studios and EA

Novels.

  • The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
  • The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
  • Tampa by Alissa Nutting
  • A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Movies.

  • 12 Years a Slave
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
  • The Cabin in the Woods
  • Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Television.

  • Breaking Bad
  • Californication
  • Dexter

Peter Heller’s ‘The Dog Stars’

This is what I call a good cover. I can look at it, read the jacket, and know that I’ll like it. The base elements are: post-SHTF, flying, dog as a companion, apocalyptic survivors. Leastways this is how its presented. It was recommended to me at a book shop near the boat. Must’ve been the living in those cramped, isolated conditions that really put me in a mood for post-apocalyptic fare. I bought up a few different ones aside. Didn’t even get to read it until I was off the harbor and in a place of solid walls. Not that I read there, either. Train commute to work’s the only place I can muster it.

The Road came out a few years back now and its inevitable to compare any post-SHTF scenario about lonesome survivors with that book. McCarthy’s delivered such a solid punch in the gut with his story that there’s no forgetting it. Heller’s book isn’t quite the same in the level of bleakness, which is something I dig. Hopelessness makes hope shine all the brighter. But he ventures into some of that despair early on. I reckon the first half, perhaps a bit more. It’s all set-up for the end, in hindsight. That’s a way to think of it, ain’t it? Waiting for a punchline plain as day. The early story’s focus is on Hig the protagonist, his dog buddy Jasper, and his survival buddy Bangley. Hig’s got some of the sensitivity of a poet hunter, naturally, and his dog’s a pitch perfect man’s best friend. Easy to tell that the author channels himself into the man. Bangley’s the foil, but also a bridge between Hig’s civilized man and the few people who scour the land in search of food, shelter. No different from any other human in this world. As unlikeable as Bangley gets, he’s on Hig’s side, and of course your side as the reader. Hig says it himself: “He was giving me a pep talk. It was working. Goddamn Bangley.” A vile dude, but you’re grateful as hell to have him around, and wary of ever crossing someone like him.

The emotional layer later in the story rubbed me the wrong way on account of a meeting with a woman and a build-up to sex scenes that is lacking in subtlety. Badly written sex leaves a mark on a story. But it passes, and I don’t begrudge them some tenderness and companionship given the place these characters are in. Just has that contrived sense to it. I say more and I spoil it rotten, but suffice to say, it stuck. Like meat fibers between molars. Just think of the Queen and it’ll pass.

That comparison to The Road is what does me in about it. I can’t get over the way that story goes, and the way this story doesn’t. Like one kind of apple compared to another, and the aftertaste. Time and distance from it ought to help sort things out. Best I can say anyway is it’s good enough for a second read. That short stack of stories worth revisiting.

Peter Heller’s ‘The Dog Stars’

This is what I call a good cover. I can look at it, read the jacket, and know that I’ll like it. The base elements are: post-SHTF, flying, dog as a companion, apocalyptic survivors. Leastways this is how its presented. It was recommended to me at a book shop near the boat. Must’ve been the living in those cramped, isolated conditions that really put me in a mood for post-apocalyptic fare. I bought up a few different ones aside. Didn’t even get to read it until I was off the harbor and in a place of solid walls. Not that I read there, either. Train commute to work’s the only place I can muster it.

The Road came out a few years back now and its inevitable to compare any post-SHTF scenario about lonesome survivors with that book. McCarthy’s delivered such a solid punch in the gut with his story that there’s no forgetting it. Heller’s book isn’t quite the same in the level of bleakness, which is something I dig. Hopelessness makes hope shine all the brighter. But he ventures into some of that despair early on. I reckon the first half, perhaps a bit more. It’s all set-up for the end, in hindsight. That’s a way to think of it, ain’t it? Waiting for a punchline plain as day. The early story’s focus is on Hig the protagonist, his dog buddy Jasper, and his survival buddy Bangley. Hig’s got some of the sensitivity of a poet hunter, naturally, and his dog’s a pitch perfect man’s best friend. Easy to tell that the author channels himself into the man. Bangley’s the foil, but also a bridge between Hig’s civilized man and the few people who scour the land in search of food, shelter. No different from any other human in this world. As unlikeable as Bangley gets, he’s on Hig’s side, and of course your side as the reader. Hig says it himself: “He was giving me a pep talk. It was working. Goddamn Bangley.” A vile dude, but you’re grateful as hell to have him around, and wary of ever crossing someone like him.

The emotional layer later in the story rubbed me the wrong way on account of a meeting with a woman and a build-up to sex scenes that is lacking in subtlety. Badly written sex leaves a mark on a story. But it passes, and I don’t begrudge them some tenderness and companionship given the place these characters are in. Just has that contrived sense to it. I say more and I spoil it rotten, but suffice to say, it stuck. Like meat fibers between molars. Just think of the Queen and it’ll pass.

That comparison to The Road is what does me in about it. I can’t get over the way that story goes, and the way this story doesn’t. Like one kind of apple compared to another, and the aftertaste. Time and distance from it ought to help sort things out. Best I can say anyway is it’s good enough for a second read. That short stack of stories worth revisiting.