Story Insights

A Snowy Day in LA by Brandon P Kelso is a short story part Halloween and part Christmas story. In this story a couple have a nice date at a fair with all that entails, love, rides, giggles, hotdogs or something, then they decide to end the night by going to a fortune teller. She gives them good news that they will be together forever. That's good news, right? Or, maybe not. You be the judge. Check out this story for yourself. The Nightmare Before Christmas can't be the only Halloween - Christmas crossover.
Buy: https://us.amazon.com/stores/B.P.-Kelso/author/B0FM66ZKBW?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=nTlUC&content-id=amzn1.sym.7e190e19-9f6f-4df8-807a-5a7608594741&pd_rd_wg=kcvEU&pd_rd_r=a8549d48-6e3d-49d7-856f-a1c4ac1f54f5&ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=0297e0a3-e13a-4480-95e6-a5df4f3035d6
Author's website: https://bpkelso.com/shop/
Let's chat: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/

Hello Campers,
In this episode we explore themes of class, loss of autonomy and friendship. Though somehow three of the five stories I really looked at this month were coincidentally Native American themes. It was on purpose, but was kinda cool. So, this month I looked at Wharf Rats by Eric Walrond, Death by Landscape by Margaret Atwood, What We Mean When We Say Phoenix Arizona by Sherman Alexi, Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway and Escape from Spiderhead by George Saunders. So, ya tons of great stories from the last few episodes and I'd love to hear what you think.
Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/117636/9780812984255
Let's Chat: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/ 

Escape from Spiderhead by George Saunders is a short story about prisoners as guinea pigs. Gosh, one would think one would enjoy being a guinea pig in a prison especially with all the casual sex, but it becomes too much for our protagonist, Jeff. Jeff has more than he can bare when he is ordered several times to acknowledge an order of having the females tortured purely for him to comment on it while it is happening. At that point all he can do is think about escaping, but how could he escape? Is there any escape at all for him? Read and find out.
Listen: https://youtu.be/rLRfrXYW_KE 
Read: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/13156660/x-escape-from-spiderhead-george-saunders/1 
Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/117636/9780812984255 
Let's Chat: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/ 

Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway is a short story about Nick (a youngster), his dad (a doctor) and his uncle George helping a pregnant Native American woman give birth. After nearly two days she had been in labor for so long that the Indians sought help from Nick's father. Upon arriving they rush to help but there's a callousness to their attitude and perspectives distresses the Indians and Nick's father is only vaguely aware of his callousness. 
Read - https://americanliterature.com/author/ernest-hemingway/short-story/indian-camp
Listen - https://youtu.be/P8sgIu5G7LM
Buy - https://bookshop.org/a/117636/9780684843322
Let's chat - https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/

Death By Landscape by Margaret Atwood is a short story about a retired woman, who now living alone, spends her time looking at pictures of landscapes thinking about her childhood friend Lucy from camp. Each year Lois and Lucy reunite at camp. Neither of them care for Camp Manitou. In fact Lois finds some of the Indian tropes as quite distasteful even at her age. Yet they both look forward to seeing each other at camp.
The story starts off with Lois now in her condominium by herself since she decided to find a cozier residence after her husband passed away. Though she has several landscape pictures (that she doesn't call landscapes) that she stares at sometimes and thinks about her friend Lucy. From there the story tells us about Camp Manitou up to when they went on a canoe trip. From there something odd happens and Lois cannot be found. What happens? We have Lois's side of it told to us many times, but really happens? I can tell you her side, but that's about it. Then the story transitions again to Lois in her condo looking at her landscape pictures again.
(A mistakenly mixed up the names Lois and Lucy around the end. Lois is the main character telling us about her Lucy from the camp they went to each year. Also I may have said Manitoba instead of Manitou. Sorry about that.)
Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/117636/9780385491112 
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJtHRvongRI 
Read: https://223141929335512656.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/0/9/17093284/deathbylandscape_atwood.pdf 
Let's chat: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/ 

Hello Spokane!
"What We Mean When We Say Phoenix Arizona" by Sherman Alexie is a short story about friendship. Two friends embark on a journey to Phoenix and back to retrieve one of their father's ashes. The two friends, Victor and Thomas, actually hadn't been friends for a long time. It's actually all Victor's fault, yet when he needed help Thomas insisted on helping without taking no for an answer from Victor. So, they fly to Phoenix and drive Victor's dad's pickup truck back to their reservation in Washington state.
That's about it from this story, though it's an important story and encapsulates so much of what I am trying to do here. Friendship matters and if someone disagrees with you they may or may not be looking out for your best interest. Friendship is still key in our lives even later in life and believe otherwise.
Read: https://www.enl.auth.gr/files/Sherman_Alexie.pdf 
Listen: https://youtu.be/qTTJjeA1b9M 
Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/117636/9780802121998 
Let's Chat: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/