'The O. Henry Awards Prize Stories'
Juried by Sherman Alexie, Stephen King and Lorrie MooreAnchor Books, $11.95.
Now out in paperback, the 1999 O. Henry Awards Prize Stories feature an unusual unifying theme among this year's selections -- oddity. In many of the stories, something is a bit off-kilter. Often, there is a secret. A dark undercurrent. In a word, these stories are fascinating.
If it's not prestigious enough to have a story in the collection, the judges choose winners of the winners. Alice Munro's "Save the Reaper" won third place. It is a haunting piece about a flower-child mother who is now a grandmother. She sees herself as winsome. The reader sees her naivete, which won't protect her much longer.
Cary Holladay won second with "Merry-Go-Round," a story about a child murderer -- about his trial, about his small town, about the possibility that the real murderer is free. A teenage girl falls in love with him. She writes to him in jail. This is a story about angels and devils, hovering mysteriously, just out of our sight.
The first place winner, Peter Baida's "Nurse's Story," is different. It is straightforward and sweet, a simply told tale of the life of a faithful woman. -- Susan Whitney
'The Quotable Book Lover'
Edited by Ben Jacobs and Helena Hjalmarsson
The Lyons Press, $20
Interested in a collection of more than 500 quotations from many of the most famous writers from antiquity to the present day? They are all commenting on the importance and value of books. "The Quotable Book Lover" includes sections on writing, reading, libraries, literacy, censorship, publishing, autobiography and biography, and literature.
The writers sampled include Woody Allen, Jane Austen, Saul Bellow, Malcolm X, Oprah Winfrey, W.B. Yeats and many others.
Some examples: Benjamin Disraeli said, "An author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children."
Mark Twain: "I like a thin book because it will steady a table, a leather volume because it will strop a razor and a heavy book because it can be thrown at a cat."
J.D. Salinger: "What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours." -- Dennis Lythgoe
'Magic Mirror: A Fable for Adults'
By Orson Scott Card, illustrated by Nathan Pinnock
Gibbs Smith, $15.95
Card, who is most famous for his science fiction, notably his "Ender's" series, has departed from that genre to produce a fully illustrated book that is somewhere between medieval fantasy and contemporary fairy tale. It is the story of a mythical family's upheaval, using medieval imagery and modern-day issues.
The dreamer in the book is Queen Heather, who grew up as a princess, married a prince and hoped to live happily ever after. But 20 years later, life is not so happy. King Richard is a workaholic, their daughter Alexandria is cursed by a witch and their son Jason decides against being a prince in favor of attending wizards' college.
Because she feels neglected, Queen Heather begins to despair, so her husband gives her a magic mirror. Heather asks the mirror to show her other lands, and places, and she starts to neglect her family. The story with a moral ends well by demonstrating it is never too late to escape from a dream gone bad. -- Dennis Lythgoe