I was intrigued when ChiZine sent me Teresa Milbrodt’s collection, Bearded Women Stories, to sell, but I don’t have time to read and review every book I stock so this one just went on the “interesting” list. Thankfully Larry Nolen has had time to read the book, and he was very impressed with it. Here he is talking about the story, “Mr. Chicken”:

What makes this story so effective is that Milbrodt carefully develops the narrator’s situation, as she goes into reflective monologues surrounding her awkward interactions with Mr. Chicken about how men react when they learn that she shaves every morning. Their stammering responses and subsequent “escapes” leave hanging in the air, ready to explode upon contact, the discomfort many males feel about “masculine” and “feminine” roles, particularly when a woman seems to be violating those seemingly rigid divisions.

And here’s his summing up:

There were very few dips in story quality and the collection as a whole serves to reinforce through reiteration and re-exploration the themes of strangeness and feminine struggle for acceptance. Bearded Women is one of the best debut short story collections I’ve read over the past few years and Teresa Milbrodt will be a writer whose future I shall follow with keenness, as she already displays more command over her stories than several veteran story writers. Highly recommended.

You can read the whole review here, and buy the book here.

While I’m talking about the bookstore, I should note that we have two new books from Lethe for sale today. They are:

• A Day at the Inn, a Night at the Palace and Other Stories by Catherine Lundoff (lesbian short fiction)
• Eat Your Heart Out by Dayna Ingram (lesbians v zombies, novella)