Illuminate

Erin Macgraw's Lies of the Saints is full of quirky people with modest, earnest desires. In the first story, "The Return of the Argentine Tango Masters," a radio talk show host has to deal with daily phone calls from her ex-husband which make her ratings soar; in "Rich," a man believes he has won the lottery, only to find out his best friend had set it up as a joke; in "Blue Skies," a woman discovers she is uneasy with her husband's new sobriety and is constantly on guard for him to fail; in "Suburban Story," a woman performs an unexpected miracle and gains a reputation in her neighborhood for being a healer; and in the last three connected stories, saintliness is explored as the reader follows one Irish Catholic family through the years. I loved this collection and MacGraw's characters.

I also finished Mary Robison's Tell Me: 30 Stories a combination of selections from three of her previous collections. I loved these beautiful, often quiet stories. Most of all I appreciated Robison's unpretentious, perfect endings. The woman can end a story!