Regarding Best American Short Stories, 2010, edited by Richard Russo and Heide Pitlor: I gave up. Seven stories from the end, and I gave up. I can't say I wasn't warned. Heidi Pitlor, in her introduction, stated that "This year was a slow burner, and at the start Richard Russo and I wondered whether we would find enough stories to fill this book." (page xi) I should have stopped reading right there, but I forged ahead through 18 short stories. I wish I could say something really good about at least one of them, but I can't. I think my love affair with literary short stories has reached its end. I have one more collection left on the unread shelf, specifically Best American Mystery Stories 2010, and I'll give it a try. But I don't hold out a lot of hope. And there's a collection of short stories by Jill McCorkle. It will also get a try. But I think my "best of" selections will now be based on whether I like the guest editor or not. I loved the Steven-King-as-Guest-Editor year and hated this year's Richard-Russo-as-Guest-Editor selections. So it's now based on like-the-editor, buy the book, and dislike-the-editor and don't buy. How simple it sounds.
