You probably haven't noticed, but I've been a bit absent from the blog over the last week or so.  And for an excellent reason!  I just returned from a whirlwind trip to New York City.  Neither my husband nor I had ever visited The Big Apple, so we jumped at the chance to check it out.  Even better, we got to see it with our 17-year-old daughter, who is finishing up her year of service as one of The United States' five 2019 National Student Poets.  Her excellent performance at Carnegie Hall was the highlight of our trip (notice the photo of U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith listening to our daughter recite an original poem—squee!), of course, but we also hit a lot of NYC's tourist attractions, including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Times Square, Central Park, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center (we weren't on the Today show, but we did get a blurry picture with Al Roker!), the 9/11 memorial, Grand Central Station, the beautiful 5th Ave/42nd St. branch of the New York Public Library, etc.  Our favorite visits were to the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side (interesting and moving) and to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Manhattan temple, which is a beautiful oasis of peace and tranquility in the middle of a crowded, noisy urban jungle!  The temple itself is not open to the public, but there is a family history center in the same building that anyone can visit.  

We did manage a stop at one NYC bookstore—The Strand.  It boasts that it houses 18 miles of books, which I totally believe!  Their shelves are soaring and crammed full.  I firmly believe that you can never have too many books in one place, but when you combine The Strand's packed, but very narrow aisles and its constant crowd of customers, it can make even the non-claustrophobic feel a little anxious.  The place isn't quite as family-friendly as I hoped it would be—if you take young kids for a visit, you might want to cover their eyes until you get them safely to the children's section.  I've never seen the F-word printed on so many tote bags before in my life! 

I'm a small-town girl at heart, so I have to admit the city was a little much for me.  Too expensive, too many people, too much noise, etc.  Sleeping in our Midtown hotel was impossible without earplugs!  I'm glad I went, but I'm not gonna lie—I never need to go back.  Been there, done that.

Blog-wise, I'm going to be playing catch-up over the next week or so.  I'm behind on reading, scheduled reviews, commenting on your blogs, and everything else there is to be behind on.  Oh well.  My kids are out of school for the summer, so in between their cries of "I'm bored!" I'll be getting caught up on both life stuff and BBB stuff.  

Have a great week!

P.S.  The photo of The Strand is not mine.  I found it here.   

Trigger Warning—the title of Gaiman's 2015 anthology—comes from the idea that art, movies, t.v. shows, books, etc. should come with cautions about potentially distressing material contained within. While he understands the need to protect children from adult content, Gaiman had this to say about mature readers:

Given his view on the subject, it's not surprising that Gaiman subtitles his book "Short Fictions and Disturbances."  Certainly, some of the selections are disturbing.  Others are funny, scary, zany, cautionary and downright odd.  There's a nice variety of pieces here, from magical yarns to horror stories to fan fiction to poems (which "perhaps might need their own warning for the people [like me!] who are frightened, disturbed, or terminally puzzled by poetry" [XLI].).  To my surprise, my favorite story in Trigger Warning was a Doctor Who fan fiction piece called "Nothing O'Clock.  I'm no Whovian (all it took was the spooky "Are You My Mummy?" episode to scare me out of watching the show forever), but I found the tale fresh, funny and charming.  "Orange" and "My Last Landlady" were also memorable selections.  Even the stories I didn't really get sparked my imagination as only a Gaiman creation can.  

Besides the variety, one of the things I enjoyed most about Trigger Warning is that Gaiman includes explanations of every selection.  He uses interesting personal stories to discuss why he wrote each piece, who/what inspired it, and how it was received by various audiences.  These peeks into Gaiman's creative process make his stories even more compelling. 

I didn't love every single selection in the eclectic Trigger Warning, but that's okay.  Overall, I enjoyed this strange, macabre journey through the mind of one of the most original authors around.  If you're a die-hard Gaiman fan, you'll probably like it even more than I did.  In fact, you'll probably want to put this one at the top of your Christmas list.  

  

(Readalikes:  Hm, nothing is coming to mind.  You?)

Grade:

for language (a handful of F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, blood/gore, and sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of Trigger Warning from the generous folks at HarperCollins via those at TLC Book Tours.  Thank you!