Aetherial Worlds: Stories | 
August is Women in Translation Month! I‘m going to attempt to post about a different book each day. 📚
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This is an amazing collection of slightly surreal, beautiful stories that was longlisted for both the National Book Award for Translated Literature and the PEN Translation Prize. It‘s by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya and is translated by Anya Migdal. It came out in 2018 from Knopf. #womenintranslationmonth 🖤📚❤️
#friyayintro
1. I took this selfie the other day after a student told me she thought I was 18. I was feeling pretty good; I‘m 33. 😅
2. The final short story in Tolstaya‘s “Aetherial Worlds,” entitled “See the Reverse.” I‘ll link to it in the comments!
3. Quick family trip to CO (we live in RI) to help my brother-in-law move & see the sights. 👁🏔🌄
I have to work the next day after landing at 5am. 💀
4. Dreary.
5. 🤷♀️
pickEven if the rest of the book were complete trash (which it‘s not), I‘d read it several times over just for the last story, “See the Reverse” (linked below). Tolstaya‘s storylines may not be overtly compelling but her writing is so funny — dark, wry, & judgmental — & straight-up WEIRD that it makes it all worth it. I wish I hadn‘t read it for book club & that I could‘ve consumed it in sips rather than gulps, but I still enjoyed it.
“That‘s how it will be immediately after death: darkness, someone‘s breath and heaving in the dark, sweltering heat, expectation, a subtle dislike for fellow travelers, a polite decisiveness not to show it, bits of selfishness, stubbornness, hope, doubt. The waiting room halfway to paradise — where else?”
Have you ever read anything more terrifying/depressing?
It‘s probably been about a hot decade since I‘ve had a Cadbury Creme Egg. Do I still like them? Time to find out. 🍫🥚🐇
“Perhaps it turned out that the universe really is made out of copper & cabbage juice, packed away in a suitcase with leather patches on the corners and interspersed with tiny little mothballs. And that prevents nothing — not the unrelenting light of a billion diamantine stars, not the curvature of space-time, not the splashing of waves, not the stillness of time, not the roads, nor the love.”
I‘m in a short stories book club with some of my friends from high school/elementary school (😱). Our showing tonight was pretty small & exactly 0/3 people finished the book — but we all liked what we did read, & we all fully committed to a moody photo shoot. 😅 We also told each other‘s fortunes with jelly beans, so, like, I‘d call that a success. 🤷♀️
“I had long suspected that my washing machine was up to no good, so I developed a system: any unpaired sock that was extracted from it, instead of getting thrown out, was carefully stored in a special box. Times were tough — Soviet tough — good socks didn‘t grow on trees...But I wasn‘t saving these socks out of poverty or thrift, but rather out of spite. The machine‘s name was Oka. She was semiautomatic. I hated her.”
“They serve pale turkey meat, but it‘s taken from parts nowhere near the bird‘s bosom: if you poke around with a fork, you might find the trachea, which looks like a little tube; also, some bits resembling knees, or skin with hair. Hopefully that‘s just the comb, which doesn‘t rest on the turkey‘s head but hangs from its nose down to the neck. Lord, that is what You decided on the fifth day of Creation, and I am no judge of You.”
🤢🤮 but also 😅
The only books I *know* I‘ll be reading this month are #bookclub books. Otherwise, I‘m a mood reader.
“A Separation” is for my book club with friends I met in college; we‘ve been “meeting” monthly — via video chat — since 2012. We‘ve read about 70 books! 😱
“Aetherial Worlds” is for my short stories book club, which is with high school friends. We meet in-person. (I‘m a very loyal friend. #Capricorn)
“The Orphan of Salt Winds” is for #LMPBC.
Moxie & her cute little bunny butt are trying to help me decide which book to read next! If only you could see the titles. 🙈 I‘ll list them & also tag them in the comments below:
1. “In the Woods” by Tana French
2. “Aetherial Worlds” (stories) by Tatyana Tolstaya
3. “The Wife” by Meg Wolitzer
4. “Mrs. Caliban” by Rachel Ingalls
Cast your votes!
Keep in mind: I‘ve got a slight case of #daydrunk which may affect my ability to focus. 😆🍻
Short stories translated from Russian. Heard it‘s meh and I‘m kinda meh about short stories so not trying to rush into this one. Also KITTY
pickThis week on the podcast: we love Tolstaya‘s weird short stories, Corinne tries to explain kombucha, and we introduce our new segment “Words is Cool”. Find it wherever you get your podcasts!
so-soThis really did not work for me completely. There were a couple of really beautiful stories but the rest was kind of a miss for me.
It‘s May and short story month. Kicking the month off with this gem.
In our latest we talk about The Lifetime Original adaptation of Lois Duncan‘s Stranger With My Face. We kinda loved it. Topics discussed: why people who wear shoes and pants at home make us uncomfortable, how to enter a public area to meet a friend, and cane safety.
Here‘s our upcoming book schedule! Next Tuesday is Swing Time by Zadie Smith, then Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya, followed by I‘ll Be Home in the Dark by Michelle McNamara!
#TBRtemptation post 1 ! Translated from Russian. This is a collection of 18 stories. A deceased father appears in his daughter's dreams with clues about the afterlife. A Russian professor in a small USA town constructs fantasies while on cigarette break. A man falls in love with a marble statue. Metaphors abound for real life struggles. Many reviewers describe this collection as thought-provoking. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎
panUgh. I had high hopes after clearing the first couple stories which were quick & weird. But I hit a wall trying to get through the first lengthy one. Completely turned off, I started skimming, waiting for anything of relevance to jump off the page. Instead tedium set in. Although interesting to see POV of a Russian ex-pat living abroad, the writing was WAY too masturbatory to enjoy. A college student might have the patience for this but I didn‘t.
