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Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories
Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories | Naomi Kritzer
22 posts | 8 read | 14 to read
Acclaimed writer Naomi Kritzer's marvelous tales of science fiction and fantasy are collected in Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories. Here are seventeen short stories, including her Hugo Award-winning story "Cat Pictures Please," about what would happen if artificial intelligence was born out of our search engine history. Two stories are previously unpublished. Kritzer has a gift for telling tales both humorous and tender. Her stories are filled with both wit and intelligence, and require thoughtful reading.
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review
Robotswithpersonality
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Pickpick

Showcases a creative and impactful writing talent across a broad spectrum of tone within sci fi and fantasy, contemporary (?) genres.Only the first, eponymous story, feels like the CatNet duology. After that, I appreciate Kritzer's writing but it's a heck of a tone shift. Despite the adorable title, I wouldn't say that age demographic for this collection is YA. More about each story individually in comments below:

Robotswithpersonality The Golem - Personal choice a big one, feels like early AI, not automatically thinking like a human, but through being cared for by humans, learns to care in turn.

Ace of Spades - what does it mean to truly live your life, if you were offered a different future , would you change your decisions, your goals, your dreams?
Wind - Fantasy/fairytale/folk lore - again unexpected, but quite enjoyed it
2y
Robotswithpersonality Witches Garden - Closer to that Grimm tradition of fairy tales, but a very inventive sci-fi/fantasy retelling of/inspired by the Snow Queen highlighting conformity, the worst aspects of modern commercialized science.

Blessing Creek - What it can do to people raised under repressive traditions, how racism/xenophobia twists people to do things they might not otherwise consider, addresses the destruction and displacement of indigenous peoples by white 'settlers' of the Western 'frontier'.
2y
Robotswithpersonality Cleanout - By far my favourite, weaving together siblings, dealing with infertility, adoption, loss of/care for elderly parents, immigrant parents and first generation americans, how being immigrant/having immigrant parents affects one's outlook, seems to be leaning towards folklore mystery, but then...maybe sci-fi? Would make an amazing novel, but is also perhaps the best structured of the short stories/ in the form it currently exists.

Artifice - The kind of sad robot story I'm used to seeing in modern sci-fi, I'm glad it's not the only kind out there, even if it makes its points well.
2y
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Robotswithpersonality Perfection - A lot of points to make at once, feels like it was just getting somewhere as it ended - the obsession with a certain type of accepted physical appearance, genetic modification or plastic surgery, as a path to conformity, xenophobia, the broader, more flavour-filled world outside the pursuit of homogeneity.

The Good Son - My personal synopsis would be: 'what if the Fae/Fey were not canonically assholes?' , a few jabs at US health care system as it exists, what true love and commitment looks like in the face of illness, mortality
2y
Robotswithpersonality Scrap Dragon - Another favourite - would happily read a short story collection with all tales told in this back and forth between narrator and argumentative audience/reader/listener style; author's note just adds to the loveliness 😉

Comrade Grandmother - Not one for Russian nationalism or war stories, myself, but the idea of Bab Yaga from folklore shaping pivotal WW2 battles with other mythical figures, and dropping by a combat zone to chat with an incredibly brave young woman is honestly more palatable than the truth of warfare
2y
Robotswithpersonality Isabella's Garden - Probably the most benign version of what would happen if you had that kind of power

Bits - Somehow wholesome and a jaw dropper, the author's note gave me a giggle

Honest Man - Going to stay with me for a long time, because I had an uncanny sense of deja vu the whole time I was reading it, and the timing of its original publication makes it incredibly unlikely I would have read it previously 😨
2y
Robotswithpersonality So Much Cooking - Considering this was published in 2017, this cooking blog style story about H1N1 felt frighteningly like a rehash of Covid quarantine, and all the ups and downs therein, might be a bit too close to things for people post-2020

⚠️ [Overall] Descriptions of WW2 anti-semitic genocide
Three different stories set in the time of world war two, but it's obvious from the start, so easy to skip if that's not your bag
2y
Robotswithpersonality Sidebar: I finally figured out what's bugging me about short story collections, even then good ones.
I rely on library loan periods to access books and the pressure to read a book within a certain time period is exacerbated by unmodifiable interlibrary loan due dates.
There's such a difference in tone from story to story in a short story collection, but also, I feel that authors pull their punches less when the narrative arc is short. You may have several hard hitting tales in a row, whereas a novel (not in the thriller/horror genre) would ease up in the course of the narrative.
While reading a short story made to be impactful, brief or even not completely satisfying in ending every once in a while, spaced out, is reasonable for my personal reader temperament, trying to steadily work my way through a variable collection, as I would with the chapters in a linear volume, feels like it requires more energy/effort/attention. Not an experience I'm likely to repeat frequently.
2y
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Robotswithpersonality
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How to discourage nosiness...🙃

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Robotswithpersonality
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Oh Big Pharma's getting a cameo too! 💅

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Robotswithpersonality
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Monsanto cameo? 👀

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Robotswithpersonality
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Henceforth I will be referring to personal moral code as my 'ethical flow chart'. 👍🏻

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thestarlesscasea
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What are your favorite short story and/or essay collections? I'm quarantining and in need of recs ✨️

jlhammar I loved both of Ann Patchett's essay collections. I listened to This is the Story of a Happy Marriage (Patchett reads herself, great audiobook) and These Precious Days was a favorite of mine from last year. 2y
jlhammar Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my favorite authors and I loved her debut collection 2y
jlhammar I really loved this story collection 2y
jlhammar And you can't really go wrong with Alice Munro 2y
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thestarlesscasea
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books i finished in november 2021 📚
no real duds this month but my favorite was cat pictures please 🐱

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thestarlesscasea
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This story ("So Much Cooking") was published in 2017 but hits too close to now, eh? ?

BookmarkTavern Wait… is this fiction?! Oh no! 😱😅 3y
4 likes1 comment
review
TieDyeDude
Cat Pictures Please | Naomi Kritzer
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Pickpick

In researching Naomi Kritzer, who was just nominated for a Hugo award for Little Free Library, I saw that she won one in 2016 with Cat Pictures Please, a fun short story about a benevolent A.I. who tries to use your online information to improve your life. Available for free in text and audio at the link.

clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_01_15/

Pictured: my Black Jack, in hopes of appeasing our digital overlords.

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Eyelit
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Pickpick

This is such a great short story collection! I think I pretty much loved or strongly liked every story. Naomi has a great imagination and I will be seeking out more of her work (hopefully there is some). I highly recommend this one. 😍
I‘m offering up my fave pic of my two kittehs to the possibly sentient yet benevolent AI that may exist so it can help fix up my life in subtle ways. 😄

mabell What a perfect photo! 😻😻😻 4y
rabbitprincess 😻😻😻 adorable! 4y
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silentrequiem
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From 'Bits' in the tagged book. The narrator is an employee at a sex toy company making prosthetics for human-alien couples. A hilarious read!

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silentrequiem
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Pickpick

I had to revisit Cat Pictures Please and ended up devouring and absolutely loving the entire collection. The last story where a food blogger basically blogs through a global pandemic in quarantine is especially timely...

My favorite story may have been In the Witch's Garden, a SF retelling of The Snow Queen.

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monalyisha
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Reading about cats, eating (Gold)fish (crackers). 🧡

Cortg Cute!
5y
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Eyelit
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First #libraryhaul of 2019.
Three of these (the standing books) were cases of #coverlove and I‘m hopeful the contents meet the hopes their covers set 😄
I‘ve set my #mttbr sights on Olympus again - and I‘m adding in a book buying ban on myself until I‘ve reached 25% of that goal. So I foresee lots of library trips for impulse grabs in my near future 😂

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esurient
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Pickpick

Hopeful and rough, sometimes heartbreaking, often abrupt. Definitely a pick. I enjoyed all of these stories, and loved several... but I gripe about five of the stories being reprints from previous collections I already own.

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esurient
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....I am intrigued by your substitution, story.

Story seventeen, "So Much Cooking."

zembla This fills me with fear but I respect the stance. 6y
jenniferw88 We've made chocolate cherry brownies with mayo & they are surprisingly good! 6y
esurient @christinamcc @jenniferw88 I'm down a rabbit hole of substitutions research. 6y
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esurient
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Story eleven, "Scrap Dragon."

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esurient
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Story two, "Ace of Spades."

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esurient
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Story one, "Cat Pictures Please."

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esurient
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monalyisha
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I rushed home after work & tore open my #shortstoryswap from @ness. Tucked inside was the collection “Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories” by Naomi Kritzer & an enamel “Book Nerd” pin. I‘m excited about the book! Anything reviewed positively by Kelly Barnhill is cool by me! 🙌🏻

Since I have no cat pictures of my own, please enjoy a few of my friend Dave‘s cats, Henry (named after Henry David Thoreau) & Yoko (on Instagram as @ henry_yoko).😻

monalyisha Thanks for organizing, @CSeydel 💖! 6y
PenguinInFlight Those cats are too cute! 😻 6y
CSeydel Nice! Thanks for participating 💗 6y
ness Cute kitties! I hope you enjoy the book (and the librarian convention swag)! 6y
ephemeralwaltz Lovely! 6y
74 likes5 comments
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ness
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Just signed up. So psyched! #ShortStorySwap

CSeydel Yippee! 6y
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