Best Australian Short Storiess 2011

This has been a new experience for me, short stories. Many thanks to my lovely book loving friend who gave this to me. Honestly, I don't know why I had never picked up short stories before except maybe that I didn't value them so much as a 'reading' success (not big enough to feel like I'd conquered it). Anyway, at this point in my life (as you can tell by my infrequent visits to blogging world) I am focusing on new challenges in my work life, and looking to find a balance - where my concentration for reading time is almost non existent. So picking up these short stories has been just perfect.

As far as quality goes, each story I've read so far has been totally capturing, descriptive enough of the emotions, the scene, the characters to get me sucked in. I'm really (like really) enjoying the Australianness of the stories too. 

'Mum has lived on the Gold Coast for seven years. Having emerged from the sand five decades earlier, the city carries none of the burdens of history. People come to catch their breath, worn down by failed marriages, boredom, the cold weather, death. And when it is their turn to die, far from their home towns and small familiarities, they are enshrined in sparkling, smooth-lined crematoriums.' [The Anniversary, Deborah Fitzgerald].

'Shona and Dean live in Abigail Street, a street that is twenty houses long on either side....... Abigail street is cool and quiet, while at either end, especially at peak hour, there is mayhem. The shade is the result of a row of Morton Bay Figs that buckle the footpaths of Abigail Street. The trees are on death row, having been paced under a council intervention order into their longevity. These trees have proved an ideal habitat for a colony of fruit bats that each year comes to feast on the ripening figs. Every night, particular during the full moon, the bats swirl drunkenly through the sky like the opening credits of an old Vincent Price film....' [Beneath the Figs, Mark O'Flynn]

Again, my book loving friends and blogging friends have introduced me to a new reading experience. Thank you..