Embarrassing as it is to admit now, I was a short story skeptic for the better part of my literate life. I am not an English teacher and really have no proposal for improvement, but I think my hatred stemmed from the way short stories were incorporated into English curriculum (i.e., poorly). As an adult, I finally dipped my toes in the short story water with George Saunders, and shortly thereafter, Karen Russell. She makes for a good liaison in that she has published both short story collections as well as a novel and an e-book novella; whatever your fancy, she will help convert you. I started with Vampires in the Lemon Grove, her most recent story collection that was picked for our book club. It yielded one of our best discussions, and surprisingly everyone had a different favorite. I have yet to dig in to her other work, but I have a copy of her first story collection, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves in my stack, and I’m anxious to get my hands on the much-lauded Swamplandia. I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to read her e-book, as I’m a book fetishist and a total luddite when it comes to e-readers, but I love her writing enough to figure it out. So then Karen Russell will have converted me into a lover of short stories AND a user of e-readers, two impressive feats. Did I mention she is young, beautiful, a prolific writer (4 books in 6 years) and now a MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ recipient?