This Thursday at 7 p.m. my friend Maile Meloy is reading from her new book of short stories at Vroman’s.

In case you haven’t read any of Maile’s stories in the New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times is doing a feature story on Maile this week, and Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, her new collection of stories, was on the front page of the New York Times book section a couple of weeks ago. Los Angeles magazine wrote this book up favorably — and well they should have! Her stories are”rich and murky, about regular people dangling from fraying ropes inside of their own lives.” — Sandy Gillis, this post. Yes, I made up that quote. But it’s true. The story about the teenager who goes camping with her dad? Uncomfortable and seems so possible. The lonesome ranch hand who meets a city lawyer? Vivid portrait of people stumbling through their mistakes and trying to make the best of the remaining options.

There are lots more stories, and I don’t want to wreck them for you. You’ll just have to come hear Maile read one of them on Thursday.

Maile Meloy
Thurs., 8/13, 7 p.m.
Vroman’s Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, 626.449.5320, vromansbookstore.com

— Sandy Gillis

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