Hey everyone and how are you all doing? I hope you're doing well. I'm doing pretty good myself!

So, yesterday I finished this book "The Weight of a Feather" by Judy Croome and it's a book of short stories and poems. While I was reading a lot of these stories and poems, I have come across a wide range of emotions in each story. Some stories were really good and touching. Others, where just down right wrong and horrible. Then, there are the others that just made me say "What the Hell did I just read!" It was just a wide range of emotions that I had. I mean wow! There was one story about a little girl and her rabbit and she was having fun, then the next thing she did was, after getting bored of her pet rabbit. She threw it onto a grill where her father was barbecuing and killed it and she started running around laughing. I mean what the hell! There were some empowering stories as well and they could make just about anyone feel strong. I guess that if you really want to got through every emotion you should get it and see what I'm writing about. It was just wow again!

That's all that I have for you all! I hope you all are having a kick ass day/night and I'll be back on Monday with a little something different! Until then,

LaTeR dAyS!!!

Maya Fowler-Sutherland reviews THE WEIGHT OF A FEATHER & OTHER STORIES by Judy Croome for the Cape Times, 30 May 2014 edition.

Samm Marshall of SABC2's Morning Live discusses Judy Croome's anthology of short stories THE WEIGHT OF A FEATHER AND OTHER STORIES on early morning TV.

Author Judy Croome's anthology of short stories has a vibrant slice of life for anybody who dares to pick up her offering. She has hit her stride from the classical The Weight of a Feather to the emotional The Last Sacrifice. Her short story collection "The Weight of a Feather and Other Stories" is a special collection worth reading. She joins Samm Marshall in studio

The fun thing about The Weight of a Feather: and Other Stories is that it has a range of literature.  There are one stanza poems as well as one or two page stories and some longer ones.  There are stories with a happy ending, those with a sad or angry ending, and stories with a Twilight Zone-like twist.

The whole book has an exotic feel, talking about places I have never been (in South Africa) and using phrases I had never heard (in Afrikaans).  In some places, the situation was so far removed from my life that it was difficult for me to identify with the character, but in other stories, even though the character and I were separated by thousands of miles, I could completely understand how he or she was feeling.

This is not a book to read in one sitting.  It is best to savor one or two stories at a time or read a few poems when you need a short refresher.  Otherwise the diversity of tales can be a bit overwhelming.

Before starting this book, I read a glowing review so I started feeling very optimistic that I was instantly going to fall in love with it. And as I read the first story, The Weight of a Feather, it seemed that indeed I was in for a treat. In fact, it wasn't until I got several stories in that I realized that...I was not having as much fun as I thought I was going to have.

The writing itself was good. Strong. I did enjoy the fact that the stories took place in an area I was not familiar with at all. So it was interesting to learn about some new cultures and read something that was different from my usual fare.

But all in all, I was not in love with this book...and I think the biggest issue was that almost all of the stories in this collection were no more than flash fiction pieces. Very short vignettes that while they were well done were a little bit less than satisfying. They were great for a magazine, or some kind of collegiate anthology but when they are all together in a book...I just could not enjoy the book as a whole as at nearly every page turn I was pushed into another micro story.