Hey there, everyone! Welcome to another installment of Reading with Robin! As a librarian who loves to read, I also love to talk about books and connect other readers with books they can fall in love with. In these posts, I’m going to talk about what I’ve been reading, what I liked about the book, and who I’d recommend the book to next.
This entry’s book is: A Small Fiction, written by James Mark Miller and illustrated by Jefferson Miller!
When I was an undergraduate, I became infatuated with flash fiction and microfiction. Not a fan of traditional short stories, the idea that a writer could tell a complete, compelling story in less than a page was mindboggling to me. I instantly set myself to the task of mastering this form and have since had many flash pieces published in journals and on websites around the world.
You can imagine my delight, then, when I stumbled across James Mark Miller’s book A Small Fiction: An Illustrated Collection of Little Stories. Humorous, heartbreaking, hair raising, the 280 character stories presented in this collection will enthrall and enrich the life of any reader, but especially appeal to those of us who can appreciate the difficulty in crafting these bite-sized delights. Illustrated by Jefferson Miller, every page gives you something new to think about and will leave you pondering, “How did he do that?”
I think what I liked best about this book is that each and every story in it has something special to offer – seriously, there was not a single one of the 280 character offerings in A Small Fiction that was not a joy to read. Also, Jefferson Miller’s illustrations perfectly complemented James Mark Miller’s style and tone and really added to the overall experience of the book, when it would have been so easy to have the illustrations overpower the language.
Fans of James Mark Miller’s popular Twitter account @ASmallFiction will definitely want to pick up this book and give it a read, but it’s appeal is far wider. If you enjoy consuming shorter works by writers like Ernest Hemmingway, Joyce Carol Oates, or Franz Kafka, this might be the perfect book for you. If you enjoy watching television or films like Pixar Shorts, Steven Universe, or Trip to the Moon, give this book a spin – it could be right up your alley!
Robin Jeffrey 