"Here Beneath Low-flying Planes" by Merrill Feitell

At only 123 pages, this short story collection is like a 9-track music album, where every song is listenable. Each story is dynamic, memorable, meaningful. A young girl spending Thanksgiving with the family of her sister's boyfriend. A man who enters a charity bike ride as a send off before marriage. A woman who goes to her ex-boyfriend's wedding while pregnant with his baby. A man who throws his own birthday party in the saddest, sweetest way. There are four more stories. They are just as good. Merrill Feitell now teaches at Maryland, and I wish I'd had the opportunity to take a workshop from her.