Reading, Writing, and Me

You Have a Friend in 10A: Stories  by Maggie Shipstead General Thoughts: Given that this is a short story collection, I'm going to shift my usual review format and give some overarching thoughts on the collection itself and then give little reviews of each story below. While most short story collections have a uniting theme or location or some kind of other consistent thread, what binds the stories of You Have a Friend in 10A together is simply the fact that they were written by Maggie Shipstead. The acknowledgements note that they were written over a decade, some workshopped during her MFA or fellowship and others that just existed in her orbit until publication. They seem to just be the favorites from her career so far. This creates both a pleasingly eclectic experience and a bit of a disjointed one. You never know what tone, style, subject, or world you'll be hit with next, but I think that's what makes short stories fun as both a reader and a writer. Not having to commi