"Las Vegas Noir" was a collection of short stories edited by Janet Keene and Todd James Pierce. Normally I don't like short stories, but I couldn't resist a collection set in my favorite city. However, I should have gone with my first instinct: most of these stories were mediocre at best, some were downright awful, just contrived and unbelievable and silly. Only one really stood out as being good, and that was "Crip" by Preston L. Allen, about a guy who dies protecting a little girl from an outraged casino boss. Lesson to self: just because it's set in Vegas doesn't make it cool. I definitely won't ever read this one again.
"Eleanor Rigby" by Douglas Coupland was very good. I really enjoyed it. It seemed like it was going to be sad and depressing, and if Stephen King were writing it, it would have ended differently, but Coupland gave it an upbeat, hopeful ending that made me feel good. It's about a lonely 36 year old woman who has no life. She has no friends, doesn't date, her own family doesn't really care about her. She does have one big secret: on a school trip to Italy when she was sixteen, she got pregnant (although she was drunk and blacked out and didn't remember the conception--how sad!) and after her son was born she put him up for adoption. Twenty years later he finds her, but she only gets to spend four months with him before he dies from complications due to his MS. Seven years after his death, she is reunited with his father and they connect. Even though her life seemed utterly depressing, Liz remained pretty content, not upbeat, but content, which was interesting. I'll probably read this one again.
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