About the Book
From Kentucky to the
California desert, these forty-two short stories — ranging from the 80’s and
90’s to present day — expose the hearts of girls and women in moments of
obsessive desire and fantasy, wildness and bad behavior, brokenness and
fearlessness, and more.
On a hot July night, teenage girls sneak out of the house to
meet their boyfriends by the train tracks. Members of a cult form an unsettling
chorus as they proclaim their adoration for the same man. A woman luxuriates in
a fantasy getaway to escape her past. A love story begins over cabbages in a
grocery store, and a laundress’s life is consumed by her obsession with a
baseball star. After the death of a sister, two high school friends kiss all
night and binge-watch Winona Ryder movies.
Leesa Cross-Smith’s sensuous stories — some long, some gone
in a flash, some told over text and emails — drench readers in nostalgia for
summer nights and sultry days. They recall the intense friendships of teenage
girls and the innate bonds between mothers, the first heady rush of desire, and
the pure exhilaration of womanhood, all while holding up the wild souls of
women so they can catch the light.
My Review
I am not a big fan of short stories, but I have been trying to expand my reading list recently and decided to accept the review request for So We Can Glow. Unfortunately, I could not get into this story. The stories that had a bit of depth to them I could get through, but some stories were the same few words repeated all the way through, didn’t have much for punctuation, or didn’t bring any scene to life, and it’s simply not my reading style. If you are a fan of short stories you might enjoy this one, but if it’s not your usual genre, I would not recommend.
2 stars
