Pause for Thought / Tales From a Small Town — David Campbell

Okay, you love reading but you're looking for a break from long form fiction. Yes? Then this book is for you: a collection of short stories about life in a small town, some humorous, others serious, all revealing of the human condition in sometimes surprising, unexpected but always imaginative, entertaining ways. Twenty-nine stories, some short, others longer, profile a variety of usual and unusual characters caught up in a variety of usual and unusual circumstances, in which readers are invited to reflect upon the ups and downs and and twists and turns of everyday life. 

For example? How about a senior woman's writers group who help to abduct an exploitive porn producer? A story-telling Indian who turns cultural appropriation on its head? Three hard bitten ranching sisters who are blamed for the murder of a country singer? A grocery store clerk who will do anything to bear a child?

Sound interesting? Good. Because there are many more stories just like them. Best thing about this book of narrative gems? The stories are mercifully short. Which means you don't have to slog through three-hundred pages to receive the satisfactions of coming to a story's end.