"How you doing, Nathan?" Victor asked me later on his way to the bathroom. I was still playing The Legend of Zelda.
"I just need a magic sword," I told him.
"Who doesn't?" he said. ( )

A great series from an amazing publisher, PM Press’s Outspoken Author series are short books that adhere to a strict formula: each book focuses on a single writer. They contain a number of short stories from that author, an essay, and an interview focusing on craft.

I’ve never read any of Karen Joy Fowler’s novels, but I love her short stories. The three stories on display here show why. Each one concentrated on the characters involved, is generous and humane. Her language is lush without being overwrought. And each exists on the edge of the weird without ever tipping over into a reality that’s unrecognizable to our everyday lives.

The weakest element here for me is the interview. I wish that series editor Terry Bisson had remained focused on the craft elements and stayed away from the frivolous which I image he thought was funny. But this wasn’t enough to detract from the owner all power of this short collection. ( )

I'll take any opportunity I can find anywhere to read anything by Karen Joy Fowler, based on the two books I've read so far - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and Sarah Canary. I'm parceling the rest out slowly so I don't run out of Fowlers too quickly. The books and stories I've read are completely different in plot, character and setting, but share the same weird, wry sensibility. ( )

I enjoyed all five shorts in this Outspoken Authors collection by Karen Joy Fowler, but the title story reintroduced me to a fascinating woman from history. Combining Jane Austen, dinosaur bones, Nonconformist religion, and dissenting politics, The Science of Herself is an “almost true”, gently fictionalized mini-biography of Mary Anning (1799-1847), who grew up in poverty, taught herself (and helped create) paleontology, and was sought out by some of the most esteemed scientists of the day, including Louis Agassiz and Charles Lyell, but almost never given credit for her work.

Young Mary Anning would have spent her days combing the dangerous crumbling cliffs of Lyme Regis collecting fossils to sell for food during the time that Jane Austen visited the area--Austen even mentions Anning’s father, a cabinetmaker, in her diary. While Austen was on that trip she must have walked beside Cobb wall, where Louisa Musgrove will fall giving Anne Elliot a second chance at love, and she may have noticed Mary peddling her ancient stone curiosities, an idea Fowler uses in her story.

Karen Joy Fowler’s written work ranges widely, from The Jane Austen Book Club, about a group of people who gather to discuss novels, to We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, about a family with three children--two human and (spoiler alert!) one chimp. That variety is evident in this collection as well, which includes a transcribed interview with Fowler at her outspoken, whip smart best, an essay by Fowler challenging smug gender role assumptions made by authors and literary critics from all shades of the political spectrum, and two other short stories--one somewhat funny, about a boy whose father may or may not have been abducted by aliens, and the other quite disturbing, about an abusive, reality based overseas detention facility for wayward American teens. ( )

I wasn't sure what to expect from this little book. I didn't know Fowler (best known for the The Jane Austen Book Club wrote science fiction until I read this book. It provides a set of stories and nonfiction essays.

"The Science of Herself" provides a biography of Mary Anning, who became known for being and expert of fossils, digging them out lyme cliffs under treacherous conditions. She kept detailed research about the pieces she dug up and sold, even positing her own theories. Jane Austen is discussed in comparison because she visited Lyme and because Anning would not have made it into Austen's novels. A facinating read.

"The Motherhood Statment" discusses the exploration of motherhood in science fiction novels an called for more such discussions to be made.

"The Pelican Bar" is a subtly fantastical story abou girl sent away by her parents to be "fixed". The tale is dark and bleak and so, so good.

"More Exubrent Then is Strictly Taseful" is an interview with a random set of questions that didn't flow well. They jumped around too much into too many random territories for my taste.

"The Futhur Adventures of the Invisible Man" is a great coming of age story. A man remembers the year he played baseball, revealing how his mom changed the story to suite her needs.

I have three or four more books in this "Plus..." Series and I'm very curious what they will reveals. ( )