RAVE REVIEW - The Moth Presents: All These Wonders

THE MOTH PRESENTS: ALL THESE WONDERS

GOODREADS
"The Moth teaches us not to judge by appearances. It teaches us to listen. It reminds us to empathize. And now, with these wonderful stories, it teaches us to read." - Neil Gaiman

I must admit I requested this from BLOGGING FOR BOOKS because of the cover. I wanted that beauty sitting pretty on my shelf, ha ha, so I was a tad surprised when it arrived and it was a collection of short stories; true short stories. I was apprehensive because anthology stories are hit and miss with me, usually more miss than hit. However, I was much more than pleasantly surprised because I was thoroughly and mindfully invested in each one.

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When I read that the stories were about courage in facing the unknown, I again thought, "uh oh," because it conjured up memories of the schmaltzy Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies my mother used to send me when I was suffering with postpartum depression, but these stories are nothing like that... they are real and grittily poignant, even the accounts on the lighter side.

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THE MOTH is a storytelling platform which holds themed events in the US where people tell their stories, without notes, to a live audience. The stories in this book were gleaned from participants at those events. They also have a podcast and radio hour.

The forty-five super short stories include an account of the Holocaust through the eyes of a nine year old survivor, an immigrant's fight to stay in the US with his family, a journalist's account of risking her life posing as a teacher in North Korea, an adult's memories of being abandoned at an airport as a child, and a persons's experience making a desperate call to a help-line.
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Now, not all the inclusions are are that intense... there are palate cleansers to be read;  like one story penned by Adam Mansbach, the author of GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP.

“It’s November 2011, and I am the most controversial parent in America by virtue of a short, obscene, fake children’s book by the name of Go the Fuck to Sleep.
It’s fourteen stanzas long—about four hundred words, many of them repeated more than once—and I wrote it in thirty-nine minutes with no pants on.”

Do you like Nonfiction anthologies?