Some people enjoy reading short stories, and some people–for a variety of reasons–avoid them. What about you? Why?

I have embarked on a personal challenge during the next several months: rereading and reassessing Ernest Hemingway’s novels and stories.

From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him.