A Swim in the Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders

This book sounds so weird and not interesting at all, but I'd heard several good reviews from readers I trust. And when Austin said he loved it, I moved it to the top of my list and checked it out from the library immediately to read it. Saunders takes seven different Russian short stories and includes them in the book, then basically dissects them and discusses how they wrote what they did and why they wrote them in the way they did and how we can learn how to write and read better from their writing. It was basically like taking a writing class from him (and he said in the introduction that this book does stem from a class he teachers on the Russian writers). And I loved it. I feel like if I ever do want to write something, I will have to go back and re-read this, because it was so insightful and well-done on all of the things that these four Russian writers managed to do in their short stories. While I didn't feel as moved or as delighted by all of the short stories themselves as Saunders is, I did really enjoy the whole experience of reading the stories with his commentary and discussion. (This is why I loved literature classes in college--I get so much more out of reading stories and books with outside help and intentional reading! I need more of this!)