Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde

This book is a collection of short stories, all based on the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairy tale. Some of them include woodcutters, some involve wolves, and one has many of the other Grimms tales intertwined. Each story twists the idea of a young girl walking alone through the woods on her way to her grandmother's house. Some of the stories have happier endings than others.

Some of the stories were interesting, and I enjoyed a couple of them. However, the best part of the book is the Author's Note at the beginning. Some of the stories had a nice twist on the 'original' fairy tale, but none of them could compete with the Author's Note.

Zombies vs Unicorns, editted by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

Zombies vs Unicorns is actually an anthology of 12 stories dealing with either zombies or unicorns. Holly Black is the head of 'Team Unicorn' while Justine Larbalestier is the head of 'Team Zombie'.

Each story is given commentary by the editors at the beginning about the pros and cons of zombies and unicorns. While the deciding factor is up to the reader, their comments and debate are hilarious.

Out of all the stories, I enjoyed "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" by Diana Peterfreund, "Bougainvillea" by Carrie Ryan, and "Prom Night" by Libba Bray. Not that the others weren't also great, I just enjoyed these three most of all.

The only thing missing was a story of zombies and unicorns fighting each other...

The Poison Eaters: And Other Stories by Holly Black

A collection of short stories all having a fairy tale or fantasy twist to them.

Black has published most of these in other anthologies, she just collected them all here in one novel.

"The Coldest Girl in Coldtown"--vampires
"A Reversal of Fortune" --deal with the devil
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" --shapeshifters
"The Night Market" --elves and curses
"The Dog King" --shapeshifters
"Virgin" --faeries and unicorns
"In Vodka Veritas" --Bacchus and his followers; fairies (sort of)
"The Coat of Stars" --faeries
"Paper Cuts Scissors" --books, characters out of books (think Inkheart but darker)
"Going Ironside" --faeries in our world
"The Land of Heart's Desire" --faeries in our world
"The Poison Eaters" --far away kingdoms and getting rid of opposition

I don't usually like short story collections, mostly because the stories are really good and I want to keep reading them. With this compilation, I didn't feel that way. Several of the stories could have been longer--I would have loved to keep reading. Most of them had an ending that I was satisfied with and happy to turn the page and go on to the next one. "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown" and "In Vodka Veritas" were my favorites.

You Don't Even Know Me by Sharon Flake

A collection of short stories and poems about African American guys. Each story or poem highlights the difficulties guys face in expressing emotion, surviving the streets, being a man, or just making it through the day.

Even though I'm not a guy, I still think the stories reflect the difficulties and strains guys go through most days. There are a wide variety of stories to tell, and even though Flake can't cover all of them, she hits the mark on some of the most important.