All These Wonders

Last updated
The Moth Presents: All These Wonders. True Stories About Facing the Unknown
All These Wonders.jpg
First edition
Editor Catherine Burns
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Crown Archetype
Publication date
March 21, 2017
Pages336
ISBN 978-1-101-90440-4
Website All These Wonders

The Moth Presents: All These Wonders. True Stories About Facing the Unknown is a 2017 collection of stories from the radio program The Moth , edited by the show's artistic director Catherine Burns on the 20th anniversary of the show's 1997 founding. The 336-page collection of 45 stories was published by Crown Archetype. [1] The title story, "All These Wonders", is by planetary scientist Cathy Olkin. [2]

Contents

Reception

Reviewing the collection for The New York Times , Michiko Kakutani said most of the stories, all initially told on the radio, "have translated seamlessly to the page [and] possess a remarkable emotional depth and sincerity. The stories vary greatly in tone and voice — by turns, raw, wry, rueful, comic, elliptical and confiding — but there is little sarcasm or snark. The emphasis is on communicating with the audience, with sharing an experience, a memory, a moment of grace." [3] In the Toronto Star , Sarah Murdoch said, "Each makes the transition from stage to page without a stumble. A delight." [4] In Paste Magazine , Jason Rhode's review was mixed, saying, "I give three-quarters of All These Wonders my highest praise, and the remaining quarter a curt dismissal." He particularly noted stories by Ishmael Beah and Kate Braestrup, and those centered on "ordinary people who have been through miraculous or terrible events. These are fragments of beauty." He also praised stories from "academics and people with interesting jobs who have insightful thoughts on the world" and "entertainment professionals who are practiced masters of their craft," but criticized the remaining quarter as "facile, self-deprecating bundles of humblebrag." [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Prozac Nation</i> Memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Prozac Nation is a memoir by American writer Elizabeth Wurtzel published in 1994. The book describes the author's experiences with atypical depression, her own character failings and how she managed to live through particularly difficult periods while completing college and working as a writer. Prozac is a trade name for the antidepressant fluoxetine. Wurtzel originally titled the book I Hate Myself and I Want To Die but her editor convinced her otherwise. It ultimately carried the subtitle Young and Depressed in America: A Memoir.

<i>Cosmopolis</i> (novel) Novel by Don DeLillo

Cosmopolis is a novel by American writer Don DeLillo. His thirteenth novel, it was published by Scribner on April 14, 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michiko Kakutani</span> American critic, writer (b. 1955)

Michiko Kakutani is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for The New York Times from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998.

<i>The Child in Time</i> 1987 novel by Ian McEwan

The Child in Time (1987) is a novel by Ian McEwan. The story concerns Stephen, an author of children's books, and his wife, two years after the kidnapping of their three-year-old daughter Kate.

<i>The Moth</i> Storytelling events, podcast, radio program, books, and website

The Moth is a nonprofit group based in New York City, dedicated to the craft of storytelling. Founded in 1997, the organization presents a wide range of theme-based storytelling events across the United States and abroad, often featuring prominent literary and cultural personalities alongside everyday people like veterans, astronauts, school teachers, and parents. The Moth offers a weekly podcast and in 2009 launched a national public radio show, The Moth Radio Hour, which won a 2010 Peabody Award. The Moth has published four books, including The Moth: 50 True Stories (2013), which reached #22 on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Best-Seller List; All These Wonders: True Stories about Facing the Unknown (2017); Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible (2019); and How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth (2022). In September 2022, The Moth published an interactive card deck , A Game of Storytelling, which debuted at #1 on Amazon's top-selling card game list.

Elizabeth Tallent is an American fiction writer, academic, and essayist.

Douglas Anthony Cooper is a Canadian novelist living in Rome. Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times wrote that his "elliptical narrative style recalls works by D. M. Thomas, Paul Auster, Sam Shepard and Vladimir Nabokov."

Wells Tower is an American writer of short stories, non-fiction, feature films and television. In 2009 he published his first short story collection, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned to much critical acclaim. His short fiction has also been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, McSweeney's, Vice, Harper's Magazine, A Public Space, Fence and other periodicals. In 2022, he wrote the screenplay for the feature film Pain Hustlers, starring Emily Blunt and directed by David Yates, which was bought by Netflix for $50 million.

<i>American Rust</i> Novel by Philipp Meyer

American Rust is a novel by American writer Philipp Meyer, published in 2009. It is set in the 2000s, in the fictional town of Buell in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, which is in a rural region referred to as "the Valley" of dilapidated steel towns. The novel focuses on the decline of the American middle class and well-paying manufacturing jobs, and the general sense of economic and social malaise. Meyer's novel received positive reviews, and many publications ranked it one of the best novels of the year.

<i>CivilWarLand in Bad Decline</i> Collection of George Saunders short stories published 1992-1995

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline is a book of short stories and a novella by the American writer George Saunders. Published in 1996, it was Saunders's first book. Many of the stories initially appeared in different forms in various magazines, including Kenyon Review, Harper's, The New Yorker and Quarterly West. The collection was listed as a Notable Book of 1996 by The New York Times, as well as a finalist for the 1996 PEN/Hemingway Award.

<i>Unfamiliar Fishes</i>

Unfamiliar Fishes is a nonfiction book by This American Life contributor Sarah Vowell, first published in 2011 in print and audiobook versions.

<i>The Goldfinch</i> (novel) 2013 novel by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch is a novel by the American author Donna Tartt. It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among other honors. Published in 2013, it was Tartt's first novel since The Little Friend in 2002.

<i>The Age of Miracles</i> Novel by Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles is the debut novel by the American writer Karen Thompson Walker. It was published in June 2012 by Random House in the United States and Simon & Schuster in the United Kingdom. The book chronicles the fictional phenomenon of "slowing", in which one Earth day begins to stretch out and take longer and longer to complete. The novel received positive reviews and publishing deals totaling £1.12 million, and has been translated into a number of languages. The book was nominated as part of the Waterstones 11 literary award in 2012.

<i>What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank</i> 2012 short story collection by Nathan Englander

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is a 2012 short story collection by the American writer Nathan Englander. The book was first published on February 7, 2012, through Knopf and collects eight of Englander's short stories, including the title story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank."

<i>Rising Star</i> (book) David Garrows 2017 biography of Barack Obama

Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama is a 2017 biography of former President of the United States Barack Obama by American author and academic David Garrow. It is Garrow's fifth book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathy Olkin</span> American planetary scientist

Cathy Olkin is a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, focusing on the outer Solar System. She is deputy principal investigator for NASA's Lucy mission examining the Trojan asteroids around Jupiter, which launched in 2021 and will fly past its targets between 2025 and 2033.

<i>Do No Harm</i> (book) 2014 memoir written by Henry Marsh

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery is a 2014 memoir written by Henry Marsh and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The book details the author's career as a neurosurgeon.

<i>The Subtle Body</i> 2010 book by Stefanie Syman

The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America is a 2010 book on the history of yoga as exercise by the American journalist Stefanie Syman. It spans the period from the first precursors of American yoga, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau, the arrival of Vivekananda, the role of Hollywood with Indra Devi, the hippie generation, and the leaders of a revived but now postural yoga such as Bikram Choudhury and Pattabhi Jois.

<i>Fiskadoro</i>

Fiskadoro is post-apocalyptic novel by Denis Johnson published in 1985 by Alfred A. Knopf.

<i>Hitler</i> (Ullrich books) 2-volume book collection by Volker Ullrich

Hitler is a collection of two volumes by Volker Ullrich. Jefferson Chase translated both volumes into English.

References

  1. "ALL THESE WONDERS by Catherine Burns". Kirkus Reviews. December 19, 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  2. Williams, Mary Elizabeth (April 28, 2017). "The Moth's artistic director on the storyteller inside us all: "Most people do have something beautiful to say"". Salon. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  3. Kakutani, Michiko (3 April 2017). "Stories of Wonder, Fear and Kindness From the Moth". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  4. Murdoch, Sarah (March 25, 2017). "From museums to myths, the latest anthologies offer expert insight | Toronto Star". Toronto Star. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  5. Rhode, Jason (March 22, 2017). "The Moth's All These Wonders Delivers a Mix of Captivating and Dull Stories". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 5 April 2017.