iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

My mid-year check in on my favorite reads from the first half of 2026 . . . hell of a year so far.😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

May’s reading wrap up and spotlights on my top three favorite reads of the month….three all time classics for me😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Day 25, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay Thanks for the reread all…y’all are the best😎 “The Leaf-Sweeper” by Muriel Spark The unexpected story of the short lived Abolition of Christmas😎 “But perhaps you don’t know how repulsive and loathsome is the ghost of a living man.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Day 24, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Thieves Who Couldn’t Help Sneezing” by Thomas Hardy A perfect little Christmas Eve tale with adventure, peril, wit, and a hero’s triumph. “I can conjure up a tempest in a cupboard…”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Day 23, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Anaheim” by Jennifer Croft Masterclass in the potential of the form…four or five short stories alone within this single story, bravo. “Misuse was the wrong kind of waste. Use and abuse. The right kind of waste was lavishing everyone around you with life.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Day 22, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The One With The Multiverse” by Josh Riedel Are memories and nostalgia the actual multiverse?? “It’s easy to forget where you are in towns like this. You can be in one place and believe you’re somewhere else.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Day 21, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Wars and Winters” by Hannah Pittard Entitled, toxic ‘masculinity’ with the inevitable side of insecure fragility. “He hadn’t even given me a noun.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Happy National Short Story Month all. If you’re looking for some collections to pick up and celebrate this month, I’ll humbly recommend each of these five star collections😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Day 20, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Things Eric Eats Before He Eats Himself” by Carmen Maria Machado An entertaining Monty Python-esque parable about our unchecked modern consumerism and the unfillable void. “The jump between murder and cannibalism is, somehow, smaller.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Day 19, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Chris Cornell” by Damian Tarnopolsky “The Russian soul is a dark place.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky “Later on I served time as an editor, and discovered the compromised way books came into the world with their teams of midwives.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Day 18, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Exhibition” by Alexandra Wuest So much packed into one story: art, appropriation, empathy, anxiety, apathy, boredom, and much more. “Instead it reminded her of a sunrise, which on second thought, she realized, must be a pretty nice way to see oneself.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Shenanigans at Tropic Thunder last night, Phoenix’s newest punk tiki bar😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Day 17, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “You Again” by Seth Fried This story was like the perfect cup of tea or your favorite song, a tiny slice of perfection that you futilely hope will last forever, but know that it’s fleetingness is part of it’s allure. “Mistakes would need to be embraced.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Day 16, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Conversation Over The Holidays” by Jessica Westhead Timeless in portraying the middle aged experience, the anxieties, and banalities, and small graces. “everything around them and beneath them felt so solid and sturdy, but now it wasn’t like that anymore.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Day 15, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Down Burned Road” by Jacqueline Baker Had trouble connecting with this story, thought I did appreciate the author’s descriptive powers. “Yurig seemed to Carrie to have come from nowhere, from no place and no time. Attached, it seemed, to nothing.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Day 14, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Lottery” by Adam O’Fallon Price His one redeeming trait was acknowledging that his wife was smarter than he was. “One in 300 million is another way of saying that something is not going to happen...”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Day 13, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Crown Derby Plate” by Marjorie Bowen “I like to say I believe in ghosts so I don't get haunted by one.” - Ella Henderson “…the lonely house with the grave in the garden was dreary enough around which to create a legend.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Day 12, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Shopping Cart” by Christopher Boucher The secret life of trolleys…. “But by then I was in a silent room in my mind. I looked around that room for words - “No thanks,” or “OK,” or anything at all - but I couldn’t find any.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Day 11, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Children Of A Careless God” by Elizabeth Gonzalez James Wow…the script for The Secret Life of Pets 3 got DARK🤣🤣🤣 Another gem of a story “He wished he’d stayed asleep, that he’d lived a few more moments in the honeyed comfort that he was cared for and loved.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Day 10, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Tardy Suit” by Thomas Pierce Feels even more apt now.. Talk about a story for our times…felt very art imitating life, with a little Doctor Who fantasy / social commentary sprinkled in for good measure. “Didn’t always do right thing but this time did, hoping.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Day 9, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “What To Call You” by Casey Plett Loved, loved this story…felt like Bukowski, The Velvet Underground, Kathleen Edwards, and just a pinch of Cormac McCarthy

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Day 8, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Ham” by John Jodzio Just your typical, garden variety story about eagles, processed meats, infidelity, larceny, and the American Dream, and I loved every word of this gonzo work😎🦅🍖🇺🇸 “The guilt has eclipsed the fun.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Day 7, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Renovation” by Kenan Orhan Jewel of a story, luxurious w/ descriptions & imagery, dense with revelatory antecedents, & playful with magical realism. “Now I am in a foreign country, crawling on the floor of the ocean without bones built for the pressure.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Day 6, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “For John” by Kim Fu Loved this story🏆 “He felt suddenly certain that he would never be able to explain why he found it beautiful, and she would never be able to explain why she found it ugly, and they would remain fundamentally unknowable to each other.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Day 5, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “My Smell Journal” by Katya Apekina Smell is supposed to be the strongest of the senses, mnemonically, and I loved the idea of the journal. “He say, New York feels like a phantom limb.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Day 4, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “Vandring’ by J. Robert Lennon Perhaps the first great short story I’ve read of/from the Covid era. Captured many of the dispirit elements from that period & the aftermath, and yet still offered a glimmer of hope. “I felt cheated both by and out of death.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Day 3, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #shortstories “Eat Pray Click” by Ed Park The clandestine ghost in the literary machine . . . “Basically, he longed for a text that wasn’t set in stone, something more akin to a living organism - a story with free will.”

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Day 2, #ssac2024 #christmasinmay “The Hookup” by Katherine Heiny The things we own often end up owning us… “It’s possible that she brought laughter and lightness to this apartment. But then again, maybe not - she was Hungarian, after all.” Encapsulates so much of what I love about short stories

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Happy Start of Short Story Month! To celebrate, my friends @onelitchick.bsky.social , @ttbrader.bsky.social , @barbaramcveigh.bsky.social , and I are embarking on a daily reread of the 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar collection from Hingston & Olsen under the hashtag #ChristmasinMay.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

@ttbrader.bsky.social @barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @mkcanuck.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social and I are going to do a 2024 H& O SSAC reread in May to celebrate Short Story month, and wanted to invite you to join in if you felt so inclined. #ChristmasinMay for the hashtag we were thinking😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

18 years and how is it possible I am just tonight seeing this masterpiece???

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

“Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.” — Louis L’Amour #books #reading #booknerd

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Starting 2026 with a solid month with some great titles😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

1 of 4 🧵 I tend not to like to hierarchically rate books, but I do like to highlight some of the books that made huge, strong impressions on me personally. So in that vein, I present to you the following set of fifteen books (in no particular order) that encompassed my favorite reads of this year.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

#ssac2025 Day 25: Year: 2022 Day: 25 “A Present For Big Saint Nick” by Kurt Vonnegut 5⭐️ ‘Big Nick was said to be the most recent heir to the power of Al Capone.’ A perfect Christmas short story😎🎄🎅

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 24 / Story 12 A Very Mario Lopez Christmas by Megan Giddings 3⭐️ ‘Can we spend the rest of our lives kidnapping each other? But isn’t that what love is? A series of being whisked away by someone your dumb heart has decided is right for you?’ Quirky last story (cont…)

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 23 / Story 11 When You Were Here by Claire Lombardo 4⭐️ ‘…her children have always known and targeted the parts of her that incite the most pain.’ A Christmas Eve and morning full of re-opened wounds and unrequited desire for connection.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 22 / Story 10 A Nativity Scene by Amilear Scott 4⭐️ ‘The feeling of overwhelm that sneaks into your mind to nourish the idea that you are no longer capable of anything but numb existence may seem all powerful, but it’s not.’ Feared the ending, was relieved!!

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 21 / Story 9 The Rent Controlled Ghost by Lee Cornell 4⭐️ ‘It was not servitude, if she had done what Cooper had asked. It was love. Or if it [was] not love, then at least some cousin to love.’ ‘The rooms he inhabited were Halina’s rooms.’

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 20 / Story 8 The Old Ways by Silas House 3.5⭐️ ‘That’s how it has always been, growing up in a house full of women. They decide something and they just go forward.’

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 19 / Story 7 Beneath the Softness of Snow by Chanel Sutherland 5⭐️ ‘The night you left home, you begged your mother not to let your daughters forget.’ Heart shattering story of a woman who emigrates to care for someone else’s child to support her own children.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 18 / Story 6 How To Milk a Sheep by Stephanie Dennee 4⭐️ “…you are the same as the antique tractor they bought at auction and placed at the turn onto the rural highway. Looks authentic, doesn’t work for shit.” Loved this story😎

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 17 / Story 5 Protection by Paola Peroni 4⭐️ “Love is grief: love we have, love we lack, love we we give, and love we miss.” Love that quote, but I can’t stop thinking about the omission of “love we lost”…do we not lose love? We only have it or lack it??

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 16 / Story 4 Storm Windows by Charles Haverty 5⭐️ “But shame, like prayer, is a solitary pursuit.” Loved this dark and broody story about family, the secrets that can be approached but never broached, and the how often what is unsaid is what is important.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 15 / Story 3 The Idler by Tyler Barton 3.5 ⭐️ “South Dakota stretches out like a cold, brown, made bed. It’s been two years, but I still can’t find comfort here.” Great opening line to this story about feeling stuck.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 14 / Story 2 Remedies by Kali Fajardo-Antone 5 ⭐️ “That man and his choices are behind you now.” Perfection…descriptive, emotional, empathetic, with a tinge of mysticism…plucked all right heart notes for me…a classic🏆

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 13 / Story 1 Two Man Luge: A Love Story by Claire Battershill 4.5 ⭐️ A gem of a story to start this year’s edition…loved all the different ‘love stories’ within these 20 pages…love of a sport, love of exercise and exertion, love of focus, and romantic love of a crush.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

#ssac2025 Day 12: Year: 2018 Day: 8 “Festive” by George Saunders 4⭐️ “This Xmas must be modest. We always say, never do. This year: do.” The eternal annual struggle, this story feels timeless.

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Finished this American classic over the course of the year with a group of friends, and am looking forward to our final monthly discussion on the book, and our twin watch parties next month for the mini series 😎 Five stars, highly recommended. Earns all of its accolades and lauded reputation.

goodreads.com

Jason Laipply's review of Lonesome Dove

5/5: Read over the course of a year with a group of friends who met monthly to discuss, Larry McMurtry’s iconic masterpiece “Lonesome Dove” lived up to its well deserved and lauded reputation. A clas...

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MrMuleMan @mrmuleman.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

#ssac2025 Day 11: Year: 2023 Day: 9 “Cosmic Cul de Sac” by Jade Song 4⭐️ Suburban landscaping equipment vigilante creates an unexpected urban Shangri-la that facilitates her escape from this mortal coil….a tale as old as time😂. Great story.

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