Radios: Short takes on life and culture, by Jerome Stern

 

I found this collection of short essays (2-3 pages) while perusing the shelves at work. The author was a faculty member at Florida State University, and this book collects short pieces that he wrote for a series that he did on NPR. The pieces range from humorous memories of his childhood to fairly mundane topics to his experiences learning that he has cancer and going through both chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This book was published posthumously. I thoroughly enjoyed these essays, although the ones addressing his illness are particularly poignant, given that he didn't survive. I don't remember him from his time performing for NPR, but I can see why he was popular. He also wrote Making shapely fiction (well-reviewed on Amazon), and edited Micro fiction: A collection of really short stories.