M Is for Magic

Book: M Is for Magic
Author: Neil Gaiman
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: Jack Horner, trolls, jeweled skull tennis balls, the Holy Grail, and more make appearances in these short stories

A collection of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi short stories. I listened to the audio, which is read by author Neil Gaiman quite nicely. The stories range from a hard-bitten detective story about nursery rhyme characters (Jasper Fforde, anyone?) to a short but creepy tale about an eeevil Jack-in-the-Box, to the story of a woman who buys the Holy Grail at OxFam for 30p. I also quite liked "Troll Bridge," in which a boy manages to put off a troll from eating him several times throughout his life, but in the end it all catches up to him.

Gaiman introduces the collection by laying out that you may like some stories and not others, and that's the beauty of short stories, that you have lots of options right there in one, and he's right. I liked some more than others, but the variety was great. An excellent choice for fans of Gaiman, or if you're looking for a wide variety of speculative fiction all in one book (or box o' CDs).

Bonus fun fact: The title is an homage to Ray Bradbury's R Is for Rocket and S Is for Spaceship collections.