A collection of short stories, each told with a differing narrative structure and a different cast of characters. Some stories in the collection employ traditional narrative structures such as the frame tale and the three-act structure. Other stories borrow their structures from society at large, the bombardment of text and media Americans face every day (letters, recipes, song lyrics). The stories explore how people can read our world and possibly interpret larger shared narrative strands. These stories focus attention on human responses to illness, loss, family, war and protest, looking for opportunities to expand recognition of the range of emotions, moving beyond generic understanding to personal connection. The tone of the collection tends towards dark humor to hint at the deeper, possibly inexplicable human condition.