Throw Like a Girl (2007)

The women who populate Jean Thompson's story collection Throw Like a Girl feel depressed, repressed, oppressed, or simply bored with their everyday lives: An anonymous wife and mother of two embarks on an affair after realizing ''you start out being married together and you end up being married apart''; Kelly Ann, a high school dropout, follows her husband into the Army so she too can ''have a life worth remembering''; Cindy reflects on her childhood, describing ''that first sadness, which comes from family, and never entirely goes away.'' Brimming with such melancholy sentiment, each of Thompson's dozen tales covers familiar themes — but their aha! moments consistently offer a refreshing jolt. B