What a delight to explore the worlds and characters of these stories! I found myself wanting to read sentences aloud as I came across them, wondrous turns of phrase, perfectly pitched captures of voice, tiny little jokes that made me snort with laughter, followed by lines that just broke my heart in their plainspoken truth and wisdom. This earth is a blue earth -- in its oceans and its heartbreak and cloudy nostalgia, and in the blues Callie's singing for those old River Junction days. I'd follow Callie's voice across all the red-line interstate miles of the map and beyond! Sharon Bippus is a writer of extraordinary talent and self-possession.

• Thisbe Nissen, author of Out of the Girls Room and into the Night and How Other People Make Love