This book contains three short stories and a novel. My favorite of the stories is The Chaser: a story about a boarding school romance. After hooking up with this bunkmate, a boy at a quaker school in the middle of nowhere is terrified to learn that his sexuality is more complex than he expected. The resulting inner turmoil and campus drama that unfolds is heartbreaking, scandalous, and at times a bit horny. The titular novel is about a crew of lumberjacks that try to pull off an illegal timber operation in a remote forest under the cover of a harsh winter. To keep their spirits high, they organize a gender-bending ball which some of them attend as women. It’s fun to read as the crew grow gossipy and covetous as they compete for the affections of those jacks attending as women. The novel mostly follows the narrator: Babe Bunyan, a self-described ugly sonofabitch whose burliness and axe skills are the stuff of local legend, on an arc of self discovery after electing to attend the dance as a woman. The story is equal parts heartening and heartbreaking. I recommend reading it!