How Strange a Season

Megan Mayhew Bergman

Short Stories

An evocative and engrossing collection of new stories and a novella about women experiencing life’s challenges and beauty from the award-winning writer Megan Mayhew Bergman.

A recently separated woman fills a huge terrarium with endangered flowers to establish a small world only she can control in an attempt to heal her broken heart. A competitive swimmer negotiates over which days she will fulfill her wifely duties, and which days she will keep for herself. A peach farmer wonders if her orchard will survive a drought. And generations of a family in South Carolina struggle with fidelity and their cruel past, some clinging to old ways and others painfully carving new paths.

In these haunting stories, Megan Mayhew Bergman portrays women who wrestle with problematic inheritances: a modern glass house on a treacherous California cliff, a water-starved ranch, and an abandoned plantation on a river near Charleston. Bergman’s provocative prose asks the questions: what are we leaving behind for our ancestors to hold, and what price will they pay for our mistakes?

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

3 out of 5 stars (3 / 5) Do you love stories of women breaking societal norms that are strong on the inside even if they’re not on the outside? This book of short stories does just that. They are real, heartbreaking and heart warming.

“The trick was to believe your choices. Once you let the doubt in, it ate you alive. Once you started trying to be good, you could only see the ways in which you weren’t.”

There were a lot of great, endearing moments in this book. Multiple short stories that brought tough women into the light. Their life struggles were unique but also easy to learn from.

A Taste of Lionfish and Ward was my favorite about a man trying to atone for the sins of his ancestors. It was honest and real and the one I connected to most. Ultimately, I’ve learned I’m not a fan of short stories. I don’t feel like the characters or story are developed enough and I’m left wanting more.

General content summary: F words: 18, addiction, personal intimacy reference, intimate moments and references (no detail), reference to rape, miscarriage, f/f relationship, a child hits his mom with a bat, many women have been found murdered, shooting an animal, childbirth.

Thank you to Scribner Books for the gifted copy!

The book releases March 29, 2022.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

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