I was moved to re-read this swiftly on the heels of my first go-through and it's at least as good on a second read. Unsurprisingly, on a second read I noticed some of the details more, or at least more consciously - like another parallel between "Victory Lap" and "Tenth of December" being the way the two main characters in each story (Alison and Kyle, Robin and Don) both save each other, and the contrast to "Puppy" and how that makes the latter heartbreaking, or like also in "Tenth of December" that both Robin and Don are unable to find the right words sometimes and the way the different reasons for that are baked into their characters and stories, or the interestingly large number of child protagonists and characters, or the way Saunders has of finding the perfect gesture (direct yet not too heavy-handed) on which to end each story. More surprisingly, but wonderfully, their effects are just as pronounced on what have now been, for some, multiple re-reads. All of these ten stories have sunk in deep.
