Pack of Cards / Penelope Lively 323 p.

A collection of short stories from the 1980s by one of my all-around favorite authors. Set in and around London, mostly, they show us 'ourselves' in surprising, humorous, and moving ways. Often, the action is almost nonexistent, but Lively's sharp eye shows us to see all the interesting things happening below the surface. Some stories I especially liked featured a comfortable judge forced to peruse a stack of porn literature as part of a trafficking case, and an elderly woman who drifts into a rock concert while on her daily walk through Hyde Park.