The Winter Bees — Jill Kalz

Behind each door of each small place in this collection of ten short stories, people tend to their duties to keep a small town humming. The Winter Bees introduces seemingly mundane lives lived in a rural Minnesota town and reveals journeys of personal discovery, meaning, love and hope.

Ana, the bartender, hosts Christmas parties for children and raises money for charity, all the while storing memories of her lonely past. Bachelor Herman, who pines for his best friend's wife, makes messes to attract her over to his place and clean up after him. The bookstore owner, Shirley, who neatly shelves the stacks while longing for her dead husband, surprises herself in a moment of cruelty.

These intertwined stories draw us into the everyday lives of people whose duties often mean personal restraint and heartbreak.