From our "Better Late Than Never" department...

che, originally uploaded by ubs_blogger.

Every month, our own Nick DiMartino chooses his favorite recent title and crafts a more indepth review than our regular staff favorites.

His November pick? Brief Encounters with Che Guevara by Ben Fountain .

Here's what Nick says about it:

"I have been hearing critics rave about the stories in Ben Fountain's
Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, but up until a couple weeks ago I hadn't even picked it up for a simple reason: I'm not that crazy about short stories.

"What possessed me to read the first one? I don't know. I've already
told you that it literally drove me to peek at the ending, and I still
wasn't right. What an exhilarating reading experience! Well, the whole dang book is that good.

"Along with great plotting and an honest look at the real world today,
these stories are so gorgeously written that the language would have
been enough. And there's so much more!

"Of the eight stories, I think four are flat-out masterpieces. What's
your take?"