Progress of Love,18 (Vintage Publishing)

Alice Munro`s new collection of 11 stories thoughtfully explores the themes of self-knowledge and love. Families, friends, eccentrics, loversthe characters all bear the marks and burdens of unpredictable individualism and humanity. Girlish friendship and imaginings end in betrayal, estrangement, and self-revelation over the years in "Jesse and Meribeth." A small-town nurse in "Eskimo" unveils layers of female obligation and the complexities of love when trying to befriend a young girl on a plane to Tahiti. "A Queer Streak" has about it the satisfying subtlety, wholeness, and horror of legend.