Microcosm Publishing, 304 pages, trade paperback, $14.00

I am still flabbergasted by my first experience reading the 10-year anthology of Cindy Crabb’s micro-zine Doris. The reader participation in the black-and-white anthology of short stories, comic reels, doodles, recipes, statements, and rants transcend the small spaces between the pages leading the reader all over the world, from Goddard College to Chechnya.

Crabb hammers out this tale on a Royal manual typewriter about Doris, who narrates a diary-style story. Together, Doris and the reader are voyeurs of life about lost family, friends, college, traveling on a shoestring budget, and learning to live gracefully through the awkward moments. The reader and Doris witness heartbreaking events as women , men, animals, children, and even inanimate objects are given a voice to live lives that state the obvious everyday tragedies and blessings in a new and fearless way. Doris (who is “everybody,” according to Crabb) tells her universal story in a very real way, generously giving of the wealth of life through the experience.

Everywhere throughout the anthology — even in the most heartbreaking moments, whether Doris travels to Chechnya, loses touch with her best friend Peter, loses a baby, or tells of the honesty and love in her friendship with her sister Caty — one will find brilliant truth. This anthology will tap into the mind’s ability to read with innocent curiosity and find true satisfaction in a world where sleeves that bear hearts are treasured.