Stories from Playboy magazine, 2008 issues

Note that while they sometimes publish very good genre stories, most of their stories are non-genre.

List below is by quality - best first; unread stories come at end. My rating (ABC: A = time well spent; C = don't bother) is in brackets. Unless mentioned otherwise, stories are from US edition of the magazine.

1. March: Tony D'Souza's "The Cook" (A); non genre: Small town India, seen from the eyes of 3 Americans.
2. June: [ss] Jane Smiley's "Paradigm Shift" (A); science fiction, humor: Going green can spice up your married life! Added to my best of the year 2008 list.
3. February: F X Toole's "Holy Man" (B); non genre: A skilled boxer ends up destroying his career because he listens to the wrong people.
4. November: J Robert Lennon's "The Wraith" (B); ghosts: An unhappy woman suddenly discovers the ability to split into two - a happy one, & a miserable one!
   
5. April: Robert Stone's "Charm City" (B); non-genre: Description of a house burglary.
6. May: Ron Carlson's "In Old Moab" (C); non-genre: Description of a failed robbery.
7. January: John Updike's "Blue Light": Not read. Something about a new treatment of skin cancer involving exposure to blue light - so it might be a genre story.
8. July: [serial, part 1 of 4] Denis Johnson's "Nobody Move": Not read.
9. December: James Ellroy's "Blood's a Rover": Not read. It's an excerpt from one of author's novels.
   

Related: All Playboy stories. Or only from 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 or 2007 issues.