forbidden brides of the faceless slaves in the nameless house of the night of dread desire

...is one of the stories (by Neil Gaiman) whose more-than-a-mouthful title alone piqued my interest in Fantasy: The Best of 2004, edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan. While I have the original publications of the some of the stories selected for the anthology (for example, three came from Sarrantonio's Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy), I haven't encountered the others: the Ford, the Link and the Swanwick, in addition to the Gaiman.

A Different Bookstore also had the editors' companion volume, Science Fiction: The Best of 2004, which I picked up (browsing through the TOC revealed enough enticements: a VanderMeer, a Kress, a Bacigalupi and an Emshwiller).

I am so pleased I feel like a cat with a personal sunbeam. Books do that.