The History of the Baker's Dozen, as the title suggests, bristles with stories full of excess and want. In "Albatross," a beautiful former lifeguard, at a class reunion, confesses her ongoing wish to rescue a boy who drowned on her watch. In the title story, a baker, despite the number of doughnuts he adds to each dozen, cannot satisfy his customers. "Extant's" aging married couple long for a renewal of desire in a house formerly owned by a well-known...