I don’t read a ton of story collections, but I’m always pleased after I finish one. I love discovering new authors whose story has stuck with me. And I think it’s so much more challenging to write a short story than a novel. You have so little space to make an impact on the reader. I broke this book up into chunks, reading one or two stories a day, and that method worked really well for me. Overall, I really enjoyed these stories.
From Goodreads: Twenty prizewinning stories selected from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year–continuing the O. Henry Prize’s century-long tradition of literary excellence.
Now entering its second century, the prestigious annual story anthology has a new title, a new look, and a new guest editor. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and young emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Adichie, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.
Featured in this collection: Daphne Palasi Andreades – David Means- Sindya Bhanoo- Crystal Wilkinson- Alice Jolly- David Rabe- Karina Sainz Borgo (translator, Elizabeth Bryer) – Jamel Brinkley- Tessa Hadley – Adachioma Ezeano- Anthony Doerr- Tiphanie Yanique – Joan Silber – Jowhor Ile – Emma Cline – Asali Solomon – Ben Hinshaw – Caroline Albertine Minor (translator, Caroline Waight) – Jianan Qian – Sally Rooney
Several of these stories really stuck with me, particularly the ones from Daphne Palasi Andreades, Crystal Wilkinson, Jamal Brinkley, and Jianan Qian, all of who are new to me. I’ve never read any of their other works. But you really can’t go wrong with this collection. Each one has something that you’ll enjoy. I’m glad I picked this one up.
Title/Author: Nightcrawlers/Rosecrans Baldwin, The Two Million Dollar Intern/David Gauvey Herbert, Bad Therapist/Evan Wright, Ms. Mirage/Joe Tone, King of Dreams/Christie Thompson, The Officer and the Entrepreneur/Dan Slater
Genre: Non-fiction
I just love these Amazon short stories. I have read Disorder collection, The One collection, Black Stars collection, Faraway Collection, Nameless, Foreward, Out of Line, and Hush. All have been outstanding. This collection was unlike the others. These stories were journalistic investigations. I could easily see each story as its own podcast. Each one, aside from Nightcrawlers, which is actually an uplifting story, tells the story of a person being exposed for being as bad as you think they are. From city corruption to misrepresentation to outright lies, these stories dig deep into the truth.
From Goodreads: Nightcrawlers: It’s a Darien, Connecticut, tradition: an emergency medical service managed by adolescents. One kid is a varsity soccer captain. There’s a future doctor, a band dork, a theater geek. Theirs is a view of town without the niceties. A drunken spouse turned violent. Lonely old people stuck in the bath. A midlife suicide. How do these kids process the sometimes shocking and violent life-and-death secrets of their community? The answer is a story of high stress and uncommon high school lives, told by a writer who spent his own youth on the night shift. Welcome to Post 53.
The Two Million Dollar Intern: A Ponzi scheme was exposed, and a prominent Manhattan hedge fund imploded. Enterprising intern and financial wizard-in-training Gerti Muho saw it as an opportunity. He had insider knowledge and a knack for fraud, embezzlement, and identity theft. His steady supply of speed helped. Muho was on a luxury high. His luck seemed bottomless. Considering what was to come, he’d need it.
Bad Therapist: Chris Bathum was a respected therapist, addiction specialist, and founder of one of the fastest-growing rehabilitation chains in America. But Bathum was a total fraud: he was a meth-head with a history of sexually abusing his patients, scamming insurance companies, and eliminating whistle-blowers. Like Rose Stahl. But this intended victim would be his last. Stahl would risk her life to bring down the monster she and so many other people in need had once trusted for their salvation.
Ms. Mirage: In the era of Watergate and rising feminist awareness, reporter Pam Zekman was queen of the muckrakers. Her biggest investigation: buy a bar, document the inevitable city department shakedowns and bribes, and publicly document Chicago’s institutionalized corruption. Her epic story changed Chicago and also raised serious questions about the future of journalism.
King of Dreams: Peter Candlewood understood the system. That’s how he could commute prison sentences and reunite hopeless families with incarcerated loved ones. For a price. Except there was no Candlewood. No hope. Just a lowly Texas con artist who bet on the desperate—and won. And he wasn’t working alone. The multimillion-dollar deception cost the betrayed more than their savings.
The Officer and the Entrepreneur: After Kevin Corley’s military career came to an ill-fated end, he answered another call of duty, unaware that he was walking into a ruse orchestrated by one of the government’s most enterprising agents. John Leonard was posing online as an underworld figure to entrap those who were predisposed to crime. When he lured Lieutenant Corley into his scheme, he didn’t know how wrong it would go. And Corley had no idea he had so much left to lose.
Nightcrawlers was really great and will give you hope. These teenagers who run Post are just outstanding people, and I really loved reading their stories. All the others are ones where the bad people definitely get outed, and you can’t wait for that to happen. Some of these are longer than a usual short story, more like a novella. But all were really interesting.
I’m really enjoying these Amazon originals short stories. However, this one was a little different. These were all non-fiction. I’m not normally one for love stories, but these weren’t your average boy meets girl tales. Some were girl meets girl. One of these was about a family pet, even. In any case, I did enjoy them all, but a couple were standouts to me.
From Goodreads: Before Her- Before Jacqueline Woodson met Juliet, before her own self-realization, there were decades of friends, lovers, and family who defined the woman she’d become. In this haunting story of memory and identity, Jacqueline shares the profound impact they had on bending the path of her life; how they informed the dreams of her future; and how each one—some lost, all loved—would bring her to Juliet, her one and only.
Parable- In this funny remembrance of an unusual triangle, Jess learns to accept what’s best for the one animal he has ever loved. After all, he gave his heart to the Australian shepherd mix he’d rescued. What alternative has he other than to give the restless girl her freedom? But in doing so, Jess discovers more about himself, the nature of affection and attachment, the inevitability of loss, and how much Millie means to so many.
A Wedding Thing- Two days before Shea and Larami Serrano were to be married, four months into her pregnancy with twin boys, she went into labor. Stuck in a hospital room, fearing the worst, and dismantling a year’s worth of preparations in a matter of hours—the couple decides that the show must go on. Told from Shea’s and Larami’s dual perspectives, this memoir shows the powerful bond that can arise from adversity, a sense of humor, and mutual trust.
Yes, And- When Kristi Coulter’s husband proposed, she didn’t admit her fears. When they exchanged vows, she didn’t reveal that she was terrified that marriage would ruin her life. During fifteen years of genuinely happy marriage, she never said a word about another man in her life. Then she comes clean—about all of it—and discovers a new world.
The Visitor- One cold, lonely night, Manhattan writer Dodai Stewart meets a charming stranger on an internet dating site. He’s sexy. He’s smart. He’s funny. There’s an instant spark. And one unavoidable catch: adorable Marco lives in San Francisco. So how far is Dodai willing to go, and how much will she sacrifice, to find that elusive One she’s heard so much about? Cross-country travel, emotional outbursts of love, and time will inevitably tell.
Speed Grieving- When Allison Ellis’s husband died of an unexpected heart attack, there was no playbook for a thirty-three-year-old widow with a breastfeeding infant. In her grief, she devised a practical strategy: find a new husband within twelve months. What transpired was a year of mourning, manic dating, and breaking hearts across Seattle on a deadline mission to heal her own.
Lila- When Naima Coster met Lila, they were girls of color in a predominantly white private school in Manhattan. As adolescents they found each other and needed each other. As each comes of age, and new bonds pull them apart, the friendship splinters. What happens when Naima and Lila turn to one another again—this time as women? And what will it take to recapture the connection that once meant the world to them?
Parable, about the family dog, was my favorite. It was hilarious. And, oddly enough, our family got a dog yesterday. This particular dog isn’t very loyal and keeps running away from home. Ends up loving the neighbor more, who also loves it. So the two families share her a lot. I also enjoyed A Wedding Thing because when you’re pregnant, babies have other plans! Thankfully all turned out well for the babies, but the wedding ended up differently than expected. This series has something for everyone, really. Love isn’t just about marital love. Love between friends, lovers, parents, pets, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed each unique story.
Title/Author: The Visit by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Black Pages by Nnedi Okorafor
2043…A Merman I Should Turn to Be by Nisi Shawl
These Alien Skies by C.T. Rwizi
We Travel the Spaceways by Victor LaValle
Clap Back by Nalo Hopkinson
Genre: Afrofuturism
I’m not a sci-fi person. As much as I try to be, and as much as I fully support the Afrofuturism genre, it’s just not my thing. That said, I do enjoy a book here and there. The Parable of the Sower duology by Octavia Butler is a masterpiece. I also loved her Kindred. But other books in the genre were just okay for me. But that’s just me. If this is your genre of choice, you’ll love this book series found on Amazon.
From Goodreads: The Visit: One night in Lagos, two former friends reunite. Obinna is a dutiful and unsophisticated stay-at-home husband and father married to a powerful businesswoman. Eze is single, a cautious rebel from his university days whose arrival soon upsets the balance in Obinna’s life. In a world where men are constantly under surveillance and subject to the whims of powerful women, more than Obinna’s ordered and accustomed routine might be on the line.
The Black Pages: Issaka has returned home to Timbouctou and a devastating al-Qaeda raid. His only hope for survival is Faro, a stunning, blue-beaded supernatural entity who rises free from the flames of her imprisoning book as it burns. Compelled to follow Faro, Issaka is opening his eyes to their shared history and the ancestral wisdom of his own past.
2043… A Merman I Should Turn to Be: Five miles off the South Carolina coast, Darden and Catherina are getting their promised forty acres, all of it undersea. Like every Black “mer,” they’ve been experimentally modified to adapt to their new subaquatic home—and have met with extreme resistance from white supremacists. Darden has an inspired plan for resolution. For both those on land and the webbed bottom-dwellers below, Darden is hoping to change the wave of the future.
These Alien Skies: Copilots Msizi and Tariro are testing a newly constructed wormhole jump that presumably leads to unsettled habitable worlds. Then an explosion sends them off course, far from where they started and with little chance of ever making it back. Now they’re stranded on their new home for the diaspora. It’s called Malcolm X-b. But they’re beginning to wonder how many light-years from civilization they really are.
Clap Back: Burri is a fashion designer and icon with a biochemistry background. Her latest pieces are African inspired and crafted to touch the heart. They enable wearers to absorb nanorobotic memories and recount the stories of Black lives and forgiveness. Wenda doesn’t buy it. A protest performance artist, Wenda knows exploitation when she sees it. What she’s going to do with Burri’s breakthrough technology could, in the right hands, change race relations forever.
We Travel the Spaceways: Grimace is a homeless man on a holy mission to free Black Americans from emotional slavery. His empty soda cans told him as much. Then he meets Kim, a transgender runaway who joins Grimace on his heroic quest. Is Grimace receiving aluminum missives from the gods, or is he a madman? Kim will find out soon enough on a strange journey they’ve been destined to share.
I loved The Black Pages. The opening page has a quote from Fahrenheit 451 on it, so I was hooked. And yes, it’s about book burning, but it’s so much more than that. I immediately was drawn in to the story, more so than any of the other stories. The Visit was also really great. The tables were turned where the world is a matriarchy. The others were good, but just not for me. Please don’t let that dissuade you, though. These are great stories.
I love these short story collections that Amazon puts out. I’ve read the Forward collection (ratings: The Last Conversation 5 stars, Ark 4 stars, Summer Frost 4, Emergency Skin 3, You Have Arrived at Your Destination 3, Randomize 3). I loved the first Nameless collection by Dean Koontz and will dig into the second set shortly. I read the Hush collection (ratings: Treasure 3 stars, Slow Burner 3 stars, The Gift 4 stars, Snowflakes 4, Buried 4, Let Her Be 4). The Out of Line stories are all about women who don’t/won’t fit into a box (ratings: This Telling 4 stars, Graceful Burdens 4 stars, Sweet Virginia 5, The Contractors 4, Halfway to Free 5, Bear Witness 4, Shine, Pamela! Shine 4). This collection was really great. And I’m currently reading the Black Stars collection.
From Goodreads: The Prince and the Troll: It’s fate when a man accidentally drops his phone off the bridge. It’s fortune when it’s retrieved by a friendly shape sloshing in the muck underneath. From that day forward, as they share a coffee every morning, an unlikely friendship blooms. Considering the reality for the man above, where life seems perfect, and that of the sharp-witted creature below, how forever after can a happy ending be?
Hazel and Gray: It’s bad enough that Hazel and Gray have defied the demands of Hazel’s foul stepfather. The Monster has forbidden their romance. Now they’ve awakened in the forest, phones dead, hours past curfew. But not far away is a grand estate in the middle of nowhere. The door is open. In this short story about choosing your own path, the fury of the Monster that awaits them back home may be nothing compared to what lies ahead.
The Princess Game: The victims are the most popular girls in school, each murdered and arranged in a grim fairy-tale tableau. To find the killer, rookie detective Callum Pederson has gone undercover where the Princes hold court. He’s found enough secrets among the bros to bring them in for questioning—but he could very well get lost in the games the Princes play.
The Wickeds: Envious queen? Evil stepmother? Kidnapping hag? Elsinora, Gwendolyn, and Marguerite are through with warts-and-all tabloids, ugly lies, and the three ungrateful brats who pitted them against each other and the world. But maybe there’s more to the stories than even the Wickeds know. Is it time to finally get revenge? After all, they’re due for a happily-enough-ever-after. Even if they have to write it themselves.
The Cleaners: Gui is a professional cleaner at A Fresh Start, scrubbing away the unpleasant layers of memory that build up on the personal objects of his customers. Memory-blind himself, he can’t feel those wounds. Clara can, and she prefers them irretrievable. Until her sister, Beatrice, ultrasensitive to memory, raises one that could change Clara’s mind. For Gui, the past is gone. For Clara and Beatrice, deciding what to remember reaches to the heart of their shared history.
I loved The Cleaners. Hands down the best of the bunch for me. The Wickeds was my least favorite. It was just a little too happily ever after for me. The rest were all four stars, and I really enjoyed them. You could breeze through this collection in a day for sure. Most took me less than 30 minutes to read. If you have Prime and a Kindle (or the app) don’t miss these stories.
PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: an author who shares your Zodiac sign
I’ve read a lot by Joe Hill. The Fireman was my favorite, but I also enjoyed Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and NOS4A2. I’m not a big short story fan, but I’m trying to read more. My strategy is to pick a book and read one a day, while I’m also reading other novels. It actually works well for me, and I’m definitely going to use this for my Stephen King story collections that I haven’t gone through yet.
From Goodreads: A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in “Faun.” A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in “Late Returns.” In “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain,” two young friends stumble on the corpse of a plesiosaur at the water’s edge, a discovery that forces them to confront the inescapable truth of their own mortality . . . and other horrors that lurk in the water’s shivery depths. And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in “Throttle,” co-written with Stephen King.
There are some memorable stories in this collection. One is told entirely through tweets, which was excellent. One was formatted in a stair step fashion to mimic the plot. Another was told about an event from multiple perspectives of people on an airplane. “In the Tall Grass” was also co-written by Stephen King, and I know it’s also a Netflix movie, but I definitely will not be watching that. This story is so horrific, but great, but it’s one I know I won’t be able to stomach actually seeing. Overall, this was a great collection with some really creative stories, some really gruesome stories, and some really heartfelt stories. So far, Joe Hill hasn’t let me down.
The cover of this book haunted my childhood. My dad had this paperback on his bookshelf. And when I was just an early reader, I would love to look at the covers of his books. I don’t remember any of them, except this. I hated it because it was so creepy. As vivid as the cover is, I had entirely forgotten which book it was until I actually started reading this one. And when I read the short story about a man with eyeballs on his hand, the memory came rushing back. I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know that this cover no longer haunts me. I can look at it with no ill effects.
I love individual short stories, but short story collections just aren’t my thing. I much prefer a novel. But I’ve been working my way through all SK’s books and picked this one up. It’s his first collection, published in 1978, and reading it was a blast to the past. These stories are very similar to his early novels in writing style. You also get a glimpse into the SK multi-verse.
“Night Surf” is tangentially related to The Stand. “Jerusalem’s Lot” and “One for the Road” revisit ‘Salem’s Lot. The famous “Children of the Corn” is introduced here, as is “The Lawnmower Man” (which is 99% different than the movie). Every one of these stories was excellent, which is rare for me to acknowledge. Usually there’s a hit or a miss in there somewhere, but I enjoyed them all. If you’re looking to get into SK but aren’t ready to tackle a novel yet, I highly recommend this collection.
Patrick Ness is one of my favorite authors. As I’ve said before, you really just never know what you’re going to get with him. I’ve also reviewed a lot of his works like And The Ocean Was Our Sky, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Release, More Than This, and Chaos Walking. I think there’s only one book of his that I haven’t read. And even though his books are really diverse and none are like the others, his writing is top-notch and creative. I’ve enjoyed them all.
This book was actually a short story collection, which I’m usually not a fan of. I really like a good long plot and development. And these stories were good, but only one was exceptional- “Gifted.” My fondness for it might have been because I used to teach middle school gifted kids, like the class in the story, and we did problem-based learning, also like the story. There were definitely the over-achiever, teacher-pleaser kids, and the cynical, distant kid. Ness got these stereotypes totally correct. The story was fun and dark and took my by surprise.
The rest of the stories were fine. I’m sure they appeal to short story fans, but it’s just not my thing. Overall, a nice collection to Ness’s works. I will continue to read anything by him.
My love of Stephen King books is well-documented. Oddly enough, I only read his novels. I’m not one for short stories. However, I’m trying to get through his entire collection, so I’ll read them all at some point. This one is a collection of four novellas, which strike me a bit better than short stories. I like a good development in the plot. And one of them is almost 200 pages, so it might as well be a novel; some books I read are near that anyway.
The four stories aren’t really all that gross or horrifying. Nothing that will keep you up at night. They are definitely mysterious and a bit creepy, but they are tame considering their author. My favorite was If It Bleeds because we get to revisit a character that I especially love. It was the longest story, also. But overall, these are great stories for anyone who enjoys a good, creepy read. And I recommend them as a good way to enter the world of Stephen King.
I read Tampa, by Alissa Nutting, some time ago. And as hard as the story was to read, I was absolutely blown away by it. In Tampa, the main character is a middle school teacher who is obsessed with one of her students. She begins a sexual relationship with him. She is clearly a pedophile, preying on young men, but Nutting writes her so vividly and thoroughly, that even though you know what she is doing is beyond reprehensible, you feel badly for her because she lives such a miserable life. Tampa is a book that has stayed with me ever since I first read it.
Because I enjoyed Tampa so much, I wanted to read more of Nutting’s work, so I grabbed this short story collection, which (according to Goodreads) appears to be her only other published work. One is forthcoming in 2017, though. I admit that I’m not a huge short story fan. I can handle one here or there, but overall, I enjoy novels much more. That said, I really liked this collection a lot. The stories are all very adult oriented, namely sex in space, injecting ants into your body in the future, watching garden gnomes have sex (I loved this one, actually), going to Hell, and confronting the ghost of your mother.
I look forward to reading more from Nutting. I’ve been very impressed with how she handles taboo and unpleasant topics with care and, oftentimes, humor. To write such a varied collection of short stories shows her creativity and imagination knows no bounds. I highly recommend both of her books.
Pleasant Nights 