Changes

[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Laura SolomonGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=Taking WainuiThe Accidentals|rating=24.5|genre=General FictionShort Stories|summary= This is collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the first time I have come across Laura Solomon's workword: spellbinding with its fantastical, a New Zealand writer who has won writing prizes for both her fiction magical elements and charming in its gentle portrayal of nature and poetryhuman relationships. Although this book Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her stories structured by a wisdom that appears to be a collection of short stories, I found its format somewhat confusingwant to teach us something about the world.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>8193409353</amazonuk>1804271470

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kenneth StevenMariana Enriquez|title=Winter TalesA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=45

|summary= Upon opening Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this book you are presented with uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an eclectic collection of twelve short stories centred around a common theme of Winter. You are taken around the world as you read stories set in a variety abandoned field full of places from Helsinki disused refrigerators due to New Yorkan urban planning mishap, Germany to Russia. Kenneth Steven cleverly utilises an overcrowded homeless shelter and a key component of short stories crime- that you can read each story in one sitting ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - to his advantage as he gives each story an individual focal subject, such as bullying, ensuring all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that you are reading the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a distinct story every time you open the booksimilarly tangible texture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910674508</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlFyodor Dostoyevsky|title= FearWhite Nights|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary=Do you enjoy being scared? Featuring fourteen classic spine-chilling stories chosen by Roald DahlAs always in Dostoyevsky, these terrible tales of ghostly goings-on will have you shivering the character work is sublime. One is never left wondering what a character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with fear as you turn the pagesremarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933216</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald DahlAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= WarAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 5|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=In war, are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahlshape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you's time as re eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a fighter pilot few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the Second World War as well as seven other tales feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of conflict it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and strife, Dahl reveals the human side of our most inhumane activityprobabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933194</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald DahlB0CDZRGT1M|title= TrickerySuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=''Got a minute to be amused, entertained, or challenged?''''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.'' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How underhand could do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you be try to get what you wantdraw out themes from all the flash fictions in a book of them? In these ten tales I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of dark and twisted trickery Roald Dahl reveals flash fiction but that we are at our smartest and most cunning when we set out to deceive others - andfor this collection, sometimes, even ourselvesauthor Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. Here, among others, youThat'll read of the married couple and the parting gift which rocks their marriage, the light fingered hitch-hiker and the grateful motorist, and discover why the serious poacher keeps s about a few sleeping pills single page in his arsenalyour average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933232</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlRachel Harrison|title= InnocenceBad Dolls|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories|summary=What makes us innocent It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and how do we come scaring myself half silly with them to lose it? Featuring the autobiographical stories telling point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of Roald Dahlthe vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn's boyhood t have those jump scares, and youth as well as four further tales of innocence betrayedI didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, Dahl touches on the joys and horrors I found most of growing up. Among other that feeling came from the fact that these are storiesabout women, living normal lives, you'll read about the wager and that destroys a girl's faith at least in her fatherpart, the landlady who has plans for her unsuspecting young guest horrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and the commuter who is horrified to discover that a fellow passenger once bullied him at schoolcoping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933259</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania HershmanB0CCCVRSGX|title=Some of Us Glow More Than OthersStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories |summary=This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. There are thirteen in all and I wontook something from each of them. There isn't be alone in stating a single one that reading short story collections can doesn't deserve to be slightly awkwardamong the others or brings down the overall quality. Going through from A-Z, witnessing a bounty of ideas and characters in short order It can be tricky to review short stories without giving too muchaway, but do you have the right to so I'll just pick and choose according two to what appeals, talk about and what time you have to fill? The sequence has carefully been considered, surely. Such would appear to be the case here. The last time I read one of this author's collections, with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]], the only real difficulty was holding back and rationing them, but here you not only get think they give a whopping forty pieces of writing, they are also spread into sectionsgeneral flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Kelman1739593901|title=That Was a Shiver, 22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Other StoriesStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories Science Fiction|summary=This is the ninth book ''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of short stories by this authorflying cars, which means hewe got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I's presented just as many collections ve got a couple of the confessions to make. I'm not keen on short form stories as he has novelsI find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. You will find There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it hard to think of another author that has been so noted for longer works (what 's the technology which takes centre stage along with [[How Late the world-building. It Was, How Late by James Kelman|How Late It Was, How Late]] winning the Booker) but 's human beings who is so generous in presenting shorter pieces for the time-poor, or those like fascinate me who see : the variety in a writer's short or less typical works to be technology and the more interesting places to turnworld scape are purely incidental. Opening these pagesSo, from the pen what did I think of a book of such an esteemed protwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, came with no small sense of anticipationI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786890909</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Various AuthorsB09XZMCDVF|title= A Change Is Gonna ComeStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 54|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= ''A Change Is Gonna Comenews vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…'' is an anthology  This collection of thirteen short stories and poems interpreting the theme of change by twelve BAME writers. It's Stripes Publishing's response Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the under-representation of BAME authors in eclectic reader. Tying them together is the UKidea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, things can happen to ordinary people. And itthat ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's a great responsecoming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847158390</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen Stancey1737030942|title= The Madonna of the PoolBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating= 3.54|genre= Short StoriesAnthologies|summary= In most short story collectionsSometimes, an overarching theme is usually present in each of the narratives which help each story gently flow in to the nextyou deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores the quiet disappointmentsI first encountered his writing about a year ago, achievementswhen I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], and complications that each a rollicking tale of us experience through everyday lifewhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. She draws attention Right now, I didn't want a full-length novel, so I turned to the small events this anthology of verse and decisions that can both disrupt short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and significantly alter the lives so have his characters. Well... most of others and ourselves, all while maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughout.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1912054000</amazonuk>them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joanna Walsh1529418100|title=Worlds from the WordBruno's EndChallenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker|rating=3.54

|summary=We here at The Bookbag liked this authorI's fairly recent collection m not usually a fan of short stories, - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Vertigo by Joanna WalshMartin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|VertigoBruno Courreges Mysteries]]so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. I myself missed outFor those new to the series, but there's an excellent introduction that seemed will tell you all you need to be vignettes from one characterknow about who's narration – here we get homosexual male narrators who and a host more, as well as much less of the sadness prevalent beforebackground to why Bruno is in St Denis. Having }}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had a brief encounter with this author courtesy of her entry into shop, the [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne|Object Lessons]] seriesCherry Blossom Boutique, I was intrigued by her name being stamped on a selection of shortsfor just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. Was it She's delighted and the ideal calling card? Lettwo people she's face itbrought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, the very short story itself is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can be a postcard – letsee where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's sayhusband, from a specific hotel or twoCharles and their four-year-old daughter, as we see hereAva. Perhaps I should have geared myself up, however, Life would be perfect for such intricate writing on said postcards – and Liberty if it wasn't for the exotic locations from which they came…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508105</amazonuk>one thing: she misses having a man in her life.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen PhillipsB08KKQ85FN|title=Some Possible SolutionsBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona

|summary=Picture ''If a world where youwoman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a new motherpampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, move more to a town where you slowly start the point, about to realise that every other woman seems a replica discover the real world of you – dressing bus timetables and doing as paying his own gas bills.'' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you do. ? Consider a place where you have a perfect other half – most literally – but itWe first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's only to be found on an alien planet. Or how about Wife in [[Sorting the woman who suddenly finds she can see everything Priorities: Ambassadress and everyone else alive as having no skin, just organs, tissue Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and bone as if everyone we learned what it was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? A lot of these stories are hard like to summarise without dropping into be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the voice time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of the Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled'Twilight Zone'' narrationrather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, but they're not specifically genre works – they're just further examples has no intention of this author's unsettling look at the bizarre elements of lifeslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273425</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin LiuB08CHJLNBS|title= The Wandering EarthCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Science Women's Fiction|summary= If anyone thought that the short story as He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a form had been relegated to partner at Wickham Jones, the pages of womenMayfair letting agents. She's magazines (no disrespect) – think againEmilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. One genre Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that has always been , which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a stalwart supporter and encourager of the short form is Sci-filittle deeper. So when you pick up Charles is more of a collection of Sci-fi shorts[[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, you know he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it will have just as much depth and thought-provoking philosophy as any similar novel's obvious to his friends. Add to And given that the intrigue of seeing how the concepts are approached Emilia regularly feels repulsed by someone from China which – Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to be polite – has him? The relationship's obviously a somewhat different worldnon-view in many ways to much starter, isn't it?}}{{Frontpage|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=Cursed: An Anthology of the rest Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales of the planet…and add faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that an author who . Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which is not only a best-seller in his home country but has why the distinction theme of having produced the first translated work this book of SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be good!very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)Stibbe_Xmas|title= I Am The Brother Of XXAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesHumour|summary=''I Am The Brother Christmas – the time of XX'' is traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a collection of twenty one short stories from Fleur Jaeggytime it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughout, from if that failed the evil done between husband and wife in hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it'The Aviary'', a nasty tale of Oedipal menace s suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and vicious, although admittedlyvisit it, artful cruelty, to senseless annihilation and immolation in ''The Heir''. Jaeggy also appears to have a particular fascination get too friendly with religion, from the nun receiving a rather special sort of communion in ''The Visitor'' it to general references want to the Church and religious devotion throughout many of her storieseat it. Family Christmas, though, is of course also a recurrent theme; whether focused on the distance between siblings time of great boons. It's cash in the titular storyhand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, told from the point of view of it was always a brother filled godsend for postmen with longing and loneliness trying all the thank-you letters to create aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a bond with his distant older sisterchild, or and as for the primal need to protect the bond between mother makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and son, regardless sell them any other time of the cost in ''Adelaide''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Malcolm Devlin0954899520|title= You Will Grow Into ThemA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating= 5|genre= Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Tove Jansson''You Will Grow Into Them'' is a thrilling collection of ten short stories all centred s worldwide fame lasts on the nature Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of transition the simplicity, naivety and changesheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. The Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often grisly, macabre and ghoulish nature forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the stories included in Devlin's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit natural world and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictivesimple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tove Jansson1911115847|title= Letters From KlaraNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating= 54|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= Famed in the UK for her creation ''Nights of the Moomin family, Jansson Creaking Bed'' is rather belatedly beginning to gather a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks to publishers ''Sort lives and lusts of an assortment of books'' characters living in and Thomas Tealaround Lagos, who has been responsible for most of the translationsNigeria. Receiving Nigeria, in this onecollection, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem to have missed one is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the series, shadows and secondly there'll come people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a time sooner rather than later when there'll be no more vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to be had. The former will be rectified, the latter is achieve a sad thoughtglimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lee Child1529014484|title= No Middle NameExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating= 45|genre= Crime Science Fiction|summary= There is a theoryOver the past twenty-eight years, to which those who regularly read my reviews will know I sometimes subscribeTed Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, which says that the short story's heyday has passed and these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it has now put itself out to grass. This is particularly true, likely that you have already come across some say, and I have been known to concur, of the crime and thriller genreswork by Ted Chiang. Tosh! I can only apologise to all authors involved and own up: I simply If you haven't been paying attention. Not even then take this opportunity to shorter offerings my by favourite authorsdo so now. So: big thanks to Lee Child and publishers Bantam Press for putting Trust me straight with ''No Middle Name'' : a collection of short stories about my favourite latter-day, American-style, Robin Hood by the name of ''Jack Reacher''; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593079019</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=A Fanfare of TalesWatchwords |author=Patrick C ReidyPhilip Neal

|summary=I love This satisfying collection of short stories, so I'm always happy when has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a new collection arrives for reviewwatch. ''A Fanfare It was a watch he was fond of Tales'' by Patrick C Reidy promises me ''and had been told was like a compilation 1930s Cartier. Instead of short stories mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that highlight the adventures of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challenges''s how he became a watch collector. I like this premiseAn eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. So how does The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a book shape up? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524665983</amazonuk>was born.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero1529006031|title=Children of Lucifer: Modesty BlaiseReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating=34.5|genre=Graphic Novels Short Stories|summary=Out In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of ninetyage]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-five diverse comic strip storiessake-of-it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the publication of perfect audience for this book leaves just the last three yet . I had every chance to be presented in enjoy these fabulous large format paperbacksshort stories that come at the core from a tangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. So if you haven’t yet met with the sassy brunette with her curves and her great crimeI've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-solving mindaway pieces, and of course it's the same with her Williefranchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, this is the last-but-one chance for you to do soobvious reasons). And if you have any interest in quick little action talesFor another thing, or even dated kitschthere was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for both apply here, then you should eagerly be on board…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329860X</amazonuk>success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Edwards (editor)1846974658|title= Miraculous Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)|rating= 5|genre= Crime|summary=Consider the following scenario: a policeman hears someone screaming and runs to a house on a particular street, number 13, from where the noise is emanating. When he peeps through the letterbox he discovers a dead man in the hallway with a knife in his throat. He goes to fetch help, but upon returning, finds that the street does not have a number 13 and that the body and the room he saw have both mysteriously vanished...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Michael R Lane|title= UFOs and GOD: A Collection of Short Stories|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=From stories of young people caught up in a Robin Hood style operation gone wrong, to a believer in God having her faith shaken by the arrival of aliens, author Michael R Lane has compiled a collection of fascinating and clever short stories here. From farm to urban, from World War II to the Digital Age, the places and times, people and events in ''UFOs and God'' spotlight the tender underbelly of the human condition in all its glory and despair on these varied stages of fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rick Bass|title= For a Little While|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=''For a Little While'' is a collection of twenty-five short stories from Rick Bass. As someone previously unacquainted with Bass' work this new collection was a wonderful introduction to his quirky, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situations, mysterious characters and magical experiences. The characters in each tale are beautifully crafted and the stories are dreamy, loose narratives covering everything from love to death to choices made and chances taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273042</amazonuk>}}{{newreview <!-- remove 25/1 -->|title=A Collection of Short StoriesLong Path To Wisdom|author=Gillian FletcherJan-EdwardsPhilipp Sendker

|summary=Marged Evans allowed On my travels around the world, I have a break-tendency to end up with a lover to affect everything in her life. Osian wanted to invest in the present but Marged loved any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the past. Since they drifted apartnext person, Margedwhat I's life has been careful, ordered, unadventurous. But then Osian sends her a Christmas card and everything changes. ''Marged Evansm really looking for is the 'local' is – the first and longest in this collection of short stories from Gillian Fletcher-Edwards. It's almost a novella and its initially slow pace sets off quite cookbook maybe, the masterclass in how one event can throw everything into unexpected - maps definitely, but lovely - chaosabove all: the folk tales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Sybil Marshall and John Lawrence|title= The Book of English Folk Tales|rating= 4|genre= Anthologies|summary= From ghosts If I ever get to witchesBurma, I won't need to giants and fairieshunt, ''The Book of English Folk Tales'' is a fascinating collection of stories retold by social historian and folklorist Sybil Marshall. Out of print for over three decades, this beautiful new clothbound edition is complete with wood engraved illustrations by John Lawrence and is sure to capture the attention of a new generation of lovers of folkloreI can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKayB077969HN8|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Alternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon

|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=A lot of crime happens Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen toosurrealism''. As we travel through I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of either, but I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too'' black and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of his most interesting casesreality when you were least expecting it. In fact there's one Your comfort zones are going to match each of be invaded in the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yulenicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=9386897504|title=Mary Telford Tales of Love and Louise VerityDisability|titleauthor=SinsLaura Solomon

|summary=Is there enough new to say about the seven deadly sins? WeI've seen them all shown to us, from school age always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and up talent to write a short story which holds the movie ''Se7en'', which we sincerely hope was NOT shown to anyone at school agereader and keeps them coming back for more. We can each recount them There are far too many collections of short stories which are all, having been long familiar with them, even if we probably cantoo easy to put down and forget after you't pin down when they were actually set in stone without helpve read a couple of pieces. Similarly, is there anything new in the world I've recently read a couple of fairy tale? We know the tropes novellas by Laura Solomon - characters identified [[Marsha's Deal by their status or gender (the woman, the husband), a clear set of rules to obey, Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and a moral as strong as, if not stronger than, the formulae involved. Well, this volume demands we decide the answer to those questions as being positive ones, and if it[[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's not always definitive in the writing here that there is something newUnveiling]] and enjoyed them, rest assured there will be something in the imagery that will definitely strike one as freshso I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carys Bray and others1986586898|title=How Much the Heart Can HoldGoing To The Last: Seven Short Stories on LoveAbout Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating=34.5

|summary=This Sceptre collection does In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not have to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of H'', the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as simple a remit as it might appear; these are kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no straightforward love stories-hoper. Instead, they each take In one aspect of love – often one the most dramatic runnings of the ancient Greek classifications – and provide race, a whole new way of thinking about itpile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. After all Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the heart holds a lot race at odds of metaphorical weight100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473649420</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Simpson9386897296|title=CockfostersHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=This A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was a belated reunion for me, having been introduced delighted by the opportunity to read the authorsequel, ''Hell's snappy short story collections courtesy the very first one while at uniUnveiling''. Mind, it was a It's probably not much more gentle and placid reunion than the one that starts this book – Julie and Philippa have had of a shop-bought curry together, but have had spoiler to forsake a cultural chat for a trip haring along the London Underground chasing after a pair of glasses one of them left behind. The piece is definitely about the subject of ageing – about time passed and what might be remaining ahead – but you soon discover say that not only do all Marsha bested the pieces here have titles that are unadorned place names, but they all concern that very theme. Can anyone, let alone Helen Simpson, sustain such a vaguely morbid topic over a full collection?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470198X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Beckler|title= The Road More Travelled: Tales of those seeking refuge|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= devil in ''Marsha'The Road More Travelleds Deal'' , but the devil is an anthology of short stories - and not one poem - written in response to the refugee crisis as it exploded across our TV screens and newspapers throughout 2015take defeat lying down. To the horror of the authors, the language used by many was aggressive He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and dehumanising, describing this mass particularly on Marsha (who's thought of desperate people as a swarm or 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a hordestrong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. The stories together form Daniel is framed for a response crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to this otheringlive with Marsha.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993147224</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Ransom Riggs|title= Tales Then, of course, there are all the Peculiar|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= A fork-tongued princess. A boy other children who can control the currents of the sea. Cannibals who feast on the limbs of a village of peculiars. These are just a few not only targeted but - worst of the brilliant stories to be found in ''Tales of the Peculiar'', all of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world - a place familiar subverted to many of us since its first introduction by Ransom Riggs in [[Miss Peregrinethe devil's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs|Miss Peregrineevil ends. He's Home for Peculiar Children]]. The stories in this collection explore peculiar history and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative way, and also include some beautiful illustrations out to accompany each of the tales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141373407</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=I'll Be Home For Christmas|author=Benjamin Zephaniah and Others|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Publisher Little Tiger prey on their fears and homelessness charity Crisis have got together weaknesses and produced ''I'll Be Home For Christmas'' as with many foster children, their self- an anthology of short stories from some of the most popular writers on the UK YA sceneesteem is very fragile. The stories are connected by the theme of home. What does home mean to you? Is it your house This is no small-scale operation, either - the physical place where you live? Is it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different peopledevil has set up a training complex on earth, can't it? The book opens complete with a powerful poem by Bookbag favourite, Benjamin Zephaniahan elevator to Hell. The following stories are disparate - some telling tales of hardship and fear, some warming the cockles of your heart. But all of them are about ''home''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157726</amazonuk>