[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
[[Category:Short Stories|*]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kurt VonnegutAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Look at the BirdieAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=Kurt Vonnegut died a couple ''Opening up new ways of years ago after a sci fi writing career spanning over fifty years; he was well-known for his humanist views. This collection thinking about the shape of unpublished short stories shows Vonnegut at his dark best, his theme, individuals out for themselves in an uncaring societythings to come. A colleague at The Bookbag [[Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut|recently wrote]] that Kurt Vonnegut's early writing is his strongest. If that is so, then this collection, illustrated with cartoons by the author, will be good news for his many fans.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548852</amazonuk>}}'
{{newreview|author=Ryunosuke Akutagawa|title=The Beautiful and the Grotesque|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=The author, the tongue-twisting Akutagawa I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you'hailed as one re eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of the greatest short story writers technology in world literature' says the back book covermy lifetime. I was truly impressed and very keen 've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to get readingme but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. The front cover Some of it is both eye-catching and colourful, there's no doubt that this book is about Japanfrankly - quite frightening. There is a comprehensive Introduction with its lovely title ''A Sprig Of Wild Orangecourse, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they' written by re talking about or the translatorlatest conspiracy theorist. And straight away I got a strong sense of his enthusiasm for the short stories to follow. It is a good lead-needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in as it informs the reader of the gulf which exists between Western and Japanese values (a gulf as big as it gets, apparently) and of the conservative nature of the Japanese peopleway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0871401924</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lydia DavisB0CDZRGT1M|title=The Collected Super Short Stories of Lydia Davis: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=As you might expect with short stories''Got a minute to be amused, entertained, the themes are as varied as or challenged?'The Fears of Mrs Orlando' to 'Mothers' and of course, I have my own particular favourites. Most of these short These 100 stories cover a couple of pages, but others are merely a sentence or twosuper short. And, for me, the less on the page, the None is more impart the than 300 words usually have. In short (no pun intended) there would seem to be something for everyone You can read one in these 700+ pagesa flash.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114504X</amazonuk>}}''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.''
{{newreview|author=Kelly Link|title=Pretty Monsters|rating=3|genre=Fantasy|summary=It goes without saying, but the greatest thing about fantasy Question: how do you review flash fiction ? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is that one can go anywhere with it, and told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do anything. So a young man can easily you try and dig his girlfriend up and retrieve some poetry he romantically left with her - only to have draw out themes from all the flash fictions in a hairy evening as book of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a result. There can be a psychic link between a young ladfixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, called Onion and doomed to die in author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a terrorist attack, and his cousin while she works as slave in an odd community of wizardsthree hundred word limit. Several worlds can be accessed through an elderly womanThat's handbag, for better or worseabout a single page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677843</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=A L KennedyRachel Harrison|title=What BecomesBad Dolls
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=YouIt're three stories into this collection and two people have cut their hands open preparing food - a man with love drooping away from his marriage, making soup, and another, a greengrocer, preparing stock and thinking about his own relationships been some time since I've read any horror. But there is no pattern to that. Four stories in and there have been two bursts I had a couple of non-sequitur comedy. Why your fruit might be ruined by stray fingersmisspent teen years reading Stephen King, and borrowing the thoughts of books from a woman in a flotation tank, remembering Doctor Who, locked parental doors - boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the urban myths point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of gerbils. the vampires outside! But thereDon's still no pattern t worry - and this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn's the point of these combined stories. Life t have those jump scares, and all of its emotions does not live I didn't have to rule.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009949406X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tove Jansson|title=Travelling Light|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=In her home country of Finland – read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and no doubt throughout much I found most of that feeling came from the rest of Europe which is not quite so sniffy fact that these are stories about foreign literature as Britain tends to be – Jansson is generally recognised as an author of talentwomen, skillliving normal lives, verve and wit that extended far beyond at least in part, the Moomin Troll stories for which she is best known in this country. Those children's books were first published in England sixty years ago and have remained in print ever since (horrors arises from very normal situations such as well as being adapted for just about every other medium a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going), to a hen party and a joy they are too, but it is only recently that we have been granted the pleasures of reading her fiction for adultscoping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095489958X</amazonuk>1803363932
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John GrishamB0CCCVRSGX|title=Ford CountyStories 2|author=Richard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=When I think This is Richard F Walker's second volume of John Grisham I tend to think firstly of lawyersshort stories. Well, actually, I think of Tom Cruise first to be honest, There are thirteen in all and then the whole lawyer thing. I expect surprising twists and long, detailed plots. This collection, however, is a book took something from each of short stories so has to work differentlythem. There isn't room within a short story for a lengthy, twisting plot, and so Grisham has to rely on other skills to make them work. My feeling was single one that some do and some dondoesn'tdeserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. Set in America's Deep South all the It can be tricky to review short stories revolve around a rather mixed bag of characters from Ford Countywithout giving too much away, with the ever-present lawyers but also gamblers, murderers, con artists, drunks so I'll just pick two to talk about and scoundrelsI think they give a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099545780</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Harvey1739593901|title=A Darker Shade of Blue22 Ideas About The Future|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summaryauthor=There are eighteen short stories covering the East Midlands, those parts of London you'd generally really rather avoid and rural East Anglia. You'll see broken families, revenge killings, prostitution Benjamin Greenaway and drugs. There's corruption – not unusual when you have an overstretched police force and underpaid men and women staffing it. And then there are the people who, in spite of everything, fight for justice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548232</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ben Okri|title=Tales of FreedomStephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Tales of Freedom is a book ''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of two halvesflying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with a short story entitled Comic Destiny taking up the majority of the book. Comic Destiny is made up of a series of short pieces that follow on from each other and are probably best described as being closer geolocation surveillance bracelets to prose poetry than anything elsetrack grandma.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846041597</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Jane Feaver|title=Love Me Tender|rating=4I've got a couple of confessions to make.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=A woman remembers her dead husband playing Love Me Tender ( I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the song made famous by Elvis Presley) on his tenor hornbook. She is in There's got to be a daze, feeling very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the grief of technology which takes centre stage along with the bereaved widow she is, the betrayal of world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the deceived wife, technology and the guilt of having murdered himworld scape are purely incidental. The title story So, what did I think of this collection is all the more moving and startling because a book of its understated styletwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, and what is not said as well as what isI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099521288</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aravind AdigaB09XZMCDVF|title=Between the AssassinationsStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=''Between A news vendor is crying out the Assassinations'' is a collection of short stories set headlines in the fictional South Indian town middle of Kittur, which is almost certainly Mangalore (where the Adiga grew up). But the plight of the residents can be found in any Indian city - which I imagine is Adiga's point of setting it night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a fictional location. The twelve stories are vaguely interlinked (there are some recurring characters) but stickler for the most part the stories stand alone. The correct grammar goes back in time period is set between to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the assassinations of Indira Gandhi ideal person to have around in 1984 and a lawless village; the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, although like new boy on the locationpub football team is very useful with his feet, the time period and the assassinations of the title have little bearing on the events themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848871236</amazonuk>}}awfully familiar…''
{{newreview|author=David Eagleman|title=Sum: Tales from This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the Afterlives|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=For some reason I find myself unable to start this revieweclectic reader. So I'll mention this book starts with Tying them together is the endidea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, and see where we go from therethings can happen to ordinary people. Of course, And thatordinary doesn's the key – t mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this book does just that – starts with the end little treasury of our human life here on Earth (or wherever short fiction is never boring and you happen to be reading this) and posits forty possibilities of 're never quite sure what happens thereafter, in the hereafter. It's not so much 'Five People You Meet in Heaven' as 'Forty Heavens you Might Meet People In'coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847674283</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Lasdun1737030942|title=ItBag O's Beginning To HurtGoodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=ItSometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's Beginning to Hurt is ''Bag O'Goodies''. I first encountered his writing about a collection of sixteen short storiesyear ago, all bound together when I read his [[Cape Henry House by the theme Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a rollicking tale of hurt in various formswhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. It is James Lasdun Right now, I didn's third collection t want a full-length novel, so I turned to this anthology of verse and short stories . Bittick's writing has matured - and, chances are, if you are a fan of the short story then you will so have read something by him beforehis characters. Well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099512327</amazonuk>most of them!
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Porter1529418100|title=The Theory of Light Bruno's Challenge and MatterOther Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Both I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the book cover down between stories and its title are enticing, quirky, eyeforget to pick it up again -catching. Personally, but I'm am a fan of most things American including American fiction, Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I couldndidn't wait to start readingeven try. I was not disappointed. Porter introduces us For those new to charactersthe series, many of whom would probably be described as deeply flawed. He shares the darker side of modern-day American life with the reader - which is far from the bright lights of glitzy New York or the sun-drenched beaches of California. You could say there's an excellent introduction that this is will tell you all you need to know about real life. To underline his point, Porterwho's characters are mostly local folks (who and the background to use a favourite American word) shuffling through life as best they canwhy Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>022408982X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James KelmanB08NF79QXT|title=If it is Your LifeCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=3
|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. She'If This Is Your Lifes delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn' t be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is not so much a collection of short stories as a collection of pieces of creative writingan ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Kelman doesnJessica't really do s thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they'storiesve known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica'. In nineteen pieces of writing of varying length from just a single page to more lengthy piecess husband, such as the story that gives its title to this collectionCharles and their four-year-old daughter, Kelman writes (mostly) about people on the edge of societyAva. He addresses issues such as class, politics, gender, age and ill health Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241142423</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Golden (Editor)B08KKQ85FN|title=Zombie: An Anthology of the Undead|rating=5|genre=Horror|summary=Anyone who enjoys a good horror story and likes zombie films will love this book, which is a collection of nineteen short stories by a variety of authors. I have to admit that I have only heard of one of the authors before - [[:Category:Mike Carey|Mike Carey]], who writes the [[The Naming of the Beasts (Felix Castor) by Mike Carey|Felix Castor]] novels - but I am not an avid reader of the genre and don't doubt that the authors will be known to readers more familiar with it. Despite this unfamiliarity, I thoroughly enjoyed most of the stories, with just one or two seemingly not up to scratch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749952539</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBut Never For Lunch|author=Katie Fforde (Editor) and Sue Moorcroft (Editor)|title=Loves Me, Loves Me NotSandra Aragona|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=What ''If a feast is presented woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in these forty stories from well-loved and prolific romantic authorslipstick, celebrating an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the fiftieth anniversary company of the Romantic Novelists' Association. In a Who's Who of the genrecarrion crows or, there are writers from every age group, including one or two who might even have been founder members of more to the RNApoint, back in 1960. My advice is about to sip through discover the stories slowly, rather than gobbling them up quickly real world of bus timetables and suffering from indigestionpaying his own gas bills.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303373</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Stephanie Tillotson|title=Cut on You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the BiasPriorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=If ''Cut on Sorting the Bias'' is in your local bookshop, you will surely Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be won over moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the feisty coverItalian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... Stories about women They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their clothes are about identitydog, Beagle, so what better start to a set has no intention of short stories than a fashion statement cover featuring the bags in which said clothes arrive home?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784132</amazonuk>slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Janice GallowayB08CHJLNBS|title=Collected StoriesCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=In this collection, stories are taken from two previous volumesHe's Charles Devereaux, Blood and Where You Find It. The fortythirty-two snap shots of life are mainly of women eight and young girlsa partner at Wickham Jones, struggling with emotionsthe Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, sometimes realized and sometimes not. In alltwenty-nine, there seems to be an underlying link of isolation librarian and trutharchivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The settings are variedSecret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, from a visit to the dentist to the place known as homewhich leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a walk in the eveninglittle deeper. We have Charles is more of a peek into the deepest darkest corners of everyday relationships[[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, with loversabove all, partners and most 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 ourselves: it's obvious to his friends.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540398</amazonuk> And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=The Lottery and Other StoriesCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary=Even though it was written over sixty years agoCurses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, The Lotteryor not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, coming in at fewer than 3as can princesses on the verge of marrying,500 words still has the power to shockand older people too. When it first appeared It seems in the The New Yorker in 1948 a way there's no escaping it caused many outraged readers to cancel their subscriptions such was the devastating nature of the story. Time may have lessened sensibilities over Which is why the latter half theme of the twentieth century and the beginning this book of the twenty first but The Lottery, like many of the other short stories in is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this timely reissueaccursed character, still packs a mighty punchthat demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191430</amazonuk>1789091500
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{{newreview|author=Edgar Allan Poe and Gris Grimly|title=Tales of Death and Dementia|rating=5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Wow! What a wonderful combination: Edgar Allan Poe, master of the gothic horror short story, and Gris Grimly, outstanding illustrator, known for his [[The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman and Gris Grimly|work with Neil Gaiman]]. Poe's ''Tales of Death and Dementia'' are shown off at their very best in this edition.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386474</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=William Bedford|title=None of the Cadillacs was Pink|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=I chose this book because of its superb title – the last and best memoir in a collection of sixteen stories. These Humberside and Lincolnshire stories have a background beat of Fifties' music that sets them firmly in an exciting, disturbing time for young people everywhere, not least for the author and his friends, as old ways of living made way for new along the East Coast of England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529445</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Clive Cussler (editor) Stibbe_Xmas|title=Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put DownAn Almost Perfect Christmas|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=If you enjoy thrillers or short stories then you might find this book a treat. If you enjoy them both then it's a treasure trove. ''Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put Down'' is edited by best-selling author [[:Category:Clive Cussler|Clive Cussler]] (although none of his work is included) and includes work by some authors who are the top of their game. There are twenty three stories in all, each about twenty pages long and they're perfect for those moments when you just want to dip into something short and satisfying.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303209</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Will Eisner |title=Minor MiraclesNina Stibbe
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsHumour|summary=This short story collection starts with two appetisers before getting Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on with two main coursesthe downstairs loo to defrost overnight, but as with and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best meals even the smallest dishes can have the most depthbet. We start with the entire life cycle Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free- riserange and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, falland get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, risethough, fall - is of course also a hobo feeding pigeons in the parktime of great boons. Obviously he hasn't been doing that all his years - heIt's been keeping his dignity intact, with cash in hand for a huge amount lot of chutzpah plump people who can hire red suits and more. Nextbeards, it was always a smart Alec defeats godsend for postmen with all the older kids on thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the stoop with a bit makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of canny street wisdom.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393328147</amazonuk>the year?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Agnes Owens 0954899520|title=The Complete NovellasA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Who is Agnes Owens? A Scottish author who portrays working class life from Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the nineteen forties and fifties. Now an octogenarianMoomin books, apparently Agnes Owens started writing at written in the age 1940s and later becoming television characters of 58the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Here are five previously published stories collected into one new editionSimple drawings, a companion volume to her short simple stories, published in 2008simple goodness. I don't think you'll What is often 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 natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be disappointed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971373</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kazuo Ishiguro 1911115847|title=Nocturnes: Five Stories Nights of Music and Nightfall |rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=A jobbing guitarist from an Eastern European country, playing in Venice, is given a most singular gig by an ageing, passing crooner. An old friend of a couple at loggerheads stays in their flat, but enters a nightmare world of comedy, doing greater and greater wrongs to cover his first transgression. A younger couple running a cafe employ a friend to help out, despite his wish to hide in the hills and compose new songs for his not-very illustrious career.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057124498X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewCreaking Bed|author=Aleksandar Hemon |title=Love and ObstaclesToni Kan
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=We start with ''Nights of the young narrator away from home, and in Africa, due to his diplomat father. HeCreaking Bed''s left behind home, is a potential girlfriend, collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and more, but finds company with lusts of an older, chancer character assortment of characters living in and his junkie girlfriendaround Lagos, and their pot, drinks and 70s rockNigeria. Closer to his rootsNigeria, but still a young man abroadin this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the second story sees him travelling across his homeland on an errand - to deliver payment shadows and people are killed for the biggest chest freezer his father could findnothing more than a wrong look. But poems, losing his virginity, keeping his money, Kan writes with a vitality and various other fantasies might just put passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a cooler on that unusual taskglimmer of hope...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330464434</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles Stross 1529014484|title=WirelessExhalation |rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=In his introduction, Stross explains that one of the reasons he likes writing shorts stories is because they are the ideal format in which to focus on a particular concept of the future and play around with it. It doesn't matter so much if the idea doesn't ultimately work because neither the reader nor the author has invested in it the way they would in a novel. ''Wireless'' then, is something of an experiment. Stross employs many different styles, tackles many different subjects and is very skilful at creating mood. His stories are a strange blend of the technical and the archaic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497711</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Oxfam|title=Ox-Tales: AirTed Chiang|rating=3.5|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=Four books of short stories each taking (rather loosely on occasions) as a theme one of Over the elements: [[Oxpast twenty-Tales: Earth by Oxfam|Earth]]eight years, [[Ox-Tales: Fire by Oxfam|Fire]]Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, [[Oxthese magnificent stories have won twenty-Tales: Water by Oxfam|Water]], and this book ''Air'', sold in aid of Oxfam but not about Oxfam's work. The writers, many household names, seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have given their work for free and at least 50p from the sale already come across some of each new book goes to Oxfam. That's not entirely the point though, is it? You want to know if the book is worth buying.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682614</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Oxfam |title=Ox-Tales: Earth|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Published in aid of Oxfam work, Ox-Tales comprise of four books featuring original stories donated to the project by a variety of writersTed Chiang. The framework for the books is provided by the four elements of the classical philosophyIf you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Each collection starts with Vikram Seth's elemental poem and ends with a short article highlighting Oxfam's work in a key area ([[Ox-Tales: Fire by Oxfam|fire]] – conflict and war, [[Ox-Tales: Water by Oxfam|water]] – sanitation and clean water, earth – agriculture and air – climate change)Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682584</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Irvine Welsh 1794467440|title=Reheated CabbageWatchwords |author=Philip Neal
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Irvine Welsh's choice of title for this This satisfying collection of short stories may serve to warn some unwary readers has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of its unpalatable nature. To the uninitiated, its stream of unrestrained swearing, drug taking, sex and casual violence could come as a shock. His fans though, will no doubt lap antique watches that inspired it up.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224080555</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Oxfam |title=Ox-Tales: Fire|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=Published in aid of Oxfam work, Ox-Tales comprise of four books featuring original stories donated to the project by a variety of writers.
The framework for the books is provided by the four elements Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of the classical philosophymourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. Each collection starts with Vikram SethAnd that's elemental poem and ends with how he became a short article highlighting Oxfam's work watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a key area (fire – conflict and warfake, water – sanitation but the friendship that grew between the buyer and clean water, earth – agriculture the repairer of watches was not and air – climate change)the seed of an idea for a book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682592</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick Jackson1529006031|title=Bears of England|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=As you know, England has had a chequered history when it comes Return to her bears. From the days when we only knew them as horrors making bumping noises - among many others - in the night, we have learnt more, and used them more. Therefore we have this short little book, detailing some of the more remarkable instances of Anglo-bear relations, from the days of bear-baiting, to them being shot at when they escaped the circus, to when they were employed in subaquatic labour in the days before SCUBA gear...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571242405</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWonderland|author=Paul R Spiring (Editor)|title=Aside Arthur Conan Doyle: Twenty Original Tales By Bertram Fletcher RobinsonVarious Authors
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=The shortlived Bertram Fletcher Robinson is sadly little more than In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a footnote few years ago, when the first book she was in British literature. His fame rests largely on having contributed to, [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and helped to inspire, a couple Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of Sherlock Holmes stories – andage]], if you believe I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the conspiracy theorists-sake-of-it did not gel, having been bumped off by Conan Doyle for threatening to claim authorship of one of them and denounce Doyle I don't remember loving it more as a fraudchild. (Don't go there).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312527</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=H. GBut I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle |title=Graphic Classics, Volume 17: Science Fiction Classics|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=So, an introduction. The Graphic Classics collection is a series whereby I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the best in genre fiction, core from sources both highly likely and remarkably unexpecteda tangent, is collected and dressed up for us in graphic novel formthat show the benefits of the oblique glance. This seventeenth editionI've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, a belated best-of sciallegedly throw-fi volume, is their first foray into full colouraway pieces, and is headlined by it's the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a version of The War of the Worldshunch, for obvious reasons). The supporting material ranges from a one-page strip For another thing, there was every reason to thirty-page stories.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0978791975</amazonuk>expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edgar Allen Poe, Various, Dan Whitehead (Editor) 1846974658|title=Eye Classics: Nevermore - A Graphic Novel Anthology of Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels |summary=So, if I were to mention someone who was born 200 years ago this season, and who changed the world with their writing, who would you think of first? Charles Darwin, probably. But those of a slightly different bent might just have mentioned someone else - someone at the forefront of all things arcane, horrific and thrilling when it comes to fiction. Someone who lost his birth and foster mother both to tuberculosis before he was ever twenty. Someone who had most unusual circumstances surrounding his death, to best Agatha Christie vanishing for a while, and most of the detectives in the fiction he helped inspire. Someone called Edgar Allan Poe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955285682</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=MaryJan-Ann Constantine|title=The BreathingPhilipp Sendker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=MaryOn my travels around the world, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-Ann Constantinelanguage books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what I's book m really looking for is a bit like a piece of embroidery: painstakingly slowthe 'local' – the cookbook maybe, sewn with different threadsthe maps definitely, but above all: the result is a beautiful picture by an accomplished handfolk tales. It is a book of short stories If I ever get to Burma, very different and quite ambiguousI won't need to hunt, describing the lives of people - and an elephant - of a certain location (or a few) in WalesI can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954088182</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan B077969HN8|title=Demo: v. 1|rating=5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=It's not every young disaffected teenager that will respond to the withdrawal of her medication so explosively. It's not every young disaffected teenager that runs through empty landscapes because she is too scared to speak to anyone – for quite the reasons we see here. Not every family patches itself back together over a funeral in the fashion the third story gives us. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184576921X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAlternative Medicine|author=Jay McInerney|title=The Last Bachelor Laura Solomon
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I enjoyed these Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories by Jay McInerney in ''Alternative Medicine'' as if they were ''black comedy with a box twist of expensive, dark chocolatessurrealism''. Some centres were nut hard 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, while but I've come to two conclusions about the rich ganache in others left a bittersweet aftertastebook: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. The seven deadly sins provided distinctive tastes of American comedy is not ''successtoo'', black and the surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as I nibbled my a twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the nicest possible way through twelve sophisticated stories. Mmm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074759984X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lee Child (Editor)9386897504|title=Killer YearTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=This collection of seventeen short stories in the crime genre is by a group of new, young American writers who have all been mentored by more established I've always believed that less-able writers such as Lee Child, Joe R Lansdale and Ken Bruen. Although produce longer books: it is takes a little uneven in quality it does represent an effort to promote the work great deal of younger writers in a world where it can be hard skill and talent to make write a break-through into mainstream publishing. The short story is a specialised medium which holds the reader and the crime genre keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections of short story has two prejudices stories which are all too easy to fight - if put down and forget after you don't ve read short stories you are even less likely to read short stories a couple of a particular genrepieces. But whereas mainstream fiction might have its diehard factions, I feel the crime aficionado may well be less uptight and crime novel lovers might 've recently read this collection in the hope a couple of finding the next Harlan Coben or novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura LippmanSolomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>077830275X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania Hershman1986586898|title=Going To The White Road|rating=5|genre=Last: Short Stories|summary=A female café owner situated in a very strange place breaks the mundane routine with a very strange act. A female loses sight of her life's goals due to having a husband and children, and finds a strange way of reconnecting with her interests. And females on first dates do strange things – to levers in zero-G, and with pottery.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844714756</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAbout Horse Racing|author=Joyce Carol Oates|title=The Museum of Doctor MosesK D Knight
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=In the opening story, a oneman whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket -sentence rush, we get and his wife. In ''A Grey Day'' an entire short story, starring various joggers, that proves above all else that words can killowner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. ItMy favourite was ''The Story of H''s a moral bluntly put, and the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as an opener a kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the volume puts us instantly on yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a nervous edgeno-hoper. We might not be in for In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile-up occurred at the happiest read23rd fence. Foinavon, we thinkwho had been many lengths adrift, before turning cleared the fence and galloped to the second storyline, which is called Suicide Watchwinning the race at odds of 100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847245595</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gardner Dozois (Editor), Jack Dann (Editor)9386897296|title=Dark Alchemy: Magical Tales from Masters of Modern FantasyHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating=43.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A little while ago Ireally enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''m always in two minds about short story collections. On the one hand it It's a bit probably not much of a risk – there could be one or two really good stories and a load of rubbish. Butspoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the great thing about them devil is they can introduce you not one to writers you might never have read otherwisetake defeat lying down. While you probably wouldn He't be prepared s out to invest time wage war on Planet Earth and money into particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a book you aren't sure yougoody two shoes'll likein Hell). Although a strong person, spending half an hour or so reading she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a short story woncrime he didn't leave you feeling too robbed if you doncommit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course, there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He't enjoy its out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747589542</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|author=Tobias Wolff|title=Our Story Begins|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=Tobias Wolff's short stories offer few easy solutions. His troubled characters face choices they are ill-equipped Move to make. You do not go to Wolff for a satisfying, tidy tale, neatly wrapped, or for an entertaining twist.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597278</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kay Green|title=Jung's People|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=These short stories offer fantasy, sci-fi, historical and contemporary angles on human personality. Kay Green used Jung's writing on dreams to delve into her own subconscious and has come up with an eclectic mix of stories. A crisp commentator's voice observes life through different lenses and perspectives. I often felt that I was trapped in a nest of boxes with the characters, not quite sure which way was out. My interest hooked, I delved into the fifteen stories and enjoyed their surprising twists and multiple layers as characters discover their tragic destiny within whatever happens to be the chance setting of their lives. I'll just give you a flavour of three of them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190645101X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Donald Ray Pollock|title=Knockemstiff|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Welcome to Knockemstiff, a quiet little town in Ohio, USA. Wait, I take it back. You are not welcome. Strangers do not come to Knockemstiff. Unless you are lost of course, like that Californian photographer woman, who took random pictures and could not believe the town was for real: so poor, so lost, so abandoned. Come to think of it, the people of Knockemstiff would be more than happy to leave the place themselves. It is just that they never have the chance, or never quite make it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846551560</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kurt Vonnegut |title=Armageddon in Retrospect |rating=2.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I have been a fan of Kurt Vonnegut since the early 1970s. I still have the old paperbacks – ''Mother Night'', ''Cat's Cradle'', ''Slaughterhouse 5''. There was something about his style, and especially about the things he had to say, that was refreshing [[Newest Spirituality and new. But he began to go off the boil, or fell out of style, and I stopped reading his books around about the time I stopped buying Crosby, Stills and Nash LPs. For me, ''Breakfast of Champions'' was both the last decent book he wrote, and the first of the stream of below-par books that followed. I just checked my bookcase – ''Slapstick'' in 1976 was the last Vonnegut book I bought, and the ancient bookmark stuffed midway through shows I never managed to finish it. And I had problems trying to finish his 'new' collection, too.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085395</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gerard Woodward |title=Caravan Thieves |rating=3|genre=Short Stories|summary=Gerard Woodward is a much short-listed novelist & poet: the Whitbread First Novel Award (2001), Man Booker Prize (2004), T S Eliot Prize (2005). If it hasn't been already, I can well see this collection being equally short-listed for whatever the 'short-story' equivalent is. (Is there even a major prize for short stories?)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701177608</amazonuk>}}Religion Reviews]]