Difference between revisions of "Newest Short Stories Reviews"
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| + | |author=Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| + | |title=Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories | ||
| + | |rating=5 | ||
| + | |genre=General Fiction | ||
| + | |summary=Sometimes, if I'm in a cafe by myself, I like to watch the people around me and imagine stories about their lives. Just a single sentence, overheard, can lead to wonderous tales of mystery and intrigue whilst I sip my cappuccino! So I was delighted to sit down to read the latest offering from AMS, not only because he wrote it, but because he wrote it after looking at 5 different black and white photographs, and then imagining the stories behind them. Who are all these people, and what are their stories? Each story is unique, and yet they all have one abiding link...love. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973295</amazonuk> | ||
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|author=Joannah Yacoub | |author=Joannah Yacoub | ||
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|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. Are you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question? | |summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. Are you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question? | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 16:03, 23 November 2015
Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories by Alexander McCall Smith
Sometimes, if I'm in a cafe by myself, I like to watch the people around me and imagine stories about their lives. Just a single sentence, overheard, can lead to wonderous tales of mystery and intrigue whilst I sip my cappuccino! So I was delighted to sit down to read the latest offering from AMS, not only because he wrote it, but because he wrote it after looking at 5 different black and white photographs, and then imagining the stories behind them. Who are all these people, and what are their stories? Each story is unique, and yet they all have one abiding link...love. Full review...
When Mr Putin Stole My Painting: Ten Short Stories by Joannah Yacoub
Put yourself, if necessary, in the mind of someone wanting to publish their first collection of short stories. What do you choose as the contents – besides just saying the best available? Do you try and find a theme, or connecting happenstance or style, to pin them together? Are they based on you now, someone else somewhen else, or all the diverse people and places you have once met? Joannah Yacoub seems to have gone for the latter. Full review...
Once Upon a Place by Eoin Colfer (editor)
You know the bit of the blurb on every Artemis Fowl book, where Eoin Colfer had it said about how you pronounce his name? That wasn't the intention of an up-and-coming author to be recognisable; rather, it was pride. Pride in the difference of it, of the Irishness of it. Ireland, it seems to me, is more full than usual of people, things and ideas, and places that are different by dint of their singular nationality – and so many deserve to have pride attached to them. The places might not be the famous ones, but they can be the source of pride, and of stories, which is where this compilation of short works for the young comes in, with the authors invited to select their chosen place and write about it. Full review...
The Visitors Book by Sophie Hannah
Sophie Hannah's The Visitors Book is a short anthology of modern stories with a supernatural twist. There is not a hammy gothic turret in sight as her characters experience their mundane, day-to-day, 21st century business -- a children's birthday party, a visit to a boyfriend, neck pain, the school run. Now, ghost stories based on ordinary people leading ordinary lives can be very unsettling indeed, making overly imaginative readers look over their shoulder at the bus stop, or giving them goosebumps for no apparent reason. So I was curious to see what Sophie Hannah, a writer I much admire, would make of this particular material. Full review...
Fly Away Home by Marina Warner
How would you subvert a fairy tale? You know enough of them and enough about them to do it, so think on it. Would you give a mermaid a smartphone? Would you pepper them with pop stars, and perhaps let them be witness to the Schadenfreude caused by a cave that's sacred to native Canadians? Would you, in the light of their characters usually being routine, interchangeable tropes, give them a closely-observed personality – as seen here in a teacher's interior thoughts when faced with a piece of East Anglian lore? Would you take the exoticism of the east, and Egypt in particular, and see it in the light of a musical teacher on a zero-hours contract who ends up muttering to himself, directing traffic in the middle of the road, or from the remove of an elderly man with swollen feet in orthopaedic sandals with a message from the past? Certainly these two are not the standard Arabian Nights-styled pieces… Full review...
The American Lover by Rose Tremain
Having never read a Rose Tremain book before, I was interested to start this collection of short stories. I wasn't disappointed, and it quickly became clear why she has won so many literary awards for her work. Full review...
The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose by Ursula K Le Guin
I'll start by saying that I think the SF Masterworks series are pretty much always and without fail a really interesting read. I've bought quite a few from this publisher now and I find they will always pick interesting titles from the science fiction genre, making them a great place to start if you are either just dipping your toe into science fiction for the first time or if you're looking to build up your collection. Full review...
A Few of the Girls by Maeve Binchy
I was excited about reviewing a brand new collection of Maeve Binchy short stories and I wasn't disappointed. As her widower states in the introduction, Binchy had an extraordinary talent for telling powerful and compassionate stories, and was a true storyteller with an amazing output. Full review...
The Starlings and Other Stories by Ann Cleeves (editor)
Six authors, known collectively as 'The Murder Squad', and their six accomplices were given twelve photographs of the remote landscape of Pembrokeshire by acclaimed photographer David Wilson and asked to come up with a short story inspired by what they saw. Some of the stories will be more to your taste than others, as is only to be expected in such a varied anthology, but none are weak and if you enjoy crime short stories then this book could be a real treat. Full review...
Dark Benediction by Walter M Miller Jr
Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among the science fiction giants H.G. Wells, Michael Moorcock, and Philip K. Dick in the Masterworks series, a large selection of genre-defining writers and works at the centre of what is now such a popular and diverse range of literatures, films, and television productions. Miller is considered one of the finest science fiction writers of the 1950s, and in Dark Benediction, fourteen of this author's best short stories are brought together in one collection. Full review...
Thunderstruck by Elizabeth McCracken
I chose to review this collection of short stories with no prior knowledge of the author's work – often the best way to do it, though I am aware that McCracken's work comes highly commended. After reading these stories, I can see why and I am already looking forward to reading more of her work. Full review...
The Unround Circle by Pete Bellotte
As short story collections go, this is a fairly ambitious bundle, some 22 stories running to a total of nearly four hundred pages. You'll gather from the fact that I'm starting with the statistics that I didn't instantly fall in love with Bellotte's writing. Full review...
Manhattan Mayhem – New Crime Stories from the Mystery Writers of America by Mary Higgins Clark (editor)
I was unsure how to open this review. I heart Manhattan, big time. I am always attracted to any work set in Manhattan, but I don’t want to pigeonhole this remarkable collection of stories into a slot that says 'only for Manhattan lovers'. Far from it – it is a superb collection featuring the highest standards of both mystery writing and the form of short story. Full review...
101 Detectives by Ivan Vladislavic
101 Detectives had me baffled. The book comprises of a collection of stories which explore multiple themes from the perspective of one person. The stories are as varied as the characters presenting the tale to you. This exquisitely written book leaves you asking many questions and pondering many ideas. Full review...
In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon by Laurie R King and Leslie Klinger (editors)
Well, that's one way to get a heck of a lot of attention to your series of short story collections, for sure – get the estate of the author you're respecting to take you to court with the idea that the works cannot be published – the characters are so firmly established and entrenched, but established and entrenched as their property and therefore cannot be artistically reinterpreted, revived or otherwise returned to at all until full and final copyright statutes have expired. Never mind that the characters – one S Holmes and Dr JH Watson – hardly have parallels in how often they already have been mimicked. Never mind the fact that the estate of Conan Doyle was paid off in order for the first book to released. Still, the case was won and this sequel is in our hands. Is it worth all the legal documents? What is the important verdict, at the end of the reading day? Full review...
An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It by Jessie Greengrass
The title story, which appears first, is exactly what it says on the tin: one hunter's story of travelling to remote islands to take part in massive culls of great auks, until they were simply gone. It's always hard to believe that species that once numbered in their millions, such as the passenger pigeon, could go extinct so quickly, but when you read about the brutal slaughter tactics here – swinging clubs and boiling birds alive – you can see how a flightless bird was a sitting target. The narrator makes no real attempt to defend himself: the birds were there for the taking; that was that. Still, he regrets their extinction, because 'in any loss you can see a shadow of the way that you will be lost yourself.' (Those interested in the great auk's extinction may also want to read the 2013 novel The Collector of Lost Things by Jeremy Page.) Full review...
Young Skins by Colin Barrett
We're taken into the lives of the youthful inhabitants of small town Ireland in seven short stories of differing styles but a shared setting. Barrett writes of a doorman at a suburban nightclub, known and respected by all the locals, although we only read about a brief affair and his vulnerability. Another tale portrays a young rocker and his emotional state, years after an incident that scarred him both physically and mentally and made him the talk of the town. Other tales all share the same focus on people and small but meaningful personal events in their lives. Full review...
Beyond the Trees of Gulavstadt: A Gothic Short Story by B Reid
Amy works for Claralingua, a London education company that runs English schools all over the world, and Amy is travelling to Gulavstadt, a remote town in Eastern Europe, to inspect one of the schools. Gulavstadt is a town of myths and the setting of a recent horror film, The Thing Behind the Trees, exploiting them - featuring medieval, flesh-eating ghouls with mouths lined with the sharpest of teeth. But myths don't bother Amy... Full review...
Karate Chop, and Minna Needs Rehearsal Space by Dorthe Nors
The reviewer picks up the book.
The book is called Minna Needs Rehearsal Space.
The book is entirely made out of one-sentence paragraphs.
The one-sentence paragraphs are very seldom poetic, but normally are grammatically correct sentences.
The one-sentence paragraphs on the whole have just one verb, unless regarding that from reported or unreported speech.
The book concerns a middle-aged musician and composer who does indeed need rehearsal space.
The book concerns a woman who suddenly gets more space than she wants when her boyfriend leaves her.
The boyfriend's departure causes a lot of people crowding around Minna, which causes a problem.
The problem might be resolved by a trip away from her city flat.
The title of the book might be ironic.
Full review...
Love Hurts by Malorie Blackman
Love Hurts is all about heartache but it doesn't leave you bereft. Mixed in are enough moments of heartsease (and heart's joy!) to keep you believing in love. And we all want to believe in love, don't we? If you are one of the few who don't, you might as well look away now. The rest of us are in for a treat. This anthology has been gathered together by Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman, one of our favourite YA authors here at Bookbag, and certainly one who understands exactly how to write about the highs and lows of love as it is experienced by young people. Full review...
Wallflowers by Eliza Robertson
Eliza Robertson won the Man Booker Scholarship and Curtis Brown Prize while completing her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Wallflowers is already a bestseller in Robertson's native Canada. There is quite some variety across the seventeen stories. Broadly speaking, though, there are a few themes: moving on from loss, finding love in the midst of gentle madness, and interactions with the natural world, often on the edge of Canada's British Columbia wilderness. Full review...
Honeydew by Edith Pearlman
American short story writer Edith Pearlman brings us a compilation of stories that have only been seen separately in magazines over the years. This follows on from the huge success of Binocular Vision (in 2013), the short story collection that led to Ms Pearlman being presented with the National Critics' Circle Award. Full review...
Enter the Saint by Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)
When you think of thrillers written by a man in his early twenties there's a temptation to believe that the books might not be, well, top drawer, but that would be a mistake. The first of The Saint novels was published in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one and this collection of stories is dated 1930. You might expect the rambunctious adventurer we meet, but not the subtleties of the slightly world-weary man of the world, all-knowing about the evils to which men (and women) can sink, but they're all there. Admittedly the Saint is more boisterous and less subtle than he will become - but that speaks more about the later works than this book. Full review...
See You In Paradise by J Robert Lennon
Lennon writes with a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of life, without being in any way stereotypical. Many of the people in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed to root for (the only exception is the industrialist in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in Weber’s Head, for example, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfair. For me, the most unsettling story is No Life, because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social power. Full review...
Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee
The first story in Bobcat is the title story, and this alone is worth the price of admission. Plaster it with prizes, put it in anthologies; it deserves every accolade it can get. However, the last story echoes the first, and the five tales in between are strangely repetitive, most with Midwestern North American narrators and 1980s university settings. Moreover, all seven are in the first-person; I would have appreciated more variety of perspective. Full review...
Otherworld Nights by Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong revisits her hugely popular 'Otherworld' series in this collection of short stories, featuring many of the prominent characters from the series. Full review...
Dead Funny by Robin Ince and Johnny Mains (editors)
In a world of nightmares, disasters, death and ignominy there is a book called Dead Funny. Invented purely to satisfy the remit built into its title, it collects some horror stories written by comedians, both household names and those more up-and-coming. Like all horror books it comes out at the time of year best suited for horror – Halloween, when we read with the darkest corners in our rooms, with the longest evenings outside – but is only suited for Halloween because it is a worthless, hellish piece of dross. It never excites, it is the most self-serving vanity project, and the only funny thing about it is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishing. Now I know you know, courtesy of those bright shiny stars alongside this review, that this volume, Dead Funny, is not that Dead Funny. But just bear in mind the horror story this could have been, if these pages were not so surprisingly adept at taking those said nightmares, disasters, deaths and ignominy and presenting them to us so competently. Full review...
Black Greek Coffee by Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou
If your experience of Greece is as a tourist then you'll almost certainly think of it in terms of history, mythology and startlingly white buildings against sapphire blue sky and sea. It looks idyllic, but there's a darker side to Greek life, explored by Konstantina Souzou-Kyrkou, in Black Greek Coffee - a neat metaphor for the lives she looks at: sharp, bitter but ultimately addictive. In twenty three short stories she illuminates the chauvinism and superstition, the concepts of honour and the status of women, the dominance of religion and the lives led by ordinary people. They sound like grand themes, but the stories are grounded in domesticity and there will be few people - in any country - who have not been touched by one of the problems. Full review...
Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories by Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others
How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a year – or life? Is that time-scale different, perhaps, when you're nearly a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who is, of course, both 51 (in our earthly, televisual representation) and 900 and more in human years as a character. In 2013 we were given a great book that gave us a story for every Doctor Who we've seen on TV, in honour of the 50th birthday proceedings. But now is a year on, and we're a further Doctor down the line. And so what was '11 Doctors, 11 Stories' is now '12 Doctors, 12 Stories'. So while many of us would have cherished and kept said birthday present, the only addition is the last, which like the rest was available as an e-book. So it's worth revisiting what I said about the book last time, then chucking in the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the end. Full review...
Problems with People by David Guterson
Problems with People is a meandering exploration of the relationships, big and small, that we form across a lifetime. Ranging from that of parent and child to that between landlord and tenant, Guterson’s observation of the complexities and nuances involved in how we navigate these personal links is extremely sharp and true to life. Full review...
Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short Stories by Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard Thomas
Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. Are you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question? Full review...
