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{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> <!-- Davidson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:150690551XPhilip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it.jpg|link=http://wwwAnd that's how he became a watch collector.amazonAn eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell.coThe 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 was born.uk/dp/150690551X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529006031| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Return to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating=4.5|genre==Short Stories|summary=In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Roses Alice's Adventures in December Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Matthew de Lacey DavidsonLewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]]=== [[image:4star, I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]  The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don''Roses in December'' is t remember loving it more as a collection of twenty-two short storieschild. And when But I would suggest I say short, am the perfect audience for this book. I mean ''had every chance to enjoy these short'', with each just stories that come at the core from a few pages long and some brushing tangent, that show the flash fiction genre, such is benefits of the brevityoblique glance. I think the shorter the story, the harder it is 've always preferred coming to write an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the same with franchises – I'd more difficult likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the task of engagingwhole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, then satisfyingfor obvious reasons). For another thing, the reader. So it is there was every reason to the immense credit expect some kind of Matthew de Lacey Davidson greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that I sighed love in appreciation many times while reading. He has a good sense of which moments of the human experience to capture in order to make the point he wants to make. Some highlights: [[Roses in December by Matthew de Lacey Davidsonmind could only provide for success after success? }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1846974658|title=The Long Path To Wisdom|Full Review]]author=Jan-Philipp Sendker <!-- Onymouse -->|rating=4|-| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Short Stories[[image:Onymouse_Quick.jpg|left|linksummary=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788039122/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbagOn my travels around the world, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-21]]  | style="verticallanguage books, and while I buy as many second-alignhand escapist tales as the next person, what I'm really looking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: top; text-align: left;"|=the folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I go.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B077969HN8|title=Alternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating=4.5|genre=[[Quick and Quirky: Short Stories with Quips! by Fred Onymouse and Ann Onymouse]]=== [[image:1.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Quick, and indeed, quirky, are positive attributes, ILaura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism'm sure you'd agree – apart from perhaps in surgeons. I like things 'm rather glad that have I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a quirkfan of either, and I approve of the quicky. but I've been dabbling in come to two conclusions about the world of creative writing for a few years now, and whenever anyone asks book: what it the publisher says is correct - and I mostly write, I define really enjoyed it with the catch-all safety net of . The comedy is not ''flippanttoo''. So this book should be right up my street, being black and the surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as it is a bijou selection twist or flick of illustrated and fairly large-print short storiesreality when you were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the nicest possible way. [[Quick and Quirky: Short Stories with Quips! by Fred Onymouse and Ann Onymouse|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Hill -->|isbn=9386897504|-title=Tales of Love and Disability| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Laura Solomon|rating=4[[image:Hill_Strange.jpg|left|linkgenre=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/147322117X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=147322117X]] Short Stories| stylesummary="verticalI've always believed that less-alignable writers produce longer books: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Strange Weather by Joe Hill]]=== [[image:5starit takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a short story which holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and forget after you've read a couple of pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|HorrorMarsha's Deal]], and [[:Category:FantasyHell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|FantasyHell's Unveiling]]and enjoyed them, [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form. }}Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels all linked by, unsurprisingly, strange and cataclysmic weather{{Frontpage|isbn=1986586898|title=Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating=4. Each novel is distinct 5|genre=Short Stories|summary=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 showcases Hillhis wife. In ''A Grey Day''s restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre an owner struggles with the problem of whether or blindingly beautiful, often switching from one sentence to not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the nextground is against him. As Hill himself says My favourite was ''the beauty of the world and the horror The Story of the world were twined togetherH'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments the story of abject horror are coupled with raw beautyFoinavon. [[Strange Weather by Joe Hill|Full Review]] <!-- Stibbe H is depicted as a 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-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile->up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1.}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=9386897296| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Hell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon[[image:Stibbe_Xmas|rating=3.jpg5|leftgenre=Short Stories|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|==summary=A little while ago I really enjoyed [[An Almost Perfect Christmas Marsha's Deal by Nina Stibbe]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpgLaura Solomon|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star ReviewsMarsha's Deal]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Christmas – the time and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo spoiler to defrost overnight, and if say that failed Marsha bested the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays itdevil in ''Marsha's all having to make sure itDeal''s suitably free-range and organic – , but the devil is not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it one to want take defeat lying down. He's out to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a time of great boons'goody two shoes' in Hell). It Although a strong person, she's cash in hand vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and beardsrefused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, it was always a godsend for postmen with of course, there are all the thankother children who are not only targeted but -you letters worst of all - subverted to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write the devil's evil ends. He's out in long-hand as a child, to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – wellwith many foster children, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe|Full Review]] <!-- Dick 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.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"1979217440|title=Marsha's Deal[[image:Dick_Electric.jpg|left|linkauthor=httpsLaura Solomon|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=Marsha didn't have an easy ride in life the first time around. She'd been afflicted with [https://wwwen.amazonwikipedia.co.ukorg/gpwiki/product/1473223288?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473223288Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Philip K Dick, a rare disease which turned parts of her body to bone when they were damaged. Finally, she was unable to stand her life any longer and went to Dignitas, the Swiss euthanasia clinic. She's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick]]=== [[image:3stard thought that would be the end, but after cremation, her body went straight to hell and she found herself face-to-face with the devil. And that was when she made the pact. In exchange for details about some of those who had been close to her - their strengths and weaknesses - she would be reborn on the same day to the same parents but would live her life free of disease.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]}}Philip K Dick's stories were originally published {{Frontpage|isbn=150690551X|title=Roses in the 50s, but they are more present than past. On the big screen December|author=Matthew de Lacey Davidson|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=''Blade Runner 2049Roses in December'' relaunched the Dickis a collection of twenty-inspired cult classic to reviews of pure praise; and on slightly smaller screenstwo short stories. And when I say short, Channel 4 has adapted the authorI mean ''s short stories for TV. Startlingly, Dick's current relevance reaches beyond fiction ', with each just a few pages long and into some brushing the factual: his topics from intrusive advertising and loss of privacy to flash fiction genre, such is the increasing machination of society are all headline material in today's newsbrevity. It I think the shorter the story, the harder it is as if half a century after their inceptionto write and the more difficult the task of engaging, then satisfying, Dick's electric dreams are becoming realitythe reader. [[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick|Full Review]] <!-- Mettler -->So it is to the immense credit of Matthew de Lacey Davidson that I sighed in appreciation many times while reading. He has a good sense of which moments of the human experience to capture in order to make the point he wants to make. Some highlights:}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=Onymouse_Quick| styletitle="widthQuick and Quirky: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Short Stories with Quips!|author=Fred Onymouse and Ann Onymouse[[image:Mettler_15|rating=1.jpg5|left|linkgenre=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/191158636X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=191158636X]] Short Stories| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fifteen Minutes by Erinna Mettler]]=== [[image:4starQuick, and indeed, quirky, are positive attributes, I'm sure you'd agree – apart from perhaps in surgeons. I like things that have a quirk, and I approve of the quicky.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Our I've been dabbling in the world is obsessed with celebrity culture - and in this advent of social mediacreative writing for a few years now, and whenever anyone asks what it is I mostly write, I define it with the updates on celebrity come 24 hours a day, delivered to us on our televisions, our magazinescatch-all safety net of ''flippant''. So this book should be right up my street, on our phones being as it is a bijou selection of illustrated and our computers. In focusing on these heightened and airbrushed lives though, are we missing the more interesting and human fairly large-print short stories that are out there? That's what Erinna Mettler considers in ''15 Minutes'' - short stories that feature celebrity encounters told through the eyes . }}{{Frontpage|isbn=Hill_Strange|title=Strange Weather|author=Joe Hill|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Strange Weather is a collection of ordinaryfour short novels all linked by, but no less compellingunsurprisingly, charactersstrange and cataclysmic weather. [[Fifteen Minutes by Erinna Mettler|Full Review]] <!-- Hodgkinson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hodgkinson_DarkEach novel is distinct and showcases Hill's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautiful, often switching from one sentence to the next. As Hill himself says ''the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782273824/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Dick_Electric|title=Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams|author=Philip K Dick|rating=3|genre=[[The Dark-Blue Winter Overcoat and other Short Stories|summary=Philip K Dick's stories from were originally published in the North by Sjon Hodgkinson and Ten Hodgkinson (editors)]]=== [[image:3star50s, but they are more present than past.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]]On the big screen ''Blade Runner 2049'' relaunched the Dick-inspired cult classic to reviews of pure praise; and on slightly smaller screens, [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]Channel 4 has adapted the author's short stories for TV. Startlingly, [[Dick's current relevance reaches beyond fiction and into the factual:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] A compilation like this should be nigh on brilliant. Ithis topics from intrusive advertising and loss of privacy to the increasing machination of society are all headline material in today's not one author's best short worksnews. It is as if half a century after their inception, itDick's that of a dozenelectric dreams are becoming reality. It's not from one snapshot in time, as some were written the year of publication }}{{Frontpage|isbn=Mettler_15|title=Fifteen Minutes|author=Erinna Mettler|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=Our world is obsessed with celebrity culture - and some in the 1960s. It's not from one tiny patch of author's desk or one set of laptop keysthis advent of social media, but from the entire Nordic worldupdates on celebrity come 24 hours a day, whether that be urban Scandinaviadelivered to us on our televisions, the Faroes our magazines, on our phones and other island groups, or Greenlandour computers. That is a world that's changing – as the Greenland-born author now living in Brooklyn, and the Iraqi blood In focusing on these pagesheightened and airbrushed lives though, testify. It's a world where new roads and new building works mean a family living on the edge of the forest at the beginning of the story are being surrounded by other life by we missing the end, more interesting and with human stories that are out there? That's what Erinna Mettler considers in ''15 Minutes'' - short stories that feature celebrity encounters told through the influence eyes of centuries of folklore featuredordinary, but no less compelling, a lot more than that changes – sometimes it seems to be even the characters' species… [[The Dark-Blue Winter Overcoat and other stories from the North by Sjon Hodgkinson and Ten Hodgkinson (editors)|Full Review]] <!-- Solomon -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Solomon_Taking.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/8193409353/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Taking Wainui by Laura Solomon]]=== [[image:2star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] This is the first time I have come across Laura Solomon's work, a New Zealand writer who has won writing prizes for both her fiction and poetry. Although this book appears to be a collection of short stories, I found its format somewhat confusing. [[Taking Wainui by Laura Solomon|Full Review]] <!-- STEVEN -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Steven_Winter.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910674508/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Winter Tales by Kenneth Steven]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Upon opening this book you are presented with 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 of places from Helsinki to New York, Germany to Russia. Kenneth Steven cleverly utilises a key component of short stories - that you can read each story in one sitting - to his advantage as he gives each story an individual focal subject, such as bullying, ensuring that you are reading a distinct story every time you open the book. [[Winter Tales by Kenneth Steven|Full Review]] <!-- Dahl -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dahl_Fear.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1405933216/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fear by Roald Dahl]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Do you enjoy being scared? Featuring fourteen classic spine-chilling stories chosen by Roald Dahl, these terrible tales of ghostly goings-on will have you shivering with fear as you turn the pages. [[Fear by Roald Dahl|Full Review]] <!-- Dahl -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dahl_War.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1405933194?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1405933194]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[War by Roald Dahl]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] In war, are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahl's time as a fighter pilot in the Second World War as well as seven other tales of conflict and strife, Dahl reveals the human side of our most inhumane activity. [[War by Roald Dahl|Full Review]] <!-- Dahl -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dahl_Trickery.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1405933232/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Trickery by Roald Dahl]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] How underhand could you be to get what you want? In these ten tales of dark and twisted trickery Roald Dahl reveals that we are at our smartest and most cunning when we set out to deceive others - and, sometimes, even ourselves. Here, among others, you'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 a few sleeping pills in his arsenal. [[Trickery by Roald Dahl|Full Review]] <!-- Dahl -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dahl_Innocence.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1405933259/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Innocence by Roald Dahl]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] What makes us innocent and how do we come to lose it? Featuring the autobiographical stories telling of Roald Dahl's boyhood and youth as well as four further tales of innocence betrayed, Dahl touches on the joys and horrors of growing up. Among other stories, you'll read about the wager that destroys a girl's faith in her father, the landlady who has plans for her unsuspecting young guest and the commuter who is horrified to discover that a fellow passenger once bullied him at school. [[Innocence by Roald Dahl|Full Review]] <!-- Hershman -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hershman_Some.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910061484/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Some of Us Glow More Than Others by Tania Hershman]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] I won't be alone in stating that reading short story collections can be slightly awkward. Going through from A-Z, witnessing a bounty of ideas and characters in short order can be too much, but do you have the right to pick and choose according to what appeals, 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 a whopping forty pieces of writing, they are also spread into sections. [[Some of Us Glow More Than Others by Tania Hershman|Full Review]] <!-- Kelman -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Kelman_Shiver.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786890909/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[That Was a Shiver, and Other Stories by James Kelman]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] This is the ninth book of short stories by this author, which means he's presented just as many collections of the short form as he has novels. You will find it hard to think of another author that has been so noted for longer works (what with [[How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman|How Late It Was, How Late]] winning the Booker) but who is so generous in presenting shorter pieces for the time-poor, or those like me who see the variety in a writer's short or less typical works to be the more interesting places to turn. Opening these pages, from the pen of such an esteemed pro, came with no small sense of anticipation. [[That Was a Shiver, and Other Stories by James Kelman|Full Review]] <!-- Various -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:VA_Change.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1847158390/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Change Is Gonna Come by Various Authors]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] ''A Change Is Gonna Come'' is an anthology of stories and poems interpreting the theme of change by twelve BAME writers. It's Stripes Publishing's response to the under-representation of BAME authors in the UK. And it's a great response. I loved it. [[A Change Is Gonna Come by Various Authors|Full Review]] <!-- Stancey -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Stancey_Madonna.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912054000/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Madonna of the Pool by Helen Stancey]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] In most short story collections, an overarching theme is usually present in each of the narratives which help each story gently flow in to the next. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores the quiet disappointments, achievements, and complications that each of us experience through everyday life. She draws attention to the small events and decisions that can both disrupt and significantly alter the lives of others and ourselves, all while maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughout. [[The Madonna of the Pool by Helen Stancey|Full Review]] <!-- Walsh -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Walsh_Worlds.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911508105/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Worlds from the Word's End by Joanna Walsh]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] We here at The Bookbag liked this author's fairly recent collection of short stories, [[Vertigo by Joanna Walsh|Vertigo]]. I myself missed out, but that seemed to be vignettes from one character's narration – here we get homosexual male narrators and a host more, as well as much less of the sadness prevalent before. Having had a brief encounter with this author courtesy of her entry into the [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne|Object Lessons]] series, I was intrigued by her name being stamped on a selection of shorts. Was it the ideal calling card? Let's face it, the very short story itself can be a postcard – let's say, from a specific hotel or two, as we see here. Perhaps I should have geared myself up, however, for such intricate writing on said postcards – and for the exotic locations from which they came… [[Worlds from the Word's End by Joanna Walsh|Full Review]] <!-- Phillips -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Phillips_Some.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782273425/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Picture a world where you, a new mother, move to a town where you slowly start to realise that every other woman seems a replica of you – dressing and doing as you do. Consider a place where you have a perfect other half – most literally – but it's only to be found on an alien planet. Or how about the woman who suddenly finds she can see everything and everyone else alive as having no skin, just organs, tissue and bone as if everyone was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? A lot of these stories are hard to summarise without dropping into the voice of the Twilight Zone narration, but they're not specifically genre works – they're just further examples of this author's unsettling look at the bizarre elements of life. [[Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips|Full Review]]  <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|} {{newreview|author= Cixin Liu|title= The Wandering Earth|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= If anyone thought that the short story as a form had been relegated to the pages of women's magazines (no disrespect) – think again. One genre that has always been a stalwart supporter and encourager of the short form is Sci-fi. So when you pick up a collection of Sci-fi shorts, you know that it will have just as much depth and thought-provoking philosophy as any similar novel. Add to that the intrigue of seeing how the concepts are approached by someone from China which – to be polite – has a somewhat different world-view in many ways to much of the rest of the planet…and add to that an author who is not only a best-seller in his home country but has the distinction of having produced the first translated work of SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)Hodgkinson_Dark|title= I Am The Brother Of XXDark-Blue Winter Overcoat and other stories from the North|author=Sjon Hodgkinson and Ten Hodgkinson (editors)|rating= 43|genre= Short Stories|summary=A compilation like this should be nigh on brilliant. It's not one author's best short works, it'I Am The Brother s that of XXa dozen. It'' is a collection of twenty s not from one short stories from Fleur Jaeggy, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughoutsnapshot in time, from as some were written the evil done between husband year of publication and wife some in the 1960s. It's not from one tiny patch of author'The Aviary'', a nasty tale s desk or one set of Oedipal menace and viciouslaptop keys, although admittedlybut from the entire Nordic world, artful crueltywhether that be urban Scandinavia, to senseless annihilation the Faroes and immolation in ''The Heir''other island groups, or Greenland. Jaeggy also appears to have That is a particular fascination with religionworld that's changing – as the Greenland-born author now living in Brooklyn, from and the nun receiving Iraqi blood on these pages, testify. It's a rather special sort of communion in ''The Visitor'' to general references to the Church world where new roads and religious devotion throughout many of her stories. Family is also new building works mean a recurrent theme; whether focused family living on the distance between siblings in edge of the forest at the beginning of the titular storyare being surrounded by other life by the end, told from and with the point influence of view centuries of folklore featured, a brother filled with longing and loneliness trying to create a bond with his distant older sister, or the primal need lot more than that changes – sometimes it seems to protect the bond between mother and son, regardless of be even the cost in characters''Adelaide''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>species…