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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]] ''Roses in December'' is a collection of twenty The wacky-for-the-sake-of-two short stories. And when I say shortit did not gel, and I mean don''short'', with each just t remember loving it more as a few pages long and some brushing the flash fiction genre, such is the brevitychild. But I think would suggest I am the shorter perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the storycore from a tangent, that show the harder it is to write and the more difficult the task benefits of engaging, then satisfying, the readeroblique glance. So I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it is to 's the immense credit of Matthew de Lacey Davidson that same with franchises – I sighed in appreciation many times while reading'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). He has a good sense For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of which moments of the human experience to capture greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love 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|Full Review]]isbn=1846974658|title=The Long Path To Wisdom<!-- Onymouse -|author=Jan->Philipp Sendker|-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-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Quick and Quirkyhand escapist tales as the next person, what I'm really looking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: Short Stories with Quips! by Fred Onymouse and Ann Onymouse]]==the folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I go.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B077969HN8 [[image:1.5star.jpg|linktitle=Category:{{{Alternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories=4.5|genre=Short Stories]] Quick, and indeed, quirky, are positive attributes, |summary=Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. I'm sure yourather glad that I didn'd agree – apart from perhaps in surgeons. t see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I like things that have 'm not normally a quirkfan of either, and but I approve of 've come to two conclusions about the quicky. I've been dabbling in book: what the world of creative writing for a few years now, publisher says is correct - and whenever anyone asks what I really enjoyed it . The comedy is I mostly write, I define it with the catch-all safety net of not '''flippanttoo''black and the surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. So this book should Your comfort zones are going to be right up my street, being as it is a bijou selection invaded in the nicest possible way.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=9386897504|title=Tales of illustrated Love and fairly large-print short stories. [[Quick and Quirky: Disability|author=Laura Solomon|rating=4|genre=Short Stories with Quips! by Fred Onymouse and Ann Onymouse|Full Review]] <!summary=I've always believed that less-- Hill -->|-| style="widthable writers produce longer books: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hill_Strangeit 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|left|link=https://www 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.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/147322117X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon -21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=147322117X[[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===and [[Strange Weather Hell's Unveiling by Joe HillLaura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]]===and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form. }}{{Frontpage[[image:5star.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[1986586898|title=Going To The Last:Category:HorrorShort Stories About Horse Racing|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasyauthor=K D Knight|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fictionrating=4.5|General Fiction]]genre=Short Stories Strange Weather is |summary=In the opening story, a collection of four short novels all linked by, unsurprisingly, strange man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and cataclysmic weatherhis wife. Each novel is distinct and showcases Hill 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 not to run his horse in the nextGold Cup when the ground is against him. As Hill himself says My favourite was ''the beauty The Story of H'', the world and story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the horror yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the world were twined together''Grand National and considered a no-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beautya 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. [[Strange Weather by Joe Hill|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Stibbe -->|isbn=9386897296|-title=Hell's Unveiling| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Laura Solomon|rating=3.5[[image:Stibbe_Xmas.jpg|leftgenre=Short Stories|linksummary=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[An Almost Perfect Christmas and I was delighted by Nina Stibbe]]=== [[image:4the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''.5star It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Christmas – the time of traditional trauma He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon Although a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnightstrong person, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best betshe's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Nowadays it Daniel is framed for a crime he didn's all having t commit and sent to make sure it's suitably free-range juvenile detention and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly refused permission to return to live with it to want to eat itMarsha. Christmas, though Then, is of course also a time , there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of great boonsall - subverted to the devil's evil ends. It He's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and beardsas with many foster children, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thanktheir self-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in longesteem is very fragile. This is no small-hand as a childscale operation, and as for either - the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – welldevil has set up a training complex on earth, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe|Full Review]]complete with an elevator to Hell.}}<!-- Dick -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1979217440| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Marsha's Deal|author=Laura Solomon|rating=4[[image:Dick_Electric.jpg|leftgenre=Short Stories|linksummary=https://www.amazon.coMarsha didn't have an easy ride in life the first time around.uk She'd been afflicted with [https://gpen.wikipedia.org/productwiki/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.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction 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.}}{{Frontpage|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Storiesisbn=150690551X|title=Roses in December|author=Matthew de Lacey Davidson|rating=4|genre=Short Stories]] Philip K Dick|summary=''s stories were originally published Roses in the 50s, but they are more present than past. On the big screen December''Blade Runner 2049'' relaunched the Dickis a collection of twenty-inspired cult classic to reviews of pure praise; and on slightly smaller screens, Channel 4 has adapted the author's two short stories for TV. StartlinglyAnd when I say short, DickI mean ''s current relevance reaches beyond short'', with each just a few pages long and some brushing the flash fiction and into genre, such is the factual: his topics from intrusive advertising and loss brevity. I think the shorter the story, the harder it is to write and the more difficult the task of privacy engaging, then satisfying, the reader. So it is to the increasing machination immense credit of society are all headline material Matthew de Lacey Davidson that I sighed in today's newsappreciation many times while reading. It is as if half He has a century after their inception, Dick's electric dreams are becoming realitygood sense of which moments of the human experience to capture in order to make the point he wants to make. [[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick|Full Review]]Some highlights:}} <!-- Mettler -->{{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|leftgenre=Short Stories|linksummary=https://www.amazon.coQuick, and indeed, quirky, are positive attributes, I'm sure you'd agree – apart from perhaps in surgeons.uk/gp/product/191158636X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&I like things that have a quirk, and I approve of the quicky. I've been dabbling in the world of creative=6738&creativeASIN=191158636X]]  | style="verticalwriting for a few years now, and whenever anyone asks what it is I mostly write, I define it with the catch-align: top; text-align: left;"|==all safety net of ''flippant''. So this book should be right up my street, being as it is a bijou selection of illustrated and fairly large-print short stories. }}{{Frontpage|isbn=[[Fifteen Minutes by Erinna Mettler]]Hill_Strange|title=Strange Weather|author=Joe Hill|rating=5|genre=Short Stories[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Our world is obsessed with celebrity culture - and in this advent Strange Weather is a collection of social mediafour short novels all linked by, the updates on celebrity come 24 hours a dayunsurprisingly, delivered to us on our televisions, our magazines, on our phones strange and our computerscataclysmic weather. In focusing on these heightened Each novel is distinct and airbrushed lives though, are we missing the more interesting and human stories that are out there? Thatshowcases Hill's what Erinna Mettler considers in 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 ''15 Minutes'' - short stories that feature celebrity encounters told through the eyes beauty of the world and the horror of ordinarythe world were twined together'', but no less compelling, characters. [[Fifteen Minutes by Erinna Mettler|Full Review]]never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty.}}<!-- Hodgkinson -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=Dick_Electric| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams|author=Philip K Dick[[image:Hodgkinson_Dark.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782273824/ref3|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Short Stories| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dark-Blue Winter Overcoat and other stories from Philip K Dick's stories were originally published in the 50s, but they are more present than past. On the North by Sjon Hodgkinson big screen ''Blade Runner 2049'' relaunched the Dick-inspired cult classic to reviews of pure praise; and Ten Hodgkinson (editors)]]=== [[image:3staron slightly smaller screens, Channel 4 has adapted the author's short stories for TV.jpg|link=CategoryStartlingly, Dick's current relevance reaches beyond fiction and into the factual:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] A compilation like this should be nigh on brillianthis topics from intrusive advertising and loss of privacy to the increasing machination of society are all headline material in today's news. Itis as if half a century after their inception, Dick's not one author's best short works, it'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 and some in the 1960s. It's not from one tiny patch of }}{{Frontpage|isbn=Mettler_15|title=Fifteen Minutes|author's desk or one set of laptop keys, but from the entire Nordic =Erinna Mettler|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=Our world, whether that be urban Scandinaviais obsessed with celebrity culture - and in this advent of social media, the Faroes and other island groupsupdates on celebrity come 24 hours a day, or Greenland. That is a world that's changing – as the Greenland-born author now living in Brooklyndelivered to us on our televisions, our magazines, on our phones and the Iraqi blood our computers. In focusing on these pagesheightened and airbrushed lives though, testify. Itare we missing the more interesting and human stories that are out there? That's a world where new roads and new building works mean a family living on what Erinna Mettler considers in ''15 Minutes'' - short stories that feature celebrity encounters told through the edge eyes of the forest at the beginning of the story are being surrounded by ordinary, but no less compelling, characters.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Hodgkinson_Dark|title=The Dark-Blue Winter Overcoat and other life by stories from the end, North|author=Sjon Hodgkinson and with the influence of centuries of folklore featured, a lot more than that changes – sometimes it seems to Ten Hodgkinson (editors)|rating=3|genre=Short Stories|summary=A compilation like this should be even the charactersnigh on brilliant. It's not one author' species… [[The Dark-Blue Winter Overcoat and other stories s best short works, it's that of a dozen. It's not from one snapshot in time, as some were written the North by Sjon Hodgkinson year of publication and Ten Hodgkinson (editors)|Full Review]] <!-- Solomon -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Solomon_Taking.jpg|link=http://wwwsome in the 1960s. It's not from one tiny patch of author's desk or one set of laptop keys, but from the entire Nordic world, whether that be urban Scandinavia, the Faroes and other island groups, or Greenland.amazon.co.uk/dp/8193409353/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbagThat is a world that's changing – as the Greenland-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Taking Wainui born author now living in Brooklyn, and the Iraqi blood on these pages, 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 Laura Solomon]]=== [[image:2star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]other life by the end, [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] This is and with the first time I have come across Laura Solomon's workinfluence of centuries of folklore featured, a New Zealand writer who has won writing prizes for both her fiction and poetry. Although this book appears lot more than that changes – sometimes it seems to be a collection of short stories, I found its format somewhat confusing. [[Taking Wainui by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]even the characters' species… <!-- 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 Move 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 – Newest Spirituality 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 Religion 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]] <!-- Liu -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Liu_Wandering.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784978493/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]],[[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] 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! [[The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu|Full Review]]  <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}  {{newreview|author= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)|title= I Am The Brother Of XX|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=''I Am The Brother of XX'' is a collection of twenty one short stories from Fleur Jaeggy, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughout, from the evil done between husband and wife in ''The Aviary'', a nasty tale of Oedipal menace and vicious, although admittedly, artful cruelty, to senseless annihilation and immolation in ''The Heir''. Jaeggy also appears to have a particular fascination with religion, from the nun receiving a rather special sort of communion in ''The Visitor'' to general references to the Church and religious devotion throughout many of her stories. Family is also a recurrent theme; whether focused on the distance between siblings in the titular story, told from the point of view of a brother filled with longing and loneliness trying to create a bond with his distant older sister, or the primal need to protect the bond between mother and son, regardless of the cost in ''Adelaide''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>}}