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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Joe Hill|title= Strange Weather|rating= 5|genre= Horror |summary= Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels all linked by, unsurprisingly, strange and cataclysmic weather. Each 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147322117X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Nina Stibbe|title=An Almost Perfect Christmas|rating=4.5|genre=Humour |summary=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 the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the 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 makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241309824</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|authorisbn= Philip K DickB08NF79QXT|title= Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams|rating= 3|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Philip K Dick's stories were originally published in the 50s, but they are more present than past. On the big screen ''Blade Runner 2049'' relaunched the Dick-inspired cult classic to reviews of pure praise; and on slightly smaller screens, Channel 4 has adapted the author's short stories for TV. Startlingly, Dick's current relevance reaches beyond fiction and into the factual: his topics from intrusive advertising and loss of privacy to the increasing machination of society are all headline material in today's news. It is as if half a century after their inception, Dick's electric dreams are becoming reality.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473223288</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewCherry Blossom Boutique|author= Erinna Mettler|title= Fifteen Minutes|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=Our world is obsessed with celebrity culture - and in this advent of social media, the updates on celebrity come 24 hours a day, delivered to us on our televisions, our magazines, on our phones and our computers. In focusing on these heightened and airbrushed lives though, are we missing the more interesting and human stories that are out there? That's what Erinna Mettler considers in ''15 Minutes'' - short stories that feature celebrity encounters told through the eyes of ordinary, but no less compelling, characters. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>191158636X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Sjon Hodgkinson and Ten Hodgkinson (editors)|title=The Dark-Blue Winter Overcoat and other stories from the NorthBrooke Adams

|genre=Anthologies Women's Fiction|summary=A compilation like this should be nigh on brilliant. It's not Thirty-one author's best short works-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, itfor just six months when she's that of a dozennominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. ItShe's not from one snapshot in time, as some were written the year of publication delighted and some in the 1960s. Ittwo people she's not from one tiny patch of authorbrought with her to the event couldn's desk or one set of laptop keys, but from the entire Nordic worldt be more pleased. Sonja, whether that be urban Scandinaviaher mother, the Faroes is an ex-model and other island groups, or GreenlandBrazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. That is a world thatJessica's changing – as the Greenlandthirty-born author now living in Brooklyn, four and the Iraqi blood on these pages, testify. ItLiberty's a world where new roads best friend: they've known each other since university 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 the endLiberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and with the influence of centuries of folklore featuredtheir four-year-old daughter, a lot more than that changes – sometimes Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it seems to be even the characterswasn' species…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273824</amazonuk>t for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Laura SolomonB08KKQ85FN|title=Taking Wainui|rating=2|genre=General Fiction|summary= 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>8193409353</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewBut Never For Lunch|author=Kenneth Steven|title=Winter TalesSandra Aragona

|summary= Upon opening this book you are presented with an eclectic collection of twelve short stories centred around ''If a common theme of Winter. You are taken around woman approaching the world as you read stories set menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a variety pampered peacock about to be released into the company of places from Helsinki carrion crows or, more to New Yorkthe point, Germany about to Russiadiscover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills. Kenneth Steven cleverly utilises a key component of short stories - '' You don't get many better opening sentences than that , do you can read each story ? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in one sitting - [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to his advantage as he gives each story an individual focal subjectbe moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, such as bullyingBeagle, ensuring that you are reading a distinct story every has no intention of slowing down any time you open the booksoon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910674508</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald DahlB08CHJLNBS|title= FearCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=Do you enjoy being scared? Featuring fourteen classic spineHe's Charles Devereaux, thirty-chilling stories chosen by Roald Dahleight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, these terrible tales of ghostly goingstwenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on will have from new age books like that, which leave you shivering with fear as you turn the pagesdependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a little deeper. Charles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933216</amazonuk>Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. 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?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= WarCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesFantasy|summary=In warCurses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahlverge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's time as no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this book of short stories is such a fighter pilot in the Second World War as standout – we may well as seven think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other tales of conflict and strife, Dahl reveals the human side of our most inhumane activitybewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933194</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald DahlStibbe_Xmas|title= TrickeryAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesHumour|summary=How underhand could you be 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 the downstairs loo to get what you want? In these ten tales of dark defrost overnight, and twisted trickery Roald Dahl reveals if that we are at our smartest and most cunning when we set out failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to deceive others make sure it's suitably free- range and organic – but not too organic that you can go andvisit it, sometimes, even ourselvesand get too friendly with it to want to eat it. HereChristmas, among othersthough, youis of course also a time of great boons. It'll read s cash in hand for a lot of the married couple plump people who can hire red suits and the parting gift which rocks their marriagebeards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the light fingered hitchthank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hiker hand as a child, and as for the grateful motoristmakers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and discover why sell them any other time of the serious poacher keeps a few sleeping pills in his arsenal.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933232</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald Dahl0954899520|title= InnocenceA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating= 5|genre= Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=What makes us innocent and how do we come to lose it? Featuring the autobiographical stories telling of Roald DahlTove Jansson's boyhood worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and youth as well as four further tales later becoming television characters of innocence betrayedthe simplicity, Dahl touches on the joys naivety and horrors of growing upsheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Among other Simple drawings, simple stories, you'll read about the wager simple goodness. 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 destroys she had a girl's faith in her father, feeling for the landlady who has plans for her unsuspecting young guest natural world and the commuter who is horrified to discover simple life that a fellow passenger once bullied him at schoolnot only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933259</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania Hershman1911115847|title=Some Nights of Us Glow More Than Othersthe Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories Literary Fiction|summary=I won't be alone in stating that reading 'Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short story collections can be slightly awkwardstories by Toni Kan. Going through from A-Z, witnessing a bounty The series of stories tell of ideas the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in short order can be too muchand around Lagos, but do you have the right to pick and choose according to what appealsNigeria. Nigeria, and what time you have to fill? The sequence has carefully been consideredin this collection, surelyis imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Such would appear to be Danger stalks the case hereshadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. The last time I read one Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of this hope.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529014484|title=Exhalation |author's collections, with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman=Ted Chiang|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|The White Road]]summary=Over the past twenty-eight years, the only real difficulty was holding back and rationing themTed Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, but here these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you not only get are a whopping forty pieces science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of writing, they are also spread into sectionsthe work by Ted Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Kelman1794467440|title=That Was a Shiver, and Other StoriesWatchwords |author=Philip Neal|rating=3.54|genre=Short Stories |summary=This is the ninth book satisfying collection of short stories by this author, which means he's presented just has a provenance at least as beguiling as many collections the provenance of the short form as antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he has novels. You will find it hard to think was fond of another author that has and had 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 told was like me who see the variety in a writer1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's short or less typical works how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to be the more interesting places to turnAntique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. Opening these pagesThe eBay purchase was a fake, from but the pen friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of such an esteemed pro, came with no small sense of anticipationidea for a book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786890909</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529006031|title=Return to Wonderland

|title= A Change Is Gonna Come|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn'A Change Is Gonna Comet really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don'' is an anthology of t remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories and poems interpreting that come at the core from a tangent, that show the theme benefits of change by twelve BAME writersthe oblique glance. It I've always preferred coming to an author's Stripes Publishingoutput through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's response to the under-representation of BAME authors in the UK. And itsame with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a great responsehunch, for obvious reasons).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847158390</amazonuk> For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen Stancey1846974658|title= The Madonna of the PoolLong Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating= 3.54|genre= Short Stories|summary= In most short story collectionsOn my travels around the world, an overarching theme I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is usually present in each of selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the narratives which help each story gently flow in to next person, what I'm really looking for is the next. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores 'local' – the quiet disappointmentscookbook maybe, achievementsthe maps definitely, and complications that each of us experience through everyday lifebut above all: the folk tales. She draws attention If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to the small events and decisions that hunt, I can both disrupt and significantly alter the lives of others and ourselves, all while maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughoutread before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1912054000</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joanna WalshB077969HN8|title=Worlds from the Word's EndAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating=34.5

|summary=We here at The Bookbag liked this authorLaura Solomon's fairly recent collection of publisher describes the short stories, [[Vertigo by Joanna Walsh|Vertigo]]in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. I myself missed out, but 'm rather glad that seemed to be vignettes from one characterI didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I's narration – here we get homosexual male narrators and m not normally a host morefan of either, as well as much less of but I've come to two conclusions about the sadness prevalent before. Having had a brief encounter with this author courtesy of her entry into book: what the [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne|Object Lessons]] series, publisher says is correct - and I was intrigued by her name being stamped on a selection of shortsreally enjoyed it. Was it the ideal calling card? Let The comedy is not ''too''s face it, black and the very short story itself can be surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a postcard – let's say, from a specific hotel twist or two, as we see hereflick of reality when you were least expecting it. Perhaps I should have geared myself up, however, for such intricate writing on said postcards – and for Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the exotic locations from which they came…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508105</amazonuk>nicest possible way.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Phillips9386897504|title=Some Possible SolutionsTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=Picture a world where you, a new mother, move to a town where you slowly start to realise I've always believed that every other woman seems less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a replica great deal of you – dressing skill and doing as you do. Consider talent to write 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 short story which holds the woman who suddenly finds she can see everything reader and everyone else alive as having no skin, just organs, tissue and bone as if everyone was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? keeps them coming back for more. A lot There are far too many collections of these short stories which are hard all too easy to summarise without dropping into the voice put down and forget after you've read a couple of the pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha'Twilight Zones Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell' narration, but they're not specifically genre works – they're just further examples of this authors Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's unsettling look at the bizarre elements of lifeUnveiling]] and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273425</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin Liu1986586898|title= Going To The Wandering EarthLast: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionShort Stories|summary= If anyone thought that In the short opening story as , a form had been relegated to the pages of women's magazines (no disrespect) – think againman whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. One genre that has always been a stalwart supporter and encourager In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the short form Gold Cup when the ground is Sci-fiagainst him. So when you pick up a collection My favourite was ''The Story of Sci-fi shortsH'', you know that it will have just the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as much depth and thought-provoking philosophy as any similar novela kind horse who only wanted to please people. Add After changing hands on various occasions he came to that the intrigue yard of seeing how John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the concepts are approached by someone from China which – to be polite – has Grand National and considered a somewhat different worldno-view in many ways to much hoper. In one of the rest most dramatic runnings of the planet…and add to that an author who is not only race, a bestpile-seller in his home country but has up occurred at the distinction of having produced 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the first translated work of SF ever fence and galloped to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493<line, winning the race at odds of 100/amazonuk>1.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)9386897296|title= I Am The Brother Of XXHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating= 43.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I Am The Brother of XXwas delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling'' is . It's probably not much of a collection of twenty one short stories from Fleur Jaeggy, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughout, from spoiler to say that Marsha bested the evil done between husband and wife devil in ''The AviaryMarsha's Deal'', a nasty tale of Oedipal menace and vicious, although admittedly, artful cruelty, but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to senseless annihilation wage war on Planet Earth and immolation in particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'The Heirgoody two shoes'in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Jaeggy also appears Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to have a particular fascination return to live with religionMarsha. Then, from of course, there are all the nun receiving a rather special sort other children who are not only targeted but - worst of communion in ''The Visitorall - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He' s out to general references to the Church prey on their fears and weaknesses and religious devotion throughout as with many of her storiesfoster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. Family This is also no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a recurrent theme; whether focused training complex on the distance between siblings in the titular storyearth, told from the point of view of a brother filled complete with longing and loneliness trying an elevator 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''Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Malcolm Devlin|title= You Will Grow Into Them|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary=''You Will Grow Into Them'' is a thrilling collection of ten short stories all centred on the nature of transition and change. The often grisly, macabre and ghoulish nature of the stories included in Devlin's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Tove Jansson|title= Letters From Klara|rating= 5|genre= Literary Fiction|summaryisbn= Famed in the UK for her creation of the Moomin family, Jansson is rather belatedly beginning to gather the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks to publishers ''Sort of books'' and Thomas Teal, who has been responsible for most of the translations. Receiving this one, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem to have missed one of the series, and secondly there'll come a time sooner rather than later when there'll be no more to be had. The former will be rectified, the latter is a sad thought.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Lee Child1979217440|title= No Middle Name|rating= 4|genre= Crime |summary= There is a theory, to which those who regularly read my reviews will know I sometimes subscribe, which says that the short storyMarsha's heyday has passed and it has now put itself out to grass. This is particularly true, some say, and I have been known to concur, of the crime and thriller genres. Tosh! I can only apologise to all authors involved and own up: I simply haven't been paying attention. Not even to shorter offerings my by favourite authors. So: big thanks to Lee Child and publishers Bantam Press for putting me straight with ''No Middle Name'' : a collection of short stories about my favourite latter-day, American-style, Robin Hood by the name of ''Jack Reacher''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593079019</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=A Fanfare of TalesDeal|author=Patrick C ReidyLaura Solomon

|summary=I love short stories, so IMarsha didn'm always happy when a new collection arrives for reviewt have an easy ride in life the first time around. She''A Fanfare d been afflicted with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva], a rare disease which turned parts of Tales'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' by Patrick C Reidy promises me ''a compilation of short stories d thought that highlight would be the adventures of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challenges''end, but after cremation, her body went straight to hell and she found herself face-to-face with the devil. I like this premise And that was when she made the pact. So how does In exchange for details about some of those who had been close to her - their strengths and weaknesses - she would be reborn on the book shape up? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524665983</amazonuk>same day to the same parents but would live her life free of disease.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero|title=Children of Lucifer: Modesty Blaise|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic Novels |summary=Out of ninety-five diverse comic strip stories, the publication of this book leaves just the last three yet to be presented in these fabulous large format paperbacks. So if you haven’t yet met with the sassy brunette with her curves and her great crime-solving mind, and of course with her Willie, this is the last-but-one chance for you to do so. And if you have any interest in quick little action tales, or even dated kitsch, for both apply here, then you should eagerly be on board…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329860X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Martin Edwards (editor)|title= Miraculous Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)|rating= 5|genre= Crime|summary=Consider the following scenario: a policeman hears someone screaming and runs to a house on a particular street, number 13, from where the noise is emanating. When he peeps through the letterbox he discovers a dead man in the hallway with a knife in his throat. He goes to fetch help, but upon returning, finds that the street does not have a number 13 and that the body and the room he saw have both mysteriously vanished...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|authorisbn= Michael R Lane150690551X|title= UFOs and GOD: A Collection of Short Stories|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=From stories of young people caught up in a Robin Hood style operation gone wrong, to a believer in God having her faith shaken by the arrival of aliens, author Michael R Lane has compiled a collection of fascinating and clever short stories here. From farm to urban, from World War II to the Digital Age, the places and times, people and events in ''UFOs and God'' spotlight the tender underbelly of the human condition Roses in all its glory and despair on these varied stages of fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rick Bass|title= For a Little While|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=''For a Little While'' is a collection of twenty-five short stories from Rick Bass. As someone previously unacquainted with Bass' work this new collection was a wonderful introduction to his quirky, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situations, mysterious characters and magical experiences. The characters in each tale are beautifully crafted and the stories are dreamy, loose narratives covering everything from love to death to choices made and chances taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273042</amazonuk>}}{{newreview <!-- remove 25/1 -->|title=A Collection of Short StoriesDecember|author=Gillian Fletcher-EdwardsMatthew de Lacey Davidson

|summary=Marged Evans allowed ''Roses in December'' is a breakcollection of twenty-up two short stories. And when I say short, I mean ''short'', with each just a lover to affect everything in her lifefew pages long and some brushing the flash fiction genre, such is the brevity. Osian wanted I think the shorter the story, the harder it is to invest in write and the present but Marged loved more difficult the past. Since they drifted aparttask of engaging, Marged's life has been carefulthen satisfying, ordered, unadventurousthe reader. But then Osian sends her a Christmas card and everything changes. ''Marged Evans'' So it is to the first and longest immense credit of Matthew de Lacey Davidson that I sighed in this collection of short stories from Gillian Fletcher-Edwardsappreciation many times while reading. It's almost He has a novella and its initially slow pace sets off quite good sense of which moments of the masterclass human experience to capture in how one event can throw everything into unexpected - but lovely - chaosorder to make the point he wants to make.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>Some highlights:

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Onymouse_Quick|title= Sybil Marshall Quick and John LawrenceQuirky: Short Stories with Quips!|titleauthor= The Book of English Folk TalesFred Onymouse and Ann Onymouse|rating= 41.5|genre= AnthologiesShort Stories|summary= From ghosts to witchesQuick, to giants and fairiesindeed, quirky, are positive attributes, I'm sure you'The Book of English Folk Tales'' is d agree – apart from perhaps in surgeons. I like things that have a fascinating collection quirk, and I approve of stories retold by social historian and folklorist Sybil Marshallthe quicky. Out I've been dabbling in the world of print creative writing for over three decadesa few years now, this beautiful new clothbound edition and whenever anyone asks what it is complete I mostly write, I define it with wood engraved illustrations by John Lawrence and is sure to capture the attention catch-all safety net of ''flippant''. So this book should be right up my street, being as it is a new generation bijou selection of lovers of folkloreillustrated and fairly large-print short stories.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKayHill_Strange|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Strange Weather|author=Joe Hill|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=A lot of crime happens in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life Strange Weather is a collection of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen too. As we travel through the year with himfour short novels all linked by, his recently wedded English wife Francesunsurprisingly, doctor brother in law Giles strange and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some of his most interesting casescataclysmic weather. In fact thereEach 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 match each the next. As Hill himself says ''the beauty of the world and the horror of the yearworld were twined together''s big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yulenever is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Telford and Louise VerityDick_Electric|title=SinsPhilip K Dick's Electric Dreams|author=Philip K Dick|rating=43

|summary=Is there enough new to say about Philip K Dick's stories were originally published in the seven deadly sins? We've seen them all shown to us50s, from school age and up to but they are more present than past. On the movie big screen ''Se7enBlade Runner 2049'', which we sincerely hope was NOT shown relaunched the Dick-inspired cult classic to anyone at school age. We can each recount them allreviews of pure praise; and on slightly smaller screens, having been long familiar with them, even if we probably canChannel 4 has adapted the author't pin down when they were actually set in stone without helps short stories for TV. SimilarlyStartlingly, is there anything new in Dick's current relevance reaches beyond fiction and into the world factual: his topics from intrusive advertising and loss of fairy tale? We know the tropes - characters identified by their status or gender (privacy to the woman, the husband), a clear set increasing machination of rules to obey, and a moral society are all headline material in today's news. It is as strong as, if not stronger than, the formulae involved. Well, this volume demands we decide the answer to those questions as being positive oneshalf a century after their inception, and if itDick's not always definitive in the writing here that there is something new, rest assured there will be something in the imagery that will definitely strike one as fresh..electric dreams are becoming reality.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>