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<!{{Frontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Thirty-one- Hill year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for -and wins ->*[[imagethe Retail Best Newcomer Award. She's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian:Hill_Strangeyou can see where Liberty got her looks from.jpg|left|link=httpsJessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend://wwwthey've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava.amazon Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.co.uk/gp/product/147322117X?ie}}{{Frontpage|isbn=UTF8&tagB08KKQ85FN|title=thebookbag-21&linkCodeBut Never For Lunch|author=as2&campSandra Aragona|rating=1634&creative4|genre=6738&creativeASINShort Stories|summary=147322117X]]''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''

===[[Strange Weather by Joe Hill]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities:Category:FantasyAmbassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|FantasySorting the Priorities]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] 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 we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the next. As Hill himself says ''Italian Government but the beauty of the world time has come for HE to retires and the horror of the world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty. [[Strange Weather by Joe Hill|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Stibbe -->*[[image:Stibbe_Xmas.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824]] ===[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]=== [[image:4Former Ambassador.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only They have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, left The Career and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best betsettled in Rome. Nowadays it Well 's all having to make sure itsettled's suitably free-range rather overstates the situation and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmastheir dog, thoughBeagle, is has no intention of course also a slowing down any 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 childsoon, despite being sixteen and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe|Full Review]]<br>deaf.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Philip K DickB08CHJLNBS|title= Philip K Dick's Electric DreamsCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 3|genre= Science Women's Fiction|summary= Philip K DickHe's stories were originally published Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the 50s, heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but they are more present than past. On the big screen she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else'Blade Runner 2049'' relaunched the Dick-inspired cult classic s philosophies, to reviews something a little deeper. Charles is more of pure praise; and on slightly smaller screensa [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, Channel 4 has adapted the authorhe's short stories for TVshocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. Startlingly They're obviously not at all compatible, Dickso why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's current relevance reaches beyond fiction and into the factualnot his usual type at all: it's obvious to his topics from intrusive advertising and loss of privacy friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to the increasing machination of society are all headline material in todayhim? The relationship's news. It is as if half obviously a century after their inceptionnon-starter, Dickisn's electric dreams are becoming reality.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473223288</amazonuk>t it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Erinna MettlerMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= Fifteen MinutesCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesFantasy|summary=Our world is obsessed with celebrity culture - Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and in other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this advent of social media, the updates on celebrity come 24 hours a dayor not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, delivered to us as can princesses on our televisions, our magazinesthe verge of marrying, on our phones and our computersolder people too. In focusing on these heightened and airbrushed lives though, are we missing the more interesting and human stories that are out It seems in a way there? That's what Erinna Mettler considers in ''15 Minutes'' - no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that feature celebrity encounters told through the eyes of ordinarydemonised place, but no less compelling, charactersand that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>191158636X</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sjon Hodgkinson and Ten Hodgkinson (editors)Stibbe_Xmas|title=The Dark-Blue Winter Overcoat and other stories from the NorthAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=34.5|genre=Anthologies Humour|summary=A compilation like this should be nigh on brilliantChristmas – the time of traditional trauma. It's not one author's best short works, it's You only have to think about the turkey for that of – once upon a dozen. It's not from one snapshot in timeit was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, as some were written the year of publication and some in if that failed the 1960shair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. ItNowadays it's not from one tiny patch of authorall having to make sure it's desk or one set of laptop keys, suitably free-range and organic – but from the entire Nordic world, whether not too organic that be urban Scandinaviayou can go and visit it, the Faroes and other island groupsget too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, or Greenland. That is of course also a world that's changing – as the Greenland-born author now living in Brooklyn, and the Iraqi blood on these pages, testifytime of great boons. It's cash in hand for a world where new roads lot of plump people who can hire red suits and new building works mean beards, it was always a family living on godsend for postmen with all the edge of the forest at the beginning of the story are being surrounded by other life by the endthank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and with as for the influence makers of centuries of folklore featuredMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, a lot more than that changes – sometimes it seems to be did they even try and sell them any other time of the characters' species…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273824</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Laura Solomon0954899520|title=Taking WainuiA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating=25|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary= This is Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the first time I have come across Laura Solomonsimplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness's workthat would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, 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 she had a New Zealand writer who has won writing prizes feeling for both her fiction the natural world and poetry. Although this book appears to the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be a collection of short stories, I found its format somewhat confusing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>8193409353</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kenneth Steven1911115847|title=Winter TalesNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary= Upon opening this book you are presented with an eclectic ''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of twelve short stories centred by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around a common theme Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of Winterdarkness. You Danger stalks the shadows and people are taken around the world as you read stories set in killed for nothing more than a variety of places from Helsinki to New York, Germany to Russiawrong look. Kenneth Steven cleverly utilises Kan writes with a key component of short vitality and passion that allows these cynical 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 achieve a distinct story every time you open the bookglimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910674508</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald Dahl1529014484|title= FearExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating= 5|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=Do you enjoy being scared? Featuring fourteen classic spineOver the past twenty-chilling eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories chosen by Roald Dahl, these terrible tales of ghostly goingsmagnificent stories have won twenty-on will have seven major science fiction awards so if you shivering with fear as are a science fiction fan it is likely that you turn have already come across some of the pageswork by Ted Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933216</amazonuk>

<!-- Dahl -->[[image:Dahl_WarPhilip Neal lost a watch.jpg|left|link=https://wwwIt was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a 1930s Cartier.amazonInstead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it.coAnd that's how he became a watch collector.uk/gp/product/1405933194?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1405933194]] ===[[War by Roald Dahl]]=== [[image:5starAn eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]The eBay purchase was a fake, [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] In war, are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring but the friendship that grew between the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahl's time as a fighter pilot in buyer and the Second World War as well as seven other tales repairer of conflict watches was not and strife, Dahl reveals the human side seed of our most inhumane activityan idea for a book was born. [[War by Roald Dahl|Full Review]]<br>}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald Dahl1529006031|title= TrickeryReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=How underhand could you be to get what you want? In these ten tales 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 dark and twisted trickery Roald Dahl reveals age]], I found that we are at our smartest and most cunning when we set out to deceive others I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of- it did not gel, and, sometimes, even ourselvesI don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. Here I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, among others, you'll read that show the benefits of the married couple and the parting gift which rocks oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their marriageleast obvious, the light fingered hitchallegedly throw-hiker away pieces, and it's the grateful motorist, and discover why same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the serious poacher keeps whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a few sleeping pills hunch, for obvious reasons). 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 his arsenal.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933232</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald Dahl1846974658|title= InnocenceThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories|summary=What makes us innocent and how do we come On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to lose it? Featuring the autobiographical stories telling of Roald Dahl's boyhood end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and youth while I buy as well many second-hand escapist tales as four further tales of innocence betrayed, Dahl touches on the joys and horrors of growing up. Among other storiesnext person, youwhat I'll read about m really looking for is the wager that destroys a girl's faith in her fatherlocal' – the cookbook maybe, the landlady who has plans for her unsuspecting young guest and maps definitely, but above all: the commuter who is horrified folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to discover that a fellow passenger once bullied him at schoolhunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933259</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania HershmanB077969HN8|title=Some of Us Glow More Than OthersAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon

|genre=Short Stories |summary=Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. I'm rather glad that I wondidn't be alone in stating that see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading short story collections can be slightly awkward. Going through from A-Z, witnessing as I'm not normally a bounty fan of ideas and characters in short order can be too mucheither, but do you have I've come to two conclusions about the right to pick and choose according to book: what appeals, the publisher says is correct - and what time you have to fill? The sequence has carefully been considered, surely. Such would appear to be the case hereI really enjoyed it. The last time I read one of this authorcomedy is not ''too''s collections, with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]], black and the only real difficulty was holding back surrealism is gentle and rationing them, but here you not only get perhaps best described as a whopping forty pieces twist or flick of writing, they reality when you were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are also spread into sectionsgoing to be invaded in the nicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Kelman9386897504|title=That Was a Shiver, Tales of Love and Other StoriesDisability|author=Laura Solomon|rating=3.54|genre=Short Stories |summary=This is I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a short story which holds the ninth book reader and keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections of short stories by this author, which means heare all too easy to put down and forget after you's presented just as many collections ve read a couple of the short form as he has novelspieces. You will find it hard to think I've recently read a couple of another author that has been so noted for longer works (what with novellas by Laura Solomon - [[How Late It Was, How Late Marsha's Deal by James KelmanLaura Solomon|How Late It Was, How LateMarsha's Deal]] 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 writerand [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's short or less typical works Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to be the more interesting places to turn. Opening these pages, from the pen of such see what she could do with an esteemed pro, came with no small sense of anticipationeven shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786890909</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Various Authors1986586898|title= A Change Is Gonna ComeGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensShort 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 his wife. In ''A Change Is Gonna ComeGrey Day'' is an anthology owner struggles with the problem of stories and poems interpreting whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the theme ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of change by twelve BAME writers. ItH's Stripes Publishing's response , the 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 under-representation yard of BAME authors John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the UK. And it's Grand National and considered a great responseno-hoper.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847158390</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Helen Stancey|title= The Madonna In one of the Pool|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= In most short story collections, an overarching theme is usually present in each dramatic runnings of the narratives which help each story gently flow in to race, a pile-up occurred at the next23rd fence. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores the quiet disappointmentsFoinavon, achievementswho had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and complications that each of us experience through everyday life. She draws attention galloped to the small events and decisions that can both disrupt and significantly alter line, winning the lives race at odds of others and ourselves, all while maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughout100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1912054000</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joanna Walsh9386897296|title=Worlds from the WordHell's EndUnveiling|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=We here at The Bookbag liked this authorA little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's fairly recent collection of short stories, [[Vertigo Deal by Joanna WalshLaura Solomon|VertigoMarsha's Deal]]and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. I myself missed outIt's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but that seemed the devil is not one to be vignettes from one charactertake defeat lying down. He's narration – here we get homosexual male narrators out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a host more'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, as well as much less of the sadness prevalent beforeshe's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Having had Daniel is framed for a brief encounter crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with this author courtesy Marsha. Then, of her entry into course, there are all the [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne|Object Lessons]] series, I was intrigued by her name being stamped on a selection other children who are not only targeted but - worst of shortsall - subverted to the devil's evil ends. Was it the ideal calling card? LetHe's face itout to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, the their self-esteem is very short story itself can be a postcard – let's sayfragile. This is no small-scale operation, from either - the devil has set up a specific hotel or twotraining complex on earth, as we see herecomplete with an elevator to Hell. Perhaps I should have geared myself up, however, for such intricate writing on said postcards – and for the exotic locations from which they came…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508105</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Phillips1979217440|title=Some Possible SolutionsMarsha's Deal|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=Picture a world where youMarsha didn't have an easy ride in life the first time around. She'd been afflicted with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva], a new motherrare disease which turned parts of her body to bone when they were damaged. Finally, move she was unable to a town where you slowly start stand her life any longer and went to realise that every other woman seems a replica of you – dressing and doing as you doDignitas, the Swiss euthanasia clinic. Consider a place where you have a perfect other half – most literally – but itShe's only to d thought that would 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 skinend, just organsbut after cremation, tissue her body went straight to hell and bone as if everyone she found herself face-to-face with the devil. And that was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? when she made the pact. A lot In exchange for details about some of these stories are hard those who had been close to summarise without dropping into her - their strengths and weaknesses - she would be reborn on the voice of same day to the ''Twilight Zone'' narration, same parents but they're not specifically genre works – they're just further examples would live her life free of this author's unsettling look at the bizarre elements of lifedisease.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273425</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin Liu150690551X|title= The Wandering EarthRoses in December|author=Matthew de Lacey Davidson|rating= 54|genre= Science FictionShort Stories|summary= If anyone thought that the short story as ''Roses in December'' is a form had been relegated to the pages collection of womentwenty-two short stories. And when I say short, I mean ''short's magazines (no disrespect) – think again. One genre that has always been ', with each just a stalwart supporter few pages long and encourager of some brushing the short form flash fiction genre, such is Sci-fithe brevity. So when you pick up a collection of Sci-fi shortsI think the shorter the story, you know that the harder it will have just as much depth is to write and thought-provoking philosophy as any similar novelthe more difficult the task of engaging, then satisfying, the reader. Add So it is to that the intrigue immense credit of seeing how the concepts are approached by someone from China which – to be polite – Matthew de Lacey Davidson that I sighed in appreciation many times while reading. He has a somewhat different world-view in many ways to much good sense of the rest which moments of the planet…and add human experience to that an author who is not only a best-seller capture in his home country but has the distinction of having produced the first translated work of SF ever order to win make the Hugo Award…this has got point he wants to be good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>make. Some highlights:

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Onymouse_Quick|title= Fleur Jaeggy Quick and Gini Alhadeff (translator)Quirky: Short Stories with Quips!|titleauthor= I Am The Brother Of XXFred Onymouse and Ann Onymouse|rating= 41.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=''I Am The Brother of XX'' is a collection of twenty one short stories from Fleur JaeggyQuick, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughoutindeed, from the evil done between husband and wife in ''The Aviary''quirky, a nasty tale of Oedipal menace and viciousare positive attributes, although admittedly, artful cruelty, to senseless annihilation and immolation in ''The HeirI'm sure you'd agree – apart from perhaps in surgeons. Jaeggy also appears to I like things that have a particular fascination with religionquirk, from the nun receiving a rather special sort and I approve of communion in ''The Visitor'' to general references to the Church and religious devotion throughout many of her storiesquicky. Family is also a recurrent theme; whether focused on the distance between siblings I've been dabbling in the titular story, told from the point of view world of creative writing for a brother filled with longing few years now, and loneliness trying to create a bond whenever anyone asks what it is I mostly write, I define it with his distant older sister, or the primal need to protect the bond between mother and son, regardless catch-all safety net of the cost in ''Adelaideflippant''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>So this book should be right up my street, being as it is a bijou selection of illustrated and fairly large-print short stories.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Malcolm DevlinHill_Strange|title= You Will Grow Into ThemStrange Weather|author=Joe Hill|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary=''You Will Grow Into Them'' Strange Weather is a thrilling collection of ten four short stories novels all centred on the nature of transition linked by, unsurprisingly, strange and changecataclysmic weather. The often grislyEach 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 ghoulish nature the horror of the stories included world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Devlin's debut collection Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are intoxicatingly illicit and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictivecoupled with raw beauty.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk>