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[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08NF79QXT
|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique
|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=3
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the 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: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08KKQ85FN
|title=But Never For Lunch
|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=''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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= InnocenceCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesFantasy|summary=What makes us innocent Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and how other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do we come this, or not to be able to lose it? Featuring do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the autobiographical stories telling verge of Roald Dahlmarrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's boyhood and youth as well as four further tales no escaping it. Which is why the theme of innocence betrayed, Dahl touches on the joys and horrors this book of growing up. Among other short storiesis such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, you'll read about the wager that destroys a girl's faith in her fatherdemonised place, 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 schoolother bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933259</amazonuk>1789091500
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania HershmanStibbe_Xmas|title=Some of Us Glow More Than OthersAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories Humour|summary=I won't be alone in stating 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 reading short story collections can be slightly awkwardfailed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Going through from ANowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-Z, witnessing a bounty of ideas range and characters in short order can be organic – but not too much, but do organic that you have the right to pick can go and choose according to what appealsvisit it, and what time you have get too friendly with it to fill? The sequence has carefully been considered, surely. Such would appear want to be the case hereeat it. The last Christmas, though, is of course also a time I read one of this authorgreat boons. It's collectionscash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]], all the only real difficulty was holding back and rationing them, but here thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you not only get write out in long-hand as a whopping forty pieces child, and as for the makers of writingMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they are also spread into sections.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>even try and sell them any other time of the year?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=A Winter Book|author=James KelmanTove Jansson|rating=5|titlegenre=Literary Fiction|summary=That Was Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that 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 Shiver, feeling for the natural world and Other Storiesthe simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1911115847|title=Nights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating=3.54|genre=Short Stories Literary Fiction|summary=This ''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is the ninth book a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in this authorcollection, which means he's presented just as many collections is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the short form as he has novelsshadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. You will find it hard Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to think achieve a glimmer of another hope.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529014484|title=Exhalation |author that =Ted Chiang|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Over the past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has been published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so noted for longer works (what with [[How Late It Was, How Late if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by James KelmanTed Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=Watchwords |author=Philip Neal|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|How Late It Was, How Late]] winning summary=This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the Booker) but who is so generous in presenting shorter pieces for provenance of the time-poor, or those antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been 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
|author=Various Authors
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen Stancey9386897504|title= The Madonna Tales of the PoolLove and Disability|author=Laura Solomon|rating= 3.54|genre= Short Stories|summary= In most 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 reader and keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections, an overarching theme is usually present in each of the narratives short stories which help each story gently flow in are all too easy to the nextput down and forget after you've read a couple of pieces. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores the quiet disappointments, achievements, and complications that each I've recently read a couple of us experience through everyday life. She draws attention to the small events novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and decisions that can both disrupt and significantly alter the lives of others [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and ourselvesenjoyed them, all while maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughoutso I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1912054000</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1986586898|title=Going To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=Joanna WalshK D Knight|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of H'', 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 yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=9386897296|title=Worlds from the WordHell's EndUnveiling|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=3.5
|genre=Short Stories
|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
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|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.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=Hill_Strange
|title=Strange Weather
|author=Joe Hill
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|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.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=Dick_Electric
|title=Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams
|author=Philip K Dick
|rating=3
|genre=Short Stories
|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.
}}
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