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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin LiuAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= The Wandering EarthAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= If anyone thought that ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the short story as a form had been relegated shape of things to the pages of womencome.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you's magazines (no disrespect) – think againre eighteen. One genre Well, I must confess that has always there have been more than a stalwart supporter and encourager few decades of the short form is Sci-fitechnology in my lifetime. So when you pick I've kept up a collection reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of Sciit is -fi shorts, you know that it will have just as much depth and thoughtfrankly -provoking philosophy as any similar novelquite frightening. Add to that Of course, I could research the intrigue of seeing how possibilities and the concepts are approached by probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone from China which – to be polite – has a somewhat different world-view in many ways to much of who knows what they're talking about or the rest of the planet…and add to that an author latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who is not only could deliver information in a best-seller in his home country but has the distinction of having produced the first translated work of SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>way I could understand.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)B0CDZRGT1M|title= I Am The Brother Of XXSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=''I Am The Brother of XX'' is Got a collection of twenty one short stories from Fleur Jaeggyminute to be amused, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughoutentertained, from the evil done between husband and wife in or challenged?''The Aviary'', These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a nasty tale of Oedipal menace and vicious, although admittedly, artful cruelty, to senseless annihilation and immolation in flash.''The Heir''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short. 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  Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of her stories. Family is also a recurrent theme; whether focused on the distance between siblings in the titular fully rounded little story if that story, is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the point flash fictions in a book of view them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a brother filled with longing and loneliness trying to create three hundred word limit. That's about a bond with his distant older sister, or the primal need to protect the bond between mother and son, regardless of the cost single page in ''Adelaide''your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Malcolm DevlinRachel Harrison|title= You Will Grow Into ThemBad Dolls|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories|summary=It's been some time since I'You Will Grow Into Them'' is ve read any horror. I had a thrilling collection couple of ten short stories all centred on misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the nature of transition books from a boy I fancied at school and change. The often grisly, macabre and ghoulish nature of scaring myself half silly with them to the stories included in Devlinpoint that I couldn'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|summary= Famed in the UK t shut my bedroom curtains at night for her creation fear of the Moomin family, Jansson is rather belatedly beginning to gather the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. vampires outside! For that I offer my heartDon't worry -felt thanks to publishers this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn'Sort of books't have those jump scares, and I didn' t have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and Thomas Teal, who has been responsible for I found most of that feeling came from the translations. Receiving this onefact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, and that at least in part, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem to have missed one of the serieshorrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, and secondly there'll come trying a time sooner rather than later when there'll be no more new dieting app, going to be had. The former will be rectified, the latter is a sad thoughthen party and a coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Lee Child|titleisbn= 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 story'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>}}{{newreviewB0CCCVRSGX|title=A Fanfare of TalesStories 2|author=Patrick C ReidyRichard F Walker

|summary=I love This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories, so . There are thirteen in all and Itook something from each of them. There isn'm always happy when t a new collection arrives for single one that doesn't deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review. ''A Fanfare of Tales'' by Patrick C Reidy promises me ''a compilation of short stories that highlight the adventures of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challenges'without giving too much away, so I'. ll just pick two to talk about and I like this premisethink they give a general flavour. So how does the book shape up? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524665983</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero1739593901|title=Children of Lucifer: Modesty Blaise22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic Novels Science Fiction|summary=Out of ninety-five diverse comic strip stories, the publication of this book leaves just the last three yet to ''Our future will be presented in these fabulous large format paperbacksmore complex than we expected. So if you haven’t yet met with the sassy brunette with her curves and her great crimeInstead of flying cars, we got night-solving mind, vision killer drones and of course automated elderly care with her Willie, this is the last-but-one chance for you geolocation surveillance bracelets to do sotrack grandma. 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: I've got a policeman hears someone screaming and runs couple of confessions to a house make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a particular street, number 13, from where few stories and then forget to return to the noise is emanatingbook. When he peeps through the letterbox he discovers There's got to be a dead man in very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the hallway technology which takes centre stage along with a knife in his throatthe world-building. He goes to fetch help, but upon returning, finds that the street does not have a number 13 and that It's human beings who fascinate me: the body technology and the room he saw have both mysteriously vanishedworld scape are purely incidental...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Michael R Lane|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 So, to a believer in God having her faith shaken by the arrival what did I think of aliens, author Michael R Lane has compiled a collection book of fascinating and clever twenty-two science fiction short stories here. From farm to urban? Well, 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 in all its glory and despair on these varied stages of fictionI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rick Bass|title= For a Little While|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summaryisbn=''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 -->B09XZMCDVF|title=A Collection of Short Stories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Gillian Fletcher-EdwardsRichard F Walker

|summary=Marged Evans allowed ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of the night; a break-up wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a lover stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to affect everything in her life. Osian wanted correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to invest have around in a lawless village; the present but Marged loved new boy on the past. Since they drifted apartpub football team is very useful with his feet, Margedand awfully familiar…''s life  This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has been carefula lot to offer the eclectic reader. Tying them together is the idea that remarkable and strange, orderedeven miraculous, unadventurousthings can happen to ordinary people. But then Osian sends her a Christmas card and everything changesAnd that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. ''Marged Evans'' is the first Form and longest in tone varies so this collection little treasury of short stories from Gillian Fletcher-Edwards. Itfiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's almost a novella and its initially slow pace sets off quite the masterclass in how one event can throw everything into unexpected - but lovely - chaoscoming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sybil Marshall and John Lawrence1737030942|title= The Book of English Folk TalesBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating= 4

|summary= From ghosts to witchesSometimes, to giants you deserve a treat and fairies, mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'The Book of English Folk TalesGoodies'' is . I first encountered his writing about a fascinating collection of stories retold year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by social historian and folklorist Sybil Marshall. Out of print for over three decadesJolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], this beautiful new clothbound edition is complete with wood engraved illustrations by John Lawrence and is sure to capture the attention of a new generation of lovers of folklore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Shirley McKay|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=A lot rollicking tale of crime what happens in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen toowhen five young men find a base for their partying. As we travel through the year with himRight now, his recently wedded English wife FrancesI didn't want a full-length novel, doctor brother in law Giles so I turned to this anthology of verse and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some of his most interesting casesshort stories. In fact thereBittick's one to match each of the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas writing has matured - and Yuleso have his characters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk> Well... most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1529418100|title=Mary Telford Bruno's Challenge and Louise VerityOther Dordogne Tales|titleauthor=SinsMartin Walker

|summary=Is there enough new to say about the seven deadly sins? WeI've seen them m not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all shown too easy to us, from school age put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to the movie read ''Bruno'Se7ens Challenge'', which we sincerely hope was NOT shown hard to anyone at school age. We can each recount them all, having been long familiar with them, even if we probably canresist and I'm rather glad that I didn't pin down when they were actually set in stone without helpeven try. SimilarlyFor those new to the series, is there anything new in the world of fairy tale? We 's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and the tropes background to why Bruno is in St Denis.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Thirty-one- characters identified by their status or gender (the womanyear old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the husband), a clear set of rules to obeyCherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and a moral as strong as, if not stronger than, wins - the formulae involvedRetail Best Newcomer Award. Well, this volume demands we decide She's delighted and the answer two people she's brought with her to those questions as being positive onesthe event couldn't be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and if itBrazilian: 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 not always definitive in the writing here that there is something newhusband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, rest assured there will Ava. Life would be something perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in the imagery that will definitely strike one as freshher life...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carys Bray and othersB08KKQ85FN|title=How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on LoveBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating=3.54

|summary=This Sceptre collection does not have as simple ''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a remit as it might appear; these are no straightforward love stories. InsteadRottweiler in lipstick, they each take one aspect an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of love – often one carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.'' 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 ancient Greek classifications – Priorities: Ambassadress and provide a whole new way Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be 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 thinking about itFormer Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. After all Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, the heart holds a lot has no intention of metaphorical weightslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473649420</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen SimpsonB08CHJLNBS|title=CockfostersCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3.5|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=This was He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a belated reunion for mepartner at Wickham Jones, having been introduced to the authorMayfair letting agents. She's snappy short story collections courtesy Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the very first one while at uniheritage library next door. MindEmilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, it was a much more gentle and placid reunion than the one that starts this book – Julie and Philippa have had a shop-bought curry togetherwhich leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, but have had to forsake something a cultural chat for a trip haring along the London Underground chasing after a pair of glasses one of them left behindlittle deeper. The piece Charles is definitely about the subject more of ageing – about time passed and what might be remaining ahead – a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but you soon discover , above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not only do at all the pieces here have titles that are unadorned place namescompatible, but they so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all concern that very theme: it's obvious to his friends. Can anyoneAnd given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, let alone Helen Simpsonwhy does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, sustain such a vaguely morbid topic over a full collectionisn't it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470198X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David BecklerMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= The Road More TravelledCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales of those seeking refuge|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesFantasy|summary= Curses. They''The Road More Travelled'' is an anthology re there throughout tales of short stories - faery and one poem - written in response other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to the refugee crisis do that. Children can be cursed, as it exploded across our TV screens and newspapers throughout 2015. To can princesses on the horror verge of the authorsmarrying, the language used by many was aggressive and dehumanising, describing this mass of desperate older people as too. It seems in a swarm or a hordeway there's no escaping it. The Which is why the theme of this book of short stories together form is such a response standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this otheringaccursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0993147224</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ransom RiggsStibbe_Xmas|title= Tales of the PeculiarAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensHumour|summary= A fork-tongued princess. A boy who can control Christmas – the currents time of the seatraditional trauma. Cannibals who feast on You only have to think about the limbs of turkey for that – once upon a village of peculiars. These are just a few of time it was leaving it sat on the brilliant stories downstairs loo to be found in ''Tales of defrost overnight, and if that failed the Peculiarhair-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, all and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world - course also a place familiar to many time of us since its first introduction by Ransom Riggs in [[Miss Peregrinegreat boons. It's Home cash in hand for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs|Miss Peregrine's Home a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for Peculiar Children]]. The stories postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in this collection explore peculiar history long-hand as a child, and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative wayas for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and also include some beautiful illustrations to accompany each sell them any other time of the tales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141373407</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=I'll Be Home For ChristmasA Winter Book|author=Benjamin Zephaniah and OthersTove Jansson

|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Publisher Little Tiger and homelessness charity Crisis have got together and produced ''ITove Jansson'll Be Home For Christmas'' - an anthology of short stories from some of the most popular writers s worldwide fame lasts on the UK YA scene. The stories are connected by Moomin books, written in the theme 1940s and later becoming television characters of home. What does home mean to you? Is it your house, the physical place where you live? Is it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different peoplesimplicity, cannaivety and sheer 't it? The book opens with a powerful poem by Bookbag favouritegoodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, Benjamin Zephaniahsimple goodness. The following stories are disparate - some telling tales What is often forgotten outside of hardship her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and fear, some warming the cockles simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of your heart. But all of them are about ''home''how the world might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157726</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rebecca Schiff1911115847|title= The Nights of the Creaking Bed Moved|author=Toni Kan|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories Literary Fiction|summary= Rebecca Schiff's 'Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories was a revelationby Toni Kan. It has everything I want from a collection: humour, (often The series of stories tell of the black variety), heartbreaking sadness, lives and moments lusts of shocking clarity. These stories feel like the revealing an assortment of the inner workings of a young American woman's psychecharacters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. In factNigeria, in the last short piecethis collection, entitled ''Write What You Know'', it feels that the narrator/author is telling us imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the experiences which have led to this collection. ''I only know about parent death shadows and sluttiness', she tells us. She goes on to talk about her knowledge of Jewish people who are assimilated, liberal killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and sexual guilt, and I think it is no exaggeration to say passion that allows these are the underlying themes cynical stories to practically all achieve a glimmer of the stories herehope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon Van Booy1529014484|title= Tales of Accidental GeniusExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating= 5|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=A diverseOver the past twenty-eight years, haunting and humorous collection of Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction, Simon Van Booy offers awards so if you are a collection science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassionthe work by Ted Chiang. With characters ranging from an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician and a Beijing street vendor, If you haven''Tales of Accidental Genius'' takes the reader on many, incredible journeys, and conveys more in a few pages than many authors would struggle t then take this opportunity to do in a whole novelso now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749716</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amnesty International1794467440|title= Here I StandWatchwords |author=Philip Neal|rating= 54|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= Every so often Amnesty International gets together This satisfying collection of short stories has a number provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of great authors and produces an anthology had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of writing. This timemourning its loss, they've done he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it for younger readers with ''Here I Stand''. Twenty-five contributions explore where we are with human rights in todayAnd that's society: how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the sacrifices many made to win them; Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the sacrifices friendship that still need to be made to spread them; how, where grew between the buyer and why these rights are under attack the repairer of watches was not and how deep is the need to defend themseed of an idea for a book was born. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140635838X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Anna Metcalfe1529006031|title= Blind Water Pass and other storiesReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= Anna MetcalfeIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's debut collection Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of short stories is a treasure trove age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of language, cultures-it did not gel, and beautifully written proseI don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. The I had every chance to enjoy these short stories are bound together with that come at the core from a loose theme tangent, that show the benefits of communicationthe oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, or miscommunicationallegedly throw-away pieces, across characters and culturesit's the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, and the narrators for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of these stories are as different as human beings themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473631815</amazonuk>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= Wendy Brandmark1846974658|title= He Runs the MoonThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating= 3.54|genre= Short Stories |summary= This is On my travels around the first time world, I had read have a tendency to end up in any of Wendy Brandmark's fictionbookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I was intrigued at buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the theme of next person, what I'm really looking for is the stories. She sets out writing short stories about different cities in 'local' – the UScookbook maybe, Denver, Bronx, New York, Cambridge and Bostonthe maps definitely, but also weaves in setting above all: the stories in different erasfolk tales. So we have a collection of stories ranging from the 1950If I ever get to Burma, I won's t need to the 1970'shunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320601</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Birgul Oguz|title= Hah|rating= 3|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= I was interested to receive this book for review as I knew it was written in a modern, interesting style, being effectively a collection of short stories, but appearing more in a novel structure. I was, however, rather disappointed with the book. Whilst it does have some very fine examples of prose writing within the stories, I felt disconnected from the narrator, who is the daughter of a recently deceased man who was involved in a Turkish military coup in 1980. There is therefore a lot of examples of the narrator relating the conversations they had shared regarding ''revolution'', and the way this had affected the daughter's upbringing and childhood. Another 'story' then delves into a seemingly disconnected wander through the town, whereby we see the narrator working at gutting fish, and talking about a man she finds repulsive, but who appears to be in love with her. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380740</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|authorisbn=Chuck PalahniukB077969HN8|title=Make Something Up|rating=5Alternative Medicine|genre=Short Stories |summary=What are we to make of that subtitle-seeming writing on the front cover – ''stories you can't unread''? Does that not apply to all good fiction? Clearly it is here due to the reputation of the author, and the baggage his name brings to the page. We'd expect a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced to shrink back. But a lot of the contents don't quite go that far. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators to itself, to create the perfect, simple, care- (''The Price is Right''-, and Kardashian-) free happiness. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yes, sometimes the plot summaries of these stories really are better off for being short (speaking of which, don't turn to the three-page entrant here as a taster, it'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story). A call centre worker can't convince people he's on the level and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back to him. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violations, but not as bad as the happenings at a 'Burning Man'-styled festival, in a very clever couple of tales. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Martin Edwards (editor)|title=Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)Laura Solomon

|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=ILaura Solomon'm not big on s publisher describes the short stories, but two factors nudged me towards this bookin ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. Firstly, itI'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I's broadly golden age crime, one m not normally a fan of my weaknesses and secondlyeither, but I've come to two conclusions about the editor is [[book:Category:Martin Edwards|Martin Edwards]], a man whose knowledge of golden age crime what the publisher says is probably unsurpassed correct - and heI really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too's done us proud, not only with his selection, but with the half-page biographies of the writers, which precede each story. There's just enough there to allow you to place black and the author surrealism is gentle and to direct perhaps best described as a twist or flick of reality when you to other works if you're temptedwere least expecting it. It's an elegant selection, from the well known and the less well known, all set Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in and around the country housenicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712309934</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Abercrombie9386897504|title=Sharp EndsTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon

|genre=FantasyShort Stories|summary=I often feel 've always believed that short stories are an indulgence on the part less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of the author, they get skill and talent to write down a lot of their ideas that don't really fit into a larger short storywhich holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more. The stop/start nature There are far too many collections of them never sits well with me, just as I am starting short stories which are all too easy to get to know put down and forget after you've read a character they are gone. One way couple of solving this would be to use characters that a fan will already know; perhaps explore the past, or the futurepieces. That sounds great for I've recently read a fancouple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, but how so I was intrigued to see what she could do you do this whilst also catering for a new reader?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575104678</amazonuk>with an even shorter form.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Taylor1986586898|title=Going To The ShoreLast: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|summary=The first In the opening story we hear from the Shore, a group 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 isolated islands off whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the coast ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of VirginiaH'', the story of Foinavon. H is from Chloe, depicted as a kind horse who's telling her sister about what she overheard in only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the storeyard of John Kempton. She'd been there buying chicken necks so that they could go crabbingH (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no-hoper. Normally they used bacon rindsIn one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, but they'd already eaten thosea pile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Cabel Bloxom Foinavon, who had been murdered many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=9386897296|title=Hell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''they done cut his thang clean off. 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. The girls are motherless He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and Chloe is fiercely protective particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her little sister Reneefoster children are concerned. SheDaniel is framed for a crime he didn's t commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course, there are all the first other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the strong women wedevil's evil ends. He'll encounter in these storiess out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, which interlink complete with an elevator to give a greater pictureHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959188X</amazonuk>