Changes

[[Category:Short Stories|*]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Roberto SavianoBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, Carlo LucarelliI must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up 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 it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, Valeria ParrellaI could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M|title=Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=''Got a minute to be amused, Piero Colapricoentertained, Wu Mingor challenged?''''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.'' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a 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 flash fictions in a book of 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, Simona Vinciauthor Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a single page in your average paperback.}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Harrison|title=OutsidersBad Dolls

|summary=It's been some time since I'Outsiders'' is ve read any horror. I had a collection couple of six pieces of writing by Italian authors. The pieces have been collated misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a supplement boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to an Italian daily newspaper and six have been chosen around the theme point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of outsiders for translation into English. Thus, the pieces themselves were not written around vampires outside! Don't worry - this specific theme but short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn't have rather had this theme imposed on them in this collection. Since to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the outsider is often used fact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, and that at least in various forms by writers to observe part, the status quohorrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, this is not trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and a big leap of imaginationcoping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857052446</amazonuk>1803363932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aimee BenderB0CCCVRSGX|title=Willful CreaturesStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating=4.5

|summary= In this collection weThis is Richard F Walker're shown the reaction s second volume of ten men with terminal illness prognoses, a large man purchasing a very unusual pet and the case of a hard-done-by boyfriendshort stories. There are also delights like the shop that sells words crafted into what they read, a boy with keys instead of fingers thirteen in all and the beautifully touching tale I took something from each of the pumpkin-headed mother who gives birth to an iron-headed babythem. No, this There isn't your average collection of predictable short stories; these are [[:Category:Aimee Bender|Aimee Bender]] a single one that doesn't deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review short storieswithout giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099558858</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karen Russell1739593901|title=Vampires in the Lemon Grove22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=I know you shouldn't judge a book by the cover, but when the cover has a title like ''Vampires in the Lemon Grove'', I can't help but Our future will be a little intrigued, especially when the author has a recent history like Karen Russell'smore complex than we expected. This history includes a Guardian award nomination for a previous collection Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with another great title; ''Stgeolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves'' and a Pulitzer Prize shortlisting for her novel, [[Swamplandia! by Karen Russell|Swamplandia!]]|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701187883</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=George Mann (Editor)|title=Encounters I've got a couple of Sherlock Holmes|rating=4confessions to make.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Sherlock Holmes remains an enduring icon of English literature; perhaps I'm not keen on short stories as popular today as he was back in I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the late 1800s, maybe even more so technology which takes centre stage along with the advent of TV world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and film adaptations of his adventuresthe world scape are purely incidental. Indeed So, such is the lasting appeal what did I think of the character that since the death a book of Conan Doyle there have been literally hundreds of works publishedtwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, picking up where the original stories left offI loved it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781160031</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Prajwal ParajulyB09XZMCDVF|title=The Gurkha's DaughterStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating=54

|summary=Parajuly ''A news vendor is crying out the son headlines in the middle of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an Indian father and Nepalese mother hailing from Gangtok iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the new boy on the Indian Himalayaspub football team is very useful with his feet, but spending most of his time somewhere between New York and Oxford. His insight is therefore something we should probably trust.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780872933</amazonuk>}}awfully familiar…''

{{newreview|author=Simon Rich|title=The Last Girlfriend on Earth|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=There is more opportunity than ever these days This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to downsize your libraryoffer the eclectic reader. You can take all those lumpen classics to Tying them together is the charity shop now idea that they remarkable and strange, even miraculous, things can be downloaded for free onto an e-readerhappen to ordinary people. And with these couple of hundred pages you can also divest yourself of a heck of a lot that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction about love, for this can easily replace so much is never boring and you've read at greater length, with less imagination and with much less humour elsewhere. That hyperbole is only partly inspired by the style of the contents, for it really is that goodre never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668921X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lee Child (Editor)1737030942|title=VengeanceBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick

|genre=CrimeAnthologies|summary=I like short story collectionsSometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''. They're useful reading material I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when you're I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a mum rollicking tale of what happens when five young children as you can usually manage to squeeze in men find a six page story at nap timebase for their partying. Right now, but youI didn're guaranteed if you try to start that 500 page t want a full-length novel you've been meaning , so I turned to read that just as it starts to get interesting your baby will wake up! This collection this anthology of crime verse and short stories is brought together under the title of ''Vengeance'. Bittick' s writing has matured - and so, as you'd imagine, they are all to do with revenge and people getting or trying to get their own backhave his characters. Well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857899015</amazonuk>most of them!

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah Levy1529418100|title=Black VodkaBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker

|summary=I''Black Vodka'' is m not usually a collection fan of ten previously published short pieces stories - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of writing by Deborah Levy, many first published Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the early 2000stemptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. The most recent is the piece from which this collection gains its title which has been shortlisted for For those new to the 2012 BBC International Short Story Award. As a compilation of her writingseries, obviously these were not written there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to appear together, but some clear themes emerge from know about who's who and the collection, namely a deeply disturbing look at the search for love, particularly amongst those on the edge of society|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276169</amazonuk>background to why Bruno is in St Denis.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joyce Carol OatesB08NF79QXT|title=The Corn Maiden and Other NightmaresCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=Many years agoThirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, I stumbled across a Joyce Carol Oates story in a horror anthology. What I most remember about the story was how vividly the feelings Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the characters experienced were portrayedRetail Best Newcomer Award. Whilst She's delighted and the story itself was not exactly a horror story in two people she's brought with her to the mould of Stephen King and James Herbert, it was very well presentedevent couldn't be more pleased. With this experienceSonja, her mother, I had high hopes of 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'The Corn Maiden s husband, Charles and Other Nightmarestheir four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn' t for one thing: she misses having a brand new collection of short stories from Oatesman in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800224</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robin Jones and Ashley Stokes (Editors)B08KKQ85FN|title=Unthology: No. 3But Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating=4.5

|summary=Unthank Books have brought out their third annual short story 'unthology'. (See what they did there?) The series is described as showcasing If a woman approaching the ''unconventionalmenopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, unpredictable and experimental'' which is correct as far as it goes. They omit words that I personally would have included; words like 'refreshing' and 'excitingly different' because, if I needed an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be convinced about short stories (andreleased into the company of carrion crows or, being a fanmore to the point, I don't) they would be about to discover the clincherreal world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957289707</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Tania Hershman|title=My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=ItYou don's said t get many better opening sentences than that the art of short-story writing is totally different from that of novels as the writer only has ten or so pages to accomplish what others , do in two to three hundred. you? Imagine, therefore, telling an entire story in prose conveying depth We first met His Excellency and meaning The Ambassador's Wife in fewer words than this review. It may be difficult but, apparently, not downright impossible as [[Sorting the Priorities:Category:Tania HershmanAmbassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Tania HershmanSorting 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 nailed it with honourscome for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... In fact her first collection [[They have left The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]] was commended by Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the Orange Prize judges situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of 2009slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906477604</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mike HenleyB08CHJLNBS|title=One Dog and His ManCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=43|genre=PetsWomen's Fiction|summary=Oberon is a Labrador with a pedigree as long as your arm and He''One Dog s Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and His Man'' is his story about what ita partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's like living with the man he generously refers to as ''The Boss''Emilia, twenty-nine, about life librarian and archivist in general and the ways of the worldheritage library next door. Think of him as the canine equivalent of the parliamentary sketch writerEmilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, there to highlight the idiosyncrasies of human life and bring something a gentle humour to situations which might otherwise be taken far too seriouslylittle deeper. Before you wonder how this Charles is possible - how more of a dog can write a book - let me remind you [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that dogs are very intelligent animalsEmilia reads ''The Guardian''. After They're obviously not at allcompatible, dogs and their humans might go so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to what are laughingly called 'dog training classeshis friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, but itwhy does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's the humans who are trainedobviously a non-starter, not the dogs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471660354</amazonuk>isn't it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joseph Marie O'ConnorRegan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=Where Have You Been?Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionFantasy|summary=Irish novelist Joseph OCurses. They'Connor has had quite a 2012re there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. Earlier in Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the year he joined the ranks verge of such authors as Edna O'Brienmarrying, [[:Category:Roddy Doyle|Roddy Doyle]] and Seamus Heaney when he became older people too. It seems in a recipient of way there's no escaping it. Which is why the PEN award for his outstanding contribution to Irish literature. What could possibly top that for a sense theme of achievement? Well this, his first book of short stories in 20 yearsis such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, must come pretty close to at least equalling itthat demonised place, amply illustrating the reasons for the paneland that other bewitched person. We's decisiond be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846556899</amazonuk>1789091500

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anita DesaiStibbe_Xmas|title=The Artist of DisappearanceAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe

|genre=Literary FictionHumour|summary=Anita Desai's ''The Artist Christmas – the time of Disappearance'' is traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a collection of three novellas with several satisfying unifying features. All are set in modern day Indiatime it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, all involve some looking back in time and all three involve some consideration of if that failed the creative art hair- who dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it is for, what happens 's all having to make sure it once it leaves the artist's control suitably free-range and who 'owns' organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Most of allChristmas, though, each one is beautifully written, with strong characters and evocative descriptions of personal losscourse also a time of great boons. In terms It's cash in hand for a lot of length each is relatively short plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank- around 50 pages long - but after each one you feel letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you've been engrossed write out in the story just long-hand as much a child, and as if you had read a novel for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of more conventional length.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553953</amazonuk>the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roddy Doyle0954899520|title=BullfightingA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=I've often wondered what goes through an authorTove Jansson's mind worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the next time they sit down to write after winning a major literary prize1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Does it put undue pressure on an authorSimple drawings, simple stories, thinking simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that they will have to write something equally she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as good or better next time around? Some writers can wilt under well as children…and that she had a feeling for the pressure natural world and future offerings are derided by critics as 'the simple life that not as good as (insert title here)'. But some thrive under only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the weight of expectation and continue to write wonderful stories. 1993 Booker Prize winner [[Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle|Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha]] falls firmly into this latter categoryworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955562X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gerry Wells1911115847|title=Kicking Nights of the Hornets' NestCreaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=WWII books about the RAF and the Navy are quite common. Books about Special Operations Executive and similar organisations proliferate. Stories about the army are fewer and try as I might I really couldn't think 'Nights of one which was other than incidentally about tank crew, so when the opportunity came I Creaking Bed''had'' to read 'Kicking the Hornets' Nest' particularly as it's written by an author who crewed is a Sherman tank in Operation Overlord, back in June 1944. I had just a couple of nagging doubts. It's a book collection of short storiesby Toni Kan. Would I find it easy to pick up - and out down again? The big worry was whether or not this was going to be a macho action story, which wouldn't really be my cup series of tea at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780881568</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Helen Simpson|title=A Bunch stories tell of Fives|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=I will come straight out with it at the top lives and lusts of an assortment of this review characters living in and state that I am a big fan of Helen Simpsonaround Lagos, Nigeria. So Nigeria, in this bookcollection, which is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a selection of five wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories from each to achieve a glimmer of her five collections, is right up my streethope. All I’ve got to do now is convince you that you need to read it too!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099561573</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Gray1529014484|title=NextExhalation |author=Ted Chiang

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=That Keith Gray hangs out with all Over the cool peoplepast twenty-eight years, you know. Hot on the heels of one fabulous anthology of Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories all about virginity, [[Losing It these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by Keith Gray|Losing It]], comes ''Next'Ted Chiang. If you haven'. The topic t then take this time is life after death and it's another preoccupation for young peopleopportunity to do so now. What's next? What Trust me; your imagination will it be like? How will those left behind manage and cope? Each of the cool people contributes an idea of what death may bringgrateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393001</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Francis Bennett1794467440|title=The Crabber StoriesWatchwords |author=Philip Neal

|summary=John White was known to everyone This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as Crabber - a nickname which he once earned and which then stuck - and he grew up on the shores provenance of Long Island in the nineteen-fiftiesantique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a close-knit community watch he was fond of and had been told was like a time when children had more freedom than they are likely to be allowed now1930s Cartier. We watch as Crabber grows from being a boy still suffering from the death Instead of his elder brother when we first met him through mourning its loss, he began to a time when hecollect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's old enough how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to go on a hunting trip on the mainland with Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a local family. He tells his own storiesfake, as truthfully as he can but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and with the sort seed of insight which children have before life injects its cynicisman idea for a book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00737IKIW</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephanie Tillotson and Penny Thomas1529006031|title=All Shall be WellReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors

|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't really find too much favour with it. The Infernal Republicwacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don'' is t remember loving it more as a collection of child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories containing that come at the core from a mixture tangent, that show the benefits of general fiction, horror and fantasy published by Signal8Press, the oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an imprint of author Marshall Moore's own publishing company Typhoon Media Ltd. Now normally I wouldnoutput through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it't pay much attention to who publishes s the books I read, but in this case same with franchises – I'm making an exception because I cand more likely go for Bree Tanner't honestly believe s short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that any traditional publisher would have put out this book in this formremains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). The whole collection is so badly crying out for a good editor 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 it actually ended up making me angry love in places.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>9881516404</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marc Nash1846974658|title=52FFThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker

|summary=52FF is On my travels around the world, I have a collection of short stories tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the flash fiction format. If younext person, what I'm really looking for is the 'local're new to flash fiction– the cookbook maybe, you should know there are various definitions but here, Marc Nash chooses a format of under 1the maps definitely,000 words. This gives him some leeway and so the pieces are in a wide variety of styles - some experimental - but above all of them exploring a single central metaphor and all with a darkness about them which is sometimes explicit and sometimes only emerges after you: the folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won've had time t need to think and digesthunt, I can read before I go. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005IHMZR6</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E FlanneryB077969HN8|title=Our Little Secret and Other StoriesAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating=34.5

|summary=ItLaura Solomon's over eighteen months since we first encountered John Flannery and his debut collection of shorts publisher describes the short stories, [[Tobyin ''Alternative Medicine'' as 's Little Eden by John E Flannery|Toby's Little Eden]]. A golf course near Manchester and the characters who populated it came sharply to life and we laughed and we smiled along black comedy with thema twist of surrealism''. Things are different in I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'Our little Secret and Other Stories'I' d finished reading as we encounter violent deathI'm not normally a fan of either, suicide, delusion but I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and mental illnessI really enjoyed it. It The comedy is not ''too''s black and the surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a good read but twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it's certainly not a comfortable one.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B007CKT6PG</amazonuk> Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the nicest possible way.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Etgar Keret9386897504|title=Suddenly, a Knock on the Door Tales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=In the opening, titular story, Keret is forced by several people I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to create, and alter, write a short short storywhich holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more. ItThere are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and forget after you's ve read a plain metaphor for the history couple of Israel, but it proves that this modern Scheherazade is not too far removed geographically from the originalpieces. And what follows are probably the sort I've recently read a couple of short, tantalising, opennovellas by Laura Solomon -ended[[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, rough-round-the-edges and surreal results of being compelled so I was intrigued to carry on telling tall tales on a nightly basissee what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186674</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ray Fawkes1986586898|title=One SoulGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|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 'Burning your Boats' brings together CarterA Grey Day's early works and her uncollected short stories, alongside ' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the collections ground is against him. My favourite was 'Fireworks', The Story of H'The Bloody Chamber', 'Black Venus' and 'American Ghosts'the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people. Carter's ability After changing hands on various occasions he came to take the everyday yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and transform it into considered a no-hoper. In one of the fantastic is evident in stories that range from a cautionary tale most dramatic runnings of the race, a musician in love with his instrument pile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to a lost motorist whose journey ends in nightmarish circumstances in the Snow Pavilionline, winning the race at odds of 100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592916</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Anita Anand, Julian Barnes, Bella Bathurst, Alan Bennett and others|title=The Library Book|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=I had better begin by saying that I had a vested interest in liking this book since I am a chartered librarian myself and so am wholeheartedly in support of saving our nation's public libraries. But you don't need to be a librarian to enjoy this book. It is rich with anecdotes from some wonderful writers and makes a pleasant read whether you're keen to save libraries or not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250057</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alexander MacLeod|title=Light Lifting|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Short stories may not be everyone's cup of tea. Sometimes, particularly with first time authors, there is an annoying tendency to be overly experimental. Not so with Alexander MacLeod's stunningly assured debut. True he has genetic 'form' in that he is the son of novelist and short story writer [[:Category:Alistair MacLeod|Alistair MacLeod]], but even so, the quality of this collection, is remarkable. The collection of seven stories is not overly themed, although certain issues and concerns do reappear, but what binds the stories together is a very human approach to adversity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224093940</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter O'Donnell9386897296|title=Modesty Blaise: Live Bait|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=We're back in the gritty yet glamorous world of Modesty Blaise - at least, as gritty and glamorous as you could get in the Evening Standard daily comic strip in the late 1980s. Titan have had a mammoth undertaking to reproduce all the original strips in handy large-format graphic novel compendia, and this latest covers three stories, all of which I consider greater in depth than those in the other volume I've reviewed - [[Modesty Blaise: Sweet Caroline by Neville Colvin and Peter O'Donnell|Sweet Caroline]].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686682</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jon McGregor|title=This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The clue is in the Christopher Brookmyre-styled title. If the events, characters and circumstances in these stories are known to you, then you have my sympathies. A man causes an embarrassment trying to watch his daughter's first school nativity play. Another has a phobia of eggs containing an avian foetus when he puts knife and fork to them. ThereHell's a car crash here - and there, a drowning, some arson, some theft... and a lot of clues that point to some national disaster. Take all those clues as one and you eventually see this is more than just a collection of disparate short stories, but a very fractured, obfuscated novel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408809265</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewUnveiling|author=Tessa Hadley|title=Married LoveLaura Solomon|rating=43.5

|summary=Married Love 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''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is Tessa Hadley’s second collection, containing twelve short stories looking at not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (mostlywho's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell) modern relationships and family dynamics – many . Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are about parents concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and their grown up children sent to juvenile detention and in-lawsrefused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course, others there are about couples. Flicking through all the book other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to choose some of the best devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and/or most interesting stories to mentionas with many foster children, I have found a difficultytheir self-esteem is very fragile. Almost all of these incisive This is no small-scale operation, witty stories reveal an interesting group of characters I would like to know more about after either - the enddevil has set up a training complex on earth, sometimes from several different viewpoints, and it is hard complete with an elevator to pick out just a fewHell. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224096427</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Adam Ross|title=Ladies and Gentlemen|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Adam Ross's characters are driven - but I mean that in the wrong way. They're not the ones riding on a crest of a wave of motivation, steering their course through life. No, instead they are passengers, and who or whatever is at the wheel seems to have lost the satnav. So, in 'Futures', a middle-aged unemployed man finds himself giving life lessons and a kick up the backside to a teenaged neighbour just as his own career seems about to enter its nth phase, with an airy-fairy psychic-oriented company that won't ever go as far as telling him what his job might be. A professor who has Move to settle temporarily where his work takes him [[Newest Spirituality and not where he would like, has to wonder what to do when told of the action-packed adventures of a devil-may-care, come-what-may mechanic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087746</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Javier Marias|title=While the Women are Sleeping|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=The first thing the trivially minded will note is that this is not the complete edition of While the Women are Sleeping, for not all the stories in the original Spanish volume are here. You might think that's because some have been hived off for a future 'best of' compilation. But if this isn't the best of Javier Marias, then I don't know what is. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553929</amazonuk>}}Religion Reviews]]