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[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
[[Category:Short Stories|*]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Dear LifeAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Alice MunroBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=Alice Munro has made an art form of short story writing. ''Dear Life'' is a collection of truly beautiful short stories, perfectly crafted in a way that leaves no wanting feeling, as is often an issue with short stories. Each Opening up new ways of thinking about the 14 stories contained within the collection is just that; a story in its own right. There is no getting caught up and lost in style and literary flare, but a cool prose, a calmness shape of tone and good strong storiesthings to come.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099578638</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|title=The Complete Short Stories: Volume Two|author=Roald Dahl|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Having only recently read the first volume of this collection of all of Roald Dahl’s short stories I couldn’t help but think of the phrase 've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you'too much re eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of a good thingtechnology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what' although s advantageous to me but I have never really agreed 'm left with the phrase (feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could happily gorge on chocolate or whisky for days research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without the slightest regret) really understanding whether I am still pleased that this book provides yet more evidence of the inaccuracy of 'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the expressionlatest conspiracy theorist. With stories as diverse as a butler getting revenge on his employer I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a baby being brought up on royal jelly by a fanatical bee lover, these are tales of horror, humour, adventure, love and all out weirdnessway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405910119</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M|title=Tales from the Dead of NightSuper Short Stories: Thirteen Classic Ghost StoriesFlash Fiction|author=Cecily Gayford (editor)Mark C Wallfisch
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=This collection of classic ghost stories covers all kinds of chilling tales. There are physical ghosts''Got a minute to be amused, emotional ghostsentertained, ghosts that or challenged?''''These 100 stories are never seen but merely sensed, and even the odd entity that just seems ghostly, even though it might be an ordinary everyday thing - but still makes you feel as if you’ve, well, seen a ghostsuper short. Each story None is preceded with some information on the authormore than 300 words. The stories You can read one in a flash.''''Some are from funny. Some are from several different periods and the settings range from winter nights in England to sultry summers in Indiapoignant. This combines to make for an excellent overview of all kinds of spooky sagasAll are short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250944</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Aimee Bender|title=The Color Master|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Another parade Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of fascinating, unusual personalities and oddevents 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 author flash fictions in a book of [[Willful Creatures them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by Aimee Bender|WillfulCreatures]]. This time out [[:Category:Aimee Bender|Aimee]]introduces us to people like Hans the fake Naziexplaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, young William to whomall people look the same and Janet who decides to spice up herlove-life with detrimental resultsauthor Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. Among other things we alsowitness That's about a less-than-altruistic anti-war demonstration and an oddoccurrence single page in an orchard showing how odd an apple-only diet could makeusyour average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091953898</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Complete Short Stories: Volume OneRachel Harrison|authortitle=Roald DahlBad Dolls|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Roald Dahl’s name on a book has for me always meant It's been some time since I was in for a fun and imaginative 've readany horror. His children’s I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books are from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the pinnacle point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of children’s literature the vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and combine fantastic ideas with wordplay I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and some I found most of that feeling came from the most amusing characters fact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, and that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations. The stories for such as a breakup, trying a younger audience always managed new dieting app, going to thrill a hen party and entertain both adult and child and reading them aloud is a joy. In short I believe Roald Dahl was a true master of storytelling. I have however only actually read one of his adult books before reading this collection of short storiescoping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405910100</amazonuk>1803363932
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn= B0CCCVRSGX|title=The Dinner Club and Other Stories2|author=Rob KeeleyRichard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary=This is Richard F Walker''Being on home dinners gives Aidan the chance to make some money.s second volume of short stories.There are thirteen in all and I took something from each of them.There isn''<br>''A bridesmaid and a page chase t a runaway wedding cake...single one that doesn''<br>''Mia and her Dad turn detective..t deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality.'' These are just a few of the premises you It can try out for size in Rob Keeley's third book of be tricky to review short stories for middle grade readers. He's really having some fun with this format. without giving too much away, so I approve. We need more short story collections for this age group. They're entertaining ll just pick two to talk about and I think they appeal particularly to reluctant readers. Short stories like this can act as give a springboard to full-length novelsgeneral flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783060603</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739593901
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
{{newreview|title=Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales I've got a couple of Edgar Allan Poeconfessions to make. I's 1st Detective|author=Paul Kane and Charles Prepolec (Editors)|rating=3.5|genre=Anthologies|summary=C. Auguste Dupin is often regarded m not keen on short stories as the first fictional detective I find it easy to read a few stories and at then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very least Edgar Allan Poe’s character was the blueprint for many sleuths compelling hook to come, most notably Sherlock Holmes. Dupin is an eccentric genius from Paris whose use of logic and deduction aid the police on their most baffling caseskeep me engaged. The characters literary debut was in the short story Then there's science fiction: far too often it'The Murders in s the Rue Morgue'' in 1841 and between 1842 and 1844 Poe wrote two more short stories about Dupin and his exploitstechnology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It''Beyond Rue Morgue'' contains nine stories (in addition to s human beings who fascinate me: the original Poe tale) by various authors technology and gives many different takes on the same character or influenced by himworld scape are purely incidental. From samurai assassins and the apocalypse to an agoraphobic distant relative So, what did I think of Dupin attempting to solve a murder without even leaving her home; the different writers all take the intriguing character to places we wouldn’t expect and the creativity book of all keeps the character fresh from story to storytwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781161755</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B09XZMCDVF|title=Russian Stories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Francesc SeresRichard F Walker|rating=54
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=This brilliant and varied collection of short stories ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the product middle of the night; a current academic interest wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in cross-cultural translation. Francisco Guillen Serés is his imagination; a Catalan professor of Art History from Aragon. A Russophile, he has travelled widely stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to collect stories from those writing during correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the past hundred years of Russian history. These ideal person to have been translated into Catalan and then into English. These unusual and delightful stories, some twenty one of them written by five writers read fluently and engagingly. They form an informative tapestry of Soviet and post-Soviet life, moving back around in time with a lawless village; the older, earlier writers like Bergchenko, who died in new boy on the siege of Stalingradpub football team is very useful with his feet, at the end. Ranging over mythic and symbolic tales to realistic portrayals of personal relationships; love trysts in St Petersburg, ferocious bears in the deep heart of the Taiga to the perils of becoming lost in continuous orbit in space. All aspects are impressively recounted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085705158X</amazonuk>}}awfully familiar…''
{{newreview|title=Best British Short Stories 2013|author=Nicholas Royle (editor)|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Expect to read some quality work in ''Best British Short Stories 2013'', sourced from a number This collection of thirteen short story magazines; 'Granta', 'Shadows and Tall Trees', 'Unthology' and 'The Edinburgh Review' are just some of stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the publications in which these pieces were to be seen firsteclectic reader. If asked to identify a red thread between Tying them together is the components of Nicholas Royle’s anthologyidea that remarkable and strange, I would say that in each short storyeven miraculous, everything is left things can happen to simmer under the surfaceordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. There is a frustration brought about by the lack Form and tone varies so this little treasury of clarity in every short story, which to me fiction is a reflection of just how unclear the most seismic of situations may be to any individual involvednever boring and you're never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773479</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1737030942|title=This CloseBag O'Goodies|author=Jessica Francis KaneJolly Walker Bittick|rating=54|genre=Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies'This Close' is a sensitively written collection of short stories exploring the fragile nature of the bonds connecting friends, neighbours and family. As the title suggests, most of the stories contain pivotal moments where I first encountered his writing about a missed opportunityyear ago, fleeting as it may bewhen I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], can propel a person along rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a path culminating in regret or lossbase for their partying. Each story is poignantly written and perceptively observed. As Right now, I didn't want a readerfull-length novel, so I was drawn in turned to this anthology of verse and short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and became so emotionally involved with the have his characters that it was often impossible to close the book until I knew how each story ended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1555976360</amazonuk> Well... most of them!
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529418100|title=Behind the FacadeBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Dennis FriedmanMartin Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=We have I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all, at one time or another, wished that we had too easy to 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 ability temptation to read minds. Imagine how interesting it would be ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to peer beyond the external appearance resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. For those new to understand the various thought processes lurking beneath the surface. Psychiatrist Dennis Friedman gives the reader the opportunity series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to do just that with his collection of short stories know about who'Beyond s who and the Facade'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0720615070</amazonuk>background to why Bruno is in St Denis.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margo LanaganB08NF79QXT|title=YellowcakeCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=4.53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=We should always make time Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for short storiesjust six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. Especially if they are written by Margo Lanagan 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. In Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty'Yellowcakes best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, a traveller boy uses three items to reunite an Charles and their four-year-old man with his memoriesdaughter, Ava. A boy with Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a crippled foot watches his townfolk butcher a beautiful creature washed up man in their harbour. Rapunzel gets a makeover in which things turn out differently. We find out how the Ferryman of the Dead became the Ferrywoman. And moreher life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849921113</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Melvin BurgessB08KKQ85FN|title=Krispy WhispersBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=''A If a woman stops you 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 road and gazes fearfully into company of carrion crows or, more to the pram. "Your babies are not humanpoint," she says. Then she runs offabout to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''
Ooh! Alien changelings! Cuckoos 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: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the nest? Are they really? Really, really, really? Can you Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be sure? So begins moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the first story time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled'Krispy Whispersrather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=Capturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a series partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a little deeper. Charles is more of flash fictions a [[Personal by Bookbag favourite Melvin BurgessLee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. You also They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a girl dreaming non-starter, isn't it?}}{{Frontpage|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of richesmarrying, a lonely woman who finds a pet and gets a boyfriend older people too closely together for mere coincidence. And It seems in a priest who actually meets Godway there's no escaping it. And Which is why the theme of this book of short stories is such a very worrisome monsterstandout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person. Concentrate hard. Because youWe'll need to keep up..d be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00DAC68EM</amazonuk>1789091500
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison MooreStibbe_Xmas|title=The Pre-War House and other short storiesAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=Alison Moore's ''Pre-War House'' is a collection Christmas – the time of 24 short stories, traditional trauma. You only three of which are original have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to this collectiondefrost overnight, but most were first published in and if that failed the last couple of years and, unless you are a an avid reader of hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it''The New Writer'' they will probably s all be new having to you. Mooremake sure it's themes tend suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to concentrate on fairly dark characterswant to eat it. Christmas, though, usually with is of course also a hidden secret, and more often than not dealing with the past and frequently some kind time of personal loss or anguishgreat boons. If you enjoyed MooreIt's Booker Prize shortlisted [[The Lighthouse by Alison Moore|The Lighthouse]]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 will find plenty letters to enjoy here aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as most of the stories have a similar hauntingly sad feel to them. With one possible exceptionchild, a very short piece called ''The Yacht Man'' which did nothing and as for methe makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, the stories are beautifully judged did they even try and equally satisfying, often saving a final hit or a surprise until the end sell them any other time of the pieces.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773509</amazonuk>year?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Walser0954899520|title=The Walk and other storiesA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The publication of this collection of around forty short stories affords Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the English speaking public a unique opportunity; that of reading WalserMoomin books, possibly written in the leading modernist writer 1940s and later becoming television characters of Swiss German in the last century. He has received high praise in simplicity, naivety and sheer 'A Place in the Countrygoodness'that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, W G Sebald's recently published posthumous collection and he 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-known as being children…and that she had a significant influence on Franz Kafka. His work here dates from 1907 to 1929 feeling for the natural world and along with his poetry won him recognition with Berlin's avant garde. He combines lyrical delicacy with detailed observation; reflective melancholy with criticism the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of brash commercialism. The fine writing in this volume strives to achieve a hard won integrity together with an experimental capacity for reflection. It challenges how the reader and provokes him to new insightsworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689589</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ted Olinger1911115847|title=The Woodpecker MenaceNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=The Key Peninsula ''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a small spur collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of land on the Puget Sound lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in Washington stateand around Lagos, shaped - you guessed it - like a keyNigeria. Its resident are disparate and include both incomers and those who'd see themselves as pioneer settlers. But they're joined Nigeria, in a communal sense this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of island livingdarkness. It's on Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a much smaller scale, but I think most British people can feel affinity with identifying as an islanderwrong look. It flavours our relationship Kan writes with continental Europe in so many waysa vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of hope. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0984840036</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nikolai Leskov, Richard Pevear (translator) and Larissa Volokhonsky (translator)1529014484|title=The Enchanted Wanderer and Other StoriesExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=45|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=This is a collection of 17 Nikolai Leskov stories as mixed in subject matter as they are in length. From Over the very past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short ''Spirit of Madame de Genlis''stories, warning of the dire consequences of selecting literature for these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a mollycoddled princess, to the novella-length ''The Enchanted Wanderer'' telling the tale science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the apparently immortal monk who prayed for suicide victims, Leskov (aided greatly work by the talented translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) unlocks the mores, traditions, religion and superstitions of 19th century Russia for a modern readershipTed Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099577356</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roberto Saviano, Carlo Lucarelli, Valeria Parrella, Piero Colaprico, Wu Ming, Simona Vinci1794467440|title=OutsidersWatchwords |author=Philip Neal
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=''Outsiders'' is a This satisfying collection of six pieces short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of writing by Italian authorsthe antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. The pieces have been collated from It was a supplement to an Italian daily newspaper watch he was fond of and six have had been chosen around the theme told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of outsiders for translation into Englishmourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. Thus, An eBay purchase led him to the pieces themselves were not written around this specific theme but have rather had this theme imposed on them Antique Watch Company watch repairers in this collectionClerkenwell. Since The eBay purchase was a fake, but the outsider is often used in various forms by writers to observe friendship that grew between the buyer and the status quo, this is repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a big leap of imaginationbook was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052446</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aimee Bender1529006031|title=Willful CreaturesReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary= In this collection wefollowing 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're shown t really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the reaction -sake-of ten men with terminal illness prognoses-it did not gel, a large man purchasing a very unusual pet and the case of I don't remember loving it more as a hard-done-by boyfriendchild. There are also delights like But I would suggest I am the shop perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that sells words crafted into what they readcome at the core from a tangent, a boy with keys instead of fingers and that show the beautifully touching tale benefits of the pumpkin-headed mother who gives birth oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an ironauthor's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-headed babyaway pieces, and it'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, for obvious reasons). NoFor another thing, this isn't your average collection there was every reason to expect some kind of predictable short stories; these are [[:Category:Aimee Bender|Aimee Bender]] short stories.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099558858</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=Karen Russell1846974658|title=Vampires in the Lemon GroveThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating=54
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=On my travels around the world, I know you shouldn't judge have a book by 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 covernext person, but when what I'm really looking for is the cover has a title like 'local'Vampires in – the cookbook maybe, the Lemon Grove''maps definitely, I can't help but be a little intrigued, especially when above all: the author has a recent history like Karen Russell'sfolk tales. This history includes a Guardian award nomination for a previous collection with another great title; If I ever get to Burma, I won''Stt need to hunt, I can read before I go. 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>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=George Mann (Editor)B077969HN8|title=Encounters of Sherlock HolmesAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=
Sherlock Holmes remains an enduring icon of English literature; perhaps as popular today as he was back in the late 1800s, maybe even more so with the advent of TV and film adaptations of his adventures. Indeed, such is the lasting appeal of the character that since the death of Conan Doyle there have been literally hundreds of works published, picking up where the original stories left off.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781160031</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Prajwal Parajuly
|title=The Gurkha's Daughter
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Parajuly is Laura Solomon's publisher describes the son short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of an Indian father either, but I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too'' black and Nepalese mother hailing from Gangtok in the Indian Himalayas, but spending most surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of his time somewhere between New York and Oxfordreality when you were least expecting it. His insight is therefore something we should probably trustYour comfort zones are going to be invaded in the nicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780872933</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Rich9386897504|title=The Last Girlfriend on Earth|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=There is more opportunity than ever these days to downsize your library. You can take all those lumpen classics to the charity shop now that they can be downloaded for free onto an e-reader. And with these couple Tales of hundred pages you can also divest yourself of a heck of a lot of fiction about love, for this can easily replace so much you've read at greater length, with less imagination Love and with much less humour elsewhere. That hyperbole is only partly inspired by the style of the contents, for it really is that good.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668921X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDisability|author=Lee Child (Editor)|title=Vengeance|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=I like short story collections. They're useful reading material when you're a mum of young children as you can usually manage to squeeze in a six page story at nap time, but you're guaranteed if you try to start that 500 page novel you've been meaning to read that just as it starts to get interesting your baby will wake up! This collection of crime stories is brought together under the title of ''Vengeance'' so, as you'd imagine, they are all to do with revenge and people getting or trying to get their own back.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857899015</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Deborah Levy|title=Black VodkaLaura Solomon
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I''Black Vodka'' is ve always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a collection great deal of ten previously published skill and talent to write a short pieces of writing by Deborah Levy, many first published in story which holds the early 2000sreader and keeps them coming back for more. The most recent is the piece from There are far too many collections of short stories which this collection gains its title which has been shortlisted for the 2012 BBC International Short Story Awardare all too easy to put down and forget after you've read a couple of pieces. As I've recently read a compilation couple of her writingnovellas 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, obviously these were not written so I was intrigued to appear together, but some clear themes emerge from the collection, namely a deeply disturbing look at the search for love, particularly amongst those on the edge of society|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276169</amazonuk>see what she could do with an even shorter form.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joyce Carol Oates1986586898|title=Going To The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares|rating=5|genre=Last: Short Stories|summary=Many years ago, I stumbled across a Joyce Carol Oates story in a horror anthology. What I most remember about the story was how vividly the feelings the characters experienced were portrayed. Whilst the story itself was not exactly a horror story in the mould of Stephen King and James Herbert, it was very well presented. With this experience, I had high hopes of 'The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares' a brand new collection of short stories from Oates.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800224</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAbout Horse Racing|author=Robin Jones and Ashley Stokes (Editors)|title=Unthology: No. 3K D Knight
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Unthank Books have brought out their third annual short In the opening story 'unthology', a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. (See what they did there?) The series is described as showcasing the In ''unconventional, unpredictable and experimentalA Grey Day'' which an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is correct as far as it goesagainst him. They omit words that I personally would have included; words like My favourite was 'refreshing' and The Story of H'excitingly different' because, if I needed the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to be convinced about short stories 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 andconsidered a no-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, being a fanpile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, I don't) they would be winning the clincherrace at odds of 100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957289707</amazonuk>
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 {{newreview|author=Tania Hershman|title=My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=It's said 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. Imagine, therefore, telling an entire story in prose conveying depth and meaning in fewer words than this review. It may be difficult but, apparently, not downright impossible as [[:Category:Tania Hershman|Tania Hershman]] has nailed it with honours. In fact her first collection [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]] was commended by the Orange Prize judges of 2009.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906477604</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mike Henley|title=One Dog and His Man|rating=4|genre=Pets|summary=Oberon is a Labrador with a pedigree as long as your arm and ''One Dog and His Man'' is his story about what it's like living with the man he generously refers to as ''The Boss'', about life in general and the ways of the world. Think of him as the canine equivalent of the parliamentary sketch writer, there to highlight the idiosyncrasies of human life and bring a gentle humour to situations which might otherwise be taken far too seriously. Before you wonder how this is possible - how a dog can write a book - let me remind you that dogs are very intelligent animals. After all, dogs and their humans might go to what are laughingly called 'dog training classes', but it's the humans who are trained, not the dogs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471660354</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph O'Connor9386897296|title=Where Have You Been?|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Irish novelist Joseph O'Connor has had quite a 2012. Earlier in the year he joined the ranks of such authors as Edna O'Brien, [[:Category:Roddy Doyle|Roddy Doyle]] and Seamus Heaney when he became a recipient of the PEN award for his outstanding contribution to Irish literature. What could possibly top that for a sense of achievement? Well this, his first book of short stories in 20 years, must come pretty close to at least equalling it, amply illustrating the reasons for the panelHell's decision.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846556899</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewUnveiling|author=Anita Desai|title=The Artist of DisappearanceLaura Solomon|rating=43.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Anita Desai's ''The Artist of Disappearance'' is a collection of three novellas with several satisfying unifying features. All are set in modern day India, all involve some looking back in time and all three involve some consideration of the creative art - who it is for, what happens to it once it leaves the artist's control and who 'owns' it. Most of all, each one is beautifully written, with strong characters and evocative descriptions of personal loss. In terms of length each is relatively short - around 50 pages long - but after each one you feel that you've been engrossed in the story just as much as if you had read a novel of more conventional length.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553953</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Roddy Doyle|title=Bullfighting|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A little while ago Ireally enjoyed [[Marsha've often wondered what goes through an authors Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's mind Deal]] and I was delighted by the next time they sit down opportunity to write after winning a major literary prizeread the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. Does it put undue pressure on an authorIt's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', thinking that they will have but the devil is not one to write something equally as good or better next time around? take defeat lying down. Some writers can wilt under the pressure He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and future offerings are derided by critics particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes'not as good as (insert title herein Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. But some thrive under Then, of course, there are all the weight other children who are not only targeted but - worst of expectation all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and continue to write wonderful storiesas with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. 1993 Booker Prize winner [[Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle|Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha]] falls firmly into this latter categoryThis is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955562X</amazonuk>
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{{newreview|author=Gerry Wells|title=Kicking the Hornets' Nest|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|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 of one which was other than incidentally about tank crew, so when the opportunity came I ''had'' Move to read 'Kicking the Hornets' Nest' particularly as it's written by an author who crewed a Sherman tank in Operation Overlord, back in June 1944. I had just a couple of nagging doubts. It's a book of short stories. Would I find it easy to pick up - [[Newest Spirituality 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 of tea at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780881568</amazonuk>}}Religion Reviews]]

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