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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Doctor WhoAll Tomorrow's Futures: 12 Doctors 12 StoriesFictions that Disrupt|author=Malorie Blackman, Holly Black Benjamin Greenaway and othersStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a year – or life? Is ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that time-scale different, perhaps, when 'technology' is what happens after you're nearly eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who is, few decades of course, both 51 (technology in our earthly, televisual representation) and 900 and more in human years as a charactermy lifetime. In 2013 we were given a great book that gave us a story for every Doctor Who we I've seen on TV, in honour of the 50th birthday proceedings. But now is a year on, and we're a further Doctor down the line. And so kept up reasonably well with what was '11 Doctors, 11 Storiess advantageous to me but I' is now '12 Doctors, 12 Storiesm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. So while many Some of us would have cherished and kept said birthday presentit is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the only addition is possibilities and the last, which like the rest was available as an e-book. So itprobabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I's worth revisiting m reading someone who knows what I said they're talking about or the book last time, then chucking latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the enda way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141359889</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M|title=Problems with PeopleSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=David GutersonMark C Wallfisch

|summary=''Problems with PeopleGot a minute to be amused, entertained, or 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 meandering exploration 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 relationships, big and small, flash fictions in a book of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that we form across there really isn't a lifetime. Ranging from that fixed definition of parent and child to flash fiction but that between landlord and tenantfor this collection, Guterson’s observation of the complexities and nuances involved author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a single page in how we navigate these personal links is extremely sharp and true to lifeyour average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408859963</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short StoriesRachel Harrison|authortitle=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard ThomasBad Dolls

|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound rightIt's been some time since I've read any horror. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your headI had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, or better yet not thinking of borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. the vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! Are you prepared It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn't have to enter read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the world of Transgressive Fiction fact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, and that aims to disturbat least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, alienatetrying a new dieting app, disgust going to a hen party and question?a coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>1803363932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn= B0CCCVRSGX|title=The Best British Short Stories 20142|author=Nicholas Royle (editor)Richard F Walker|rating=54

|summary=I’m a keen reader This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. There are thirteen in all and I like a massive tometook something from each of them. But every so often, I drift into There isn't a mode of finding it hard single one that doesn't deserve to settle be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to anything and at such timesreview short stories without giving too much away, so I like 'll just pick two to read short stories. talk about and I also enjoy them when I’m horribly busy and don’t have the time to read much morethink they give a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773673</amazonuk>

I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as 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 technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B09XZMCDVF|title=Any Other MouthStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Anneliese MackintoshRichard F Walker

|summary=With a title like ''Any Other Mouth'', you know from A news vendor is crying out the 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 iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the new boy on the outset that this pub football team isvery useful with his feet, shall we say, and awfully familiar…'' This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a rather niche book. It’s not all about orifices, thoughlot to offer the eclectic reader. Partially autobiographical, this Tying them together is the messyidea that remarkable and strange, ludicrouseven miraculous, wildly entertaining story of a girl who’s just a little bit differentthings can happen to ordinary people. Ok, make And that a lot differentordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908754575</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1737030942|title=RevengeBag O'Goodies|author=Yoko Ogawa and Stephen Snyder (translator)Jolly Walker Bittick|rating=54|genre=Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=A woman waits for Sometimes, you deserve a long time at a village bakery, her mind only on the strawberry shortcakes she wants to buy, treat and the strange reasons that make the purchase so important to hermine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''. A boy is invited I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a girl at school to rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a posh French restaurant – with strawberry shortcakes on the menu – in order for him to provide moral support as she meets her estranged father base for the first timetheir partying. NearbyRight now, I didn't want a woman enjoys an unusual relationship with her elderly landladyfull-length novel, who keeps finding unusually-shaped carrots in her vegetable gardenso I turned to this anthology of verse and short stories. A man reflects on an unusual relationship with a writer who for a couple of years at least was a stepBittick's writing has matured -mum to him, even as she went dotty in talking to herselfand so have his characters. Unusual relationships, vegetables, motives – and strawberry shortcakes – are prevalent in this fascinating look at a sunlit yet dark world, which makes for a superlatively clever readWell...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553937</amazonuk>most of them!

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529418100|title=Dead ManBruno's HandChallenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=John Joseph Adams (editor)Martin Walker|rating=54

|summary=I''Dead Man's Hand'' features m not usually a fan of short stories with themes ranging from time travel and vampires to theology; at first glance - I find it definitely appears all too easy to be an eclectic mix. These put the book down between stories are linked by the genre of the weird west, which is defined by its elasticity. John Joseph Adams' helpful introduction outlines the main features of the weird west and provides a clear, insightful guide forget to this littlepick it up again -known genre. Far from being mismatched, the eclectic nature but I am a fan of this collection is Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in fact Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the greatest strength of the weird west genretemptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. Unconstrained by narrow generic conventions, For those new to the authors in this collection have plundered the deepest depths of their imaginations. The result? A colourfulseries, memorable and, above there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all, you need to know about who''imaginative'' collection of fictions who and the background to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=The ListenerCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Tove JanssonBrooke Adams|rating=53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=Until very recently Jansson was probably only known in Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the EnglishCherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for -speaking world for and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. She's delighted and the two people she's brought with her Moomin storiesto the event couldn't be more pleased. Then along came Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty'Sort ofs best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica' books s husband, Charles and their wonderful translatorsfour-year-old daughter, foremost among them: Thomas TealAva. And we started to understand what Life would be perfect for Liberty if it was about the woman…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745363</amazonuk>wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.

 {{newreview <!-- 19/5 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Lightfall Literary Agency (Editor)B08KKQ85FN|title=The Obsidian Poplar and Other StoriesBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona

|summary=I'll confess that I was 'If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a little nervous pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''The Obsidian Poplar and Other Stories You don''. t get many better opening sentences than that, do you? ThereWe first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's a common misconception that short stories are easy - something run off quickly before Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the author gets on with doing Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the proper job of a full-length work, Italian Government but the truth is rather different. A short story has none of the luxuries of a longer work: plot development time has come for HE to be done quickly, characters have retires and for Sandra Aragona to come off the pagebecome The Wife of Former Ambassador... Every word must earn its keepThey have left The Career and settled in Rome. A book can be written - a short story must be Well 'settled'crafted''. But what made me particularly nervous here was that all rather overstates the authors are students - situation and the editor was convinced that there are ten their dog, Beagle, has no intention of them who are good enough to be included in the bookslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00JH1B94E</amazonuk>

{{Frontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=Capturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a 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 a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. 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 non-starter, isn't it?}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli Marie O'Regan and Giancarlo De CataldoPaul Kane (editors)|title=JudgesCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales

|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary=ICurses. They'll confess that it was the name re there throughout tales of [[:Category:Andrea Camilleri|Andrea Camilleri]] which brought me faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this book, or not to be able to do that. I'm a long-time fan Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of his Inspector Montalbano series marrying, and older people too. It seems in a recent reading of a spin-off [[Montalbanoway there's First Case by Andrea Camilleri|novella]] had proved to me that the concise nature of his full-length novels was no flukeescaping it. In ''Judges'' we had another novella - worth buying for its own sake - and Which is why the bonus theme of this book of two more short stories from better-than-decent Italian authors. All is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that was needed was a glass of wine demonised place, and a comfortable chairthat other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong. Did the book live up to expectation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857052977</amazonuk>1789091500

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=Lying Under the Apple TreeAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Alice MunroNina Stibbe

|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=Munro packs an extraordinary amount into a short storyChristmas – the time of traditional trauma. Some of them are quite long You only have to think about the turkey for short storiesthat – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and they are not if that failed the sorts of stories that might suit reading on hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your daily commute; they demand more attention than next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic thatyou can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Her observations of human behaviour are acuteChristmas, though, and the most innocuous is of them will set you thinking course also a time of great dealboons. Most It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the stories warrant thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a pause decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for thought the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and need a little sell them any other time for absorption of detail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593777</amazonuk>the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=Stories of World War OneA Winter Book|author=Tony BradmanTove Jansson

|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=World War OneTove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, or written in the Great War as it was known at 1940s and later becoming television characters of the timesimplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a cataclysmic war. Millions died and life was changed forever serious writer…that she wrote for the survivors - adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the women of Britain, natural world and for the working classes and ruling classes alike. 2014 is the centenary simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of its outbreak and how the redoubtable Tony Bradman has gathered together a dozen of our best writers for young people to create an anthology of short stories to commemorate the anniversaryworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408330350</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1911115847|title=Something Like HappyNights of the Creaking Bed|author=John BurnsideToni Kan|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=How do you pick a name for a short story collection? It seems to me the ''...and other storiesNights of the Creaking Bed'' add-on is like picking a favourite child, a promotion collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of one portion stories tell of the content above the restlives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. [[:Category:John Burnside|John Burnside]] has got a title story hereNigeria, in this collection, but such is the mood imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the book shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that he seems allows these cynical stories to have nailed the matter, and picked the most apposite name. ''Something Like Happy'' could in achieve a way be the title for practically every piece hereglimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575590</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529014484|title=Brief Loves That Live ForeverExhalation |author=Andrei MakineTed Chiang|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=Our unnamed narrator is inspired to think back through his life on Over the girls and women he past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has been in love withpublished fifteen science fiction short stories, partly because 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 a time spent with an associate – a time marked the work by a seemingly most unremarkable encounter with a further woman – whom he deemed had never been lovedTed Chiang. The associate, If you see, had spent half his adult life in Soviet camps for political instruction – our narrator himself was an orphan in the 1960shaven' Soviet Uniont then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful. This snappy volume takes us through episodes in several lives at different points during and since the second half of communist rule – and finally explains the import of that unremarkable encounter…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780870493</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Haynes1794467440|title=Promises to Keep: A Short StoryWatchwords |author=Philip Neal

|summary=Jo is haunted by the death This satisfying collection of short stories has a teenage asylum seeker whilst in police custody and she only hangs on to her fragile sanity by running. Whilst she's out in the woods (where she'd been warned that she ''really'' shouldn't go) she discovered a young boy living rough and she knew that she had to do everything in her power to keep him safe. There were complications. Her partner was DS Sam Hollands who had a direct involvement with asylum seekers - and the boy living rough in provenance at least as beguiling as the woods was the younger brother provenance of the dead teenager. Sam wanted to get her relationship with Jo back onto an even keel, but one night she returned from work to find a stranger in her houseantique watches that inspired it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00I9GXP2M</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=The Rental Heart Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and other Fairytales|author=Kirsty Logan|rating=3had been told was like a 1930s Cartier.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=To start with, are these stories strictly fairytales? On the evidence Instead of this collectionmourning its loss, it is at times a distinction that seems open he began to debate, a category collect vintage watches that lies waiting for definitionresembled it. But at the same time, such is the genre-switching (and at times gender-switching), that it is a subtitle And that serves better than most. The title story examines a life's romantic history via how he became a twist on the idea that we give our heart away to every lover – what do we have when they are gone and a new one takes their place? Elsewhere, a landed lady takes advantage of her servant, and another cultured madam hires a clockwork companion watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to shrug off the suitors, with obvious, narratively logical resultsAntique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. A medical worker and her pregnant partner share The eBay purchase was a caravan togetherfake, all but the while knowing a different circumstance might be closer than first thought. We have friendship that grew between the beginnings of love lives, buyer and the end repairer of hatred, watches was not and the end seed of the world in these pagesan idea for a book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773754</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Further Encounters of Sherlock Holmes1529006031|author=George Mann (Editor)|rating=4|genretitle=Short Stories|summary=Hot on the heels of [[Encounters of Sherlock Holmes by George Mann (Editor)|Encounters of Sherlock Holmes]] comes another collection of brand-new tales written by some of the brightest creative minds from the genres of science fiction and crime. In this anthology, Holmes and Watson are pitched headlong into twelve different mysterious scenarios and invited Return to unravel secrets and unmask villains as only they know how. During their adventures they come face to face with a mountain monster, take a murderous boat trip, meet Moriarty’s siblings and even indulge in a little space travel. The game is afoot!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178116004X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWonderland|author=David Rose (writer of short stories)|title=Posthumous StoriesVarious Authors

|summary=These sixteen short stories have one thing 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 common: lives, Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and plenty Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of themage]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. We jump from The wacky-for-the earthy banter -sake-of a road crew building speed humps to an interview pre-broadcast of a classical piece where the interviewer isnit did not gel, and I don't getting remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the kind of answers perfect audience for which he hopesthis book. On I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the way we meet core from a tangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their leastobvious, allegedly throw-mentioned Beatleaway pieces, visit a world where people are paid to read and it's the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the many whole Twilight saga (although that don't and the man trying to remember his father through art to name but remains just a fewhunch, for obvious reasons). For good measure another thing, there are a couple was every reason to expect some kind of Kafka-esque experiments greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that also work as ripping good yarns.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773576</amazonuk>love in mind could only provide for success after success?

 {{newreview|title=Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories|author=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and othersFrontpage|ratingisbn=51846974658|genre=Confident Readers|summary=It's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – and I don't mean the title character, but the nature of the programme. It has gone from black and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed in all manner of ways. So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our ears, and leaving people pressing a red button to see a programme about three Doctors, er, pressing a red button, we turn to other aspects of the birthday bonanza. Such as this book, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespan, from being a loose collection of eleven short e-book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writing, to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within one set of covers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141348941</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Of Lions and Unicorns: A Lifetime of Tales from the Master StorytellerThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Michael MorpurgoJan-Philipp Sendker

|summary=I've said it beforeOn my travels around the world, and I'll say it again. The most fun when facing a new author, especially have a big name one, is tendency to come through the underground, tackling the smaller works, the quirkier output, the less representative sections of her or his oeuvre. And for those who have or haven't read ''The Jane Austen Book Club'', there end up in any bookshop that is plenty of potential for that with the rest of [[The Case of the Imaginary Detective by Karen Joy Fowler|Karen Joy Fowler]]selling English-language books, for her output includes almost and while I buy as many selections of short stories second-hand escapist tales as it does very successful novelsthe next person, and whatI's more they carry m really looking for is the science fictional banner. A long time ago there was a teenage me very happy to be reading 'local'Lord of – the Flies'' and writing an essay about how sci-fi it wascookbook maybe, and I do relish the mainstream author entering a genremaps definitely, or but above all: the inverse of thatfolk tales. But boyIf I ever get to Burma, I normally come away a lot happier than won't need to hunt, I can read before I did herego.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1604868252</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate MosseB077969HN8|title=The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting TalesAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=This book of 14 Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories and in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a short play is based on the ideatwist of hauntingsurrealism''. Sometimes the haunting is the ghostly kind and sometimessomething psychologically deeper and more primal. All the stories drift tous from different eras, both past and recent, but all have one thing incommon: they centre on a troubled person. For instance we meet Gaston, aFrench child who witnesses an odd event on the beach just I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after losing hisparents. In the inevitably touching but beautiful ''Red Letter DayI'd finished reading as I' wetravel m not normally a fan of either, but I've come to a French castle with a woman who has an appointment with two conclusions about the book: what the pastpublisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it.If you want something completely different, there The comedy is not 's 'too'The Duet'' which drawsus into a fascinating dialogue black and the surrealism is gentle and then hits us with perhaps best described as a stingtwist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the nicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409148041</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The Time Traveller's Almanac9386897504|author=Anne VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer|rating=4|genre=Anthologies|summarytitle=From H.G Wells to ''Doctor Who'', there is something about a good time-travel story that has the power to ignite the imagination in a way unique to the genre. Perhaps it is due to the fact that when dealing with the subject Tales of time travel, literally ''anything is possible''. Well, almost anything...apart from going back in time and killing your Grandfather, which we know would cause an almighty paradox Love and probably destroy the universe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853908</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDisability|author=Diana Wells|title=Odes and Prose for Older WomenLaura Solomon

|summary=I am, of course, not an older woman and nether is Diana Wells. We were born in the same year and we are what is best described as 'upper middle aged', but ve always believed that less- perhaps in anticipation able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of what is skill and talent to come - Diana has collected together her writings on write a short story which holds the subject reader and I read through keeps them in two sittings (the break was enforced) and I laughed and cried, but the wry smile of recognition never left my face from beginning to endcoming back for more. There are about eighty five far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and odes - with none more than forget after you've read a couple of pieces. I've recently read a few pages long couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - written[[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, we are told, from observation, experience or imagination and so I can only conclude that Wells has led a very rich lifewas intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780356838</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|title=Sad Monsters|author=Frank LesserFrontpage|ratingisbn=4|genre=Humour|summary=If you thought you had it bad… Here is the chupacabra writing to the newspapers for better press – notices that don't universally mention his goat-sucking habits before his chess-playing, dancing or debating record. Here is a banshee struggling with high school life, knowing the end of everyone that comes across her path. Here is King Kong, being defended in court by a lawyer with a revelation to the jury about his bipolarity and how wrong it was to get his hopes up with a Broadway show in a strange city. Did you honestly think Godzilla enjoyed the way his life ended up?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0285642324</amazonuk>}}{{newreview1986586898|title=Dear LifeGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=Alice MunroK D Knight

|summary=Alice Munro In the opening story, a man whose wife has made deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. In ''A Grey Day'' an art form owner struggles with the problem of short story writingwhether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''Dear LifeThe Story of H'' , the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a collection kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of truly beautiful short stories, perfectly crafted John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a way that leaves no wanting feeling, as is often an issue with short stories-hoper. Each In one of the 14 stories contained within most dramatic runnings of the collection is just that; race, a story in its own rightpile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. There is no getting caught up Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and lost in style and literary flaregalloped to the line, but a cool prose, a calmness winning the race at odds of tone and good strong stories100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099578638</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=9386897296|title=The Complete Short Stories: Volume TwoHell's Unveiling|author=Roald DahlLaura Solomon|rating=3.5

|summary=Having only recently 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 first volume sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of this collection of all of Roald Dahl’s short stories I couldn’t help a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but think of the phrase devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who'too much s thought of as a good thing'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, she' although I have never really agreed 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 the phrase (I could happily gorge on chocolate or whisky for days without the slightest regret) I am still pleased that this book provides yet more evidence Marsha. Then, of course, there are all the inaccuracy other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the expressiondevil's evil ends. With stories as diverse as a butler getting revenge He's out to prey on his employer 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 baby being brought up training complex on royal jelly by a fanatical bee loverearth, these are tales of horror, humour, adventure, love and all out weirdnesscomplete with an elevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405910119</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Tales from the Dead of Night: Thirteen Classic Ghost Stories|author=Cecily Gayford (editor)|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=This collection of classic ghost stories covers all kinds of chilling tales. There are physical ghosts, emotional ghosts, ghosts that 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 ghost. Each story is preceded with some information on the author. The stories are from are from several different periods Move to [[Newest Spirituality and the settings range from winter nights in England to sultry summers in India. This combines to make for an excellent overview of all kinds of spooky sagas.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250944</amazonuk>}}Religion Reviews]]