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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=B ReidAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Beyond the Trees of GulavstadtAll Tomorrow's Futures: A Gothic Short StoryFictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=Politics and SocietyScience Fiction|summary=Amy works for Claralingua, a London education company ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that runs English schools all over the world, and Amy 'technology' is travelling to Gulavstadtwhat happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a remote town few decades of technology in Eastern Europe, my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to inspect one of me but I'm left with the schoolsfeeling that it's all getting away from me. Gulavstadt Some of it is a town of myths - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the setting of a recent horror film, probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they'The Thing Behind re talking about or the Trees'', exploiting them - featuring medieval, flesh-eating ghouls with mouths lined with the sharpest of teethlatest conspiracy theorist. But myths don't bother Amy I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00U9I7KNI</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Dorthe Nors|title=Karate Chop, and Minna Needs Rehearsal Space|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=The reviewer picks up 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.<br>The book is called of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn'Minna Needs Rehearsal Space''.<br>The book is entirely made out t a fixed definition of one-sentence paragraphs.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs are very seldom poetic, flash fiction but normally are grammatically correct sentences.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs on the whole have just one verbthat for this collection, unless regarding that from reported or unreported speech.<br>The book concerns author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a middle-aged musician and composer who does indeed need rehearsal spacethree hundred word limit.<br>The book concerns a woman who suddenly gets more space than she wants when her boyfriend leaves her.<br>The boyfriendThat's departure causes a lot of people crowding around Minna, which causes a problem.<br>The problem might be resolved by about a trip away from her city flat.<br>The title of the book might be ironicsingle page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271198</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Malorie BlackmanRachel Harrison|title=Love Hurts|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=''Love Hurts'' is all about heartache but it doesn't leave you bereft. Mixed in are enough moments of heartsease (and heart's joy!) to keep you believing in love. And we all want to believe in love, don't we? If you are one of the few who don't, you might as well look away now. The rest of us are in for a treat. This anthology has been gathered together by Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman, one of our favourite YA authors here at Bookbag, and certainly one who understands exactly how to write about the highs and lows of love as it is experienced by young people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552573973</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Eliza Robertson|title=WallflowersBad Dolls

|summary=Eliza Robertson won It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the Man Booker Scholarship books from a boy I fancied at school and Curtis Brown Prize while completing her MA in Creative Writing scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the University of East Anglia. vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn'Wallflowerst like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn' t have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is already a bestseller in Robertson's native Canada. There is quite some variety across creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the seventeen fact that these are stories. Broadly speakingabout women, thoughliving normal lives, there are and that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a few themes: moving on from lossbreakup, finding love in the midst of gentle madnesstrying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and interactions a coping with the natural world, often on the edge of Canada's British Columbia wildernessgrief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408856794</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edith PearlmanB0CCCVRSGX|title=HoneydewStories 2|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=American This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short story writer [[:Category:Edith Pearlman|Edith Pearlman]] brings us a compilation of stories that have only been seen separately . There are thirteen in magazines over the years. This follows on all and I took something from the huge success each of them. There isn't a single one that doesn'Binocular Vision'' (in 2013), t deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review short story collection that led stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to Ms Pearlman being presented with the National Critics' Circle Awardtalk about and I think they give a general flavour. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444797018</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1739593901|title=22 Ideas About The Future|author=Leslie Charteris Benjamin Greenaway and John Telfer Stephen Oram (narratorEditors)|title=Enter the Saint|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersScience Fiction|summary=When you think of thrillers written by a man in his early twenties there's a temptation to believe that the books might not 'Our future will be, well, top drawer, but that would be a mistakemore complex than we expected. The first Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''The Saint I'' novels was published in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one and this collection ve got a couple of stories is dated 1930confessions to make. You might expect the rambunctious adventurer we meet, but I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the subtleties of 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 slightly world-weary man of technology which takes centre stage along with the world, all-knowing about the evils to which men (and women) can sink, but they're all therebuilding. Admittedly It's human beings who fascinate me: the Saint is more boisterous technology and less subtle than he will become - but that speaks more about the later works than this world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a bookof twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OS74GQU</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J Robert LennonB09XZMCDVF|title=See You In ParadiseStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating=34

|summary=Lennon writes with a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of life, without being ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in any way stereotypical. Many the middle of the people night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not time to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to root for (the only exception is have around in a lawless village; the industrialist in new boy on the eponymous tale, who pub football team is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…''Weber’s Head'', for example,  This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the narrator eclectic reader. Tying them together is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable the idea that remarkable and unfair. For mestrange, the most unsettling story is ''No Life''even miraculous, because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of things can happen to ordinary people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of social powershort fiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Lee1737030942|title=Bobcat and Other Stories|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=The first story in Bag O''Bobcat'' is the title story, and this alone is worth the price of admission. Plaster it with prizes, put it in anthologies; it deserves every accolade it can get. However, the last story echoes the first, and the five tales in between are strangely repetitive, most with Midwestern North American narrators and 1980s university settings. Moreover, all seven are in the first-person; I would have appreciated more variety of perspective.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922182311</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewGoodies|author=Kelley Armstrong|title=Otherworld NightsJolly Walker Bittick

|genre=ParanormalAnthologies|summary=Kelley Armstrong revisits her hugely popular Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''OtherworldBag O' series in Goodies''. I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their partying. Right now, I didn't want a full-length novel, so I turned to this collection anthology of verse and short stories, featuring many of the prominent . Bittick's writing has matured - and so have his characters from the series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500667</amazonuk> Well... most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robin Ince and Johnny Mains (editors)1529418100|title=Dead Funny|rating=4.5|genre=Horror|summary=In a world of nightmares, disasters, death and ignominy there is a book called ''Dead Funny'Bruno'. Invented purely to satisfy the remit built into its title, it collects some horror stories written by comedians, both household names s Challenge and those more up-and-coming. Like all horror books it comes out at the time of year best suited for horror – Halloween, when we read with the darkest corners in our rooms, with the longest evenings outside – but is only suited for Halloween because it is a worthless, hellish piece of dross. It never excites, it is the most self-serving vanity project, and the only funny thing about it is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishing. Now I know you know, courtesy of those bright shiny stars alongside this review, that this volume, Dead Funny, is not ''that'' Dead Funny. But just bear in mind the horror story this could have been, if these pages were not so surprisingly adept at taking those said nightmares, disasters, deaths and ignominy and presenting them to us so competently.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773762</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewOther Dordogne Tales|author=Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou|title=Black Greek CoffeeMartin Walker

|summary=If your experience of Greece is as I'm not usually a tourist then you'll almost certainly think fan of short stories - I find it in terms of history, mythology all too easy to put the book down between stories and startlingly white buildings against sapphire blue sky and sea. It looks idyllic, forget to pick it up again - but thereI am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's a darker side Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to Greek life, explored by Konstantina Souzou-Kyrkou, in read ''Black Greek CoffeeBruno'' - a neat metaphor for the lives she looks at: sharp, bitter but ultimately addictive. In twenty three short stories she illuminates the chauvinism and superstition, the concepts of s Challenge''honour'' and the status of women, the dominance of religion was hard to resist and the lives led by I'm rather glad that I didn'ordinary'' peoplet even try. They sound like grand themesFor those new to the series, but the stories are grounded in domesticity and there 's an excellent introduction that will be few people - in any country - tell you all you need to know about who's who have not been touched by one of and the problemsbackground to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784620351</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 StoriesCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and othersBrooke Adams|rating=4.53|genre=Confident ReadersWomen's Fiction|summary=How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a Thirty-one-year – or life? Is that time-scale differentold Liberty Rossini has had her shop, perhapsthe Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when youshe're nearly a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who is, of course, both 51 (in our earthly, televisual representation) s nominated for - and 900 and more in human years as a characterwins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. In 2013 we were given a great book that gave us a story for every Doctor Who we She've seen on TV, in honour of s delighted and the 50th birthday proceedings. But now is a year on, and wetwo people she're a further Doctor down s brought with her to the lineevent couldn't be more pleased. And so what was '11 Doctors Sonja, 11 Stories' is now '12 Doctors, 12 Stories'. So while many of us would have cherished and kept said birthday presenther mother, the only addition is the last, which like the rest was available as an eex-bookmodel and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. So itJessica's worth revisiting what I said about the book last time, then chucking in the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the end.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141359889</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Problems with People|author=David Guterson|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they'Problems with Peopleve known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica'' is a meandering exploration of the relationshipss husband, big Charles and smalltheir four-year-old daughter, that we form across Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a lifetime. Ranging from that of parent and child to that between landlord and tenant, Guterson’s observation of the complexities and nuances involved man in how we navigate these personal links is extremely sharp and true to her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408859963</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short StoriesBut Never For Lunch|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard ThomasSandra Aragona

|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing ''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking more to the point, about to discover the real world of them at allbus timetables and paying his own gas bills. '' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? When these words are spoken they could lead We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the sensation time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrongFormer Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Are you prepared to enter Well 'settled' rather overstates the world situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienateslowing down any time soon, disgust despite being sixteen and question?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>deaf.

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=The Best British Short Stories 2014Capturing Emilia|author=Nicholas Royle (editor)Brooke Adams|rating=53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=I’m He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a keen reader partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and I 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 massive tomelittle deeper. But every 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 often, I drift into a mode why can Charles not get this woman out of finding his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it hard 's obvious to settle his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to anything and at such timeshim? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, I like to read short stories. I also enjoy them when I’m horribly busy and don’t have the time to read much more.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773673</amazonuk>isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Any Other MouthMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|authortitle=Anneliese MackintoshCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary=With a title like ''Any Other Mouth'Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, you know from the outset or not to be able to do that this is. Children can be cursed, shall we sayas can princesses on the verge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a rather niche way there's no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this book. It’s not of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about orifices, though. Partially autobiographical, this is the messyaccursed character, ludicrousthat demonised place, wildly entertaining story of a girl who’s just a little bit differentand that other bewitched person. Ok, make that a lot differentWe'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908754575</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=RevengeAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Yoko Ogawa and Stephen Snyder (translator)Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=A woman waits Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a long time at a village bakery, her mind only it was leaving it sat on the strawberry shortcakes she wants downstairs loo to buydefrost overnight, and the strange reasons if that make failed the purchase so important to herhair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. A boy is invited by a girl at school Nowadays it's all having to a posh French restaurant make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with strawberry shortcakes on the menu – in order for him it to want to provide moral support as she meets her estranged father for the first timeeat it. NearbyChristmas, though, is of course also a woman enjoys an unusual relationship with her elderly landlady, who keeps finding unusually-shaped carrots time of great boons. It's cash in her vegetable garden. A man reflects on an unusual relationship with a writer who hand for a couple lot of years at least plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a stepgodsend for postmen with all the thank-mum you letters to him, even aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as she went dotty in talking to herself. Unusual relationshipsa child, vegetables, motives – and strawberry shortcakes – are prevalent in this fascinating look at a sunlit yet dark world, which makes as for a superlatively clever read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553937</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Dead Man's Hand|author=John Joseph Adams (editor)|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=''Dead Man's Hand'' features short stories with themes ranging from time travel and vampires to theology; at first glance it definitely appears to be an eclectic mix. These stories are linked by the genre makers of the weird westMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, which is defined by its elasticity. John Joseph Adams' helpful introduction outlines the main features of the weird west did they even try and provides a clear, insightful guide to this little-known genre. Far from being mismatched, the eclectic nature of this collection is in fact the greatest strength sell them any other time of the weird west genre. Unconstrained by narrow generic conventions, the authors in this collection have plundered the deepest depths of their imaginations. The resultyear? A colourful, memorable and, above all, ''imaginative'' collection of fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=The ListenerA Winter Book

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Until very recently Tove Jansson was probably only known 's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the English-speaking world for her Moomin stories. Then along came ''Sort 1940s and later becoming television characters ofthe simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' books and their wonderful translatorsthat would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, foremost among them: Thomas Tealsimple goodness. And we started to understand what it What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was about a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the woman…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745363</amazonuk>world might be.

{{newreview <!-- 19/5 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Lightfall Literary Agency (Editor)1911115847|title=The Obsidian Poplar and Other StoriesNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=I'll confess that I was a little nervous about ''The Obsidian Poplar and Other StoriesNights of the Creaking Bed''. There's is a common misconception that collection of short stories are easy - something run off quickly before the author gets on with doing the proper job of a full-length work, but the truth is rather differentby Toni Kan. A short story has none The series of the luxuries stories tell of a longer work: plot development has to be done quickly, characters have to come off the page. Every word must earn its keep. A book can be written - a short story must be ''crafted''. But what made me particularly nervous here was that all the authors are students - lives and the editor was convinced that there are ten lusts of an assortment of them who are good enough to be included characters living in the bookand around Lagos, Nigeria.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00JH1B94E</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Andrea CamilleriNigeria, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo|title=Judges|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=I'll confess that it was the name of [[:Category:Andrea Camilleri|Andrea Camilleri]] which brought me to in this book. I'm a long-time fan of his Inspector Montalbano series and a recent reading of a spin-off [[Montalbano's First Case by Andrea Camilleri|novella]] had proved to me that the concise nature of his full-length novels was no fluke. In ''Judges'' we had another novella - worth buying for collection, is imbued with its very own sake - and the bonus heart of two more stories from better-than-decent Italian authorsdarkness. All that was needed was a glass of wine Danger stalks the shadows and a comfortable chair. Did the book live up to expectation?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052977</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Lying Under the Apple Tree|author=Alice Munro|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Munro packs an extraordinary amount into a short story. Some of them people are quite long killed for short stories, and they are not the sorts of stories that might suit reading on your daily commute; they demand nothing more attention than that. Her observations of human behaviour are acute, and the most innocuous of them will set you thinking a great dealwrong look. Most of the stories warrant Kan writes with a pause for thought vitality and need passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a little time for absorption glimmer of detailhope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593777</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529014484|title=Stories of World War OneExhalation |author=Tony BradmanTed Chiang

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=World War OneOver the past twenty-eight years, or the Great War as it was known at the timeTed Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, was these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a cataclysmic war. Millions died and life was changed forever for the survivors - for the women science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of Britain, and for the working classes and ruling classes alikework by Ted Chiang. 2014 is the centenary of its outbreak and the redoubtable Tony Bradman has gathered together a dozen of our best writers for young people If you haven't then take this opportunity to create an anthology of short stories to commemorate the anniversarydo so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408330350</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=Something Like HappyWatchwords |author=John BurnsidePhilip Neal|rating=4.5

|summary=How do you pick This satisfying collection of short stories has a name for a short story collection? It seems to me provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the ''.antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch.It was a watch he was fond of and other stories'' add-on is had been told was like picking a favourite child1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a promotion of one portion of watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the content above the restAntique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. [[:Category:John Burnside|John Burnside]] has got The eBay purchase was a title story herefake, but such is the mood of the book friendship that he seems to have nailed grew between the matter, buyer and picked the most apposite name. ''Something Like Happy'' could in a way be repairer of watches was not and the title seed of an idea for practically every piece herea book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575590</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529006031|title=Brief Loves That Live ForeverReturn to Wonderland|author=Andrei MakineVarious Authors

|summary=Our unnamed narrator is inspired to think back through his life on In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the girls first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and women he has been in love withAnthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], partly because of a time spent I found that I didn't really find too much favour with an associate – a time marked by a seemingly most unremarkable encounter with a further woman – whom he deemed had never been lovedit. The associatewacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, you seeand I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, had spent half his adult life in Soviet camps for political instruction – our narrator himself was an orphan in that show the benefits of the 1960s' Soviet Unionoblique glance. This snappy volume takes us I've always preferred coming to an author's output through episodes in several lives at different points during their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and since it's the second half of communist rule same with franchises – and finally explains I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the import whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). 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 unremarkable encounter…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780870493</amazonuk>love in mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Haynes1846974658|title=Promises to Keep: A Short StoryThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker

|summary=Jo is haunted by On my travels around the death of world, I have a teenage asylum seeker whilst tendency to end up in police custody any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and she only hangs on to her fragile sanity by running. Whilst she's out in while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the woods (where she'd been warned that she 'next person, what I'm reallylooking for is the 'local' 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 cookbook maybe, the woods was maps definitely, but above all: the younger brother of the dead teenagerfolk tales. Sam wanted If I ever get to get her relationship with Jo back onto an even keelBurma, but one night she returned from work I won't need to find a stranger in her househunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00I9GXP2M</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B077969HN8|title=The Rental Heart and other FairytalesAlternative Medicine|author=Kirsty LoganLaura Solomon|rating=34.5

|summary=To start Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with, are these stories strictly fairytales? a twist of surrealism''. On the evidence I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of this collectioneither, it is at times a distinction that seems open but I've come to debate, a category that lies waiting for definition. But at two conclusions about the book: what the same time, such publisher says is the genrecorrect -switching (and at times gender-switching), that I really enjoyed it is a subtitle that serves better than most. The title story examines a lifecomedy is not ''too''s romantic history via a twist on black and the idea that we give our heart away to every lover – what do we have when they are gone surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a new one takes their place? Elsewhere, a landed lady takes advantage twist or flick of her servant, and another cultured madam hires a clockwork companion to shrug off the suitors, with obvious, narratively logical resultsreality when you were least expecting it. A medical worker and her pregnant partner share a caravan together, all the while knowing a different circumstance might Your comfort zones are going to be closer than first thought. We have the beginnings of love lives, the end of hatred, and the end of invaded in the world in these pagesnicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773754</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=9386897504|title=Further Encounters Tales of Sherlock HolmesLove and Disability|author=George Mann (Editor)Laura Solomon

|summary=Hot on I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a short story which holds the heels reader and keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and forget after you've read a couple of pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Encounters of Sherlock Holmes Marsha's Deal by George Mann (Editor)Laura Solomon|Encounters of Sherlock HolmesMarsha's Deal]] comes another collection of brand-new tales written and [[Hell's Unveiling by some of the brightest creative minds from the genres of science fiction Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and crime. In this anthologyenjoyed them, Holmes and Watson are pitched headlong into twelve different mysterious scenarios and invited to unravel secrets and unmask villains as only they know how. During their adventures they come face so I was intrigued to face see what she could do with a mountain monster, take a murderous boat trip, meet Moriarty’s siblings and an even indulge in a little space travelshorter form. The game is afoot!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178116004X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Rose (writer of short stories)1986586898|title=Posthumous Going To The Last: Short StoriesAbout Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|summary=These sixteen short stories have one thing In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in common: lives, his pocket - and plenty of themhis wife. We jump from In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the earthy banter problem of a road crew building speed humps whether or not to an interview pre-broadcast run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of a classical piece where the interviewer isnH''t getting , the kind story of answers for which he hopesFoinavon. On the way we meet the least-mentioned Beatle, visit H is depicted as a world where kind horse who only wanted to please people are paid . After changing hands on various occasions he came to read for the many that don't yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and the man trying to remember his father through art to name but considered a fewno-hoper. For good measure there are In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a couple of Kafkapile-esque experiments that also work as ripping good yarnsup occurred at the 23rd fence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773576< Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/amazonuk>1.

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=9386897296|title=Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 StoriesHell's Unveiling|author=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and othersLaura Solomon|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary=ItA little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – Deal]] and I donwas delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It't mean s probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the title characterdevil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the nature of the programmedevil is not one to take defeat lying down. It has gone from black He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part particularly on Marsha (who's thought of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed as a 'goody two shoes' in all manner of waysHell). So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our earsAlthough 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 leaving people pressing a red button refused permission to see a programme about three Doctors, er, pressing a red button, we turn return to other aspects of the birthday bonanzalive with Marsha. Such as this bookThen, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespanof course, from being a loose collection there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of eleven short eall -book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writing, subverted 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 Storyteller|author=Michael Morpurgo|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=devil's evil ends. He'Of Lions s out to prey on their fears and Unicorns'' weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is a collection of short stories and extracts from Morpurgo’s most popular booksvery fragile. The book This is split into five sectionsno small-scale operation, which focus either - the devil has set up a training complex on recurring themes in his writingearth, complete with an elevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007395353</amazonuk>