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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ann Cleeves (editor)AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Starlings All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Other StoriesStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=Six authors, known collectively as 'The Murder Squad', and their six accomplices were given twelve photographs Opening up new ways of thinking about the remote landscape shape of Pembrokeshire by acclaimed photographer David Wilson and asked things to come .'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with a short story inspired by what they saw's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of the stories will be more to your taste than others, as it is only to be expected in such a varied anthology- frankly - quite frightening. Of course, but none are weak I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and if you enjoy crime short stories then this book who could be deliver information in a real treatway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909823740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Walter M Miller JrB0CDZRGT1M|title= Dark Benediction|rating= 5|genre= Science Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|summary= Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among the science fiction giants H.G. Wells, Michael Moorcock, and Philip K. Dick in the ''Masterworks'' series, a large selection of genre-defining writers and works at the centre of what is now such a popular and diverse range of literatures, films, and television productions. Miller is considered one of the finest science fiction writers of the 1950s, and in ''Dark Benediction'', fourteen of this author's best short stories are brought together in one collection.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211948</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Elizabeth McCracken|title= ThunderstruckMark C Wallfisch|rating= 4.5

|summary= I chose ''Got 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 this collection flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of short stories with no prior knowledge a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the flash fictions in a book of the authorthem? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn's work – often the best way to do itt a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, though I am aware that McCrackenauthor Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's work comes highly commended. After reading these stories, I can see why and I am already looking forward to reading more of her workabout a single page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592975</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Pete BellotteRachel Harrison|title= The Unround CircleBad Dolls|rating= 2.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= As short story collections go, this is a fairly ambitious bundle, some 22 stories running to a total of nearly four hundred pages. You'll gather from the fact that I'm starting with the statistics that I didn't instantly fall in love with Bellotte's writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910533092</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Mary Higgins Clark (editor)|title= Manhattan Mayhem – New Crime Stories from the Mystery Writers of America|rating= 5|genre= Crime|summary= I was unsure how to open this review. I heart Manhattan, big time. I am always attracted to any work set in Manhattan, but I don’t want to pigeonhole this remarkable collection of stories into a slot that says 'only for Manhattan lovers'. Far from it – it is a superb collection featuring the highest standards of both mystery writing and the form of short story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474761X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ivan Vladislavic|title=101 Detectives|rating=3.54

|summary=101 Detectives It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had me baffled. The book comprises a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and I found most of stories which explore multiple themes that feeling came from the perspective of one person. The fact that these are stories are about women, living normal lives, and that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as varied as the characters presenting the tale a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to you. This exquisitely written book leaves you asking many questions a hen party and pondering many ideasa coping with grief. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908276568</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Laurie R King and Leslie Klinger (editors)B0CCCVRSGX|title=In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon2|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=Well, thatThis is Richard F Walker's one way to get a heck of a lot of attention to your series second volume of short story collections, for sure – get the estate stories. There are thirteen in all and I took something from each of the author youthem. There isn't a single one that doesn're respecting t deserve to take you to court with the idea that the works cannot be published – among the characters are so firmly established and entrenched, but established and entrenched as their property and therefore cannot be artistically reinterpreted, revived others or otherwise returned to at all until full and final copyright statutes have expired. Never mind that brings down the characters – one S Holmes and Dr JH Watson – hardly have parallels in how often they already have been mimickedoverall quality. Never mind the fact that the estate of Conan Doyle was paid off in order for the first book It can be tricky to released. Stillreview short stories without giving too much away, the case was won so I'll just pick two to talk about and this sequel is in our handsI think they give a general flavour. Is it worth all the legal documents? What is the important verdict, at the end of the reading day?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329843X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jessie Greengrass 1739593901|title=An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It 22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=35|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=The title story''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, which appears first, is exactly what it says on the tin: one hunterwe got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I's story ve got a couple of travelling to remote islands confessions to take part in massive culls of great auks, until they were simply gonemake. It I's always hard m not keen on short stories as I find it easy to believe that species that once numbered in their millions, such as the passenger pigeon, could go extinct so quickly, but when you read about the brutal slaughter tactics here – swinging clubs a few stories and boiling birds alive – you can see how a flightless bird was a sitting target. The narrator makes no real attempt then forget to return to defend himself: the birds were there for the taking; that was thatbook. Still, he regrets their extinction, because There'in any loss you can see s got to be a shadow of the way that you will be lost yourselfvery compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it' (Those interested in s the technology which takes centre stage along with the great aukworld-building. It's extinction may also want to read human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the 2013 novel ''The Collector world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of Lost Things'' by Jeremy Pagetwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473610850</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin BarrettB09XZMCDVF|title=Young SkinsStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=We're taken into 'A news vendor is crying out the lives of headlines in the youthful inhabitants middle of small town Ireland in seven short stories of differing styles but a shared setting. Barrett writes of a doorman at a suburban nightclub, known and respected by all the locals, although we only read about night; a brief affair and wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his vulnerability. Another tale portrays imagination; a young rocker and his emotional state, years after stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an incident that scarred him both physically and mentally and made him iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the talk of the town. Other tales all share ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the same focus new boy on people and small but meaningful personal events in their lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959742X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=B Reid|title=Beyond the Trees of Gulavstadt: A Gothic Short Story|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Amy works for Claralingua, a London education company that runs English schools all over the world, and Amy pub football team is travelling to Gulavstadt, a remote town in Eastern Europevery useful with his feet, to inspect one of the schools. Gulavstadt is a town of myths and the setting of a recent horror film, 'awfully familiar…'The Thing Behind the Trees'', exploiting them - featuring medieval, flesh-eating ghouls with mouths lined with the sharpest of teeth. But myths don't bother Amy...|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 This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the bookeclectic reader.<br>The book Tying them together is called ''Minna Needs Rehearsal Space''.<br>The book is entirely made out of one-sentence paragraphs.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs are very seldom poeticthe idea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, but normally are grammatically correct sentencesthings can happen to ordinary people.<br>The one-sentence paragraphs on the whole have just one verb, unless regarding And that from reported ordinary doesn't mean boring or unreported speechuninteresting.<br>The book concerns a middle-aged musician Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and composer who does indeed need rehearsal space.<br>The book concerns a woman who suddenly gets more space than she wants when her boyfriend leaves her.<br>The boyfriendyou're never quite sure what's departure causes a lot of people crowding around Minna, which causes a problem.<br>The problem might be resolved by a trip away from her city flat.<br>The title of the book might be ironiccoming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271198</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Malorie Blackman1737030942|title=Love HurtsBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick

|genre=TeensAnthologies|summary=Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Love HurtsBag O'Goodies' is all about heartache but it doesn't leave you bereft. Mixed in are enough moments 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 heartsease (and heart's joy!) to keep you believing in lovewhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. And we all want to believe in love Right now, don't we? If you are one of the few who donI didn'twant a full-length novel, you might as well look away now. The rest so I turned to this anthology of us are in for a treatverse and short stories. This anthology has been gathered together by Children Bittick's Laureate Malorie Blackman, one of our favourite YA authors here at Bookbag, writing has matured - and certainly one who understands exactly how to write about the highs and lows so have his characters. Well... most of love as it is experienced by young people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552573973</amazonuk>them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eliza Robertson1529418100|title=WallflowersBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker

|summary=Eliza Robertson won I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the Man Booker Scholarship book down between stories and Curtis Brown Prize while completing her MA forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Creative Writing at Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the University of East Anglia. temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn'Wallflowerst even try. For those new to the series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who' s who and the background to why Bruno is already a bestseller in RobertsonSt Denis.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's native CanadaFiction|summary=Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. There is quite some variety across She's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the seventeen storiesevent couldn't be more pleased. Broadly speaking Sonja, thoughher mother, there are a few themesis an ex-model and Brazilian: moving on you can see where Liberty got her looks from loss, finding love in the midst of gentle madness. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and interactions with the natural worldtheir four-year-old daughter, often on the edge of CanadaAva. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn's British Columbia wildernesst for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408856794</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edith PearlmanB08KKQ85FN|title=HoneydewBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona

|summary=American short story writer [[:Category:Edith Pearlman|Edith Pearlman]] brings us ''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a compilation of stories that have only been seen separately Rottweiler in magazines over the years. This follows on from lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the huge success company of ''Binocular Vision'' (in 2013)carrion crows or, more to the short story collection that led point, about to Ms Pearlman being presented with discover the National Critics' Circle Award. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444797018</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Leslie Charteris real world of bus timetables and John Telfer (narrator)|title=Enter the Saint|rating=4paying his own gas bills.5''|genre=Thrillers|summary=When you think of thrillers written by a man in his early twenties thereYou don's a temptation to believe t get many better opening sentences than that the books might not be, well, top drawer, but that would be a mistake. do you? The We first of ''met His Excellency and The SaintAmbassador'' novels was published s Wife in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and this collection of stories is dated 1930. You might expect Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the rambunctious adventurer Priorities]] and we meet, learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but not the subtleties time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of the slightly world-weary man of the world, all-knowing about the evils to which men (Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and women) can sink, but they're all theresettled in Rome. Admittedly Well 'settled' rather overstates the Saint is more boisterous situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and less subtle than he will become - but that speaks more about the later works than this bookdeaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OS74GQU</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J Robert LennonB08CHJLNBS|title=See You In ParadiseCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams

|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=Lennon writes with a relaxedHe's Charles Devereaux, easy style thirty-eight and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of lifea partner at Wickham Jones, without being in any way stereotypicalthe Mayfair letting agents. Many of the people in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed to root for (the only exception is the industrialist archivist in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat)heritage library next door. There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head 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, for example, the narrator is to something a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfairlittle deeper. For me, the most unsettling story Charles is ''No Life'', because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social power.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rebecca a [[Personal by LeeChild|title=Bobcat and Other Stories|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The first story in Guardian''Bobcat. They'' is the title storyre obviously not at all compatible, and so why can Charles not get this alone is worth the price woman out of admission. Plaster his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it with prizes, put it in anthologies; it deserves every accolade it can get's obvious to his friends. However And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, the last story echoes the firstwhy does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, 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>isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kelley Armstrong|title=Otherworld Nights|rating=4|genre=Paranormal|summary=Kelley Armstrong revisits her hugely popular 'OtherworldMarie O' series in this collection of short stories, featuring many of the prominent characters from the series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500667</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Robin Ince Regan and Johnny Mains Paul Kane (editors)|title=Dead FunnyCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales

|genre=HorrorFantasy|summary=In a world Curses. They're there throughout tales of nightmares, disasters, death faery and ignominy there is a book called ''Dead Funny''. Invented purely other fantastical folk – people being cursed to satisfy the remit built into its titledo this, it collects some horror stories written by comediansor not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, both household names and those more up-and-coming. Like all horror books it comes out at as can princesses on the time verge of year best suited for horror – Halloweenmarrying, when we read with the darkest corners and older people too. It seems in our rooms, with the longest evenings outside – but is only suited for Halloween because a way there's no escaping it is a worthless, hellish piece of dross. It never excites, it Which is why the most self-serving vanity project, and the only funny thing about it theme of this book of short stories is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishing. Now I such a standout – we may well think we know you all there is to know, courtesy of those bright shiny stars alongside about this reviewaccursed character, that this volumedemonised place, Dead Funny, is not ''and thatother bewitched person. We'' 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 competentlyd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907773762</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Konstantina Sozou-Kyrkou|titleisbn=Black Greek Coffee|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=If your experience of Greece is as a tourist then you'll almost certainly think of it in terms of history, mythology and startlingly white buildings against sapphire blue sky and sea. It looks idyllic, but there's a darker side to Greek life, explored by Konstantina Souzou-Kyrkou, in ''Black Greek Coffee'' - 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 ''honour'' and the status of women, the dominance of religion and the lives led by ''ordinary'' people. They sound like grand themes, but the stories are grounded in domesticity and there will be few people - in any country - who have not been touched by one of the problems.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784620351</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewStibbe_Xmas|title=Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 StoriesAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and othersNina Stibbe

|genre=Confident ReadersHumour|summary=How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a year Christmas – or life? Is that the time-scale different, perhaps, when you're nearly a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who is, of course, both 51 (in our earthly, televisual representation) and 900 and more in human years as a charactertraditional trauma. In 2013 we were given a great book You only have to think about the turkey for that gave us – once upon a story for every Doctor Who we've seen time it was leaving it sat on TVthe downstairs loo to defrost overnight, in honour of and if that failed the 50th birthday proceedingshair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. But now is a year onNowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and we're a further Doctor down the lineget too friendly with it to want to eat it. And so what was '11 DoctorsChristmas, though, 11 Stories' is now of course also a time of great boons. It'12 Doctors, 12 Stories'. So while many s cash in hand for a lot of us would have cherished plump people who can hire red suits and kept said birthday presentbeards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the only addition is the lastthank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, which like the rest was available and as an e-book. So it's worth revisiting what I said about for the book last makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time, then chucking in of the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the end.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141359889</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=Problems with PeopleA Winter Book|author=David GutersonTove Jansson|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Tove Jansson''Problems with People'' is a meandering exploration s worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the relationshipssimplicity, big naivety and smallsheer '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 we form across she was a lifetime. Ranging from serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that of parent she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child to that between landlord and tenant, Guterson’s observation -like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the complexities and nuances involved in how we navigate these personal links is extremely sharp and true to lifeworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408859963</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1911115847|title=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology Nights of Transgressive Short Storiesthe Creaking Bed|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard ThomasToni Kan

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking The series of stories tell of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation lives and lusts of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of knowing what you said was darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wronglook. Are you prepared Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to enter the world achieve a glimmer of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>hope.

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529014484|title=The Best British Short Stories 2014Exhalation |author=Nicholas Royle (editor)Ted Chiang

|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=I’m a keen reader and I like a massive tome. But every Over the past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so often, I drift into if you are a mode of finding science fiction fan it hard to settle to anything and at such times, I like to read short stories. I also enjoy them when I’m horribly busy and don’t is likely that you have already come across some of the time work by Ted Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to read much moredo so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773673</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=Any Other MouthWatchwords |author=Anneliese MackintoshPhilip Neal

|summary=With This satisfying collection of short stories has a title like ''Any Other Mouth'', you know from provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the outset antique watches that this is, shall we say, inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a rather niche book1930s Cartier. It’s not all about orificesInstead of mourning its loss, thoughhe began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. Partially autobiographical, this is An eBay purchase led him to the messy, ludicrous, wildly entertaining story of Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a girl who’s just a little bit different. Okfake, make but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a lot differentbook was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908754575</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529006031|title=RevengeReturn to Wonderland|author=Yoko Ogawa and Stephen Snyder (translator)Various Authors|rating=4.5

|summary=A woman waits for In following a long time at young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a village bakeryfew years ago, her mind only on when the strawberry shortcakes first book she wants to buywas in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the strange reasons that make the purchase so important to herperfect audience for this book. A boy is invited by a girl I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at school to the core from a posh French restaurant – with strawberry shortcakes on tangent, that show the menu – in order for him to provide moral support as she meets her estranged father for benefits of the first timeoblique glance. Nearby, a woman enjoys I've always preferred coming to an unusual relationship with her elderly landladyauthor's output through their least obvious, who keeps finding unusuallyallegedly throw-shaped carrots in her vegetable garden. A man reflects on an unusual relationship away pieces, and it's the same with a writer who franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a couple of years at least was a step-mum to himhunch, even as she went dotty in talking to herselffor obvious reasons). Unusual relationshipsFor another thing, vegetablesthere was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, motives – and strawberry shortcakes – are prevalent surely pieces written with that love in this fascinating look at a sunlit yet dark world, which makes mind could only provide for a superlatively clever read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553937</amazonuk>success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1846974658|title=Dead Man's HandThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=John Joseph Adams (editor)Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating=54

|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 On my travels around the genre of the weird westworld, which is defined by its elasticity. John Joseph Adams' helpful introduction outlines the main features of the weird west and provides I have a clear, insightful guide tendency to this littleend up in any bookshop that is selling English-known genre. Far from being mismatchedlanguage books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the eclectic nature of this collection next person, what I'm really looking for is in fact the greatest strength of 'local' – the weird west genre. Unconstrained by narrow generic conventionscookbook maybe, the authors in this collection have plundered the deepest depths of their imaginations. The result? A colourful, memorable andmaps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won''imaginative'' collection of fictiont need to hunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B077969HN8|title=The ListenerAlternative Medicine|author=Tove JanssonLaura Solomon|rating=4.5

|summary=Until very recently Jansson was probably only known in Laura Solomon's publisher describes the English-speaking world for her Moomin short storiesin ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. Then along came I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''Sort after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan ofeither, 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'' books black and the surrealism is gentle and their wonderful translators, foremost among them: Thomas Tealperhaps best described as a twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. And we started Your comfort zones are going to understand what it was about be invaded in the woman…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745363</amazonuk>nicest possible way.

{{newreview <!-- 19/5 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Lightfall Literary Agency (Editor)9386897504|title=The Obsidian Poplar Tales of Love and Other StoriesDisability|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=I'll confess ve always believed that I was less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a little nervous about ''The Obsidian Poplar short story which holds the reader and Other Stories''keeps them coming back for more. There's a common misconception that are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy - something run off quickly before the author gets on with doing the proper job to put down and forget after you've read a couple of a full-length work, but the truth is rather differentpieces. A short story has none I've recently read a couple of the luxuries 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 novellas by Laura Solomon - a short story must be [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha'crafteds Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell'. But what made me particularly nervous here was that all the authors are students - s Unveiling]] and the editor enjoyed them, so I was convinced that there are ten of them who are good enough intrigued to be included in the booksee what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00JH1B94E</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo1986586898|title=JudgesGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|summary=I'll confess that it was In the name of [[:Category:Andrea Camilleri|Andrea Camilleri]] which brought me to this bookopening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. IIn ''A Grey Day'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 an owner struggles with the concise nature problem of whether or not to run his full-length novels was no flukehorse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. In My favourite was ''JudgesThe Story of H'' we had another novella - worth buying for its own sake - and , the bonus story of two more stories from better-than-decent Italian authorsFoinavon. All that was needed was H is depicted as a glass kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of wine John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a comfortable chairno-hoper. Did In one of the book live most dramatic runnings of the race, a pile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to expectation?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052977<the line, winning the race at odds of 100/amazonuk>1.

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=9386897296|title=Lying Under the Apple TreeHell's Unveiling|author=Alice MunroLaura Solomon|rating=43.5

|summary=Munro packs an extraordinary amount into A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a short storyspoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. Some He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of them as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are quite long concerned. Daniel is framed for short storiesa crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course, and they there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the sorts of stories that might suit reading devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on your daily commute; they demand more attention than thattheir fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. Her observations of human behaviour are acute This is no small-scale operation, and either - the most innocuous of them will devil has set you thinking up a great dealtraining complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. Most of the stories warrant a pause for thought and need a little time for absorption of detail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593777</amazonuk>