Difference between revisions of "Newest Short Stories Reviews"

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|title=Behind the Facade
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|author=Dennis Friedman
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|genre=Short Stories
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|summary=We have all, at one time or another, wished that we had the ability to read minds. Imagine how interesting it would be to peer beyond the external appearance and to understand the various thought processes lurking beneath the surface. Psychiatrist Dennis Friedman gives the reader the opportunity to do just that with his collection of short stories 'Beyond the Facade'
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|summary=When reading this it soon becomes very clear we're reading not one, but nineteen, stories.  With each page divided into a regular 3x3 grid there are eighteen images on each double page spread, and every one shows an episode, or a beat, of a different character's life in turn, from being a babe-in-arms to death.  However, the way they join up - everyone's figurative moment comes at once, at times the artist's heavy black ink makes all eighteen images coincide into one image - proves there is a separate, individual tale around and behind the others, one which will end with the most delightful moral - that the ability to be anything one imagines is in our DNA.
 
|summary=When reading this it soon becomes very clear we're reading not one, but nineteen, stories.  With each page divided into a regular 3x3 grid there are eighteen images on each double page spread, and every one shows an episode, or a beat, of a different character's life in turn, from being a babe-in-arms to death.  However, the way they join up - everyone's figurative moment comes at once, at times the artist's heavy black ink makes all eighteen images coincide into one image - proves there is a separate, individual tale around and behind the others, one which will end with the most delightful moral - that the ability to be anything one imagines is in our DNA.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934964662</amazonuk>
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934964662</amazonuk>
}}
 
 
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|author=Angela Carter
 
|title=Burning Your Boats
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|summary='Burning your Boats' brings together Carter's early works and her uncollected short stories, alongside the collections 'Fireworks', 'The Bloody Chamber', 'Black Venus' and 'American Ghosts'.  Carter's ability to take the everyday and transform it into the fantastic is evident in stories that range from a cautionary tale of a musician in love with his instrument to a lost motorist whose journey ends in nightmarish circumstances in the Snow Pavilion.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592916</amazonuk>
 
 
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Revision as of 14:45, 24 June 2013

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Behind the Facade by Dennis Friedman

4star.jpg Short Stories

We have all, at one time or another, wished that we had the ability to read minds. Imagine how interesting it would be to peer beyond the external appearance and to understand the various thought processes lurking beneath the surface. Psychiatrist Dennis Friedman gives the reader the opportunity to do just that with his collection of short stories 'Beyond the Facade' Full review...

Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

We should always make time for short stories. Especially if they are written by Margo Lanagan. In Yellowcake, a traveller boy uses three items to reunite an old man with his memories. A boy with a crippled foot watches his townfolk butcher a beautiful creature washed up in their harbour. Rapunzel gets a makeover in which things turn out differently. We find out how the Ferryman of the Dead became the Ferrywoman. And more. Full review...

Krispy Whispers by Melvin Burgess

4star.jpg Short Stories

A woman stops you in the road and gazes fearfully into the pram. "Your babies are not human," she says. Then she runs off.

Ooh! Alien changelings! Cuckoos in the nest? Are they really? Really, really, really? Can you be sure? So begins the first story in Krispy Whispers, a series of flash fictions by Bookbag favourite Melvin Burgess. You also get a girl dreaming of riches, a lonely woman who finds a pet and gets a boyfriend too closely together for mere coincidence. And a priest who actually meets God. And a very worrisome monster. Concentrate hard. Because you'll need to keep up... Full review...

The Pre-War House and other short stories by Alison Moore

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

Alison Moore's Pre-War House is a collection of 24 short stories, only three of which are original to this collection, but most were first published in the last couple of years and, unless you are a an avid reader of The New Writer they will probably all be new to you. Moore's themes tend to concentrate on fairly dark characters, usually with a hidden secret, and more often than not dealing with the past and frequently some kind of personal loss or anguish. If you enjoyed Moore's Booker Prize shortlisted The Lighthouse, you will find plenty to enjoy here as most of the stories have a similar hauntingly sad feel to them. With one possible exception, a very short piece called The Yacht Man which did nothing for me, the stories are beautifully judged and equally satisfying, often saving a final hit or a surprise until the end of the pieces. Full review...

The Woodpecker Menace by Ted Olinger

4star.jpg Short Stories

The Key Peninsula is a small spur of land on the Puget Sound in Washington state, shaped - you guessed it - like a key. Its resident are disparate and include both incomers and those who'd see themselves as pioneer settlers. But they're joined in a communal sense of island living. It's on a much smaller scale, but I think most British people can feel affinity with identifying as an islander. It flavours our relationship with continental Europe in so many ways. Full review...

Outsiders by Roberto Saviano, Carlo Lucarelli, Valeria Parrella, Piero Colaprico, Wu Ming, Simona Vinci

4star.jpg Short Stories

Outsiders is a collection of six pieces of writing by Italian authors. The pieces have been collated from a supplement to an Italian daily newspaper and six have been chosen around the theme of outsiders for translation into English. Thus, the pieces themselves were not written around this specific theme but have rather had this theme imposed on them in this collection. Since the outsider is often used in various forms by writers to observe the status quo, this is not a big leap of imagination. Full review...

Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

In this collection we're shown the reaction of ten men with terminal illness prognoses, a large man purchasing a very unusual pet and the case of a hard-done-by boyfriend. There are also delights like the shop that sells words crafted into what they read, a boy with keys instead of fingers and the beautifully touching tale of the pumpkin-headed mother who gives birth to an iron-headed baby. No, this isn't your average collection of predictable short stories; these are Aimee Bender short stories. Full review...

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

5star.jpg Short Stories

I know you shouldn't judge a book by the cover, but when the cover has a title like Vampires in the Lemon Grove, I can't help but be a little intrigued, especially when the author has a recent history like Karen Russell's. This history includes a Guardian award nomination for a previous collection with another great title; St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and a Pulitzer Prize shortlisting for her novel, Swamplandia! Full review...

Encounters of Sherlock Holmes by George Mann (Editor)

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Sherlock Holmes remains an enduring icon of English literature; perhaps as popular today as he was back in the late 1800s, maybe even more so with the advent of TV and film adaptations of his adventures. Indeed, such is the lasting appeal of the character that since the death of Conan Doyle there have been literally hundreds of works published, picking up where the original stories left off. Full review...

The Gurkha's Daughter by Prajwal Parajuly

5star.jpg Short Stories

Parajuly is the son of an Indian father and Nepalese mother hailing from Gangtok in the Indian Himalayas, but spending most of his time somewhere between New York and Oxford. His insight is therefore something we should probably trust. Full review...

The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich

5star.jpg Short Stories

There is more opportunity than ever these days to downsize your library. You can take all those lumpen classics to the charity shop now that they can be downloaded for free onto an e-reader. And with these couple of hundred pages you can also divest yourself of a heck of a lot of fiction about love, for this can easily replace so much you've read at greater length, with less imagination and with much less humour elsewhere. That hyperbole is only partly inspired by the style of the contents, for it really is that good. Full review...

Vengeance by Lee Child (Editor)

4star.jpg Crime

I like short story collections. They're useful reading material when you're a mum of young children as you can usually manage to squeeze in a six page story at nap time, but you're guaranteed if you try to start that 500 page novel you've been meaning to read that just as it starts to get interesting your baby will wake up! This collection of crime stories is brought together under the title of Vengeance so, as you'd imagine, they are all to do with revenge and people getting or trying to get their own back. Full review...

Black Vodka by Deborah Levy

4star.jpg Short Stories

Black Vodka is a collection of ten previously published short pieces of writing by Deborah Levy, many first published in the early 2000s. The most recent is the piece from which this collection gains its title which has been shortlisted for the 2012 BBC International Short Story Award. As a compilation of her writing, obviously these were not written to appear together, but some clear themes emerge from the collection, namely a deeply disturbing look at the search for love, particularly amongst those on the edge of society Full review...

The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates

5star.jpg Short Stories

Many years ago, I stumbled across a Joyce Carol Oates story in a horror anthology. What I most remember about the story was how vividly the feelings the characters experienced were portrayed. Whilst the story itself was not exactly a horror story in the mould of Stephen King and James Herbert, it was very well presented. With this experience, I had high hopes of 'The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares' a brand new collection of short stories from Oates. Full review...

Unthology: No. 3 by Robin Jones and Ashley Stokes (Editors)

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

Unthank Books have brought out their third annual short story 'unthology'. (See what they did there?) The series is described as showcasing the unconventional, unpredictable and experimental which is correct as far as it goes. They omit words that I personally would have included; words like 'refreshing' and 'excitingly different' because, if I needed to be convinced about short stories (and, being a fan, I don't) they would be the clincher. Full review...

My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions by Tania Hershman

5star.jpg Short Stories

It's said that the art of short-story writing is totally different from that of novels as the writer only has ten or so pages to accomplish what others do in two to three hundred. Imagine, therefore, telling an entire story in prose conveying depth and meaning in fewer words than this review. It may be difficult but, apparently, not downright impossible as Tania Hershman has nailed it with honours. In fact her first collection The White Road was commended by the Orange Prize judges of 2009. Full review...

One Dog and His Man by Mike Henley

4star.jpg Pets

Oberon is a Labrador with a pedigree as long as your arm and One Dog and His Man is his story about what it's like living with the man he generously refers to as The Boss, about life in general and the ways of the world. Think of him as the canine equivalent of the parliamentary sketch writer, there to highlight the idiosyncrasies of human life and bring a gentle humour to situations which might otherwise be taken far too seriously. Before you wonder how this is possible - how a dog can write a book - let me remind you that dogs are very intelligent animals. After all, dogs and their humans might go to what are laughingly called 'dog training classes', but it's the humans who are trained, not the dogs. Full review...

Where Have You Been? by Joseph O'Connor

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Irish novelist Joseph O'Connor has had quite a 2012. Earlier in the year he joined the ranks of such authors as Edna O'Brien, Roddy Doyle and Seamus Heaney when he became a recipient of the PEN award for his outstanding contribution to Irish literature. What could possibly top that for a sense of achievement? Well this, his first book of short stories in 20 years, must come pretty close to at least equalling it, amply illustrating the reasons for the panel's decision. Full review...

The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Anita Desai's The Artist of Disappearance is a collection of three novellas with several satisfying unifying features. All are set in modern day India, all involve some looking back in time and all three involve some consideration of the creative art - who it is for, what happens to it once it leaves the artist's control and who 'owns' it. Most of all, each one is beautifully written, with strong characters and evocative descriptions of personal loss. In terms of length each is relatively short - around 50 pages long - but after each one you feel that you've been engrossed in the story just as much as if you had read a novel of more conventional length. Full review...

Bullfighting by Roddy Doyle

5star.jpg Short Stories

I've often wondered what goes through an author's mind the next time they sit down to write after winning a major literary prize. Does it put undue pressure on an author, thinking that they will have to write something equally as good or better next time around? Some writers can wilt under the pressure and future offerings are derided by critics as 'not as good as (insert title here)'. But some thrive under the weight of expectation and continue to write wonderful stories. 1993 Booker Prize winner Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha falls firmly into this latter category. Full review...

Kicking the Hornets' Nest by Gerry Wells

4.5star.jpg Short Stories

WWII books about the RAF and the Navy are quite common. Books about Special Operations Executive and similar organisations proliferate. Stories about the army are fewer and try as I might I really couldn't think of one which was other than incidentally about tank crew, so when the opportunity came I had to read 'Kicking the Hornets' Nest' particularly as it's written by an author who crewed a Sherman tank in Operation Overlord, back in June 1944. I had just a couple of nagging doubts. It's a book of short stories. Would I find it easy to pick up - and out down again? The big worry was whether or not this was going to be a macho action story, which wouldn't really be my cup of tea at all. Full review...

A Bunch of Fives by Helen Simpson

5star.jpg Short Stories

I will come straight out with it at the top of this review and state that I am a big fan of Helen Simpson. So this book, which is a selection of five stories from each of her five collections, is right up my street. All I’ve got to do now is convince you that you need to read it too! Full review...

Next by Keith Gray

5star.jpg Teens

That Keith Gray hangs out with all the cool people, you know. Hot on the heels of one fabulous anthology of short stories all about virginity, Losing It, comes Next. The topic this time is life after death and it's another preoccupation for young people. What's next? What will it be like? How will those left behind manage and cope? Each of the cool people contributes an idea of what death may bring. Full review...

The Crabber Stories by Francis Bennett

4star.jpg Short Stories

John White was known to everyone as Crabber - a nickname which he once earned and which then stuck - and he grew up on the shores of Long Island in the nineteen-fifties. It was a close-knit community and a time when children had more freedom than they are likely to be allowed now. We watch as Crabber grows from being a boy still suffering from the death of his elder brother when we first met him through to a time when he's old enough to go on a hunting trip on the mainland with a local family. He tells his own stories, as truthfully as he can and with the sort of insight which children have before life injects its cynicism. Full review...

All Shall be Well by Stephanie Tillotson and Penny Thomas

4.5star.jpg Anthologies

Twenty five years - a quarter of a century - is a long time. It's an incredible length of time as an independent publisher, particularly one which specialises in publishing the best in Welsh women's writing, but that's exactly what Honno have achieved. To celebrate the occasion they've published this anthology of twenty five short stories and non-fiction pieces. They've previously been seen in the numerous anthologies published by Honno but when combined they give an interesting and enlightening insight into the work of these great writers. Full review...

The Infernal Republic by Marshall Moore

2star.jpg Short Stories

The Infernal Republic is a collection of short stories containing a mixture of general fiction, horror and fantasy published by Signal8Press, an imprint of author Marshall Moore's own publishing company Typhoon Media Ltd. Now normally I wouldn't pay much attention to who publishes the books I read, but in this case I'm making an exception because I can't honestly believe that any traditional publisher would have put out this book in this form. The whole collection is so badly crying out for a good editor that it actually ended up making me angry in places. Full review...

52FF by Marc Nash

4star.jpg Short Stories

52FF is a collection of short stories in the flash fiction format. If you're new to flash fiction, you should know there are various definitions but here, Marc Nash chooses a format of under 1,000 words. This gives him some leeway and so the pieces are in a wide variety of styles - some experimental - but all of them exploring a single central metaphor and all with a darkness about them which is sometimes explicit and sometimes only emerges after you've had time to think and digest. Full review...

Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret

4star.jpg Short Stories

In the opening, titular story, Keret is forced by several people to create, and alter, a short short story. It's a plain metaphor for the history of Israel, but it proves that this modern Scheherazade is not too far removed geographically from the original. And what follows are probably the sort of short, tantalising, open-ended, rough-round-the-edges and surreal results of being compelled to carry on telling tall tales on a nightly basis. Full review...

One Soul by Ray Fawkes

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

When reading this it soon becomes very clear we're reading not one, but nineteen, stories. With each page divided into a regular 3x3 grid there are eighteen images on each double page spread, and every one shows an episode, or a beat, of a different character's life in turn, from being a babe-in-arms to death. However, the way they join up - everyone's figurative moment comes at once, at times the artist's heavy black ink makes all eighteen images coincide into one image - proves there is a separate, individual tale around and behind the others, one which will end with the most delightful moral - that the ability to be anything one imagines is in our DNA. Full review...