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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sybil Marshall Guadalupe Nettel and John LawrenceRosalind Harvey (Translator)|title= The Book of English Folk Tales|rating= 4|genre= Anthologies|summary= From ghosts to witches, to giants and fairies, ''The Book of English Folk Tales'' is a fascinating collection of stories retold by social historian and folklorist Sybil Marshall. Out of print for over three decades, this beautiful new clothbound edition is complete with wood engraved illustrations by John Lawrence and is sure to capture the attention of a new generation of lovers of folklore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Shirley McKay|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Accidentals

|summary=Is there enough new to say about the seven deadly sins? We've seen them This collection was truly enchanting in all shown to us, from school age and up to senses of the movie ''Se7en'', which we sincerely hope was NOT shown to anyone at school age. We can each recount them all, having been long familiar word: spellbinding with themits fantastical, even if we probably can't pin down when they were actually set magical elements and charming in stone without helpits gentle portrayal of nature and human relationships. SimilarlyGuadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, is there anything new in the world of fairy tale? We know the tropes - characters identified her stories structured by their status or gender (the woman, the husband), a clear set of rules wisdom that appears to obey, and a moral as strong as, if not stronger than, the formulae involved. Well, this volume demands we decide the answer want to those questions as being positive ones, and if it's not always definitive in the writing here that there is teach us something new, rest assured there will be something in about the imagery that will definitely strike one as fresh..world.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>1804271470

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Carys Bray and othersMariana Enriquez|title=How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on LoveA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=3.5

|summary=This Sceptre collection does not have as simple a remit as it might appear; these are no straightforward love stories. InsteadMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, they each take one aspect achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of love – often one of the ancient Greek classifications – disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and provide a whole new way crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of thinking about it. After all, her characters are so plausible that the heart holds supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a lot of metaphorical weightsimilarly tangible texture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473649420</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen SimpsonFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=CockfostersWhite Nights|rating=3.5

|summary=This was a belated reunion for meAs always in Dostoyevsky, having been introduced to the author's snappy short story collections courtesy the very first one while at unicharacter work is sublime. Mind, it was a much more gentle and placid reunion than the one that starts this book – Julie and Philippa have had a shop-bought curry together, but have had to forsake a cultural chat for a trip haring along the London Underground chasing after a pair of glasses one of them One is never left behind. The piece is definitely about the subject of ageing – about time passed and wondering what might be remaining ahead – but you soon discover that not only do all the pieces here have titles that are unadorned place names, but they all concern that very theme. Can anyone, let alone Helen Simpson, sustain such a vaguely morbid topic over a full collection?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470198X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Beckler|title= The Road More Travelled: Tales of those seeking refuge|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= ''The Road More Travelled'' character is an anthology of short stories - and one poem - written in response to the refugee crisis as it exploded across our TV screens and newspapers throughout 2015. To the horror of the authors, the language used by many was aggressive and dehumanising, describing this mass of desperate people as a swarm thinking or a horde. The stories together form a response to this othering.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993147224</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Ransom Riggs|title= Tales of the Peculiar|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= A fork-tongued princess. A boy who can control the currents of the sea. Cannibals who feast on the limbs of a village of peculiars. These are just a few of the brilliant stories to be found in ''Tales of the Peculiar'', all of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world - a place familiar to many of us since its first introduction by Ransom Riggs in [[Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs|Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children]]. The stories in this collection explore peculiar history and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative way, feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and also include some beautiful illustrations to accompany each of the talestemperaments with remarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141373407</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=IAll Tomorrow'll Be Home For Christmass Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Zephaniah Greenaway and OthersStephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Publisher Little Tiger and homelessness charity Crisis have got together and produced ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I'll Be Home For Christmasve heard it said that 'technology'is what happens after you' - an anthology of short stories from some of the most popular writers on the UK YA scenere eighteen. The stories are connected by the theme Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of hometechnology in my lifetime. What does home mean I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to you? Is it your house, me but I'm left with the physical place where you live? Is feeling that it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different people, can't s all getting away from me. Some of it? The book opens with a powerful poem by Bookbag favouriteis - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, Benjamin Zephaniah. The following stories are disparate - some telling tales of hardship I could research the possibilities and fear, some warming the cockles of your heart. But all of them are about ''homeprobabilities 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 who could deliver information in a way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157726</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rebecca SchiffB0CDZRGT1M|title= The Bed MovedSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories |summary= Rebecca Schiff's collection of short stories was 'Got a revelation. It has everything I want from a collection: humourminute to be amused, (often of the black variety)entertained, heartbreaking sadness, and moments of shocking clarity. or challenged?''''These 100 stories feel like the revealing of the inner workings of are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a young American womanflash.''''s psycheSome are funny. Some are poignant. In fact, in the last All are short piece, entitled .''Write What You Know'', it feels  Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that the narrator/author story is telling us told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the experiences which have led to this collection. 'flash fictions in a book of them? I don'I only t know about parent death and sluttiness! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, she tells usauthor Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. She goes on to talk That's about her knowledge of Jewish people who are assimilated, liberal and sexual guilt, and I think it is no exaggeration to say that these are the underlying themes to practically all of the stories herea single page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Simon Van BooyRachel Harrison|title= Tales of Accidental GeniusBad Dolls|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories|summary=A diverse, haunting and humorous collection of short fiction, Simon Van Booy offers It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a collection couple of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. With characters ranging from an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguardmisspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, books from a divorced amateur magician boy I fancied at school and a Beijing street vendor, 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'Tales of Accidental Geniust like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn' takes t have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the reader on manyfact that these are stories about women, incredible journeysliving normal lives, and conveys more that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a few pages than many authors would struggle breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to do in a whole novelhen party and a coping with grief. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780749716</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amnesty InternationalB0CCCVRSGX|title= Here I StandStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 54|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= Every so often Amnesty International gets together a number This is Richard F Walker's second volume of great authors short stories. There are thirteen in all and produces an anthology I took something from each of writingthem. This time, theyThere isn've done it for younger readers with t a single one that doesn''Here I Stand''. Twenty-five contributions explore where we are with human rights in today's society: t deserve to be among the sacrifices many made to win them; others or brings down the sacrifices that still need to overall quality. It can be made tricky to spread them; howreview short stories without giving too much away, where so I'll just pick two to talk about and why these rights are under attack and how deep is the need to defend themI think they give a general flavour. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140635838X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Anna Metcalfe1739593901|title= Blind Water Pass and other stories|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= Anna Metcalfe's debut collection of short stories is a treasure trove of language, cultures, and beautifully written prose. 22 Ideas About The stories are bound together with a loose theme of communication, or miscommunication, across characters and cultures, and the narrators of these stories are as different as human beings themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473631815</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFuture|author= Wendy Brandmark|title= He Runs the Moon|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories |summary= This is the first time I had read any of Wendy Brandmark's fiction, Benjamin Greenaway and I was intrigued at the theme of the stories. She sets out writing short stories about different cities in the US, Denver, Bronx, New York, Cambridge and Boston, but also weaves in setting the stories in different eras. So we have a collection of stories ranging from the 1950's to the 1970's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320601</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Birgul Oguz|title= Hah|rating= 3|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= I was interested to receive this book for review as I knew it was written in a modern, interesting style, being effectively a collection of short stories, but appearing more in a novel structure. I was, however, rather disappointed with the book. Whilst it does have some very fine examples of prose writing within the stories, I felt disconnected from the narrator, who is the daughter of a recently deceased man who was involved in a Turkish military coup in 1980. There is therefore a lot of examples of the narrator relating the conversations they had shared regarding ''revolution'', and the way this had affected the daughter's upbringing and childhood. Another 'story' then delves into a seemingly disconnected wander through the town, whereby we see the narrator working at gutting fish, and talking about a man she finds repulsive, but who appears to be in love with her. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380740</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Chuck Palahniuk|title=Make Something UpStephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=Short Stories Science Fiction|summary=What are ''Our future will be more complex than we to make expected. Instead of that subtitleflying cars, we got night-seeming writing on the front cover – vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''stories you can't unread I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'? Does that m not apply to all good fiction? Clearly keen on short stories as I find it is here due easy to the reputation of the author, read a few stories and the baggage his name brings then forget to return to the pagebook. WeThere'd expect s got to be a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced very compelling hook to shrink backkeep me engaged. But a lot of the contents donThen there't quite go that s science fiction: far. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators to itself, to create the perfect, simple, care- (too often it''The Price is Right''-, and Kardashian-) free happiness. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yes, sometimes s the plot summaries of these stories really are better off for being short (speaking of technology which, don't turn to takes centre stage along with the threeworld-page entrant here as a taster, it'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story)building. A call centre worker can't convince people heIt's on human beings who fascinate me: the level technology and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back to himthe world scape are purely incidental. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violationsSo, but not as bad as the happenings at what did I think of a 'Burning Man'book of twenty-styled festivaltwo science fiction short stories? Well, in a very clever couple of talesI loved it. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Edwards (editor)B09XZMCDVF|title=Murder at the ManorStories: Country House Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=I'm not big on short stories, but two factors nudged me towards this book. Firstly, it's broadly golden age crime, one A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of my weaknesses and secondly, the editor is [[:Category:Martin Edwards|Martin Edwards]], night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a man whose knowledge of golden age crime lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is probably unsurpassed and he's done us proud, not only very useful with his selectionfeet, but with and awfully familiar…'' This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the half-page biographies of eclectic reader. Tying them together is the writersidea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, which precede each storythings can happen to ordinary people. ThereAnd that ordinary doesn's just enough there to allow you to place the author t mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and to direct you to other works if you're tempted. Itnever quite sure what's an elegant selection, from the well known and the less well known, all set in and around the country housecoming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712309934</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Abercrombie1737030942|title=Sharp EndsBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick

|genre=FantasyAnthologies|summary=Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''. I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I often feel that short stories are an indulgence on the part of the authorread his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], they get to write down a lot rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their ideas that donpartying. Right now, I didn't really fit into want a larger story. The stop/start nature of them never sits well with mefull-length novel, just as so I am starting turned to get to know a character they are gonethis anthology of verse and short stories. One way of solving this would be to use Bittick's writing has matured - and so have his characters that a fan will already know; perhaps explore the past, or the future. That sounds great for a fan, but how do you do this whilst also catering for a new reader?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575104678</amazonuk>Well... most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Taylor1529418100|title=The ShoreBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker|rating=4.5

|summary=The first story we hear from I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the Shore, book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a group fan of isolated islands off Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the coast of Virginiatemptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't 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 from Chloe, whoin St Denis.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's telling Fiction|summary=Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her sister about what shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she overheard in 's nominated for - and wins - the storeRetail Best Newcomer Award. She'd been there buying chicken necks so that they could go crabbings delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased. Normally they used bacon rindsSonja, her mother, but theyis an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica'd already eaten those. Cabel Bloxom had been murdered s thirty-four and Liberty''s best friend: they done cut his thang clean off've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica'. The girls are motherless s husband, Charles and Chloe is fiercely protective of her little sister Reneetheir four-year-old daughter, Ava. SheLife would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn's the first of the strong women we'll encounter t for one thing: she misses having a man in these stories, which interlink to give a greater pictureher life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959188X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Higgins ClarkB08KKQ85FN|title=Death Wears a Beauty MaskBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona

|summary=In 1972''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, Mary Higgins Clark began writing an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a novella entitled pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''Death Wears a Beauty Mask. You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador' She struggled with s Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the story Priorities]] and put we learned what it aside, where it lay forgotton was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for several decadesSandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... When They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=Capturing Emilia|author rediscovered =Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the manuscript amongst some old filesMayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she decided 's moved on from new age books like that she liked it and was ready , which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to complete the long-awaited endingsomething a little deeper. Charles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian'Death Wears a Beauty Mask'. They' joins some re obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of her other workshis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, both old and newwhy does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, in an entertaining collection of short stories full of mystery and suspense.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471143228</amazonuk>isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Danielle McLaughlinMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=Dinosaurs on Other PlanetsCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales

|genre=Short Stories Fantasy|summary=Seeing as this book is clearly a talented author hitting the ground running, I will dispense with any major preambleCurses. We start with a tale of a daughter affected by the emotions They're there throughout tales of her parents as they separate – faery and the influence of a certain school-teacher other fantastical folk – from the mother's point of viewpeople being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. An ancient input shows how alien, and the modern day domesticity how regular, the isolation of a woman Children can feelbe cursed, as events are peppered by minor acts of destruction. But men can be alienated too – especially one, a reluctant guest at a party for children hosted by someone he once had an affair with – he feels princesses on the new form verge of this influence in the light of another one he has had to try marrying, and abandonolder people too. 'All About Alice' – thatIt seems in a way there's what the title character wants to say but has nobody to speak no escaping it to, but . Which is it her – mid-40s and single, living with her father – that is most removed from her dreams or her old friend and now child factory, Marian? And we complete a lap why the theme of the calendar with the wintry tale this book of short stories is such a man unable standout – we may well think we know all there is to tell his work superiors of the problems he faces at home – a new homeknow about this accursed character, that demonised place, recently built like so many one sees while driving round Irelandand that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473613701</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Christopher FowlerStibbe_Xmas|title= Bryant and May - London's GloryAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= CrimeHumour|summary=In Christmas – the depths time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the last [[Bryant downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and May – The Burning Man by Christopher Fowler|B&M review I wrote]] I said if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it' Of courses suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's unbelievablecash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, farcical. But then it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you don't come letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a Bryant child, and May story as for realism. You come for absurdity.'' Naturallythe makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, I stand by that comment. Fowler has concocted his characters did they even try and has no shame in shunting sell them up and down the any other time-line of British history as he sees fit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523457</amazonuk>the year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith0954899520|title=Chance Developments: Unexpected Love StoriesA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=SometimesTove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, if I'm written in a cafe by myselfthe 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, I like to watch the people around me naivety and imagine stories about their livessheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Just a single sentenceSimple drawings, overheardsimple stories, can lead to wonderous tales simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of mystery her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and intrigue whilst I sip my cappuccino! So I was delighted to sit down to read the latest offering from AMS, simple life that not only because he wrote it, informed those child-like trolls but because he wrote it after looking at 5 different black and white photographs, and then imagining went far beyond any fantasy of how the stories behind themworld might be. Who are all these people, and what are their stories? Each story is unique, and yet they all have one abiding link...love.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973295</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joannah Yacoub1911115847|title=When Mr Putin Stole My Painting: Ten Short StoriesNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating=3.54|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Put yourself, if necessary, in ''Nights of the mind of someone wanting to publish their first Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short storiesby Toni Kan. What do you choose as The series of stories tell of the contents – besides just saying the best available? Do you try lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and find a themearound Lagos, or connecting happenstance or styleNigeria. Nigeria, to pin them together? Are they based on you nowin this collection, someone else somewhen else, or all is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the diverse shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and places you have once met? Joannah Yacoub seems passion that allows these cynical stories to have gone for the latterachieve a glimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373971</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eoin Colfer (editor)1529014484|title=Once Upon a PlaceExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers Science Fiction|summary=You know Over the bit of the blurb on every ''Artemis Fowl'' bookpast twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, where Eoin Colfer had these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it said about how is likely that you pronounce his name? That wasn't the intention of an up-and-coming author to be recognisable; rather, it was pride. Pride in the difference of it, have already come across some of the Irishness of itwork by Ted Chiang. Ireland, it seems If you haven't then take this opportunity to me, is more full than usual of people, things and ideas, and places that are different by dint of their singular nationality – and do so many deserve to have pride attached to themnow. The places might not be the famous ones, but they can Trust me; your imagination will be the source of pride, and of stories, which is where this compilation of short works for the young comes in, with the authors invited to select their chosen place and write about itgrateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>191041137X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sophie Hannah1794467440|title=The Visitors BookWatchwords |author=Philip Neal|rating=3.54|genre=ParanormalShort Stories|summary= Sophie Hannah's The Visitors Book is This satisfying collection of short stories has a short anthology provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of modern stories with the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a supernatural twistwatch. There is not It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a hammy gothic turret in sight as her characters experience their mundane1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, day-he began to-day, 21st century business -- a childrencollect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's birthday party, how he became a visit watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a boyfriend, neck painfake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the school run. Now, ghost stories based on ordinary people leading ordinary lives can be very unsettling indeed, making overly imaginative readers look over their shoulder at repairer of watches was not and the bus stop, or giving them goosebumps seed of an idea for no apparent reason. So I a book was curious to see what Sophie Hannah, a writer I much admire, would make of this particular materialborn.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745525</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marina Warner1529006031|title=Fly Away HomeReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating=34.5

|summary=How would you subvert In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a fairy tale? few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. You know enough The wacky-for-the-sake-of them and enough about them to do -itdid not gel, so think on and I don't remember loving itmore as a child. Would you give a mermaid a smartphone? But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. Would you pepper them with pop stars, and perhaps let them be witness I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the Schadenfreude caused by core from a cave tangent, thatshow the benefits of the oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author's sacred to native Canadians? Would you, in the light of output through their characters usually being routineleast obvious, interchangeable tropesallegedly throw-away pieces, give them a closely-observed personality and it's the same with franchises – as seen here in a teacherI'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's interior thoughts when faced with short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a piece of East Anglian lore? hunch, for obvious reasons). Would you take the exoticism of the east, and Egypt in particularFor another thing, and see it in the light of a musical teacher on a zero-hours contract who ends up muttering there was every reason to himself, directing traffic in the middle expect some kind of the roadgreatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, or from the remove of an elderly man surely pieces written with ''swollen feet that love in orthopaedic sandals'' with a message from the pastmind could only provide for success after success? Certainly these two are not the standard Arabian Nights-styled pieces…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630381</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rose Tremain1846974658|title= The American LoverLong Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories |summary= Having never read On my travels around the world, I have a Rose Tremain book beforetendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what I was interested to start this collection of short stories'm really looking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. If I wasnever get to Burma, I won't disappointedneed to hunt, and it quickly became clear why she has won so many literary awards for her workI can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548445</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ursula K Le GuinB077969HN8|title= The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass RoseAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionShort Stories|summary=Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. I'll start by saying m rather glad that I think the SF Masterworks series are pretty much always and without fail didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a really interesting read. fan of either, but I've bought quite a few from this come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher now says is correct - and I find they will always pick interesting titles from really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too'' black and the science fiction genre, making them surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a great place to start if twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are either just dipping your toe into science fiction for going to be invaded in the first time or if you're looking to build up your collectionnicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320576X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Maeve Binchy9386897504|title= A Few of the Girls|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= I was excited about reviewing a brand new collection Tales of Maeve Binchy short stories Love and I wasn't disappointed. As her widower states in the introduction, Binchy had an extraordinary talent for telling powerful and compassionate stories, and was a true storyteller with an amazing output. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409161412</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewDisability|author=Ann Cleeves (editor)|title=The Starlings and Other StoriesLaura Solomon

|genre=CrimeShort Stories|summary=Six authors, known collectively as I'The Murder Squad', and their six accomplices were given twelve photographs ve always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of the remote landscape of Pembrokeshire by acclaimed photographer David Wilson skill and asked talent to come up with write a short story inspired by what they sawwhich holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more. Some There are far too many collections of the short stories will be more which are all too easy to your taste than others, as is only to be expected in such a varied anthology, but none are weak put down and if forget after you enjoy crime short stories then this book could be 've read a real treatcouple of pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909823740</amazonuk>Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Walter M Miller Jr1986586898|title= Dark BenedictionGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionShort Stories|summary= Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among In the science fiction giants H.G. Wells, Michael Moorcockopening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and Philip Khis wife. Dick In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''MasterworksThe Story of H'' series, a large selection of genre-defining writers and works at the centre story of what Foinavon. H is now such depicted as a popular and diverse range kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of literatures, films, John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and television productionsconsidered a no-hoper. Miller is considered In one of the finest science fiction writers most dramatic runnings of the 1950srace, a pile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and in ''Dark Benediction''galloped to the line, fourteen winning the race at odds of this author's best short stories are brought together in one collection100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211948</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Elizabeth McCracken9386897296|title= ThunderstruckHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating= 3.5

|summary= A little while ago I chose really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to review this collection of short stories with no prior knowledge read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the authordevil in ''Marsha's work – often Deal'', but the best way devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to do itwage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, though I am aware that McCrackenshe's work comes highly commendedvulnerable where her foster children are concerned. After reading these stories, I can see why Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and I am already looking forward refused permission to return to reading more of her worklive with Marsha.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592975</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Pete Bellotte|title= The Unround Circle|rating= 2.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= As short story collections go Then, this is a fairly ambitious bundleof course, some 22 stories running there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to a total of nearly four hundred pagesthe devil's evil ends. YouHe'll gather from the fact that I'm starting s out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the statistics that I didn't instantly fall in love devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with Bellotte's writingan elevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910533092</amazonuk>