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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Various AuthorsGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title= A Change Is Gonna ComeThe Accidentals|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= ''A Change Is Gonna Come'' is an anthology This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of stories the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and poems interpreting the theme charming in its gentle portrayal of change nature and human relationships. Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her stories structured by twelve BAME writers. It's Stripes Publishing's response a wisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the under-representation of BAME authors in the UK. And it's a great responseworld.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847158390</amazonuk>1804271470

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Helen StanceyMariana Enriquez|title= The Madonna of the PoolA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= In most short story collections, an overarching theme is usually present in each of the narratives which help each story gently flow in to the next. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores the quiet disappointments, achievements, and complications that each of us experience through everyday life. She draws attention to the small events and decisions that can both disrupt and significantly alter the lives of others and ourselves, all while maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughout.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1912054000</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Joanna Walsh|title=Worlds from the Word's End|rating=3.5

|summary=We here at The Bookbag liked this author's fairly recent collection of short stories, [[Vertigo by Joanna Walsh|Vertigo]]. I myself missed out, but Mariana Enriquez writes horror that seemed to be vignettes from one character's narration – here we get homosexual male narrators and a host moreis disturbingly real, as well as much less of the sadness prevalent before. Having had a brief encounter with achieving this author courtesy of her entry into the [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne|Object Lessons]] series, I was intrigued uncanny familiarity by basing her name being stamped paranormal plots on a selection gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of shorts. Was it the ideal calling card? Let's face itdisused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, the very short story itself can be an overcrowded homeless shelter and a postcard – let's say, from a specific hotel or two, as we see herecrime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. Perhaps I should have geared myself up, however, for such intricate writing on said postcards – and for The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the exotic locations from supernatural or otherworldly horror which they came…seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1911508105</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen PhillipsFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=Some Possible SolutionsWhite Nights|rating=45

|summary=Picture a world where youAs always in Dostoyevsky, a new mother, move to a town where you slowly start to realise that every other woman seems a replica of you – dressing and doing as you dothe character work is sublime. Consider a place where you have One is never left wondering what a perfect other half – most literally – but it's only to be found on an alien planet. Or how about the woman who suddenly finds she can see everything character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and everyone else alive as having no skin, just organs, tissue and bone as if everyone was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? A lot of these stories are hard to summarise without dropping into the voice of the ''Twilight Zone'' narration, but they're not specifically genre works – they're just further examples of this author's unsettling look at the bizarre elements of lifetemperaments with remarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782273425</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin LiuAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= The Wandering EarthAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= If anyone thought that ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the short story as a form had been relegated shape of things to the pages of womencome.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you's magazines (no disrespect) – think againre eighteen. One genre Well, I must confess that has always there have been more than a stalwart supporter and encourager few decades of the short form is Sci-fitechnology in my lifetime. So when you pick I've kept up a collection reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of Sciit is -fi shorts, you know that it will have just as much depth and thoughtfrankly -provoking philosophy as any similar novelquite frightening. Add to that Of course, I could research the intrigue of seeing how possibilities and the concepts are approached by probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone from China which – to be polite – has a somewhat different world-view in many ways to much of who knows what they're talking about or the rest of the planet…and add to that an author latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who is not only could deliver information in a best-seller in his home country but has the distinction of having produced the first translated work of SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>way I could understand.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)B0CDZRGT1M|title= I Am The Brother Of XXSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=''I Am The Brother of XX'' is Got a collection of twenty one short stories from Fleur Jaeggyminute to be amused, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughoutentertained, from the evil done between husband and wife in or challenged?''The Aviary'', These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a nasty tale of Oedipal menace and vicious, although admittedly, artful cruelty, to senseless annihilation and immolation in flash.''The Heir''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short. Jaeggy also appears to have a particular fascination with religion, from the nun receiving a rather special sort of communion in ''The Visitor'' to general references to the Church and religious devotion throughout many  Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of her stories. Family is also a recurrent theme; whether focused on the distance between siblings in the titular 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 point flash fictions in a book of view them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a brother filled with longing and loneliness trying to create three hundred word limit. That's about a bond with his distant older sister, or the primal need to protect the bond between mother and son, regardless of the cost single page in ''Adelaide''your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Malcolm DevlinRachel Harrison|title= You Will Grow Into ThemBad Dolls|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories|summary=It's been some time since I'You Will Grow Into Them'' is ve read any horror. I had a thrilling collection couple of ten short stories all centred on 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 nature point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of transition the vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and change. The often grislyI didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, macabre and ghoulish nature I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are stories included about women, living normal lives, and that at least in Devlin's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictivea coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tove JanssonB0CCCVRSGX|title= Letters From KlaraStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 54|genre= Literary FictionShort Stories|summary= Famed in the UK for her creation of the Moomin family, Jansson This is rather belatedly beginning to gather the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks to publishers 'Richard F Walker'Sort s second volume of books'' short stories. There are thirteen in all and Thomas Teal, who has been responsible for most I took something from each of the translationsthem. Receiving this one, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem to have missed one of the series, and secondly thereThere isn'll come t a time sooner rather than later when theresingle one that doesn'll be no more t deserve to be hadamong the others or brings down the overall quality. The former will It can be rectifiedtricky to review short stories without giving too much away, the latter is so I'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a sad thoughtgeneral flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lee Child1739593901|title= No Middle Name22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= Crime Science Fiction|summary= There is a theory, to which those who regularly read my reviews ''Our future will know I sometimes subscribebe more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, which says that the short story's heyday has passed we got night-vision killer drones and it has now put itself out automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to grasstrack grandma. This is particularly true, some say, and '' I have been known 've got a couple of confessions to concur, of the crime and thriller genresmake. Tosh! I can only apologise 'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to all authors involved read a few stories and own up: I simply haven't been paying attentionthen forget to return to the book. Not even There's got to be a very compelling hook to shorter offerings my by favourite authorskeep me engaged. SoThen there's science fiction: big thanks to Lee Child and publishers Bantam Press for putting me straight far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It''No Middle Name'' s human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a collection book of twenty-two science fiction short stories about my favourite latter-day? Well, American-style, Robin Hood by the name of ''Jack Reacher''I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593079019</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B09XZMCDVF|title=A Fanfare of TalesStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Patrick C ReidyRichard F Walker

|summary=I love short stories, so I'm always happy 'A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the new collection arrives for review. boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…''A Fanfare  This collection of Tales'' thirteen short stories by Patrick C Reidy promises me Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader. Tying them together is the idea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, things can happen to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn''a compilation t mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short stories that highlight the adventures of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challengesfiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's coming next. I like this premise. So how does the book shape up? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524665983</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1737030942|title=Peter Bag O'Donnell and Enric Badia RomeroGoodies|titleauthor=Children of Lucifer: Modesty BlaiseJolly Walker Bittick|rating=3.54|genre=Graphic Novels Anthologies|summary=Out 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 read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a rollicking tale of ninetywhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. Right now, I didn't want a full-five diverse comic strip storieslength novel, the publication so I turned to this anthology of this book leaves just the last three yet to be presented in these fabulous large format paperbacksverse and short stories. So if you haven’t yet met with the sassy brunette with her curves and her great crimeBittick's writing has matured -solving mind, and of course with her Willie, this is the last-but-one chance for you to do sohave his characters. And if you have any interest in quick little action tales, or even dated kitsch, for both apply here, then you should eagerly be on board…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329860X</amazonuk>Well... most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Edwards (editor)1529418100|title= Miraculous Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)|rating= 5|genre= Crime|summary=Consider the following scenario: a policeman hears someone screaming Bruno's Challenge and runs to a house on a particular street, number 13, from where the noise is emanating. When he peeps through the letterbox he discovers a dead man in the hallway with a knife in his throat. He goes to fetch help, but upon returning, finds that the street does not have a number 13 and that the body and the room he saw have both mysteriously vanished...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewOther Dordogne Tales|author= Michael R Lane|title= UFOs and GOD: A Collection of Short StoriesMartin Walker|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=From stories of young people caught up in a Robin Hood style operation gone wrong, to a believer in God having her faith shaken by the arrival of aliens, author Michael R Lane has compiled I'm not usually a collection fan of fascinating and clever short stories here. From farm to urban, from World War II - I find it all too easy to put the Digital Age, the places book down between stories and times, people and events forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge''UFOs was hard to resist and GodI'm rather glad that I didn' spotlight t even try. For those new to the tender underbelly of series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and the human condition background to why Bruno is in all its glory and despair on these varied stages of fictionSt Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rick BassB08NF79QXT|title= For a Little WhileCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 43|genre= Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|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. She'For a Little Whiles delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn' t be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is a collection of twentyan ex-five short stories model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from Rick Bass. As someone previously unacquainted with BassJessica' work this new collection was a wonderful introduction to his quirky, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situations, mysterious characters s thirty-four and magical experiences. The characters in Liberty's best friend: they've known each tale are beautifully crafted other since university and the stories are dreamyLiberty adores Jessica's husband, loose narratives covering everything from love to death to choices made Charles and chances takentheir four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273042</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 25/1 -->Frontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=A Collection of Short StoriesBut Never For Lunch|author=Gillian Fletcher-EdwardsSandra Aragona

|summary=Marged Evans allowed ''If a break-up with woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a lover Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to affect everything in her life. Osian wanted be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to invest in the present but Marged loved point, about to discover the pastreal world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills. Since they drifted apart'' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, Margeddo you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's life Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has been careful, ordered, unadventurouscome for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... But then Osian sends her a Christmas card They have left The Career and everything changessettled in Rome. Well 'settled'Marged Evans'' is rather overstates the first situation and longest in this collection their dog, Beagle, has no intention of short stories from Gillian Fletcher-Edwards. It's almost a novella slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and its initially slow pace sets off quite the masterclass in how one event can throw everything into unexpected - but lovely - chaosdeaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sybil Marshall and John LawrenceB08CHJLNBS|title= The Book of English Folk TalesCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 43|genre= AnthologiesWomen's Fiction|summary= From ghosts to witchesHe's Charles Devereaux, to giants thirty-eight and fairiesa partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She''s Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Book of English Folk TalesSecret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else' s philosophies, to something a little deeper. Charles is more of a fascinating collection of stories retold [[Personal by social historian and folklorist Sybil MarshallLee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. Out of print for over three decades They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this beautiful new clothbound edition is complete with wood engraved illustrations woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by John Lawrence and is sure Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to capture the attention of him? The relationship's obviously a new generation of lovers of folklore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>non-starter, isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley McKayMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=1588Cursed: A Calendar An Anthology of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Dark Fairy Tales

|genre=Crime (Historical)Fantasy|summary=A lot Curses. They're there throughout tales of crime happens in St Andrews during 1588 faery and therefore in other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the life verge of law lecturer marrying, and local investigator Hew Cullen older people too. As we travel through the year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother It seems in law Giles and his sister Meg, a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the wise woman, theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we also encounter some of his most interesting cases. In fact know all there's one is to match each of the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsunknow about this accursed character, Lammasthat demonised place, Martinmas and Yulethat other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Telford and Louise VerityStibbe_Xmas|title=SinsAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=Is there enough new Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to say think about the seven deadly sins? We've seen them all shown turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to usdefrost overnight, from school age and up to if that failed the movie ''Se7enhair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays 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, which we sincerely hope was NOT shown and get too friendly with it to want to anyone at school ageeat it. We can each recount them allChristmas, having been long familiar with themthough, even if we probably canis of course also a time of great boons. It't pin down when they were actually set s cash in stone without help. Similarly, is there anything new in the world of fairy tale? We know the tropes - characters identified by their status or gender (the woman, the husband), hand for a clear set lot of rules to obeyplump people who can hire red suits and beards, and it was always a moral as strong as, if not stronger than, godsend for postmen with all the formulae involved. Well, this volume demands we decide the answer thank-you letters to those questions aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as being positive onesa child, and if it's not always definitive in as for the writing here that there is something newmakers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, rest assured there will be something in did they even try and sell them any other time of the imagery that will definitely strike one as fresh...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carys Bray and others0954899520|title=How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on LoveA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating=3.5|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=This Sceptre collection does not have as Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple a remit as it might appear; these are no straightforward love stories, simple goodness. Instead, they each take one aspect of love – What is often one forgotten outside of 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 ancient Greek classifications – natural world and provide a whole new way the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of thinking about it. After all, how the heart holds a lot of metaphorical weightworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473649420</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Simpson1911115847|title=CockfostersNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating=3.54|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=This was a belated reunion for me, having been introduced to ''Nights of the authorCreaking Bed''s snappy is a collection of short story collections courtesy stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the very first one while at unilives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. MindNigeria, it was a much more gentle and placid reunion than the one that starts in this book – Julie and Philippa have had a shop-bought curry togethercollection, but have had to forsake a cultural chat for a trip haring along the London Underground chasing after a pair is imbued with its very own heart of glasses one of them left behinddarkness. The piece is definitely about Danger stalks the subject of ageing – about time passed shadows and what might be remaining ahead – but you soon discover that not only do all the pieces here have titles that people are unadorned place names, but they all concern that very themekilled for nothing more than a wrong look. Can anyone, let alone Helen Simpson, sustain such Kan writes with a vaguely morbid topic over vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a full collection?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470198X</amazonuk>glimmer of hope.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David Beckler|title= The Road More Travelled: Tales of those seeking refuge|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= ''The Road More Travelled'' 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 or a horde. The stories together form a response to this othering.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993147224</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Ransom Riggs|titleisbn= 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, and also include some beautiful illustrations to accompany each of the tales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141373407</amazonuk>}}{{newreview1529014484|title=I'll Be Home For ChristmasExhalation |author=Benjamin Zephaniah and OthersTed Chiang

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Publisher Little Tiger and homelessness charity Crisis have got together and produced ''I'll Be Home For Christmas'' Over the past twenty- an anthology of eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories from , these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the most popular writers on the UK YA scene. The stories are connected work by the theme of homeTed Chiang. What does home mean to If you? Is it your house, the physical place where you live? Is it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different people, canhaven't it? The book opens with a powerful poem by Bookbag favourite, Benjamin Zephaniahthen take this opportunity to do so now. The following stories are disparate - some telling tales of hardship and fear, some warming the cockles of Trust me; your heart. But all of them are about ''home''imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157726</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rebecca Schiff1794467440|title= The Bed MovedWatchwords |author=Philip Neal|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories |summary= Rebecca Schiff's This satisfying collection of short stories was has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a revelationwatch. It has everything I want from was a collection: humour, (often watch he was fond of the black variety), heartbreaking sadness, and moments had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of shocking claritymourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. These stories feel like the revealing of the inner workings of a young American womanAnd that's psychehow he became a watch collector. In factAn eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, in but the last short piece, entitled ''Write What You Know'', it feels friendship that grew between the narrator/author is telling us buyer and the experiences which have led to this collection. ''I only know about parent death and sluttiness', she tells us. She goes on to talk about her knowledge repairer of Jewish people who are assimilated, liberal and sexual guilt, watches was not and I think it is no exaggeration to say that these are the underlying themes to practically all seed of the stories herean idea for a book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon Van Booy1529006031|title= Tales of Accidental GeniusReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=A diverseIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, haunting when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and humorous collection Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of short fictionage]], Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassionI found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. With characters ranging from an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, The wacky-for-the teenage child -sake-of Nigerian immigrants-it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a divorced amateur magician and child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a Beijing street vendortangent, ''Tales that show the benefits of Accidental Geniusthe oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author' takes the reader on manys output through their least obvious, incredible journeysallegedly throw-away pieces, and conveys it's the same with franchises – I'd more in likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a few pages than many authors would struggle hunch, for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to do expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in a whole novel. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749716</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amnesty International1846974658|title= Here I StandThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating= 54|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= Every so often Amnesty International gets together On my travels around the world, I have a number of great authors tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and produces an anthology of writing. This timewhile I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, theywhat I've done it m really looking for younger readers with is the 'local'Here I Stand''. Twenty-five contributions explore where we are with human rights in today's society– the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the sacrifices many made folk tales. If I ever get to win them; the sacrifices that still Burma, I won't need to be made to spread them; howhunt, where and why these rights are under attack and how deep is the need to defend themI can read before I go. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140635838X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Anna MetcalfeB077969HN8|title= Blind Water Pass and other storiesAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= Anna MetcalfeLaura Solomon's debut collection of publisher describes the short stories is in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a treasure trove twist of language, cultures, and beautifully written prosesurrealism''. The stories are bound together with I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a loose theme fan of communicationeither, or miscommunication, across characters but I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and cultures, I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too'' black and the narrators surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of these stories reality when you were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are as different as human beings themselvesgoing to be invaded in the nicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473631815</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Wendy Brandmark9386897504|title= He Runs the MoonTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon|rating= 3.54|genre= Short Stories |summary= This is the first time I had read any 've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of Wendy Brandmark's fiction, skill and I was intrigued at talent to write a short story which holds the theme of the storiesreader and keeps them coming back for more. She sets out writing There are far too many collections of short stories about different cities in the US, Denver, Bronx, New York, Cambridge which are all too easy to put down and Boston, but also weaves in setting the stories in different erasforget after you've read a couple of pieces. So we have I've recently read a collection couple of stories ranging from the 1950novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's to the 1970Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell'sUnveiling]] and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320601</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Birgul Oguz1986586898|title= HahGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating= 34.5|genre= Literary FictionShort Stories|summary= I was interested to receive this book for review as I knew it was written in a modern, interesting styleIn the opening story, being effectively a collection of short stories, man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but appearing more comes away with cash in a novel structurehis pocket - and his wife. I was, however, rather disappointed In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the bookproblem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. Whilst it does have some very fine examples My favourite was ''The Story of prose writing within the storiesH'', I felt disconnected from the narrator, story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who is only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the daughter yard of a recently deceased man who John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was involved entered in the Grand National and considered a Turkish military coup in 1980no-hoper. There is therefore a lot In one of examples the most dramatic runnings of the narrator relating race, a pile-up occurred at the conversations they 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had shared regarding ''revolution''been many lengths adrift, and cleared the way this had affected the daughter's upbringing fence and childhood. Another 'story' then delves into a seemingly disconnected wander through galloped to the townline, whereby we see winning the narrator working race at gutting fish, and talking about a man she finds repulsive, but who appears to be in love with herodds of 100/1. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chuck Palahniuk9386897296|title=Make Something UpHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories |summary=What are we A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to make of that subtitle-seeming writing on read the front cover – sequel, ''stories you canHell't unreads Unveiling''? . Does that It's probably not apply to all good fiction? Clearly it is here due to the reputation much of the author, and the baggage his name brings a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the page. Wedevil in ''Marsha's Deal''d expect a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced but the devil is not one to shrink backtake defeat lying down. But a lot of the contents donHe't quite go that far. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators s out to itself, to create the perfect, simple, care- wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'The Price is Right'goody two shoes'-, and Kardashian-in Hell) free happiness. A man buys Although a horse strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for his daughter – but boy is it the wrong horse a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to buylive with Marsha. A man falls in love – yes Then, of course, sometimes there are all the plot summaries of these stories really other children who are better off for being short (speaking not only targeted but - worst of which, don't turn all - subverted to the three-page entrant here as a taster, itdevil'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story)s evil ends. A call centre worker can't convince people heHe's out to prey on the level their fears and weaknesses and even in as with many foster children, their country – until someone starts riffing back to himself-esteem is very fragile. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violationsThis is no small-scale operation, but not as bad as either - the happenings at devil has set up a 'Burning Man'-styled festivaltraining complex on earth, in a very clever couple of talescomplete with an elevator to Hell. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>