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[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
[[Category:Short Stories|*]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edgar Allan Poe Guadalupe Nettel and Gris GrimlyRosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=Tales The Accidentals|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of Death the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and Dementiacharming in its gentle portrayal of nature and human relationships. Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her stories structured by a wisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the world.|isbn=1804271470}}{{Frontpage|author=Mariana Enriquez|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=5
|genre=Graphic NovelsShort Stories|summary=Wow! What a wonderful combinationMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: Edgar Allan Poe, master her settings include an abandoned field full of the gothic horror short storydisused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and Gris Grimly, outstanding illustrator, known for his [[a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman and Gris Grimly|work with Neil Gaiman]]. Poe's ''Tales circumstances of Death and Dementia'' her characters are shown off at their very best in this editionso plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386474</amazonuk>1803511230
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=William BedfordFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=None of the Cadillacs was PinkWhite Nights|rating=45
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I chose this book because of its superb title – As always in Dostoyevsky, the last and best memoir in a collection of sixteen storiescharacter work is sublime. These Humberside and Lincolnshire stories have One is never left wondering what a background beat of Fifties' music that sets them firmly in an exciting, disturbing time for young people everywhere, not least for the author character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and his friends, as old ways of living made way for new along the East Coast of Englandtemperaments with remarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529445</amazonuk>0241619785
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
{{newreview|author=Clive Cussler (editor) |title=Thriller 2: Stories You Just CanI't Put Down|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=If ve heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you enjoy thrillers or short stories then you might find this book a treat're eighteen. If you enjoy them both then it's Well, I must confess that there have been more than a treasure trovefew decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what'Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put Downs advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it' s all getting away from me. Some of it is edited by best-selling author [[:Category:Clive Cussler|Clive Cussler]] (although none of his work is included) and includes work by some authors who are the top of their gamefrankly - quite frightening. There are twenty three stories in allOf course, each about twenty pages long I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're perfect for those moments when you just want to dip into something short talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and satisfyingwho could deliver information in a way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303209</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Will Eisner B0CDZRGT1M|title=Minor MiraclesSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsShort Stories|summary=This short story collection starts with two appetisers before getting on with two main courses''Got a minute to be amused, but as with the best meals even the smallest dishes can have the most depth. We start with the entire life cycle - riseentertained, fall, rise, fall - of a hobo feeding pigeons in the park. Obviously he hasnor challenged?'''t been doing that all his years - he's been keeping his dignity intact, with a huge amount of chutzpah and These 100 stories are super short. None is morethan 300 words. Next, You can read one in a smart Alec defeats the older kids on the stoop with a bit of canny street wisdomflash.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393328147</amazonuk>}}''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.''
{{newreview|author=Agnes Owens |title=The Complete Novellas|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Who Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is Agnes Owenstold in fewer than three hundred words? A Scottish author who portrays working class life Or do you try to draw out themes from all the nineteen forties and fifties. Now an octogenarian, apparently Agnes Owens started writing at the age flash fictions in a book of 58. Here are five previously published stories collected into one new edition, a companion volume to her short stories, published in 2008. them? I don't think youknow! 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 three hundred word limit. That'll be disappointeds about a single page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971373</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kazuo Ishiguro Rachel Harrison|title=Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall Bad Dolls|rating=3.54
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A jobbing guitarist from an Eastern European country, playing in Venice, is given a most singular gig by an ageing, passing croonerIt's been some time since I've read any horror. An old friend of I had a couple at loggerheads stays in their flatof misspent teen years reading Stephen King, but enters borrowing the books from a nightmare world boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of comedythe vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, doing greater and greater wrongs I didn't have to cover his first transgression. read it during daylight hours only! A younger couple running But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, and that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a cafe employ breakup, trying a friend to help outnew dieting app, despite his wish going to hide in the hills a hen party and compose new songs for his not-very illustrious careera coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057124498X</amazonuk>1803363932
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aleksandar Hemon B0CCCVRSGX|title=Love and ObstaclesStories 2|author=Richard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=We start with the young narrator away This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. There are thirteen in all and I took something from home, and in Africa, due to his diplomat fathereach of them. HeThere isn's left behind home, t a potential girlfriend, and more, but finds company with an older, chancer character and his junkie girlfriend, and their pot, drinks and 70s rock. Closer single one that doesn't deserve to his roots, but still a young man abroad, be among the second story sees him travelling across his homeland on an errand - to deliver payment for others or brings down the biggest chest freezer his father could findoverall quality. But poems, losing his virginity, keeping his moneyIt can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to talk about and various other fantasies might just put I think they give a cooler on that unusual task..general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330464434</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739593901
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles Stross B09XZMCDVF|title=WirelessStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=In his introduction, Stross explains that one ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of the reasons night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he likes writing shorts stories is because they are the ideal format tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in which time to focus on correct an iconic quote; a particular concept of volunteer teacher proves the future and play ideal person to have around with it. It doesn't matter so much if in a lawless village; the idea doesn't ultimately work because neither the reader nor new boy on the author has invested in it the way they would in a novel. ''Wireless'' then, pub football team is something of an experiment. Stross employs many different stylesvery useful with his feet, tackles many different subjects and is very skilful at creating mood. His stories are a strange blend of the technical and the archaic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497711</amazonuk>}}awfully familiar…''
{{newreview|author=Oxfam|title=Ox-Tales: Air|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Four books This collection of thirteen short stories each taking (rather loosely on occasions) as by Richard F Walker has a theme one of lot to offer the eclectic reader. Tying them together is the elements: [[Ox-Tales: Earth by Oxfam|Earth]], [[Ox-Tales: Fire by Oxfam|Fire]]idea that remarkable and strange, [[Ox-Tales: Water by Oxfam|Water]]even miraculous, things can happen to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this book ''Air'', sold in aid little treasury of Oxfam but not about Oxfamshort fiction is never boring and you's work. The writers, many household names, have given their work for free and at least 50p from the sale of each new book goes to Oxfam. Thatre never quite sure what's not entirely the point though, is it? You want to know if the book is worth buyingcoming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682614</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Oxfam 1737030942|title=Ox-Tales: EarthBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating=3.54|genre=Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=Published in aid of Oxfam workSometimes, Ox-Tales comprise of four books featuring original stories donated to the project by you deserve a variety of writers. The framework for the books is provided by the four elements of the classical philosophy. Each collection starts with Vikram Sethtreat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's elemental poem and ends with a short article highlighting Oxfam's work in 'Bag O'Goodies''. I first encountered his writing about a key area (year ago, when I read his [[Ox-Tales: Fire Cape Henry House by OxfamJolly Walker Bittick|fireCape Henry House]] – conflict and war, [[Oxa rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their partying. Right now, I didn't want a full-Tales: Water by Oxfam|water]] – sanitation length novel, so I turned to this anthology of verse and clean water, earth – agriculture short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and air – climate change)so have his characters. Well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682584</amazonuk>most of them!
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Irvine Welsh 1529418100|title=Reheated CabbageBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Irvine WelshI's choice of title for this collection m not usually a fan of short stories may serve - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to warn some unwary readers pick it up again - but I am a fan of its unpalatable nature. To Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the uninitiated, its stream of unrestrained swearing, drug taking, sex temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and casual violence could come as a shockI'm rather glad that I didn't even try. His fans though For those new to the series, there's an excellent introduction that will no doubt lap it uptell you all you need to know about who's who and the background to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224080555</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Oxfam Brooke Adams|rating=3|titlegenre=Women's Fiction|summary=OxThirty-one-Talesyear 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's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: Fireyou can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=But Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Published ''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in aid lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of Oxfam workcarrion crows or, more to the point, Ox-Tales comprise of four books featuring original stories donated about to discover the project by a variety real world of writersbus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''
You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The framework for Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the books is provided Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the four elements Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of the classical philosophyFormer Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Each collection starts with Vikram Seth Well 's elemental poem and ends with a short article highlighting Oxfamsettled's work in a key area (fire – conflict rather overstates the situation and wartheir dog, Beagle, water – sanitation and clean waterhas no intention of slowing down any time soon, earth – agriculture despite being sixteen and air – climate change)deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682592</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick JacksonB08CHJLNBS|title=Bears of EnglandCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3.5|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=As you knowHe's Charles Devereaux, England has had thirty-eight and a chequered history when it comes to her bearspartner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. From the days when we only knew them as horrors making bumping noises - among many others She's Emilia, twenty- nine, librarian and archivist in the nightheritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, we have learnt to something a little deeper. Charles is moreof a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, and used them morebut, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. Therefore we have They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this short little bookwoman 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 Charles's superficiality, detailing some of the more remarkable instances of Anglowhy does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-bear relationsstarter, from the days isn't it?}}{{Frontpage|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales of bear-baitingfaery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to them being shot at when they escaped be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the circusverge of marrying, to when they were employed in subaquatic labour and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the days before SCUBA gear.theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person.We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571242405</amazonuk>1789091500
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul R Spiring (Editor)Stibbe_Xmas|title=Aside Arthur Conan Doyle: Twenty Original Tales By Bertram Fletcher RobinsonAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=The shortlived Bertram Fletcher Robinson is sadly little more than Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a footnote in British literaturetime it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. His fame rests largely on Nowadays it's all having contributed tomake sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and helped get too friendly with it to inspirewant to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a couple lot of Sherlock Holmes stories – plump people who can hire red suits andbeards, if it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you believe write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the conspiracy theoristsmakers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, having been bumped off by Conan Doyle for threatening to claim authorship did they even try and sell them any other time of one the year?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=A Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of them the simplicity, naivety and denounce Doyle sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a fraud. (Don't go there)feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312527</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle 1911115847|title=Graphic Classics, Volume 17: Science Fiction ClassicsNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic NovelsLiterary Fiction|summary=So, an introduction''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The Graphic Classics collection is a series whereby of stories tell of the best lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in genre fiction, from sources both highly likely and remarkably unexpectedaround Lagos, is collected and dressed up for us in graphic novel formNigeria. This seventeenth editionNigeria, a belated best-of sci-fi volumein this collection, is their first foray into full colour, imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and is headlined by people are killed for nothing more than a version of The War of the Worldswrong look. The supporting material ranges from Kan writes with a one-page strip vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to thirty-page storiesachieve a glimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0978791975</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edgar Allen Poe, Various, Dan Whitehead (Editor) 1529014484|title=Eye Classics: Nevermore - A Graphic Novel Anthology of Edgar Allan Poe's Short StoriesExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=45|genre=Graphic Novels Science Fiction|summary=So, if I were to mention someone who was born 200 Over the past twenty-eight years ago this season, and who changed the world with their writingTed Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, who would these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you think of first? Charles Darwin, probably. But those of are a slightly different bent might just science fiction fan it is likely that you have mentioned someone else - someone at already come across some of the forefront of all things arcane, horrific and thrilling when it comes to fictionwork by Ted Chiang. Someone who lost his birth and foster mother both If you haven't then take this opportunity to tuberculosis before he was ever twentydo so now. Someone who had most unusual circumstances surrounding his death, to best Agatha Christie vanishing for a while, and most of the detectives in the fiction he helped inspire. Someone called Edgar Allan PoeTrust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955285682</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary-Ann Constantine1794467440|title=The BreathingWatchwords |author=Philip Neal
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Mary-Ann Constantine's book is a bit like a piece of embroidery: painstakingly slow, sewn with different threads, but the result is a beautiful picture by an accomplished hand. It is a book This satisfying collection of short stories, very different and quite ambiguous, describing has a provenance at least as beguiling as the lives provenance of people - and an elephant - of a certain location (or a few) in Walesthe antique watches that inspired it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954088182</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Brian Wood Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and Becky Cloonan |title=Demo: vhad been told was like a 1930s Cartier. 1|rating=5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=It's not every young disaffected teenager Instead of mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that will respond to the withdrawal of her medication so explosivelyresembled it. ItAnd that's not every young disaffected teenager that runs through empty landscapes because she is too scared how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to speak to anyone – for quite the reasons we see hereAntique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. Not every family patches itself back together over The eBay purchase was a funeral in fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the fashion repairer of watches was not and the third story gives usseed of an idea for a book was born. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184576921X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jay McInerney1529006031|title=The Last Bachelor Return to Wonderland|author=Various Authors
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a 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 enjoyed didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories by Jay McInerney as if they were that come at the core from a box tangent, that show the benefits of expensive, dark chocolates. Some centres were nut hard, while the rich ganache in others left a bittersweet aftertasteoblique glance. The seven deadly sins provided distinctive tastes of American I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it'successs the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, as I nibbled my way through twelve sophisticated storiesfor obvious reasons). Mmm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074759984X</amazonuk> For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lee Child (Editor)1846974658|title=Killer YearThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=This collection of seventeen short stories in On my travels around the crime genre is by a group of newworld, young American writers who I have all been mentored by more established writers such as Lee Child, Joe R Lansdale and Ken Bruen. Although it is a little uneven in quality it does represent an effort tendency to promote the work of younger writers end up in a world where it can be hard to make a breakany bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-through into mainstream publishing. The short story hand escapist tales as the next person, what I'm really looking for is a specialised medium and the crime genre short story has two prejudices 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. If I ever get to fight - if you donBurma, I won't read short stories you are even less likely need to read short stories of a particular genre. But whereas mainstream fiction might have its diehard factionshunt, I feel the crime aficionado may well be less uptight and crime novel lovers might can read this collection in the hope of finding the next Harlan Coben or Laura Lippmanbefore I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>077830275X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania HershmanB077969HN8|title=The White RoadAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A female café owner situated Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in a very strange place breaks the mundane routine ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a very strange acttwist of surrealism''. A female loses sight I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of her lifeeither, but I's goals due ve come to having a husband two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too'' black and children, the surrealism is gentle and finds perhaps best described as a strange way twist or flick of reconnecting with her interestsreality when you were least expecting it. And females on first dates do strange things – Your comfort zones are going to levers be invaded in zero-G, and with potterythe nicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844714756</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joyce Carol Oates9386897504|title=The Museum Tales of Doctor MosesLove and Disability|author=Laura Solomon|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=In I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a one-sentence rush, we get an entire short story, starring various joggers, that proves above all else that words can killwhich holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more. It's a moral bluntly There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put, down and as an opener to the volume puts us instantly on forget after you've read a nervous edgecouple of pieces. We might not be in for the happiest I've recently reada couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, we think, before turning so I was intrigued to the second story, which is called Suicide Watchsee what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847245595</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gardner Dozois (Editor), Jack Dann (Editor)1986586898|title=Dark AlchemyGoing To The Last: Magical Tales from Masters of Modern FantasyShort Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I'm always In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in two minds about short story collectionshis pocket - and his wife. On In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the one hand it's a bit problem of a risk – there could be one whether or two really good stories and a load not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of rubbish. ButH'', the great thing about them story of Foinavon. H is they can introduce you depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to writers you might never have read otherwiseplease people. While you probably wouldn't be prepared After changing hands on various occasions he came to invest time the yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and money into considered a book you aren't sure you'll likeno-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, spending half an hour or so reading a short story won't leave you feeling too robbed if you don't enjoy itpile-up occurred at the 23rd fence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747589542< Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/amazonuk>1.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tobias Wolff9386897296|title=Our Story BeginsHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating=43.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Tobias WolffA little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's short stories offer few easy solutionsDeal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). His troubled characters face choices they Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course, there are all the other children who are illnot only targeted but -equipped worst of all - subverted to makethe devil's evil ends. You do not go He's out to Wolff for a satisfyingprey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, tidy taletheir self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, neatly wrappedeither - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, or for complete with an entertaining twistelevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597278</amazonuk>
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{{newreview|author=Kay Green|title=Jung's People|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=These short stories offer fantasy, sci-fi, historical and contemporary angles on human personality. Kay Green used Jung's writing on dreams to delve into her own subconscious and has come up with an eclectic mix of stories. A crisp commentator's voice observes life through different lenses and perspectives. I often felt that I was trapped in a nest of boxes with the characters, not quite sure which way was out. My interest hooked, I delved into the fifteen stories and enjoyed their surprising twists and multiple layers as characters discover their tragic destiny within whatever happens to be the chance setting of their lives. I'll just give you a flavour of three of them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190645101X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Donald Ray Pollock|title=Knockemstiff|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Welcome to Knockemstiff, a quiet little town in Ohio, USA. Wait, I take it back. You are not welcome. Strangers do not come to Knockemstiff. Unless you are lost of course, like that Californian photographer woman, who took random pictures and could not believe the town was for real: so poor, so lost, so abandoned. Come to think of it, the people of Knockemstiff would be more than happy to leave the place themselves. It is just that they never have the chance, or never quite make it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846551560</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kurt Vonnegut |title=Armageddon in Retrospect |rating=2.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I have been a fan of Kurt Vonnegut since the early 1970s. I still have the old paperbacks – ''Mother Night'', ''Cat's Cradle'', ''Slaughterhouse 5''. There was something about his style, and especially about the things he had to say, that was refreshing and new. But he began Move to go off the boil, or fell out of style, and I stopped reading his books around about the time I stopped buying Crosby, Stills [[Newest Spirituality and Nash LPs. For me, ''Breakfast of Champions'' was both the last decent book he wrote, and the first of the stream of below-par books that followed. I just checked my bookcase – ''Slapstick'' in 1976 was the last Vonnegut book I bought, and the ancient bookmark stuffed midway through shows I never managed to finish it. And I had problems trying to finish his 'new' collection, too.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085395</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gerard Woodward |title=Caravan Thieves |rating=3|genre=Short Stories|summary=Gerard Woodward is a much short-listed novelist & poet: the Whitbread First Novel Award (2001), Man Booker Prize (2004), T S Eliot Prize (2005). If it hasn't been already, I can well see this collection being equally short-listed for whatever the 'short-story' equivalent is. (Is there even a major prize for short stories?)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701177608</amazonuk>}}Religion Reviews]]