We've read a few Short Stories books...

Someone that loves short stories should consider getting a discussion or two going in this forum. Are there any new short stories books on the market? How about not-so-new?

I've always thought short fiction would lend itself very nicely to discussion.

I've been meaning to read this. Stories of Anton Chekhov . . .

http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Anton-Che ... 596&sr=1-1

Or one of those Best American Short Stories anthologies . . .

http://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Sho ... 645&sr=1-1

This one was good,

"The Boat", Nam Le

http://www.amazon.com/Boat-Rough-Cut-Nam/dp/030726808X

This one was interesting,

"Wild Nights", Joyce Carol Oates

http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Nights-Stori ... 487&sr=1-1

Geo wrote:

I've been meaning to read this. Stories of Anton Chekhov . . .

http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Anton-Che ... f=sr_1_1?i e=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247673596&sr=1-1


I read this collection about 5 years ago.

The stories were unlike anything I'd ever read in my life and sparked the fascination I have with Russian writers.

Tolstoy's short stories are great too.

I found a good collection of Russian short stories a while ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Stories-P ... 352&sr=1-1

Has anyone read any of Neil Gaiman's short stories?

Fragile Things

Smoke and Mirrors

I really liked Smoke and Mirrors, but my copy got donated to a soldier overseas so if we're going to discuss that I have a great excuse to get a new copy. *G*

That book of Russian stories looks good. I recently read a couple of Ivan Turgenev short stories and really liked them.

Other suggestions: Short stories by Updike or Joyce Carol Oates. Suzanne's suggestion for "Wild Nights" looks good. If we're getting close to Halloween for this proposed reading period, maybe Edith Wharton's ghost stories . . .

I've been reading a pretty good one. "American Gothic Tales", edited and with an introduction by Joyce Carol Oates. Authors include: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edith Wharton, Shirley Jackson, William Faulkner, and a few of my favs, Sylvia Plath, E.L. Doctorow and Don Delillo. There are about 40 stories in this collection.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Gothic-T ... 0452274893

I am currently taking a literature class, just read "Hills Like White Elephants", Hemingway. Have to say, it has sparked a great discussion. Check it out, would love to know what you guys think about it. Question asked by professor, who do you think is older, the "man" or the "girl". My opinion on this question has been different from everyone else in the class. Darn those 19 year olds!

Another one, "The Wall", Jean Paul Sartre.

http://www.amazon.com/Wall-New-Directio ... 0811201902

What can I say, love short stories.

Sartre became a favorite of mine after reading his play, "No Exit".

I have been intermittently reading from Jorge Luis Borges' Collected Fictions and it's fantastic. It's kind of a romp through the labyrinth. If anyone is reading House of Leaves right now, and is enjoying it, I recommend reading a few of these stories. Perhaps from The Garden of Forking Paths.

My favorite short story anthology that comes out every year is "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror" edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. I have run across many amazing writers through these works. I have the last ten years worth of these on my shelf, they usually come out with a new one around this time of year so I'm getting anxious.

www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=years+best+fantasy+and+horror

So does anyone want to choose a couple to start with?

William Trevor (Irish) is one of the best contemporary writers of short stories in English. I have been reading his "The Collected Short Stories" published in 1993. The book contains 90 stories in close to 1300 pages. My favorite story, so far, in this collection is "The Ballroom of Romance", which tells about a woman in her mid thirties that rides a bicycle for several hours every Saturday evening to go to a ballroom dance. She does it religiously every weekend because she knows that those dances are her only chance to find a man to share her life with.

Guy de Maupassant (French, early XX century) also has several excellent collections of short stories. One of my favorite short stories by Maupassant is named "The Convert". It's about an atheist carpenter that is forced by the local priest to go to mass every Sunday. If the carpenter does not follow the priest's indications, the priest will give a gigantic contract that includes the chorus renovation and the church benches replacement to a devout carpenter from the neighbor town.

justareader

I am a short story nut also but it depends on what they are about.

I am more apt to pick up a collection of stories from someone I have never heard of before then per say a movie star or someone famous like that.

I love short stories about lives I may never get a glimpse into otherwise.

Ok, someone please tell me if that is odd. LOL

Hi, justareader. I completly agree with you about William Trevor as a short story writer. Also good as a novelist, though I didn't think his latest, The Story of Lucy Gault was his best. Unfortunately, I don't own any of the two or three collections of his that I've read and can't recall the title of a favorite story right now.

We will be starting a discussion on a book of short stories for March and April.

Nikolai Gogol's "The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories"

I hope you will all check it out!



I have never read anything by this author, thanks for the tip justareader and DWill