I’m one of those readers who suffer from that “must finish before I put it down” syndrome. If I get into a story, I find it really hard to stop reading it. This means many nights where I’m reading until the birds start singing. And it means bleary eyes and a need to work on ways to stay awake during the day. The answer? Leave the novels to the weekend and indulge in short stories on weekdays. I’ve found some excellent short story collections this year and would love to share them with you.
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1. Crazy Salad: Some Things about Women by Nora Ephron
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The iconic Nora Ephron blessed us with this short story collection that both celebrates and pokes fun at the kinds of women that paved the way for how freely we live today.
Buy at: amazon.com
2. Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
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A collection of fantastical stories that take you to other worlds, but possess a biting wit and satire that keep them grounded and effortlessly enjoyable to read.
Buy at: amazon.com
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3. Runaway by Alice Munro
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If there is one thing Alice Munro knows how to write about, it is love in all of its various shapes and varieties. These stories explore both the sublime happiness and extreme sadness that love can evoke.
Buy at: amazon.com
4. What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
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This is a collection of stories that are all about metaphorical keys: the key to one’s heart, the key to a house, the key to a well-kept secret… All wonderfully told in their own imaginative way.
Buy at: amazon.com
5. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak
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A really funny set of stories that explores all of the different emotions that makes up a person’s definitive personality; from ambition to hope to fear to perhaps the biggest one of all, love.
Buy at: amazon.com
6. The Thing around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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A really intimate collection of stories in which the author looks to make deep and meaningful connections between America and Africa, and the parents and offspring that bridge the gap between the two continents.
Buy at: amazon.com
7. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
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A compilation of stories from the legendary writer Lucia Berlin. This collection expertly provides the reader with small but all-encompassing observations about the lives of middle class Americans, what makes them tick and what is important to them.
Buy at: amazon.com
8. Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
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Pick up this collection if you are planning to sleep with the light on for the next few evenings! A compilation of terrifying horror and ghost stories that will have you reaching for a teddy bear!
Buy at: amazon.com
9. Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
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If you like a touch of the bizarre in your literature, then this collection of slightly eerie but marvelous stories is definitely for you. Look out especially for a memorable tale about a group of schoolboys who stumble upon a scarecrow that looks exactly like a boy they used to tease.
Buy at: amazon.com
10. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
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This highly intellectual collection of stories is all about Indian culture and how it morphs and changes throughout the generations. Really poignant and interesting.
Buy at: amazon.com
11. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm Edited by Philip Pullman
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They may be over two centuries old at this point, but this collection of Grimm tales lovingly edited by the one and only Philip Pullman are still as fresh and innovative as the first time you heard them!
Buy at: amazon.com
12. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
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A powerful set of short stories about war, memory and the strong power that the art of storytelling has in all aspects of life.
Buy at: amazon.com
13. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
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A must read for any Harry Potter fan. A collection (cleverly translated by Hermione Granger) that boasts some of the most famous folk tales and myths in the wizarding world.
Buy at: amazon.com
14. Girl with Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace
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Though his novels are much more well-known, David Foster Wallace is also a short story expert, with this collection of tales that explore politics and mass culture in a way that only he can.
Buy at: amazon.com
15. Dubliners by James Joyce
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A vivid representation of what “dear Dirty Dublin” was like in the early twentieth century, told in a way that only the father of Irish literature, James Joyce, could!
Buy at: amazon.com
16. Drown by Junot Diaz
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A remarkable set of short stories from an author who feels rooted in two very different cultures. A display of urban communities in both the Dominican Republic and New Jersey.
Buy at: amazon.com
17. The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus
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A collection of stories from one the literature world’s leading postmodernists, a deconstruction of the world and everything in between, including humanity and all of our weird behavior.
Buy at: amazon.com
18. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
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A set of stories that really are universal, with author ZZ Packer looking through age, race and gender to be able to tap in to the essence of human beings and their shared experiences.
Buy at: amazon.com
19. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
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You may have read this collection in your high school days, but it’s worth revisiting now that you have some years behind you. A perfect example of the hypnotic Southern Gothic style.
Buy at: amazon.com
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