****What We Are Reading - Short Stories & Novellas

Like shorter reads? Share with us your current short story and novella reading.

I'm going to be starting Robert Shearman's Tiny Deaths. I enjoy having a short story collection on the go, to dip into a few times through the week. I've been looking forward to reading this since having a brief encounter with Rob here on LT over a couple of books that we share in our libraries.

I've tentatively started Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman. I say tentatively not because it's bad (because it's not, it's amazing) but because I feel as if I'm already reading a million other books :P

I've also been dipping into Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum, one of my SantaThing books!

I'm reading Mrs. Somebody Somebody by Tracy Winn, which is really great so far.

I've just finished the short story collection No one Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July. It was ok, but some of the stories were so short that they were over before I really got into them. The second story the Swim Team was my favourite.

I'm reading The Monster Club by R. Chetwynd-Hayes. It's a collection of stories told by monsters in a London nightclub about how they came to be. I know how it sounds but the author was like the Stephen King of his day, minus the billions of dollars. The tone is very macabre,original and somewhat campy.

>6 mstrust:, The Monster Club sounds interesting!

I just started The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard.
--BJ

I'm reading The Word Book, a collection of short stories by the Japanese author Kanai Mieko, which I'm planning to review for issue 4 of Belletrista.

I've just discovered author Kelly Link through a short story group. We've read "The Specialist's Hat" and I'll be looking into more from her. This story has a sinister feel that reminded me of some of Shirley Jackson's writing.

This month I'm reading Coming Up Roses by Sarah Laing, her debut short story collection.

I've read a few short story collections at the end of last year but I think only one so far this year, an anthology called Dublin Noir, edited by Ken Bruen. Rather than choosing Irish writers, Bruen chose quite a few US crime writers who submitted original stories - some from an Irish viewpoint, some from the point of view of visiting tourists. A lot of the contributors are writers I've met at crime fiction conventions - I've read books by some like Gary Phillips and Laura Lippman before, and others are writers whose novels have been in my TBR shelves/boxes for some time. Some are quite established like Lippman, others are less well-known.

I've been meaning to read this for ages and found it quite interesting, one of my reading aims for this year is to read one of these Noir anthologies from the publisher Akashic a month.

I've now started on San Francisco Noir

I've read two collections of short stories in the past week, both by Stefan Zweig: Amok and Other Stories and Wondrak and Other Stories.

I finished up The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes last week and thought most of the stories were very clever. They are all connected to death in some way, but not in a morbid way.

Just finished Missing Kissinger by Etgar Keret, a collection of lots of very very short stories. Most of them are very odd, about weird things and often with ominous undertones or death lurking, which may be something to do with the author being from Israel.

#15 - I really like Keret's writing, I hope you try some of his other work. I also like some of the movies he's worked on (mostly alongside his wife, Shira Geffen, who is an actress/director) such as Total Love and Jellyfish.

I'm going to read a novella next - Chess Story by Stefan Zweig. it will be my first Zweig and he comes recommended by many LTers including kidzdoc & kiwidoc.

I just saw "Jellyfish" two weeks ago and *loved* it. In fact, I watched it twice because I wanted a friend to see it as well.

I second trying Keret's other work as well.

At the moment I have two books of short stories on the currently reading list
A selection from The Book of the Thousand and One Nights translated by Richard Burton
and A Cat, a Man and Two women by Junichiro Tanizaki (translated by Paul McCarthy).

One of my plans for this year is to try and read one of Akashic's Noir anthologies a month - most of these are US cities, and the New York City ones are done by borough - 3 Brooklyn, 2 Manhattan, one each for the Bronx and Queens, and another for Wall Street. There are also some outside the US including Toronto, Dublin, London, Havana and Trinidad.

In January I read Dublin Noir edited by Ken Bruen and I've just finished reading San Francisco Noir edited by Peter Maravelis.

Both of these are original collections, though Akashic is also publishing anthologies of classic noir which will presumably include more stories that appear elsewhere. They take quite different approaches. Ken Bruen lives in Galway and spends a lot of time in the US, and has set most of his own work in Galway, London and the US. There are some Irish writers in Dublin Noir but the subtitle is The Celtic Tiger vs the Ugly American, and many of the contributors are crime writers from the US - some write about Americans visiting Dublin.

The writers in San Francisco Noir live in and around the city and set their work there. Each story says at the beginning which neighbourhood it's set in, and several of the stories include quite a lot of descriptions of the neighbourhood - one story is about the nastiness behind the gentrification of the Mission district.

I'm reading Rob Shearman's love songs for the shy and cynical a short story collection that borders on the surreal.

Just finished Follow Me by Paul Griner, an author few people have heard of, probably. The book was good. Read it if you can find a copy. I posted its only review. :)

For my TIOLI challenge, I'm now reading The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit by LT author Michael Zadoorian. I'm prepared to like this book as I've enjoyed two novels I've read in the past by this same author.

I've started the first story in the London Noir anthology.

Currently reading (amongst other things) Ox Tales: Earth - a collection of stories by lots of different authors for Oxfam...

I finished reading London Noir a couple of days ago. Like San Francisco Noir, each story mentions the area it's set in, and there's quite a range, though mostly fairly central. One of the creepiest and most unpleasant stories is set in a park a couple of miles from me that we sometimes go to with the kids - they have deer and the character does something horrible to the deer (I didn't like that one much). There are some more interesting pieces. I think each editor of these anthologies shows that they have a very different view of what noir is. Now I am thinking where to visit in April with these collections.

Last night I reread a collection of short stories by Helen Simpson, Constitutional. I read it a few months ago and was thinking about attempting a review before I finally return the book to the library. It's a very short book, only 133 pages, so a quick read. Simpson's characters in this collection are mostly about my age (40) women and men, having some sort of midlife crisis, finding that their way of assessing what goes on around them changes. I liked the title story about pregnancy, and a rather disturbing piece about a woman who knows far too many people who are suddenly ill with/dying of cancer.

I've now started reading Ali Smith, The First Person and other stories.

I just finished The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit by LT author Michael Zadoorian and posted my review here.

I've posted a little review of Constitutional.

I've just started The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche.

I've just opened Good Evening Mrs. Craven - it's one of my Persephone reprints.

#29: I just got a copy of that one last week. I am glad to know it is a good one!

I'm reading Opportunity by Charlotte Grimshaw, it's a series of slightly interlinked stories and it won the New Zealand Best Fiction Award in 2008.

I'm reading Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood for three groups/challenges:
the 1010, the 1010 Atwood read and TIOLI.

I'll be reading Miss or Mrs? by Wilkie Collins for the 1010, the Monthly author read and TIOLI.

I love feeding many birds with one hand!

I read a lot of novellas for the March is Read a Novella Month theme read, mostly ones that have been on the TBR for way too long: Burning Secret by Stefan Zweigh, Weights and Measures by Joseph Roth, Chateau d'Argol by Julien Gracq, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy, as well as How to Escape from a Leper Colony, a collection of stories and a novella by Tiphane Yanique.

I love, love, love short stories. Now I'm enthralled by the writing of Israeli author Savyon Liebrecht in her book A Good Place for the Night. A previous book of short stories, Apples From the Desert is among my very favorite books of short stories so I'm thrilled to be reading her work again.

I've started In Transit: 20 stories by Mavia Gallant.

I love Mavis Gallant but don't have that collection -- will have to lok for it.

I love Laurie Colwin's stories. Discovered them by accident; wouldn't want to be without them. Try The Lone Pilgrim, Passion and Affect or Another Marvellous Thing.

I'm reading Bluebeard's Egg by Margaret Atwood.

I've also just started Bluebeard's Egg by Atwood!

I just finished and reviewed In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. Quite good.

I just started Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It. It was an impulse grab from the new books shelf at the library. The first story is great!

I'm just starting the first book of The Midnighters

My short story reads have been jumping from author to author. I've just read Faulkner's A Rose for Emily and I'm reading a Sherlock Holmes now, The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.

I'm reading Horacio Quiroga - Cuentos, Vol. I, the first of two books which feature all of the Uruguayan author's short stories. I'm currently in the section with Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte (Tales of Love, Madness and Death).

>41 porch_reader:: Just the title alone makes me want to read that!

I'm about to start Unaccustomed Earth. It'll be the first Lahiri book I've read.

Chatterbox, I too love Colwin's short stories. I once read The Lone Pilgrim (the story, not the whole book) out loud to my mother, just because I thought it so beautiful.

I just started Mollie Panter-Downes book of short stories, Good Evening, Mrs. Craven, for the April TIOLI challenge. I am hoping I will like it better than Cheating at Canasta.

None of my Touchstones wants to work!

I'm halfway through A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor, which is excellent so far.

I've started to read The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories by Susanna Clarke.

#49: That's a good one! I hope you enjoy it, calm.

I've just read a short story from Agatha Christie that I'd never heard of before-"The Incident of the Dog's Ball". It was in The Strand Magazine and says it was reprinted from Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks.

#49 and #50 - I just bought that in a bargain bookshop recently - I'm glad to hear it's good.

I'm rereading one of Joan Aiken's collections of short stories for children, All But a Few - lots of quirky stories about magical happenings.

#49,50,52 Ooh yes, I enjoyed that very much too - more, in fact, than Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell..

I've just started The Hour of the Star, a novella by Clarice Lispector.

I'll be reading the short story collection The Man who fell into a puddle by Igal Sarna next.

Today I finished News from Home, a collection of short stories by the Nigerian author Sefi Atta, and the outstanding novella The Hour of the Star by the late Brasilian author Clarice Lispector.

I contributed a review of a short story to Short Story Month on the Next Read blog - see here.

I'm reading Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat and it's amazing. Highly recommended. I've never read anything by her, but I have Breath, Eyes, Memory on my shelf and I'm hoping it's as good as this.

I'm reading Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter-Downes, her Peacetime stories, another Persephone books anthology.

I'm reading Los cachorros (The Cubs) by Mario Vargas Llosa. I've never been too into him, I've enjoyed his books always, but this is the only one I've really felt. I'm glad to have found a copy of it to re-read five or six years after reading it for the first time.

Wow, how did we let this thread drop for nearly 3 months? Thanks for reviviving it.

A few weeks ago I read St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell, 10 beautifully written stories about teenagers.

Most recently, I've read Suzannah Dunn, Tenterhooks - several of the stories in this are about teenage girls as well.

I've just finished my last summer read, Cape Cod Stories, which is a collection of shorts, essays and poetry by Melville, Poe, Sylvia Plath, Vonnegut and more. It's a real mix of the old whaling stories and modern travel essays.