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Best Short Stories: Advanced
The Best Series is a fresh and innovative way to introduce and study genre-specific literature in your classroom. Students can explore and gain appreciation for exceptional and diverse writings in nonfiction, poetry, plays, short stories, and selections from novels. This enriching series strengthens students' reading and writing skills and literary techniques.
Hardcover
First published April 1, 1990
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November 3, 2019
Yet another one of my many, many rescued books. Who knows where I found it. This is a textbook in which the stories are(thus far) pretty brief and themselves take a back seat relative to the number of "teaching/testing" pages. I'm not much interested in those, though they do include a sort of trivia test for every story just to see how much attention the reader is paying. Getting any of these wrong, just after reading the/a story lets you know that you're NOT paying enough attention, though some of the Q's and A's have dubious accuracy in the sense that there can be a reasonable debate between two answers as to which is the correct one. Anyhoo ...
1 - The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield. Read before? Maybe a LONG time ago.
2 - A Worn Path by Eudora Welty. Great descriptive prose. Great mood.
3 - A Summer's Reading by Bernard Malamud. More excellence. NYC neighborhood style. Reninds a bit of Grace Paley.
4 - My Oedipus Complex by Frank O'Connor. Third read, I do believe. Short and funny.
5 - Everyday Use by Alice Walker. Have only read "The Color Purple" and now this story. Another tale about a dignified older country black woman. Dee = Diana Ross ...
6 - The Lagoon by Joseph Conrad. JC's the best. This story is reminiscent in its somber-yet-colorful jungle-y writing style of Conrad's descriptions at the end of "Youth" and in "The Secret Sharer." All set in SE Asia.
7 - The Guest by Albert Camus - Now into my third reading of this classic. As with all the stories in this collection so far, the physical reality/environment descriptive passages are vital, well executed and vivid.
8 - A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. MAYBE read a long time ago. A great story. Heartstrings do get tugged.
9 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe. I read a big Poe collection not long ago, but I don't think that this was in it. This is not top-notch Poe. Do YOU believe the guy didn't realize he'd walled up the cat too? I didn't.
10 - A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner. Second or third read of this Southern Gothic tale ... Good WF stuff, though it strains credulity. Guy goes into the house and is not seen leaving it or departing town. House begins to stink, and NOBODY investigates? Hmmm ...
11 - The Kugelmass Episode by Woody Allen. Supposedly funny sci-fi from The Woodman. Not really all that. This and the Poe story are the two lesser efforts so far.
12 - Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin. Second read of this semi-long short story, the longest of this collection so far. In depth and straightforward ... mournful.
13 - Revelation by Flannery O'Connor. Yet another re-read of a great story. Ms. O'C. is a must read for fans of Southern Gothic lit. Her sense of humor and absurdity is the best.
1 - The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield. Read before? Maybe a LONG time ago.
2 - A Worn Path by Eudora Welty. Great descriptive prose. Great mood.
3 - A Summer's Reading by Bernard Malamud. More excellence. NYC neighborhood style. Reninds a bit of Grace Paley.
4 - My Oedipus Complex by Frank O'Connor. Third read, I do believe. Short and funny.
5 - Everyday Use by Alice Walker. Have only read "The Color Purple" and now this story. Another tale about a dignified older country black woman. Dee = Diana Ross ...
6 - The Lagoon by Joseph Conrad. JC's the best. This story is reminiscent in its somber-yet-colorful jungle-y writing style of Conrad's descriptions at the end of "Youth" and in "The Secret Sharer." All set in SE Asia.
7 - The Guest by Albert Camus - Now into my third reading of this classic. As with all the stories in this collection so far, the physical reality/environment descriptive passages are vital, well executed and vivid.
8 - A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. MAYBE read a long time ago. A great story. Heartstrings do get tugged.
9 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe. I read a big Poe collection not long ago, but I don't think that this was in it. This is not top-notch Poe. Do YOU believe the guy didn't realize he'd walled up the cat too? I didn't.
10 - A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner. Second or third read of this Southern Gothic tale ... Good WF stuff, though it strains credulity. Guy goes into the house and is not seen leaving it or departing town. House begins to stink, and NOBODY investigates? Hmmm ...
11 - The Kugelmass Episode by Woody Allen. Supposedly funny sci-fi from The Woodman. Not really all that. This and the Poe story are the two lesser efforts so far.
12 - Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin. Second read of this semi-long short story, the longest of this collection so far. In depth and straightforward ... mournful.
13 - Revelation by Flannery O'Connor. Yet another re-read of a great story. Ms. O'C. is a must read for fans of Southern Gothic lit. Her sense of humor and absurdity is the best.
Displaying 1 of 1 review