The absolute best book of short stories you have read.

[Owen]

By the same author or multiple authors.

[Greg]

I don't know if it is the best one I've ever read, but the new Paris Review collection is up there.

Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story

[Christy]

Tough one. Some possibilities:

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - because James Tiptree, Jr. is fantastic.
You Know When the Men Are Gone - linked stories about life on a Texas military base, specifically about those left behind.
Sorry Please Thank You: Stories - I don't love every story in this collection equally, but some of them are heartbreakingly beautiful.
The Universe in Miniature in Miniature
Cataclysm Baby - this is maybe more a novella that comes in smaller narrative chunks as I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading these stories outside of their larger context, but it's great.
Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories - gorgeous
The Night in Question - I'm including this one not because of the entire collection but because the collection includes "Bullet to the Brain," one of my favorite short stories ever.

My vote for best goes to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, though, if you're willing to count this as a collection of short stories. It's a novel/memoir told through connected short stories/essays. However you define it, it's great.

[Kathy (Kindle-aholic)]

Multiple Authors:

If you like Urban Fantasy - is a good one.

Young Adult paranormal -

[peg]

'Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri

"Different Seasons" by Stephen King - This collection includes "The Shawshank redemption" as well as other non-horror stories. King's writing is amazing even when he is not writing horror.

"Gimple the Fool and Other Stories" by I B Singer

I always buy "The Best Short Stories of 2012" (or whatever year it is). I haven't read 2012 yet but the stories are good in this series and sometimes I find great authors that I otherwise would not have discovered.

The New Yorker magazine is also a great source for short stories and that publication is issued weekly.

I am currently reading "Astray" by Emma Donahue. Her stories are historically based. I love it so far.

[scherzo♫]

+1 for Different Seasons

Also Add a Dash of Pity: And Other Short Stories by Peter Ustinov


ETA: The Lottery and Other Stories

[peg]

"Birds of America" by Lorrie Moore is also very good.

"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote is great for this time of year. It includes stories in addition to the story other than the one named in the title.

"Full Dark,No Stars" and "Everything's Eventual" by Stephen King are great if you enjoy psychological thrillers without the supernatural element King employs in his novels.

[Elena]

Oh, I 100% second The Things They Carried. That book is a life-changer.

Otherwise, my top collections are:
Things that Fall from the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier (lots of slipstream/surrealism, with my favorite short story "These Hands")
The Poison Eaters: and Other Stories by Holly Black (fantasy, often dark)
Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link (fantasy, with my other favorite short story "Magic for Beginners")

[Shawna]

I love all the Stephanie plum books by Janet Evanchavitch. Fast reads and hysterical!!!! Excuse me if I misspelled her last name

[Karen]

Welcome to the Monkey House, and Self-Help are two of my favorites but pretty much all the 4 and 5 star books on my short story shelf are incredible.

[Michelle]

The complete anthology of Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales. He is the best short story writer, in my opinion. :D

[Peter]

The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham: East and West and The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham: The World Over

Willy was a great observer of people and a master story teller.

Also, every lover of short stories should read The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

[Jaye]

Here's my short story shelf (it's only a partial list):
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

I think author Ron Rash is King of the short story.
----------------------------------------------------
A great review of This Is Not Your City here ->>>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/.... In that book there is a story called "Embodied" which is so fascinating I wish it were novel length.

[Micha]

What kind of short stories are you looking for? Is there a particular genre you would like?

Fantasy/Sci-fi:

We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Lost and Found Three by Shaun Tan by Shaun Tan

Classics :

Gogol's The Overcoat and Other Short Stories is an excellent read.

I also enjoy Shirley Jackson and Flannery O'Connor

Contemporary (and a little weird):

Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel

Mostly anything by David Sedaris or Jhumpa Lahiri will likely be entertaining and well written, but that's probably kind of obvious.

And, of course, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried which many others have offered.

[Andrew]

"Ficciones" by Jorge Luis Borges

[Nicola]

My favourite is The Female of the Species

[Nadine]

Nine Stories by Salinger. Will always be my fav short story collection...

[Janet]

Love short stories and glad to see so many others do too (so many good suggestions already!).

The short story collection I love and have reread the most is The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor

[Stuti]

666 the number of the beast

[Robert]

Rock Springs: Stories Richard Ford

[karen, future RA queen]

any particular kind of story?? because i could list a bunch, but i don't know if they would suit you...

[Brian]

Full dark no stars, also HP love craft collection

[Jonathan]

Selected Stories. Basically any collection featuring Chekhov's short stories are brilliant!

[peg]

"Dear Husband" by Joyce Carol Oats is great.

[Owen]

Karen, any type. I'm looking for just a great book of short stories.

[karen, future RA queen]

okay, mister "i don't care what i read!"

you inspired me to make a shelf for all my short story collections, so i could better locate and think about your question:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

so i have a whole bunch of recommendations, but they are all over the place in terms of style and genre and all that.

here are some i have liked.

if you are looking for something a little scary, eerie, or magical-realism:

Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone
Stranger Things Happen
The Kiss of the Unborn and Other Stories
The Tenant
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

if you are looking for something a little more complicated, literary, or smarty-pants:

Understories
Guadalajara
Winesburg, Ohio
Lost in the Funhouse
Amok and Other Stories

here are some good contemporary fiction titles

Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories
(this one is very violent, though - warning)
Meat Eaters & Plant Eaters
Instant Love: Fiction
The Torturer's Apprentice: Stories
Burning Bright: Stories
Pictures of Houses with Water Damage
Shoebox Train Wreck
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Unkempt: Stories
The Devil You Know

for funny stories:

The Complete Saki
The Collected Short StoriesMafeking Road: and Other Stories

and really anything by geirge saunders, david foster wallace, thomas hardy, or roald dahl.

i initially shot this off before i finished, but i think that's a pretty good list.


and then there is Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer

but that's just a fun little experiment i liked

[scherzo♫]

Ursula K. Le Guin has just published two new volumes of short stories:
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands

And of course, there's Harlan Ellison:
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Dangerous Visions
Again, Dangerous Visions
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

[Micha]

If you like Ursula K. Le Guin, you should try her shor story compilation: The Wind's Twelve Quarters

[Pghbekka]

Fiction:
Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...) - I reread these stories at least once a year.

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78...)

Second recommendation for Nikolai Gogol.

Fictional memoirs:
Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: and Other Adventures on the Way Back Home by Bailey White (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...)

Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Folklore:
Points of Departure by Pat Murphy (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57...)

I Sing the Body Electric! by Ray Bradbury (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/74...)

Anything ever edited by Martin Greenberg (RIP)http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

Anything ever edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...), (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...), especially the Snow White, Blood Red Anthology Series (http://www.goodreads.com/series/55620...)

Second Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber.

[Jason]

I have gone back and forth with Haruki Murakami and love his shorts. I like most of Joyce Carol Oats (particularly) i am no one you know. Anything Flannery O'connor

[whimsicalmeerkat]

I'll reiterate The Things They Carried and Winesburg, Ohio. Also After the quake. I also love Nadine Gordimer.

[Rebecca]

For weird, beautifully written, surrealist stories, Understories by Tim Horvath is pretty excellent.

[Erin]

Some great choices above. I also love any of the older collections by Ellen Gilchrist, especially her collection of Rhoda Manning stories - Rhoda A Life in Stories.

[Jason]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories

[Sam~~ we cannot see the moon, and yet the waves still rise~~]

Just So Stories
The Things They Carried

[Andi]

My favorite short story collections:
Not the End of the World - Kate Atkinson
Getting a Life - Simpson
Interpreter of Maladies - Jumpa Lahiri

[Jason]

i might have already said it but i adored Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales

[Jessica]

The littlest hitler... very strange and slightly disturbing.

[reading is my hustle]

More short story love:

Burning Bright: Stories

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro