Task 3: A Collection of Short Stories

[Polly]

This is one of the categories I was really pleased to see as it pushed me outside of my usual reading comfort zone. For some reason I've always avoided short stories. I read D J Taylor's Wrote For Luck...and it was beautiful...I'm now converted, more and more collections of short stories are being added to my "to read" list.

[Jennifer]

I chose Something Rich and Strange: Selected Stories by Ron Rash for task 3. It was just okay. It failed to keep my attention, and I kept have to go back and re-read passages. I really recommend you find something better to read to fulfill this task. :)

[Charissa]

I read Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Beautiful stories about love and family!

[Judy]

Many of Ray Bradbury's books are collections of wonderful and timeless short stories. For example, The Illustrated Man, The October Country, The Cat's Pajamas or I Sing the Body Electric! & Other Stories. The stories are so creative, characters and location are vivid. He's a master of short stories, can say so much with so short a story. And another bonus, these collections are each relatively slim ;)

[Bonnie G.]

Brandyn wrote: "Would "Olive Kitteridge" count for this category? It sounds like it's several short stories wound around the same character?"

Olive Kitteridge is definitely a novel. It is wonderful, as is The Burgess Boys

[Bonnie G.]

I read The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. This collection was rather disappointing. The book had the feel of something thrown together by the publisher to cash in on the popularity of the Cromwell series while book 3 is in progress. The book is pumped up like a teenager's tissue-stuffed bra. The margins are so wide that each page is perhaps 2/3 of the length of a normal page, The font is large enough to see from space, and several blank or nearly blank pages precede each story. Without this trickery this volume would be at most 100 pages. Add to that the fact that all but one story (the title story, which was excellent) had been published before, There were 3 stories I thought excellent, but the rest were just fair to good and there was no cohesion, no stylistic or content flow. There were many times Mantel's erudition and wit were displayed to great advantage but none of this was among her greatest issue. I feel like I have been had for around $25.

[Linda]

I read Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. It is listed in the short stories category link at the top of this page. Even though Olive was in all the stories she was not the main character so I would consider it a collection of short stories. I really enjoyed it.

[Katie]

I read "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for this task. Here is my review:
https://bookmouseblog.wordpress.com/2...

[Ramona]

I had a different book chosen for this category but picked up The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Hemingway because it's one of my husband's favorites. I really liked it much better than the one novel of his I've read. Apparently these are some of his best stories so I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in giving Hemingway's short fiction a try. Definitely good stuff.

[Katie]

I read The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl for this challenge. It was more of a memoir, but all short stories. I'd heard great things about her and her blog and was ready to be wowed, but I was just meh about it. I chuckled a couple times, but never legit LOLed.

[Bonnie G.]

Katie wrote: "I read The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl for this challenge. It was more of a memoir, but all short stories. I'd heard great things about her and her blog and was ready to ..."

I am listening to this on audio. About 3/4 through and I share your opinion. It does not have the humor David Sedaris or the universality of Alison Bechdel, or the pathos of Dorothy Allison. or the sharp eye of Jacqueline Woodson. It reads like a collection of blog entries and I suspect it works a lot better in that context rather than gathered into a book and read one after the other.

[Sam]

Inspired by 'Birdman' I went for 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' by Raymond Carver

[Jeannette]

I read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Other Stories. A little creepy, but in a good way. I blew right through it. :-)

[Bonnie G.]

Sam wrote: "Inspired by 'Birdman' I went for 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' by Raymond Carver"

Wonderful collection!

[Jo]

I read The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales for this and it was so, so wonderful. Kirsty Logan writes like a more whimsical, less self-conscious Neil Gaiman.

[Diane]

For this challenge I read and really enjoyed Karen Russell's richly imagined stories.

[Leslie (updates on SG)]

Jeannette wrote: "I read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Other Stories. A little creepy, but in a good way. I blew right through it. :-)"

I haven't read "The Lottery" but need to after this story:
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/...

[Catherine]

I am reading "Our Love will go the way of the salmon" by Cameron Pierce.
It's in the free lending library on Kindle at the mo!

[Jeannette]

Thanks for the share, Leslie. Hilarious article!

[Kathleen]

I picked up a copy of the The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011 in a used bookstore and read that. My favorite piece was an essay from Sloane Crosley's How Did You Get This Number, so I checked that out of the library and read that as well.

[Jen]

For this task, I read Anthropology: 101 True Love Stories by Dan Rhodes. It was rather depressing, but good. And each of the 101 stories was only 101 words in length: an impressive feat.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Britany]

Finished by Megan Mayhew Bergman-- 5 Stars!!

Short story collection (which normally I abhor!) about real women and their interesting, quirky lives. Highly recommend.

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[[deleted user]]

I'm reading Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut. I rarely read short stories, so this will be a nice little mix up from full-length novels.

[Sophia]

A couple of weeks ago I finished The Haunted Looking Glass, a collection of spooky stories chosen and illustrated by Edward Gorey. My mother has this on her bookshelf, so I grew up wanting to read it but was never quite brave enough - I enjoyed finally cracking it open! Many of the stories would not be considered particularly terrifying today, but all of them were well-written and a few of them really stuck with me for awhile after reading.

[Catherine]

I wasn't looking forward to this part of the challenge...

Since it's October, I'm going to do The Gold-Bug and Other Tales. Any other Poe readers?

[Janice]

I won a copy of Barefoot Dogs: Stories by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho in a giveaway and I cannot wait to read it!

[CallMeSensei]

Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong

Just finished this one yesterday. See my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1334057692

It's good for those of you that like supernatural/paranormal and maybe a bit of horror.

[Paulette]

Just finished Trigger Warning Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances - a variety of short stories all typically Neil Gaiman - so if you like this author delve in and be prepared to be unsettled by fantasy and suspense. If you like Ray Bradbury, read on.
I would recommend the audiobook narrated by the author - he has a wonderful reading voice.

[Gwen S.]

I am going to read, "Men Without Women", by Ernest Hemingway.

[Corey]

Just finished I Am What I Am Because You Are What You Are by Carole Glasser Langille. Lovely work, a collection of linked stories that capture the intricacies of relationships from all angles.

[Shannon]

I just finished American Housewife: Stories for this challenge. I typically shy away from short stories and essays only because of the fact that they are short; I like things that get some meat to it thru character development. This book surprised me and I found myself really turning the pages to get to the next story, to see what she came up with next.
I can't say that it has won me over to the genre, but I have a couple of other books that I want to take a look at, and this book may have just given me the push I needed to do so.

[Rachael]

Just finished The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard for this task. Not my usual cup of tea, but definitely took something away from it - if only a yearning for my own youth :-)

[Evyjo]

I'm thinking of finally reading Diving Belles it's been patently sitting on my TBR shelf for too long.

[Rachel]

Reading The Complete Fables for this one. I don't know why, but I was intent on reading this book at some point this year. I'm not a huge fan of short stories, so it fit perfectly.