Announcing the May Tag

[Anita]

Wow, that vote was fascinating. All three choices garnered plenty of votes, but the second choice voting was SO heavily skewed in one direction. And that's why next month we will be reading:

short stories

Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.

Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as "short stories" on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.

One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.

Happy Reading!!!

[Theresa]

Yay! I have so many collections to chose from across so many genres...from classics like O Henry to fantasy to Christmas mysteries and romances. There are even Noir collections by place, like Noir Berlin!

I am so excited by this theme.

[Jen K]

I also a bit excited for this one. I have a couple of new ones already on hold:
Land of Big Numbers
Milk Blood Heat

I'm also considering:
Tenth of December
The Tsar of Love and Techno
Dubliners
What is Not Yours is Not Yours
Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories
Florida
Heads of the Colored People
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
Flannery O'Connor or Alice Munro

Oh and I have Addis Ababa Noir

Recommendations:
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
The Office of Historical Corrections
Training School for Negro Girls
The Refugees

Recommendations with warning (graphic/ speculative/ paranormal fiction):
Friday Black
Her Body and Other Parties
Things We Lost in the Fire

[Doughgirl5562]

I am so happy! Maybe we can convert a few members to being short story fans :-)

I like all short stories, but definitely prefer books with related short stories that have a theme or even make up a novel. I would recommend:
- Olive Kitteridge
- Me Talk Pretty One Day
- Holidays on Ice (especially his story about Santa at the mall)
- Collections of short story mysteries by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot)
- Collections of Sherlock Holmes short story mysteries
- Ford County
- Any short story / novella collection by Stephen King

[NancyJ]

This works for me.

Anita, could you provide a link to the voting thread? There were some books mentioned that I didn't jot down. Is it archived somewhere?

[Rachel N.]

I'm surprised because it seems like the year tags always win. Looks like I'll be reading Full Throttle since I own the book.

[forsanolim]

NancyJ wrote: "This works for me.

Anita, could you provide a link to the voting thread? There were some books mentioned that I didn't jot down. Is it archived somewhere?"

Nancy, it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'm really excited for this one! I have several things I'd like to get to, definitely including Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories and Girl, Woman, Other. (Edit: and I just remembered that Anthony Doerr's debut was The Shell Collector, which could also be great.)

[Anita]

NancyJ wrote: "This works for me.

Anita, could you provide a link to the voting thread? There were some books mentioned that I didn't jot down. Is it archived somewhere?"

Sure thing!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Doughgirl5562]

How could I forget to recommend one of my favorite books of short stories / essays? Shame on me!

I recommend the following:

The Sea Hunters by Clive Cussler

The late Clive Cussler was most famously known for his action adventure novels starring Dirk Pitt. But Clive used the proceeds from those novels to fund his hobby - searching for lost shipwrecks. This is a collection of the stories for the searches for multiple shipwrecks. He starts each section with a fictional imagining of the final moments of the ship -- and then tells about the actual search for the shipwreck. Some may find the actual searches for the shipwrecks a little boring, but I didn't.

For me this book was totally fascinating. There is also a Sea Hunters II, but I liked the first one better. The most famous shipwreck in The Sea Hunters is the HL Hunley - the first military submarine, developed for the Confederacy in the Civil War and sunk with all hands in Charleston, SC harbor. It was Clive's group that found it after more than a hundred years and brought it up. It's now a major museum attraction in Charleston.

https://www.hunley.org/

[Anita]

Omg, I'm so excited. Unfortunately, my list of possibilities is ridiculously long, but for recommendations, my favorites include:

Tenth of December
Olive, Again
Anything Is Possible
You Know You Want This
Interpreter of Maladies
Girl, Woman, Other
The Imperfectionists

I just finished another book by George Saunders called A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life which is more like a mini-course on Russian short stories and how to read/write short stories. It was excellent if you have any interest in writing or analysis.

Possibilities for my own reading seem endless.

When We Cease to Understand the World is on the longlist for the International Man Booker. I want to read it, but it might be too hard to get ahold of.

Sabrina & Corina: Stories - very highly rated
Orange World and Other Stories - liked Swamplandia
Jagannath - already own it
Fox 8 - love Saunders and never seem to tire of him
The Diving Pool: Three Novellas - have read two other books by Ogawa, and I'm a fan

[Sallys]

I'm not big on short stories but I happen to have a few collections that I bought recently- Interpreter of Maladies and Something I've been meaning to tell you. I also have a collection by Eudora Welty and and Charlotte Perkins

[Book Concierge]

Ever since being introduced to O Henry when I was in about 7th or 8th grade I have been a fan of short stories.

In addition to many of those already mentioned ... Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson wrote some wonderful short stories.
And I really love Ray Bradbury and Truman Capote

More contemporary ...
And Annie Proulx has a great collection in Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other stories
Beneath the Bonfire by Nickolas Butler (who also wrote Shotgun Lovesongs, a novel which many PBTers have enjoyed)

Diverse authors ...
Kirstin Valdez Quade's Night at the Fiestas is a great collection - one of theses stories has been expanded into novel length and just came out March 30th (The Five Wounds)
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories by Alice Walker
Hunger: A Novella and Stories by Lan Samantha Chang
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

I might finally read Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

[Joanne]

I had a feeling this would win so I have been paying close attention while sorting books at my library-and I found A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories of History's Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors-Not a big short story fan, but this one looks fun

[Hebah]

Huzzah! I think I've got a few sci fi and fantasy story collections to read. The Mythic Dream is what I had in mind when I voted for this.

Highly recommend The Starlit Wood, edited by the same crack team. It's a who's-who of authors in the contributor list.

[LibraryCin]

Anita wrote: "short stories..."

YAY! It's not my favourite, but I'm just happy it's not 2016! LOL!

[LibraryCin]

Oh, I think I have lots of local happening this month (PBT Trim + here). I'm likely going to aim for this one (she's a local author; I've met her a couple of times):

Vanishing and Other Stories / Deborah Willis

[Holly R W]

Here are some short story collections that I've enjoyed and can recommend:

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies - (very sexy)
You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld (all about young mothers, light reading)
The Moth Presents Occasional Magic: True Stories about Defying the Impossible (I loved all of the stories in the collection)
Five-Carat Soul (For those who like author James McBride)
Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting (personal stories by well-known authors linked to knitting)
Where I Come from: Stories from the Deep South by Rick Bragg (It's impossible not to relate to Braggs, no matter where you live.)
Kitchens of the Great Midwest (this is not tagged as a short story collection, but I view it as a book of linked stories about a rather quirky heroine.)


No doubt, this will be an interesting month to see what all of us choose to read.

[Robin P]

I hadn't thought of linked stories like Olive Kitteridge, which are marketed as novels. In any case, I just went to my local thrift store for the first time in over a year and came back with There There.

I also have an audio of Girl, Woman, Other
I have several collections of mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, and romance. Also I recently got a book called
Black in the Middle: An Anthology of African American Voices in the Midwest

[annapi]

Yay! I love short stories! Though I do admit I'm sorry I won't be able to use the cutest Antarctica masthead I found.

[Booknblues]

I am ok with this tag, even though I don't love short stories. I have really enjoyed some which read like novels with interlinked stories.

I did find a number on my tbr, so I will be using those to read:
Girl, Woman, Other
The Yellow Wallpaper
Olive Kitteridge
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Bangkok Wakes to Rain

[annapi]

My favorites from childhood:
Asimov's Mysteries
Tales of the Black Widowers and the rest of the series
I, Robot
Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1: 1939 and the rest of the series
The Oathbound, Oathbreakers
A Harp of Fishbones and Other Stories

[Amy]

I think I'm back on the witch thing - have to go with what's on my TBR, and its going to be Toil and Trouble. I have two other books inspired by this theme to clear off my TBR, both too short to qualify for the extra point, but fit with the theme, so they are getting cleared, friends.

[Theresa]

Doughgirl5562 wrote: "I am so happy! Maybe we can convert a few members to being short story fans :-)

I like all short stories, but definitely prefer books with related short stories that have a theme or even make up a..."

Holidays on Ice is beloved in my house!

I want to put in a plug for The Usual Santas: A Soho Crime Holiday Anthology featuring short fiction at the holidays by Soho Crimes' roster of authors.

[Robin P]

Just remembered I have several collections of modern stories featuring Sherlock Holmes.

[Darci]

If anyone likes sci-fi, I can definitely recommend Manhattan In Reverse. The short story 'Watching Trees Grow' was my favorite thing I read last year.

I have a bunch of options for this prompt!
I'm definitely going to read Norse Mythology.
I also plan on reading The Forward Collection. Six different authors wrote short sci-fi stories for Amazon about the future.
If I have time, I want to squeeze in Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America, too.

[Teodora]

I planned to go to Antarctica in May, and luckily I still can if I choose to read At the Mountains of Madness. I've never read anything by H.P. Lovecraft, but I like all modern adaptations to his themes, so I say it's about time I check out the original source.

After this, maybe I'll finish Sword of Destiny, which I started long ago in audio but didn't finish because I actually prefer actual reading. It would be a good time to get to the end of this.

There's another book of short stories that I wanted for some time to get to: Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales. I love fairytales, and I'm curious about her horrific retelling.

I doubt that I'll have time for more this month. I'm not a big fan of short stories either, but from time to time I read them.

In terms of recommendations, I want to recommend A Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, a short story and a novella I read at the start of this year, and I absolutely loved them.

[[deleted user]]

ugh, not what I wanted. never mind, I did get gothic this month!

I have a choice of:
Dubliners
The Last Wish
Lot: Stories

Any of these you can recommend?

[Hebah]

Amy wrote: "I think I'm back on the witch thing - have to go with what's on my TBR, and its going to be Toil and Trouble. I have two other books inspired by this theme to clear off my TBR, both too short to qu..."

Ooh, is that the YA witchy story collection? I really loved that one.

[Theresa]

Jenny wrote: "ugh, not what I wanted. never mind, I did get gothic this month!

I have a choice of:
Dubliners
The Last Wish
Lot: Stories

Any of these you can recommend?"

I read Dubliners years ago and loved it.

[Nicole R]

Anita wrote: "Omg, I'm so excited. Unfortunately, my list of possibilities is ridiculously long, but for recommendations, my favorites include:

Tenth of December
Olive, Again
[bo..."

Ooooo, When We Cease to Understand the World looks good! And I am going to check out the George Saunders book too.

[Nicole R]

Holly R W wrote: "Here are some short story collections that I've enjoyed and can recommend:

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies - (very sexy)
You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sitte..."

Holly! You just decided it for me! I am finally going to get to The Secret Lives of Church Ladies! I didn't realize it was short stories!

[Holly R W]

Nicole R wrote: "Holly R W wrote: "Here are some short story collections that I've enjoyed and can recommend:

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies - (very sexy)
[book:You Think It, I'll Say It|3596172..."

I think you'll like it.

[Karin]

Robin P wrote: "I hadn't thought of linked stories like Olive Kitteridge, which are marketed as novels. In any case, I just went to my local thrift store for the first time in over a year and came b..."

Maybe I'll finally get around to reading Olive Kitteridge.

My favourite one I see on this shelf is The Old Man and the Sea, although I also gave 5 stars to Carry On, Jeeves

[Nicole R]

For me, this tag represents everything that I love about PBT. As a generalization, I do not read short stories. Maybe sometimes at Christmas, but they are just not something I am naturally drawn to.

BUT, it being the PBT tag will push me out of my comfort zone and I am sure I will find some great books. It may not make me a short story lover, but I am sure I will find some good ones to read!

Here is my short list (that is growing by the minute):
Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move (Motivation to finish this)
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Florida
That Way Madness Lies
Broken
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
When We Cease to Understand the World

That is more than I could get to in an entire year.... lol

[Nicole R]

Robin P wrote: "I hadn't thought of linked stories like Olive Kitteridge, which are marketed as novels. In any case, I just went to my local thrift store for the first time in over a year and came b..."

I am adding Black in the Middle to my list....

[Robin P]

Nicole R wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I hadn't thought of linked stories like Olive Kitteridge, which are marketed as novels. In any case, I just went to my local thrift store for the first time in over a..."

I just looked it and actually they are personal essays/memoirs - nonfiction and also some poetry, so maybe not really short stories?

[Theresa]

One of the great joys of short stories is the huge variety. A collection of short stories written by different authors on a loose theme means if one is not floating your boat, it is done in a few pages and the next is just what you love. I have found many new authors from short story collections. These collections most often pop up either edited by well-known authors (George R.R. Martin edited several), or with mystery, romance, and holiday themes.

Then there are the specific author collections - Alice Munro and Jhumpa Lahiri come to mind. Ernest Hemingway and O. Henry.

Plus there are those short story collections by a single author that are used to create a novel, several of which have been listed here by others.

I love how easy it is to read a few short stories from a collection as a palate cleanser or to sate a mood or just as a break from a big heavy read, without having commited to finishing another book at that moment.

[Charlie]

Hi all. Been a long time since I've checked in. Curious if the rules for this month allow people to just read short stories as opposed to a whole book of short stories? Some of my favorite short stories of all time include the following:

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Highest Rung on the Ladder by Stephen King
Heat by Joyce Carol Oates
The Two Big Hearted River (Part I and II) by Ernest Hemingway
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
To Build a Fire by Jack London
The Storm by Kate Chopin

In terms of books of short stories, my favorite is Redeployment by Phil Klay and although I thought it more a novel than a book of short stories, The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman is also very good.

[Robin P]

I wondered about that too. Some people have referenced just one story. I suppose you could check if there is a tag for it but we should all be on the same page.

[Book Concierge]

I believe the 150 pg count still applies ... Don't know if you can combine two stories to achieve that page count limit, though. Anita? Nicole? Cindy? Anna?

Also, you do NOT need for the work to be already tagged a short story(ies) for the monthly tag thread. If you think it fits, that's all you need. You only need the exact tag if you're using it for one of the challenges.

[Joy D]

I have read The Things They Carried, The Tsar of Love and Techno, and Olive Kitteridge, (all are over 150 pgs) and they are a series of inter-connected short stories tied together with common themes, places, and/or people. In my opinion, they would be good reads for this tag.

I may read something by Ray Bradbury. Someone mentioned Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, which is also a possibility.

[[deleted user]]

Anyone planning on doing Antarctica next month? Here's a list!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

[Nicole R]

Charlie, let me chat with the admins behind the scenes but I think it seems like a reasonable request given the month!

Even if we veer away from the 150 page minimum for the monthly tag, it will still be in place for our challenges.

For the monthly tag it does not have to be tagged “short stories” to count, so anything you think fits will work for us!

[NancyJ]

I came across a few individual short stories (with many tags) that exceed 100 or even 150 pages.

We had this issue come up in last year's challenge. We combined two short books and reported them as one to meet the 150 page minimum. We did this with Binti and maybe a few broadway plays.

I have a few collections that are extremely long, so if I had one single short story to report, I figure it would all even out in the end.

[Barbara M]

It always happens, a tag is chosen that's not in my wheel house and I find plenty to read. It's not that I don't like short stories, I'm just not drawn to them. I actually have some on my TBR and I've picked up some ideas from all of you!

This list is way more than I can possibly read in a month - especially one where I'll be traveling and spending time with family. But here's my (way too long) list. The ones at the top will probably get read first.

Under a Winter Sky actually has a story that is a continuation from A Stitch in Time which I enjoyed earlier this month.
Ford County I like Grisham and this is one I haven't read yet.
Olive Kitteridge - the setting of Maine draws me and, if I like it, I'll probably add Olive, Again
Where I Come from: Stories from the Deep South - Since I've been a Floridian for 21 years, I might find this eye-opening
Me Talk Pretty One Day has been on my list for too long.

[Yvonne]

I'm happy for this May tag, as I have just started a 600-page non-fiction book, and I can read short stories at the same time. I love short story collections, and I look forward to pulling some recommendations from all the postings on this thread. For simplicity of choice, I will likely go with one of the two already on my TBR:
The Impressionists by Tom Reckman
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

[NancyJ]

I have too many choices! I ran out of spots on my library hold lists. I still need to look at the rest of the recommendations above. I noticed Audible has a lot of freebies too.

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories - I got this for the gothic tag but haven't read it yet.
A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories - Flannery O'Connor
The Tsar of Love and Techno
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Things We Lost in the Fire
Memory Wall
When We Cease to Understand the World
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Ficciones
The Complete Stories - Hurston
The Refugees
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies
Anything Is Possible
Sightseeing
Heart Songs and Other Stories - Proulx
Training School for Negro Girls

Not sure if these fit...
The Travelling Cat Chronicles
Three Men in a Boat

Recommendations:
I loved:
Olive Kitteridge
Olive, Again - aging
Interpreter of Maladies - India diaspora
Exhalation: Stories - Sci Fi
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories - Alice Munro

For easy (less literary) reading:
A Twist in the Tale (or any of his other short story collections. His newest collection includes tales from his time in prison) - Jeffrey Archer - UK, mystery, crime great twists
Anything by David Sedaris - Essays, Humor, I think he's best on audio
Anthologies edited by Charlaine Harris - urban fantasy, light reading

[NancyJ]

I can't wait to see the "Pursue it" terms might help me narrow down my list.

If there is a sci-fi or social media topic, I have a whole bunch of other books to consider.

[Robin P]

NancyJ wrote: "I have too many choices! I ran out of spots on my library hold lists. I still need to look at the rest of the recommendations above. I noticed Audible has a lot of freebies too.

[book:The Yellow ..."

The Traveling Cat Chronicles and Three Men in a Boat aren't books of stories. They both involve some traveling with a series of encounters but they are novels.

[Charlotte]

This was my 2nd choice but I'm really glad that it won!!

There is a popsugar prompt for a place you wish you could visit and then with our challenge I'm going to read one that either gets me to Japan or India. So I'll be reading either:
1. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami
2. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

I'm also going to try to read:
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola