2023 Short Story Planning & Suggestions

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

Short story readers: For 2023 our story story reads will be done a little differently. Instead of reading one short story each month or looking at one author each month with a focus story, every QUARTER we will read a COLLECTION of short stories by ONE AUTHOR. This will allow us to really dive into authors' short stories with plenty of time to read an entire collection and discuss with other members.

Please suggest an author whose short stories you would like to read with the group next year.
Please also provide a title of a collection of short stories by that author.

Thanks for any suggestions you have. I appreciate the patience as suggestions are given and organized.

Suggestions below. Votes marked in front with X.

XXXX The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories by Leo Tolstoy

Meet My Maker the Mad Molecule by J.P. Donleavy

XXX Wounds in the Rain 11 War Stories by Stephen Crane

The Exiles and Other Stories by Richard Harding Davis

X Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In a North Country Village by M.E. Francis

XXX Round the Sofa by Elizabeth Gaskell

The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories by George Gissing

Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy

XX The Four Million and Other Stories by O. Henry

X The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov by Vladimir Nabokov

XXXXX Fifty-Two Stories by Anton Chekhov

XXX Selected Short Stories by Virginia Woolf

Improper Stories by Saki

X American Drolleries: Selected Stories by Mark Twain

X Selected Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant

THE VERY BEST OF HONORE DE BALZAC SHORT STORIES by Honoré de Balzac

XXXX The Best Short Stories of Dostoyevsky by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft

[John]

I really like that format, Samantha.

I'd like to suggest short stories by Tolstoy, and in particular The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories.

[Piyangie, Classical Princess]

I like this format too, Samantha.

I'd suggest Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon by Jane Austen if qualify. Thanks.

[John]

Piyangie wrote: "I like this format too, Samantha.

I'd suggest Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon by Jane Austen if qualify. Thanks."

I'd be happy with that one too, Piyangie; I'd looked at it this morning, but couldn't make up my mind if they counted as short stories or as three novellas.

[Luís]

Piyangie wrote: "I like this format too, Samantha.

I'd suggest Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon by Jane Austen if qualify. Thanks."

I'd suggest

[Bernard]

I suggest J P Donleavy, with the book "Meet my maker the mad molecule".

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

To answer some wondering on what is a short story. Under Fundamentals for NTLTRC is this:

Novella - 160 pages
Novelette - 60 pages
Short Story - 24 pages

I actually think anything below 100 pages would be short but...

We will see what Samantha wants to do.

[Pam, Southwest Enchanter]

I suggest Vladimir Nabokov. “The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov” contains 67 stories published between the 1920s and the 1950s.

[Mike]

My suggestion is Anton Chekhov. There are several collections of his stories, so I'll put forward the recent release of lesser known stories called Fifty-Two Stories.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

I'm in the midst of my second semester of grad school and apologize for not being able to update this as often as desirable.

I stand with Lesle regarding the length of short stories - less than 100 pages.

John R. & Sandy, you are correct regarding those Jane Austen works. They fall more under the novella length than short story.

[Piyangie, Classical Princess]

I was misguided by the number of pages of the book which says 211 pages. And since there are three stories, I calculated each to be about 70 pages. My mistake. Sorry about it.

[Luís]

I read once a book by Chekhov called Un royaume de femmes,suivi de «De l'amour». But I'm not a person who read the same book twice.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

No worries, Piyangie. :)

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

As Samantha has in her introduction, looking for key words:

Complete
Collection
Short Stories
Other Stories
Collected Stories

Definition: Short story collections are made up of smaller texts—the individual short stories—in order to form a superior whole.

Some examples:
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
The Short Stories
The Overcoat and Other Short Stories
The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain

Hope this helps.

[Shaina]

Wonderful format, Samantha! This will give me enough time to read all the stories in the collection. I see O. Henry mentioned and I will second it (or any collection by him).

I liked how Sandy shared titles from the TBR. Similarly, I too would like to share collections to be considered.

Selected Short Stories by Virginia Woolf
Improper Stories by Saki
American Drolleries: Selected Stories by Mark Twain
Selected Stories by Guy De Maupassant
Selected Stories by H. Rider Haggard
THE VERY BEST OF HONORE DE BALZAC SHORT STORIES

[Luís]

The Widow and the Parrot could be an excellent choice!

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I'll read anything by O. Henry.

[Piyangie, Classical Princess]

I'd like to read Selected Short Stories by Virginia Woolf as well. Except for Kew Gardens, I've not read any of her short stories.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

Thank you for the reminder to everyone, Lesle.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Those are fine Sandy.

I just thought it might help some who might have an Author in mind in researching for shorts.

It was just a thought of course, since we made a stumble earlier.

[Cosmic]

The Best Short Stories of Dostoyevsky

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Good point Sandy, I do not want to mislead anyone for sure!

[Mike]

Another author that has occured to me is H.P. Lovecraft. I've not read anything by him but bought The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories a few weeks ago.

[Mike]

Sandy wrote: "Mike, if you are interested in reading lots of Chekhov, you can obtain his Complete Works from Delphi Classics (which I believe is based in the UK) at a very reasonable price. Files are available in either Kindle..."

Wow, I've never come across Delphi Classics before, this is brilliant - thank you very much Sandy! There is quite a few free ebooks there including a series of short story selections from a range of authors. I found Chekhov and also got Proust. I found Steinbeck and P.G. Wodehouse too, but I'm not allowed to buy them until 2039 and 2046 because of UK copyright laws!

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

We have a lot of great suggestions thrown in for our possible short story read collections next year. I just worked on updated the NF planning thread for 2023 and anticipate updating this planning thread for our short story collections by the end of the week. Thank you all for your patience!

Please add any other suggestions, if you have them. Please vote on existing suggestions. Next year I anticipate us having a great time diving deep into some collections.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

Thank you for your patience in my getting the suggestions compiled into one list and votes marked.

The top post in this thread has the suggestions with GR links. Votes are marked thus far. If you find a suggestion you gave is not listed, either it did not fall within our definition of a short story collection OR based on the GR listing it did not seem viable for members to easily obtain it.

We have 19(!) suggestions listed currently. Please mention which (already listed) collections you would be interested in reading with the group next year. Remember, the top FOUR titles will be used, as in 2023 our short story reads will be done QUARTERLY for whole collections.

If necessary, we can do a poll to get our final four collection titles, but first we need to work on getting this list down to 6-8 titles.

Thank you for your enthusiasm for our revamped (again) short story offering. I am hoping this way will work great for the most readers to jump into short stories and be happy with their experience.

[Piyangie, Classical Princess]

I support Selected Short Stories by Virginia Woolf.

[John]

A great selection, Samantha. Could I vote for -

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories by Leo Tolstoy
Wounds in the Rain by Stephen Crane
Fifty-Two Stories by Anton Chekhov
The Best Short Stories of Dostoyevsky

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Round the Sofa by Elizabeth Gaskell
Selected Short Stories by Virginia Woolf

[Pam, Southwest Enchanter]

I vote for Tolstoy, Nabokov, Chekhov, and Dostoevsky.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I support Stephen Crane.

[Cosmic]

John wrote: "A great selection, Samantha. Could I vote for -

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories by Leo Tolstoy
Wounds in the Rain by [author:Stephen Crane..."

I would like to vote for the same 4

[Kathy]

I support Round the Sofa by Elizabeth Gaskell

[Carol]

I vote for:

Selected Stories of Guy de Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant
Round the Sofa by Elizabeth Gaskell
and
The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky by Fyodor Dostoevsky

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

I cast my vote for Fitzgerald and Twain.

Votes tallied again thus far.

[Carol]

Samantha wrote: "I cast my vote for Fitzgerald and Twain.

Votes tallied again thus far."

@Samantha, I don’t see my vote tallied for Guy de Maupassant. Can you check, please?

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

Carol, it looks like you likely put your votes up here at the time I was editing the top post with votes and suggestions. Our time in the thread just overlapped. I have your votes logged now.

:) Thanks for pointing it out.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Samantha sorry but there should be 3 votes for Round the Sofa Kathy, Carol and myself.

Virginia Woolf should have 2 Piyangie and myself.

Samantha you might want to scroll back through just to double check the others. Many of us might have been posting around the same time.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

Lesle (and others), I believe all votes thus far are tallied. If you notice an error, please let me know. :)

Any more votes? I assure you that I'll watch more closely with my counting. Initial posting of the suggestions and counting can be tricky.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Samantha wrote: " Initial posting of the suggestions and counting can be tricky...."

I totally understand :)

[Tracey]

I would like to vote for Leo Tolstoy and Virginia Woolf

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

Sandy wrote: "Has the 2023 schedule for this event been posted yet? Wondering if somehow I missed seeing it."

Sandy, I apologize for the delay in posting the short story and nonfiction reads for 2023. Nonfiction was posted last week, and I just posted the short story schedule. Grad school made my life a little hectic in 2022, but we have a solid schedule planned for next year.