May 2025 Name two or three short story collections you would recommend to others.

[Lynn, Old School Classics]

We read quite a few short stories in this group. Short story collections can be organized by a single author or can be anthologies. Anthologies are short story collections arranged around a theme or genre. Do you have favorite collections you could recommend?

[Lynn, Old School Classics]

I have several that I could recommend. I tend to prefer College Literature Textbooks that feature short fiction. I will wait to see what others recommend before naming anything specific.

[J_BlueFlower]

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 An excellent collection of classic science fiction (and fantasy/speculative fiction) short stories. Likely the best collection for short stories upto 1964. Two things stand out: The stories are selected by a long voting process, not just what the editor liked or could get to publish. The collection is ordered chronologically and it was very interesting to see the development from tech fascination to psychology. Apparently psychology in science fiction was a big thing in end of 1950’ish and 1960’ish. I had not seen the pattern before this collection.

Ted Chiang's two collections:
Stories of Your Life and Others
Exhalation
Excellent collections of speculative and science fiction short stories..

A collection of Stefan Zweig containing Chess Story. That one is stellar. His other short stories are excellent.

Any collection of Edgar Allan Poe

[Lynn, Old School Classics]

J_BlueFlower wrote: "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 An excellent collection of classic science fiction (and fantasy/speculative fiction) short stories. Likely the best collection ..."

LOL I specifically held off on The Science Fiction Hall of Fame because I was sure someone else would mention it. Honestly Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 2a and Vol 3 are all really good in my opinion. If there are others I am not aware of them. The only drawbacks of these is they are primarily early to mid 20th Century and all written originally in English.

Two other Science Fiction anthologies I would recommend are

Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century This contains stories that were written in the late 20th century.

The World Treasury of Science Fiction has older stories, but it includes stories originally written in several different languages.

I also like to read series of stories. Some fun Science Fiction Short stories series are:

The Complete Paratime by H. Beam Piper

or

The Best of Cordwainer Smith which is his complete "Instrumentality of Man" short story series.

With the advent of ebooks, I also like to read the "MegaPacks" of individual authors. You get the good and bad of an author's work mixed together, but It's fun to get an overview of a lifetime of stories.

Well I've already gone over two or three!!

[J_BlueFlower]

If you are into Science Fiction already: 100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories. An excellent collection of very short stories. 100 stories in a total of 300 pages is an average of 3 page stories. They all have in common that they are right to the point without wasting time: They set the scene and deliver the final point.

The most "important" recommendation is still The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 because is shows the historical development.

[Kathleen]

I want to recommend two of my favorite classic story collections that don't get talked about much.

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories by William Saroyan. During our recent Ray Bradbury buddy read, I was reminded that Saroyan was an influence of his. These stories are chalk full of heart and soul, many about being poor and struggling in San Francisco in the 1930's.

Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen. The style is slightly old-fashioned and the structure of the stories sometimes complex, making them a little challenging, but so worth it. You feel like you're under her spell when reading these dark, sometimes mysterious and always unique gems.

[Darren]

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Carver, Raymond
The Suitcase Dovlatov, Sergei
Last Evenings on Earth Bolaño, Roberto

[Janelle]

A Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant

The Complete Short Stories by J.G. Ballard

The Turning by Tim Winton

[Sara, New School Classics]

Over By the River and Other Stories by William Maxwell
Burning Bright by Ron Rash
The Blush by Elizabeth Taylor

Not a bad story in the bunch.

[Wobbley]

Here are my 3:

- Exhalation by Ted Chiang

- The Fat Man in History and Other Stories by Peter Carey

- The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (it's a fix-up novel, so it's basically a book of short stories, though I'm not sure if this is what was meant by the question)