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Faith's avatar

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw.

She mentioned in a book club discussion how short stories are about Revelation and novels are about Resolution. This totally changed how I approach reading short stories!

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Chris Grace's avatar

I loved hearing that distinction too - it really opened my eyes to the purpose of short stories and now I read them through that lens.

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Sydney Ralston's avatar

Oh man, Ted Chiang. Sci Fi is often so great in short story format because you can have a REALLY cool idea and not have to deal with all the nuisance of making it work in a longer format :)

His short story "Story of your Life" is the basis of the movie "Arrival". So many of his stories use sci fi as the bases for social commentary. Check out "Story of your Life and Others" for a great collection. His writing is just stunning.

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Elisabeth Welty's avatar

I loved the short story collection Florida by Lauren Groff. It is one of the books that is most true to the real Florida being the resorts, etc that I have read. It's great!!!

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Kaitlin Valdes's avatar

Came here to recommend Florida and was pleasantly surprised that it was the first comment I saw! It’s one of the best short story collections I’ve ever read and one of my all-time favorite books. It deserves more love.

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Jeanine Kitchel's avatar

I'm going to check this out. I love Lauren Groff--did not know she wrote short stories. Thanks.

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Elisabeth Welty's avatar

This is the only short story collection that I know of by her. It's fantastic!

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Jeanine Kitchel's avatar

Have you read her books?

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Dee's avatar

Elisabeth, any connection to Eudora?

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Elisabeth Welty's avatar

Very distantly. My grandpa did all the genealogy and she's on the family tree but not on our my branch.

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Michelle Wilson's avatar

I am not much on short stories but for whatever reason, hers work for me.

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Bump on a Log's avatar

Any short story by Shirley Jackson, but especially The Lottery. The Swimmer, by John Cheever. I second Florida, by Lauren Groff, as another commenter recomended. Also her short novel, The Vaster Wilds.

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Katherine Mitchell's avatar

The outcome in The Lottery is eerily contemporary.

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Kathleen Sloan's avatar

The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor! I love her short stories. Very Southern Gothic. Very strong sense of place. I have read and read-read those stories many times.

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Kathy's avatar

Walk The Blue Fields by Claire Keagen. I do not usually read short stories but I pick this up after reading Foster and the Christmas story which I cannot recall the title right now.

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Carol Ann's avatar

The Christmas story was "Small Things Like These". Both this and Foster packed a punch! I am always blown away at how Claire Keagen can express so much in so few words. How does she do it??! I recently watched The Quiet Girl, an adaptation of Foster, and it was very well done. I'm hoping to watch the adaptation of Small Things soon.

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Kathy's avatar

I did not know that there was an adaptation for Small Things and Foster. Where can I watch?

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Carol Ann's avatar

I watched Foster on Hulu. Very good.

Small Things came out in Nov 2024. It has Cillian Murphy in it. I've seen that it's available on several streaming platforms (Amazon, Apple, etc.) for a price. I usually wait until movies are included in my subscription but since I just reread the book, I may not be patient enough to wait. It looks good! I'm be interested to see how closely it follows the book.

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Kathy's avatar

Thanks. I don’t have Hulu so that’s out. Thanks for getting back to me though.

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Liz Eaton's avatar

Table for Two by Armor Towels was great!

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Jessica Lange's avatar

I was going to recommend this one too. I really enjoyed it. I believe Mel even brought it up in one of the SSOP episodes.

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Bookishly Delightful's avatar

Some of my favorite classic short stories are: The Nose by Nikolai Gogol, The Dairies of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain, Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

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Jessica Lange's avatar

Address Unknown was FANTASTIC. I will have to check out your other recommendations - The Diaries of Adam and Eve sounds interesting!

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Kay's avatar
Jan 21Edited

Right now, my favorite short story collections are: Memory Wall (2010) & The Shell Collector (2002), both by Anthony Doerr (author of All the Light We Cannot See & Cloud Cuckoo Land), as well as Uncommon Type: Some Stories (2017) by Tom Hanks (yes, THE Tom Hanks)*. The first two are beautiful studies of human life and thought, and the third--well, you can certainly hear Tom Hanks' voice in these crazy, sometimes funny, stories. I generally read long novels, but intersperse them with the occasional short story collections. I think there's always room for the concise ideas in a short story, but novels are the ones that really touch my heart. *Little know fact--Hanks has quite a collection of vintage typewriters. He manages to tie in a typewriter in each of the stories in the collection!

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Cayla Broseus's avatar

My 10 year old brought home “Look Both Ways” by Jason Reynolds and my husband and I ended up reading it with him. It’s a middle grade book and each story takes place on a different street in the same neighborhood. They all tie into each other in unexpected and really touching ways. I don’t read short stories often but I loved this one.

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Becca Mack's avatar

That sounds great. Reynold’s Long Way Down is incredible.

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jacque t's avatar

I often recommend The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw and The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories by Anthony Marra. I love short stories, but not always the collection unless the stories are connected. Once I gave myself permission to move on if a story didn't capture interest in first couple of paragraphs I enjoyed the collections more because I enjoyed the stories I stuck with.

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Patrick D. Joyce's avatar

I recently read George Saunders’ A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, a collection of classic Russian short stories that he interweaves with discussion. I thought it was a great introduction to the genre and highly recommend it! Some lesser known (and kind of quirky) collections I love are A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing by Tim Weed, Ambiguity Machines: And Other Stories by Vandana Singh, and That's When the Knives Come Down by Dolan Morgan. All highly imaginative!

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Jeanine Kitchel's avatar

Jumpa Lhari, The Namesake.

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Chris Grace's avatar

I like Interpreter of Maladies and Roman Stories as well. Her short stories are beautifully written and often pack an emotional punch.

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Jeanine Kitchel's avatar

Will check out, thanks. Yes, they always circle back.

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Rebecca Merrell's avatar

I think there is a time and a place for short stories...and sometimes short stories are a great way to immerse yourself in another culture. I am speaking more of anthologies here that can really transport you to another time and place. Here are some of my favorite collections:

All of Paul Yoon books- Snow Hunters, Once the Shore and The Hive and the Honey (Korea)

So Many Islands (Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans)

Telling Tales Edited by Nadine Gordimer (multiple authors including Salman Rushdie, Margaret

Atwood, Paul Theroux and Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

Bombay Stories-Saadat Hasan Manto

Noon Tide Toll-Romesh Guneskera (Sri Lanka)

Say You're One of them- Uwem Akpan (stories around Africa)

Bernard Schlink's short stories- Flights of Love and Summer Lies

For cold winter days- Tolstoy and Chekov serve up some chilly nights warmed by vodka and hearty Borsch

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Brandy Cerne's avatar

Laurie Colwin's The Lone Pilgrim (collection of short stories) is the book that made me fall in love with her writing - she's now my favorite author.

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Judith Martin's avatar

Anything by David Sedaris. Hilarious. Irreverent. Honest.

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