Reader's Corner: Short Stories
Looking for a good book to read but don't know where to start? This guide covers popular, award-winning, and just plain great nonfiction and fiction genres and books.
Staff Picks
The Best Short Stories 2022 by
The prestigious annual story anthology includes prize-winning stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lorrie Moore, Olga Tokarczuk, Joseph O'Neill, and Samanta Schweblin. Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Valeria Luisellihas brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices and including stories in translation fromBengali, Greek, Hebrew, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Luiselli, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.AN ANCHOR BOOKS ORIGINAL. THE WINNING STORIES- "Screen Time," byAlejandro Zambra, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell "The Wolves of Circassia," byDaniel Mason "Mercedes's Special Talent," byTere Davila, translated from the Spanish by Rebecca Hanssens-Reed "Rainbows," byJoseph O'Neill "A Way with Bea," byShanteka Sigers "Seams," byOlga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft "The Little Widow from the Capital," byYohanca Delgado "Lemonade," byEshkol Nevo, translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston "Breastmilk," by'Pemi Aguda "The Old Man of Kusumpur,"byAmar Mitra, translated from the Bengali by Anish Gupta "Where They Always Meet,"byChristos Ikonomou, translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich "Fish Stories,"byJanika Oza "Horse Soup,"byVladimir Sorokin, translated from the Russian by Max Lawton "Clean Teen,"byFrancisco Gonzalez "Dengue Boy,"byMichel Nieva, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer "Zikora," byChimamanda Ngozi Adichie "Apples,"byGunnhild yehaug, translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson "Warp and Weft,"byDavid Ryan "Face Time,"byLorrie Moore "An Unlucky Man,"bySamanta Schweblin, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
Call Number: FICTION BEST SHORT STORIESPublication Date: 2022-09-13
Liberation Day: Stories by
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE * "One of our most inventive purveyors of the form returns with pitch-perfect, genre-bending stories that stare into the abyss of our national character. . . . An exquisite work from a writer whose reach is galactic."--Oprah Daily Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with his first collection of short stories since the New York Times bestseller Tenth of December. The "best short-story writer in English" (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose--wickedly funny, unsentimental, and exquisitely tuned--Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: Here is a collection of prismatic, resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality. "Love Letter" is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the (not too distant, all too believable) future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and one another. "Ghoul" is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. In "Mother's Day," two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. In "Elliott Spencer," our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed, his memory "scraped"--a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. And "My House"--in a mere seven pages--comes to terms with the haunting nature of unfulfilled dreams and the inevitability of decay. Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.
Call Number: FICTION SAUNDERS GPublication Date: 2022-10-18
Bliss Montage: Stories by
A National Indie Bestseller "Dazzling . . . Ling Ma writes with such authority that we readers are simply swept along . . . If sometimes we wonder where we've ended up, maybe that sense of dislocation is the desired final effect." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "Uncanny and haunting . . . The genius of [Bliss Montage] is unearthed in how [Ma] stretches the boundaries of the world while zooming in on the details that matter most . . . A powerful reminder that there is more than one way to see -- and really know -- a person." --Michele Filgate, The Washington Post What happens when fantasy tears the screen of the everyday to wake us up? Could that waking be our end? In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything--if you bury yourself alive. These and other scenarios investigate the ways that the outlandish and the ordinary are shockingly, deceptively, heartbreakingly alike.
Call Number: FICTION MA LPublication Date: 2022-09-13
Life Without Children: Stories by
"[Doyle] imparts a sense of poignancy and glimpses of happiness, of grief and loss and small moments of connection . . . you're left feeling close to dazzled." --Daphne Merkin, New York Times Book Review A brilliantly warm and witty portrait of our pandemic lives, told in ten heartrending short stories, from the Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these ten beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times. A man abroad wanders the stag-and-hen-strewn streets of Newcastle, as news of the virus at home asks him to question his next move. An exhausted nurse struggles to let go, having lost a much-loved patient in isolation. A middle-aged son, barred from his mother's funeral, wakes to an oncoming hangover of regret. Told with Doyle's signature warmth, wit, and extraordinary eye for the richness that underpins the quiet of our lives, Life Without Children cuts to the heart of how we are all navigating loss, loneliness, and the shifting of history underneath our feet.
Call Number: FICTION DOYLE RPublication Date: 2022-02-22
Learning to Talk: Stories by
A dazzling collection of short stories from the two-time winner of the Booker Prize and #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Wolf Hall trilogy. In the wake of Hilary Mantel's brilliant conclusion to her award-winning Wolf Hall trilogy, Learning to Talk is a collection of loosely autobiographical stories that locates the transforming moments of a haunted childhood. Absorbing and evocative, these drawn-from-life stories begin in the 1950s in an insular northern village "scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip tongues." For the young narrator, the only way to survive is to get up, get on, get out. In "King Billy Is a Gentleman," the child must come to terms with the loss of a father and the puzzle of a fading Irish heritage. "Curved Is the Line of Beauty" is a story of friendship, faith and a near-disaster in a scrap-yard. The title story sees our narrator ironing out her northern vowels with the help of an ex-actress with one lung and a Manchester accent. In "Third Floor Rising," she watches, amazed, as her mother carves out a stylish new identity. With a deceptively light touch, Mantel illuminates the poignant experiences of childhood that leave each of us forever changed. "A book of her short stories is like a little sweet treat...Mantel's narrators never tell everything they know, and that's why they're worth listening to, carefully." --USA Today "Her short stories always recognize other potential realities...Even the most straightforward of Mantel's tales retain a faintly otherworldly air." --The Washington Post
Call Number: FICTION MANTEL HPublication Date: 2022-06-21
Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories by
The acclaimed, award-winning author of The Resisters takes measure of the fifty years since the opening of China and its unexpected effects on the lives of ordinary people. It is a unique book that only Jen could write--a story collection accruing the power of a novel as it proceeds--a work that Cynthia Ozick has called "an art beyond art. It is life itself." Beginning with a cheery letter penned by a Chinese girl in heaven to "poor Mr. Nixon" in hell, Gish Jen embarks on a fictional journey through U.S.-China relations, capturing the excitement of a world on the brink of tectonic change. Opal Chen reunites with her Chinese sisters after forty years; newly cosmopolitan Lulu Koo wonders why Americans "like to walk around in the woods with the mosquitoes"; Hong Kong parents go to extreme lengths to reestablish contact with their "number-one daughter" in New York; and Betty Koo, brought up on "no politics, just make money," finds she must reassess her mother's philosophy. With their profound compassion and equally profound humor, these eleven linked stories trace the intimate ways in which humans make and are made by history, capturing an extraordinary era in an extraordinary way. Delightful, provocative, and powerful, Thank You, Mr. Nixon furnishes yet more proof of Gish Jen's eminent place among American storytellers.
Call Number: FICTION JEN GPublication Date: 2022-02-01
Short Stories
"Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner." ― Neil Gaiman
Short Stories Collections: Booklists in the BPL Catalog
- Very Short Stories: 9 Collections for Readers with Very Little TimeFlash fiction, micro fiction, short short stories -- whatever you call them, they're the perfect medium for when you want to read but don't have time for more than a few words!
- Classic Shorts: 15 Short Story CollectionsHere you will find new classics, such as Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, as well as older classics by authors like Flannery O'Connor and James Joyce. Dive in for a quick read today!
- Short Stories to Go: Nine Online Contemporary CollectionsAre you always on the go? Don't currently have the time to commit to reading a novel? Why not try short stories. Short stories are Ideal for those strapped for time for whatever reason. Try these contemporary collections, all available in the very convenient and portable e-Book format, and see if you can find a favorite new author.
- Classic American Short StoriesNineteenth and early twentieth century American short story collections.
- Short Stories from Latin America & the CaribbeanDo some armchair traveling with these collections of short stories from Latin America and the Caribbean.
- They're Connected: 10 Interlinked Short Story CollectionsNot quite in the mood for something as long as a novel, but want something with more narrative bite than a short story? Try a collection of linked stories. In a linked collection, each story can stand on its own but the connections created, whether by recurring characters, location, or themes, work to create a collection greater than its parts.
- Mixed Tapes: 12 Short Story AnthologiesMany of these anthologies include well known authors in their genres as well as a few newer writers that shouldn't be missed. Check one out today for some quick reads!
- SF/F Short Stories: 14 Collections to Thrill and Intrigue YouFrom sentient spaceships to twisted fairytales to lurking cosmic horrors, speculative fiction has a long and well-curated legacy of short stories! These anthologies -- from award-winning authors and industry superstar editors -- offer a smorgasbord of options to fans of fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, and horror.
- Anthologized: 19 Short Story Collections for TeensNot in the mood for a whole novel? Try a short story collection! You can pick a story at random, choose an author you recognize, or read from cover to cover -- whatever feels best to you.