I’m still frantically trying to finish the multiple short story collections on my stack, but there’s always room for more on the TBR!
This month I discovered (and promptly ordered secondhand):
- Arranged Marriage by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (via Lisa of Hopewell’s Public Library of Life), a collection about the South Asian immigrant experience that I thought could be a good follow-up to Interpreter of Maladies
- Alice by Judith Hermann (via Brona of This Reading Life), linked short stories that would also count towards German Literature Month in November
It’s been a while since I’ve read anything of Tom Cox’s, but I loved the description in Jan’s review (at What I Think About When I Think About Reading) of his new collection, Curious Events Lately Occurring in This Neighbourhood, as “a sketch show” with “a certain skewed perception, a certain willingness to embrace the surreal.” I’m also always partial to flash fiction, too, which this is at least in part.
I came across Roald Dahl’s short stories for grown-ups through Cathy’s review of Kiss, Kiss at 746 Books and will borrow his collected stories from the university library for next year’s challenge.
I am really enjoying a different spooky collection of Celia Fremlin’s at the moment, so I will have to source By Horror Haunted (reviewed by Helen at She Reads Novels).
Diana’s review of multiple collections by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky at Thoughts on Papyrus piqued my interest and I managed to find one story, “Quadraturin,” with the full text online to read another time.
Both Nancy Elin and Rose featured a selection of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham; Rose even said she thinks his stories are better than his novels, so I know I’ve got to read some. I have the volume Creatures of Circumstance, and can access others from the public library.
Last month I earned a £70 voucher for doing a Teams call about my reading and book-buying habits with a UX researcher at Awesomebooks.com (she didn’t know what she was in for!) – my favourite place to buy secondhand books online – and spent it at the weekend. I have two new copies on the way as part of that big order, one of which is a collection of uncanny stories that I’ve had in my sights ever since I first heard about it: The Good Eye by Jess Gibson, Margaret Atwood’s daughter. I will plan to read it as part of Margaret Atwood Reading Month in November.
Have you discovered any new stories or collections this month?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
An interesting range of authors and books! I have read just about everything which has been translated by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky and I think he’s just brilliant!!!
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Diana really piqued my interest. I’d never heard of him!
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I also added By Horror Haunted to my wishlist!
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I wasn’t so keen on Uncle Paul, but I really enjoyed Fremlin’s spooky stories.
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Pleased to see Alice get a mention. A quietly understated gem.
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I hope I can squeeze it in for German Lit Month.
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I only managed to read 1 short-story plus a collection of short-stories this month.
I have started a fabulous collection of Japanese short-stories: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40727416-the-penguin-book-of-japanese-short-stories
I will keep reading it and will present it in January for the Japanese challenge.
I just added two this month:
An upcoming short-story by Haruki Murakami: Abandoning a Cat: A Personal Story
And a collection: Leopold’s Way: Detective Stories, by Edward D. Hoch.
Thanks so much for hosting!
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Thank you so much for your contributions!
An anthology like that is good to take one’s time over.
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Re Somerset Maugham, read his story Rain. We think of him as holed up in the South of France but in fact he travelled extensively in South East Asia. That will take you to Tan Twan Eng’s novel The House of Doors.
My SSS has been Primo Levi’s Periodic Table; Call of Memory, a collection of Holocaust short stories we are studying for a Holocaust Education programme; and Graham Swift’s recent collection Twelve Post-War Tales.
Looking forward to Novellas in November now. I wasn’t aware of Atwood’s daughter but then I’m not an Atwood fan.
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I did this the other way round… I read The House of Doors and that lead me to Maugham’s short stories, and they are fantastic. I will have to read a few more when I get home. I think Tan Twan Eng’s first novel also refers to ‘The Gift of Rain’ as he says in The House of Doors, something like ‘to write a story such as Rain is a gift’ or something like that.
I digress but I hope Eng is working on a new novel as I absolutely adore his writing.
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I’ve read Maugham novels set in China and the South Pacific as well as England and France. And yes, the Tan novel is excellent.
I’d like to read more by Graham Swift.
We’d be glad to have you join in with Novellas in November! Look out for the announcement post on Monday.
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I’ll keep an eye out for The Good Eye (pun intended). Is it wrong to say this is because of who the author is? Rightly or wrongly, it’s an intriguing connection.
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Totally fair — that’s what drew me as well! I doubt she can live up to her mother, but that’s probably not a fair benchmark.
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By Horror Haunted is a great collection. I definitely recommend it, especially as you’re enjoying some of Fremlin’s other short stories.
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