Tag Archives: short stories

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

27 Monday Dec 2021

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A wonderful collection of short stories by the author of Writers & Lovers, another great book. Author Lily King is able to do so much with each story, a few of which take place in New England, and all of which feature interesting, complicated characters and plots.

“Five Tuesdays in Winter moved me, inspired me, thrilled me. It filled up every chamber of my heart. I loved this book.” —Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author

[A] dazzling new collection…A series of beautifully written character studies brimming with insight into the human condition.– “Library Journal (starred review)”

King can make you fall in love with a character fast, especially the smart, vulnerable, often painfully self-conscious adolescent protagonists featured in several of the ten stories collected here…Full of insights and pleasures.– “Kirkus Reviews (starred reviews)”

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Redeployment by Phil Klay

29 Friday Jul 2016

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This collection of short stories gives a visceral explanation of the power of the war experience on a soldier and his/her inner life.  Take a look at the searing effects of the recent wars on our newest combat soldiers.  Winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction.

“A sharp set of stories….Klay’s grasp of bureaucracy and bitter irony here rivals Joseph Heller and George Orwell….A no-nonsense and informed reckoning with combat.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“[Klay captures] on an intimate scale the ways in which the war in Iraq evoked a unique array of emotion, predicament and heartbreak. In Klay’s hands, Iraq comes across not merely as a theater of war but as a laboratory of the human condition in extremis. Redeployment is hilarious, biting, whipsawing and sad. It’s the best thing written so far on what the war did to people’s souls.”  – Dexter Filkins, The New York Times Book Review

“Klay grasps both tough-guy characterization and life spent in the field, yet he also mines the struggle of soldiers to be emotionally freed from the images they can’t stop seeing. It’s clear that Klay, himself a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who served in Iraq, has parlayed his insider’s knowledge of soldier-bonding and emotional scarring into a collection that proves a powerful statement on the nature of war, violence, and the nuances of human nature.” – Publisher’s Weekly (starred)

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Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann

16 Monday May 2016

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The title story in this collection of short stories from the author of Transatlantic and Let the Great World Spin, takes place in Brooklyn on a snowy day when an elderly man falls on the slippery sidewalk.  The snow obscures what has actually happened just as the thoughts of the man and his past float and spin through his head like the flakes in a snow globe.

The other two stories, “Sh’khol” and “Treaty” both pack a powerful punch and deal with the shifting aspects of memory as well.

Be sure to check McCann’s website (http://colummccann.com/) for background information that is relevant to understanding the title story.

“In just three short stories and one novella, McCann weaves the magic that made Let the Great World Spin so acclaimed—especially in one brilliant short piece of metafiction in which the process of writing a story becomes interwoven with the story created.”—The Huffington Post

“McCann is a writer of power and subtlety and beauty. . . . The powerful title story loiters in the mind long after you’ve read it.”—Sarah Lyall, The New York Times

“McCann is a passionate writer whose impulse is always toward a generous understanding of his diverse characters.”—The Wall Street Journal

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One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak

06 Monday Oct 2014

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Prior to reading this book, I knew that B.J. Novak was an actor and writer on the TV show The Office (and that he grew up in Newton). I had no idea he was an author, and I was surprised and impressed by this collection of short stories. Some were stronger than others, but I really enjoyed his writing and sense of humor. I recommend the audiobook, which Novak reads along with several guest narrators including Emma Thompson, Julianne Moore, and Mindy Kaling.

*Starred Review* Novak’s high-concept, hilarious, and disarmingly commiserative fiction debut stems from his stand-up performances and his Emmy Award–winning work on the comedy series, The Office, as writer, actor, director, and executive producer. Accordingly, his more concise stories come across as brainy comedy bits, while his sustained tales covertly encompass deep emotional and psychological dimensions. An adept zeitgeist miner, Novak excels at topsy-turvy improvisations on a dizzying array of subjects, from Aesop’s fables to tabloid Elvis to our oracular enthrallment to the stock market. A master of cringe, Novak imagines a blind date with a warlord, a Comedy Central TV roast of Nelson Mandela, and a mortifying misunderstanding between mega-best-selling novelist John Grisham and his new editor. Writing with zing and humor in the spirit of Woody Allen and Steve Martin, Novak also ventures into the realm of George Saunders and David Foster Wallace. A boy wins a breakfast-cereal contest and discovers a shocking family secret. A sex robot falls in love. A man reveals the heartbreak behind the universally dreaded math problem about the two trains leaving the stations at different times. Baseline clever and fresh, at best spectacularly perceptive, and always commanding, Novak’s ingeniously ambushing stories of longing, fear, pretension, and confusion reveal the quintessential absurdities and transcendent beauty of our catch-as-catch-can lives.
–Donna Seaman, Booklist