Doris Lessing: Collected Stories: To Room Nineteen
Picked this at at the Staines train station charity book shelf.
Ben Marcus: The Age of Wire and String
An illustrated edition of this avant-garde classic. I remember hating it when I first read it. Let's see how I feel about it now it has pictures.
Amos Oz: Between Friends
The publisher has done its best to hide the fact that this is a story collection but there's no fooling me!
D. W. Wilson: Once You Break a Knuckle
He won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2011 for a story I didn't like very much. Won't stop me giving these a go, though.
Karen Russell: Vampires in the Lemon Grove
New collection from the author of Swamplandia.
Jonathan Pinnock: Dot, Dash
A collection of very short stories (dots) followed by longer ones (dashes). Very good indeed so far.
Adam Marek: Instruction Manual for Swallowing
I received this as a Christmas gift. It was on my wishlist, apparently, but I can't remember why. Looks good though.
Matt Plass: Crying Just Like Anybody: A Fiction Desk Anthology
These regular anthologies (2 or 3 a year) are becoming essential volumes for fans of short fiction.
John Arnold: Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology: Volume 5
The latest collection featuring the best from one of the most important short story prizes in the country.
Tania Hershman: My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions by Tania Hershman
Lots of tiny little stories.
Richard Cowper: Custodians and Other Stories
Read a novel by this guy which was inspired by a story from this book, so I sought out this book.
March Was Made of Yarn
A charity anthology in response to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011. Some leading Japanese writers included.
Sherman Alexie: War Dances
A gift from the lovely @SarahEFranklin on Twitter.
Etgar Keret: Suddenly, a Knock on the Door
A new collection from the mad Israeli.
Adam Ross: Ladies and Gentlemen
By the author of Mr Peanut, apparently.
Etgar Keret: Missing Kissinger
A gift from short story writer Nik Perring, who has featured on this blog a fair bit this year.
Alberto Moravia: The Wayward Wife and other stories
Just found an old Penguin edition of this in one of my many piles.
Sarah Salway: Leading The Dance
A new edition of this contemporary classic. Now with extra stories.
Seth Fried: The Great Frustration: Stories
New collection from the States. Comes highly recommended by Joe at the Bristol Short Story Prize.
Tim O'Brien: The Things They Carried
I have only just realised that this is a story collection. Thought it was a novel. On the pile it goes.
Koji Suzuki: Dark Water
Just found this hiding on the shelves...
William Trevor: The Collected Stories
...and this.
Catherine Smith: The Biting Point
Arrived in the post, a pleasant surprise. Start a story blog and people send you story books.
Stuart Evers: Ten Stories About Smoking
It comes in a box and looks like a packet of cigarettes. Even a non-smoker like me thinks that is cool.
Adam Haslett: You Are Not A Stranger Here?
Lent to me by the lovely @neversarah from Twitter.
Andrea Barrett: Servants of the Map
I read a novel by her once. It was very good.
Annie Proulx: Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories
Has the one with the gay shepherds in it.
Haruki Murakami: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Believe it or not I haven't actually read this yet.
Woody Allen: The Complete Prose
For when I fancy a chuckle.
Haruki Murakami: The Elephant Vanishes
One of the stories from this collection went on to become The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
Charles Baxter: Through the Safety Net
And one of the stories in this book went on to become the novel Saul & Patsy.
Ryan Boudinot: The Littlest Hitler: Stories
One of my favourite collections of recent years. Am looking forward to dipping back in.
Jim Dodge: Rain on the River: Selected Poems and Short Prose
From the author of Fup and Stone Junction.
Haruki Murakami: After The Quake
It was when this book first came out that I interviewed Murakami on stage at the Prince Charles Cinema in London.
Gyrdir Eliasson: Stonetree
This was recommended to me by Sjon, author of The Blue Fox.
Alberto Moravia: Roman Tales
I don't think his stuff is in print at the moment. Scandalous.
Dan Rhodes: Anthropology
101 stories of 101 words each. I will save some of these for when I am in a rush.
Haruki Murakami: Birthday Stories: Selected and Introduced by Haruki Murakami
Some of his favourite writers selected to make his own birthday.
Tama Janowitz: The Slaves of New York
This was huge back in the day.
Alberto Moravia: Erotic Tales
For when I want to spice things up a bit.
Nik Perring: Not So Perfect: Stories
A small, square book.
Janet Frame: The Reservoir: Stories and Sketches
My wife is a big fan of Janet Frame. We have a big pile of her books in the house.
Richard Bausch: The Stories of Richard Bausch
This is a very handsome American hardback with uncut paper edges.
Richard Yates: The Collected Stories of Richard Yates
His novels are among the best I have read. Ever.
Guy Davenport: Eclogues
I think this was recommended to be because I like Georges Perec but I cannot honestly remember.
Charles Baxter: Believers
A novella with some stories tagged on to the end.
Frank Burton: A History of Sarcasm
Hints of Sarah Salway from the small amount of dipping in I have done so far.
Hannah Tinti: Animal Crackers
My edition is a gorgeous hardback with a printed cloth cover.
Raymond Carver: Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories
I have never read any Carver. That might have something to do with the rather clunky and unattractive edition of this collection that I own.
Robin Black: If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This
Hugely acclaimed last year and read on Radio 4.
Ryunosuke Akutagawa: Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
Translated by Jay Rubin and with an introduction from Haruki Murakami.
W P Kinsella: Brother Frank's Gospel Hour: Stories
From the author of Shoeless Joe Jackson Goes To Iowa, which became the movie Field of Dreams.
The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories
Chosen by David Mitchell as one of his favourite Japanese books.
Frederick Barthelme: Moon Deluxe
Donald's brother.
Charles Baxter: Relative Stranger
As many of you know, I consider Baxter to be one of the finest writers in the world today.
Colette: The Collected Stories Of Colette
A touch of French sauciness for the bedtime table.
Raymond Carver: Beginners
The original versions of the stories that went to make What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
Italo Calvino: Adam, One Afternoon: and Other Stories
I haven't read nearly enough Calvino.
David Guterson: The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind
I loved Snow Falling On Cedars but haven't thought his subsequent novels to be much cop.
Knut Hamsun: Tales of Love and Loss
Full marks to Souvenir Press for their sterling support of this Nobel Prize winner.
Tom Vowler: The Method: and Other Stories
One of a bunch of up-and-coming British authors.
Richard Russo: The Whore's Child: And Other Stories
A Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
Mark Poirier: Naked Pueblo
I have read quite a few of Poirier's novels and stories and they have all been bloody marvelous.
E. M. Forster: Collected Short Stories
The only Forster story I have read was a remarkable sci-fi tale that could well have influenced The Matrix. Not expecting much of that here.
Penguin Science Fiction
Edited by Brian Aldiss.
- Murray Bail: The Drover's Wife and Other Stories
I loved Eucalyptus and also his collection of notebook jottings but have never read any of his short fiction.
- New Writings in Science Fiction: No. 1
The first in an ongoing series from the mid-1960s. This one includes a story by Brian Aldiss.
- New Writings in Science Fiction: No. 16
And then I jump 15 volumes to number 16.
Guy de Maupassant: Selected Short Stories
I received this as a gift from a good friend who wanted me to read Boule de Suif.
Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction
Edited by Alfred Birnbaum, who translated Murakami's early novels.
- Nothing's Lost: 25 Short Stories
A collection of Hungarian writers.
The Showa Anthology
Modern Japanese short stories from 1929-84.
Bernhard Schlink: Flights of Love
By the author of The Reader.
So true about Salman Rushdie. Glad someone else thinks the same, as he is so highly rated by so many, but such a tedious writer in my opinion. No idea why he won the Booker of Bookers or any Booker, to be honest. I slogged my way through Midnight's Children for a bookclub I was in, but gave up fifty pages from the end.
Posted by: Rowena Macdonald | February 29, 2012 at 05:39 PM