Could anyone recommend short stories please?

[morelippy]

Various life stresses, mainly a significant bereavement seems to have robbed me of my ability to concentrate enough to read. I've been an avid reader for 50 years and miss it!

I wonder if short stories would help get me back in to it..

Any genre other than fantasy really

Willing to give anything gripping a go.

Thanks

Why not get an anthology of a bunch of different writers? I've sure you could find some that are specifically by women, or specifically 20th century - or maybe specifically comic ones, which might perk you up.

Alice Munro is an excellent writer

Elizabeth Bowen, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Townsend Warner. Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster stories. Old-fashioned & comforting.

Thank you! Will take a look

I'm not a big fan of short stories but read two recently that I really enjoyed
Medusa by Jessie Burton
Galatea by Madeline Miller
Retelling of ancient Greek myths with a feminist slant.

penelope lively and also Saki stories are great

I just read the new Margaret Atwood ‘old babes in the wood’. I’m not usually a fan of short stories but I really enjoyed these

… although some of them do touch on bereavement so maybe not the best for you right now

I love Katherine Mansfield's short stories. Her writing is beautiful. I second Alice Munro, and I have a secret love for Maeve Binchy - more substance than lots of people assume. Agatha Christie wrote some great short stories, some featuring Poirot or Miss Marple, others stand alone.

Saki
Roald Dahl
Oscar Wilde
All good diverting short stories

I love Maeve Binchy short stories and always re visit them after periods of not reading. I find them very comforting.

Also Roald Dahl as pp suggested.

Roald Dahl
Robert Shearman
Kelly Link
Sarah Hall
Helen Oyeyemi
Alison Moore

All brilliant.

There are loads of good anthologies where you can try out new writers, too.

The Penguin Book of Modern Women’s Short Stories, edited by Susan Hill.

This anthology I think is rather good. My very forward thinking A Level Lit teacher taught some of these to us in the mid 90’s and I’ve loved the anthology ever since. Angela Huth, Fay Weldon are two contributors. Some stories are funny, some tragic most have a wry humour underlying issues are still contemporary.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/633533

Jane Gardam

All Alice Munroe, she is amazing
Edith Pearlman
Women's Hour books of short stories
Mark Haddon The Pier Falls collection (but a touch dark!)
William Trevor
Penguin do the following big anthologies that are really good:
The Penguin book of the British contemporary short story
The Penguin book of the British short storyb(two volumes, one in a black cover for appx 1sst half of 20th century then 2nd vol. In a white cover for later half - they were originally about £25 each but now you can get them second hand cheap)
Alice Ash Paradise Block
Joseph O'connor Where have you been?

Happy reading Op

Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman is one of the best collections of short stories that I've read in years.

Yes, that’s a brilliant collection!

Adding to the Alice Munro love — she’s a genius. Would also add Mavis Gallant, Elizabeth Bowen (if you want an individual collection rather than her Collected Stories, try The Demon Lover or The Cat Jumps), William Trevor, John McGahern, Colm Toibín’s Mothers and Sons. For something very contemporary, Louise Kennedy’s The End of the World is a Cul de Sac or Nicole Flattery’s Show Them a Good Time, both from the last couple of years.

Shirley Jackson
anything by Jorge Luis Borges
Daphne Du Maurier
Saki
M.R. James

"Salt Slow! by Julia Armfield. Weird as fuck but she's a wonderful writer. If you like that then check out her novel "Our Wives Under The Sea".

Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Notwithstanding by Louis de Bernieres.

William Trevor writes women well.

penelope lively and also Saki stories are great

I agree.

Angus Wilson
Elizabeth Taylor - two absolutely brilliant mid-century English writers

Annie Proulx
Maggie Gee

.... oh, and the collection Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson is very good