Is there such a thing as books with a collection of short stories for adults?

[PlumpAndGrump]

I want to get back into reading again but every time I start a book I never get round to finishing it because life is hectic with 3 young children and I am exhausted.

I've recently got my 6 year old the 5 Minute Stories by Enid Blyton which is just a collection of shorter reads as he is moving on from younger books, and I wonder if there is something like this for adults.

I've tried audio books too but find it difficult to get into them if I don't gel with the narrators voice, it puts me off. I prefer actual books with pages anyway.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations. If no such thing exists then could I possible take recommendations for easy enjoyable reads to get back into it again? I feel like my life is missing an unputdownable book.

Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout
This is a novel but each chapter is written as a short story. Quirky.

Just posting quickly as my own three children are sure to want something in minutes….but
Helen Simpson, has to come first as she is a fantastic short story writer but, above all, captures life as a parent and coming out the early years so perfectly. I’ve read the title story of her collection ‘Hey Yeah Right Get a Life’ so many times, recommend so highly
Alice Munro, a master of the short story
Kate Atkinson collection mentioned up thread, not read it but love her and can’t wait to read her short stories
Somerset Maugham, so evocative of different times and places, I love his collections set in SE Asia ‘Rain’ in particular is excellent
Saki, read his short stories decades ago but remember find them very funny
Ted Chiang ‘Stories of your life’, so thought provoking, beautiful and do so much in the constraints of a short story.
Annie Proulx has a collection, I think ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is actually a short story
Agree with a pp re ‘Olive Kitteridge’ and ‘Olive Again’. Two of my all time favourite books and can be read like short stories.
But if you want something easy, fun and with supressed air of hilarity to get you back into reading you can’t go wrong with Mitford and ‘the pursuit of love’

They are terrific.
Elizabeth Taylor's short stories are good and so are William Trevor's.

And the American writer Lorrie Moore. She is excellent. And the.Canadian Alice Munro. She packs a wallop.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2504.The_Complete_Short_Stories
The Complete Short StoriesH.G. Wells, John R. Hammond (Editor)

I recommend Geoffrey Archers a quiver full of arrows

Small things like these by Claire Keegan is a short book but was a prize winner. You can get it second hand

Yes, the Claire Keegan is a very good short novel, but it's not a story collection.

Agatha Christie and Jeffery Archer have short stories. You can often get short stories collections by a mix of authors. There was a Agatha Christie style book with authors like Ruth ware contributing. There has been a few female authors short stories such as maeve bincy, Jenny Colgan.
Libraries often stock short reads which are around 100 pages

Might be a bit old fashioned, but The People's Friend is a weekly/monthly magazine of short stories. There's also an annual every year. You would likely find some in the charity shops

Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, miscellany books with snippets and paragraphs of info.

Penguin & OUP both have anthologies of short stories by different authors, which gives you the opportunity to find authors you might like.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-Contemporary-British-Short-Story/dp/0141986212/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_2/258-8241887-7883661?pd_rd_w=RXrEu&content-id=amzn1.sym.69d5fdce-57f7-4499-8343-a6ae989376d3&pf_rd_p=69d5fdce-57f7-4499-8343-a6ae989376d3&pf_rd_r=H3D23FGPTPSC6MMP2NFP&pd_rd_wg=3MkZH&pd_rd_r=3ea7f43c-6d0b-47c0-9505-2b95ff1b8f2e&pd_rd_i=0141986212&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-English-Short-Stories-Books/dp/0199561605

Apologies if someone has mentioned these already, but Ruth Rendell's short stories are excellent, as are Joanne Harris's.

I don't think you can beat William Trevor for a good short story. 'The Ballroom of Romance' is marvellous.

Katherine Mansfield was a superb short story writer and easy to find in the library, second hand bookshops etc.

Great thread OP from last year - but still place-marking.

Love William Trevor - so will definitely have a look for that (also Kate Atkinson).

I will add Vladimir Nabokov to the list.I remember his short stories as being the most original (and weird)/interesting that I've read...

Claire Keegan writes novellas.
Small Things Like These has been made into a film, out now, starring Cillian Murphy.
I've just finished reading it.
It is beautifully written.
I intend going to see the film soon.
Another of her very short books Foster was adapted and made into a film called An Cailín Ciúin ( The Quiet Girl ). Which was excellent.
I also read her thought provoking So Late in the Day.
I hope to read shortly her
Antarctica
&
Walk The Blue Fields

Daphne Du Maurier
William Trevor
Somerset Maugham

More recent : Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny

Another vote for this book. Totally fascinating.

Orbital the booker prize winner is a small novella type book - sorry, I haven't read it yet to give an opinion but I was surprised how short it is. It was 9.99, a paperback from Waterstones.