Recently I have realized I have many short story anthologies and collections in ebook format on the Kindle, and I forget to read them. Today I am listing a few of them for my Short Story Wednesday post, with a bit of information about each.
100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, Lorrie Moore (Editor), Heidi Pitlor (Series Editor)
This one has been on the Kindle since August 2021. I don't know that I have even looked at it since then. That is a shame because many of the authors and short stories sound very interesting.
There is an introduction for the whole book, written by Lorrie Moore, and then an introduction for each decade, written by Heidi Pitlor. The years covered are 1915 - 2015. Each story also has a brief introduction about the author.
How to Fall: Stories by Edith Pearlman
Edith Pearlman is new to me. I first heard of her early in 2023 at one or more Short Story Wednesday posts. Patricia Abbott discusses "Elder Jinks" by Pearlman at her blog, Pattinase.
How to Fall was published in 2005 and includes 16 short stories. More than half of the stories are set in Godolphin, a fictional Boston suburb.
In addition to this book, I also have Honeydew, a collection of her stories published in 2015. Pearlman died at 86 on January 1, 2023.
Short Stories: Five Decades by Irwin Shaw
I hate to admit it but I know very little about Irwin Shaw. I recognize the titles of his novels but I don't think I ever read any of them.
This book contains 63 short stories published from the late 1930s through the 1970s. It is over 750 pages long. I am sure these stories will be interesting. If anyone has experience with reading Irwin Shaw's novels or short stories, please let me know what you think.
Buffet for Unwelcome Guests by Christianna Brand
Christianna Brand was the pseudonym of Mary Christianna Lewis. She published novels between 1941 and 1982 but she is best known for her Golden Age mysteries, several of them featuring Inspector Cockrill. I have read two of her Inspector Cockrill novels, and several of her short stories.
This collection has an introduction, written by Robert E. Briney, which covers Brand's writing career and the short stories. There are 16 stories in the book; four of them are Inspector Cockrill stories.
I also have another collection of Christianna Brand stories on the Kindle, What Dread Hand?
22 comments:
That's the one thing about reading on a Kindle that bugs me...so many books purchased and lost in the great Kindle haystack of books until I stumble on them again one day. I need to get into the habit of flipping through all the titles I have stored away because every once in a while when I'm shopping around on Amazon and click on a book I want to buy, I see a message telling me that I purchased a copy months earlier.
Those are some interesting collections. I love your enthusiasm for short stories; not too many people seem to read them on a regular basis anymore. I picked up an interesting collection last week, another one edited by Otto Penzler, title "Golden Age Bibliomysteries." As you can tell from the title, it's a bunch of stories involving books in one way or the other. It's subtitled" Crime Strikes in the World of Books. Can't wait to get into it.
It's terrible isn't, the Kindle 'Black Hole'? A lot of us are guilty of that. LOL I have created a lot of collections so that does help me to keep track a bit, but not so's you'd notice... I'm very interested in your Christiana Brand collection, I'll look into that. I'm currently halfway through the Cyril Hare collection, I didn't realise it was as long as it is! After that I want to start on one of the many British library weird collections I have to read, probably Atlantis or maybe 'gastronomic'. We'll see.
One of my favorite Irwin Shaw shorts: https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/dresses.html
I read a lot of him way back. Rich Man, Poor Man was a pageturner and one of the first miniseries.
It my case, the kindle black whole is huge. Happens to me all the time.
One can overwhelm one's self with physical books, too, but they are harder to tuck away and ignore after a certain point!
You have several here that I've been meaning to look into, particularly the Century of BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES volume...took me a minute to realize I was conflating Irving Wallace with Irwin Shaw, and then realized that the miniseries version of RICH MAN, POOR MAN Patti cites is as close, I think, to reading (this) Shaw as I've come so far...with just maybe one or two of those collected stories in anthologies over the years.
I try to read at least one or two pieces out of any acquisition, both to see if I'm swept up and to wanly justify my mania, and giving them a shot is only fair!
Sam, I have the same problem, I go to buy a Kindle book and find out it has already been purchased. A few months ago I went through all the books and made an informal list. It did not do any good.
I do remember seeing that Golden Age Bibliomysteries recently. I will have to check it out. Or wait until I see what you think of it.
Cath, I need to try to use collections to organize some of my books on the Kindle.
One reason I am so enthusiastic about short story books on the kindle is that I can read them in bits and pieces more easily. I have a lot of the books of Noir short story anthologies on the Kindle: Detroit Noir, Tehran Noir, Moscow Noir and Helsinki Noir and more. I am glad to see that I have a few for foreign cities.
Patti, I did go and read that short story (The Girls in their Summer Dresses) and it was a good story.
I should read one of his novels for sure.
Kevin, it is good to know that I am not the only one. I just don't know why I don't slow down my buying. Some are more readable on the Kindle but I don't really read a lot of books in that format.
That is so true about physical books, Todd, and both my husband and I do that. I do have some in the garage (unread) that are in boxes that are now behind other things so I cannot get to them. When I finally do find them again, it will be fun to go through the boxes.
100 Years of the Best American Short Stories does look very inviting. A lot of stories though. I like that some background is included by the editors. Same for the Shaw, the number of stories is overwhelming.
Hi Tracy, Thanks for letting hs know about 100 Years of the Best Short Stories by Lorrie Moore. I saw the table of contents and so many well known writers I have been meaning to check out are included. I did read Evening In Byzantium years ago which I believe was written by Irwin Shaw. I liked that book.
I've only read one of Irwin Shaw's novels, The Young Lions, and I thought it was great. His writing is wonderful, and I can imagine his style would adapt quite well to the short story format. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with that collection - I'm quite tempted to acquire it myself if it's available here!
I know exactly what you mean, Tracy, about forgetting what's on your Kindle. I've done the same thing myself. I like the look of these collections very much, and short stories are custom-made for dipping in and out of as time permits. I'm especially interested in the Moore and the Brand.
I have over 100 Kindle books on my iPad. I prefer to read print books, but sometimes an e-book is irresistible--free!--and then it takes me years to get around to reading it.
100 Years of American Short Stories seems like a good collection to have. I went to check it out on Amazon and it says it's about 750 pages and includes 40 stories over the 100 years. I recognized many of the authors. But I think it would take me a long while to read. Still it seems like a walk through history to read such a wide time frame. Do you plan to read it all?
Kathy, I don't even know why I bought 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, except that I always notice short story books when I see them on Kindle Deals. But I am glad I did and I think it will introduce me to some good authors.
I looked up Evening in Byzantium and it is currently available for $2.99 (my limit for buying ebooks) so I went ahead and got a copy. Now I have something by him to try, so I am glad you mentioned it.
Fiction Fan, Thanks for your thoughts on The Young Lions. I also checked that out on Amazon, and it was also only $2.99, so I purchased it immediately, although I noticed that it is very, very long. But I have heard good things about it and you liked it, so I decided it was worth it.
George, I prefer to read print books also, for many reasons, but I am still a sucker for ebooks that are not too expensive and appeal to me. So many of the books I have are paperbacks with such small print they are hard to read.
Margot, I have a goal to read more ebooks this year, and I hope I do that. It is nice to have a lot of choice there, but as you say, short story books are perfect in that format.
Susan, the introductions to each decade in 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories and the small sections about each author were very appealing to me. I do plan to read all of the book, but I do think it will take me a long time, so I will see what happens. I have many unfinished short story books around the house.
I have the same problem of getting series or collections on my kindle and then moving on to newer reads.
I guess it is a problem many book lovers have, Mystica. I still feel silly buying more books when I will never read all the ones I have.
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