Since I already own so many short story collections and anthologies, not to mention all my husband's short story books, I always plan to avoid those books at the Planned Parenthood book sale. This weekend, on the second day I visited, I got stuck in front of the table of short story collections and bought a lot more of them than I should have.
Below are three of my new short story books. None of them are very long, which is a good thing.
Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
Claire Keegan is an Irish writer who has gotten a lot of attention (and awards) for her novels and short story books in the last few years. I have some of her books in eBook format, but have not yet read any of them. So I picked up a paperback edition of her second book of short stories. From the back of the book: "Walk the Blue Fields is an unforgettable array of quietly wrenching stories about despair and desire in modern-day Ireland."
166 pages, 7 stories.
Seasonal Work by Laura Lippman
Laura Lippman is a well-known American mystery author and journalist; she worked for the Baltimore Sun for many years. In 2003, she published the first book in the Tess Monaghan series. Monaghan is a private investigator, based in Baltimore. Lippman has also written a good number of standalone mysteries. I have read two mysteries in the Monaghan series, but none of the standalone books, which I have always thought were about subjects too tense for me. The short stories in this book were written between 2009 and 2020, and Tess Monaghan is in some of them but not all of them, I think.
322 pages, 11 stories.
The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr
I have read nothing by American author Anthony Doerr. He is the author of All the Light We Cannot See, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Cloud Cuckoo Land. I was interested in this book of short stories because I thought reading them might get me interested in his novels.
218 pages, 8 stories.
7 comments:
These all look good, Tracy, but I'm especially drawn to the first one. I've read a couple of Clarie Keegan's novellas and she can put so much into so few words. I bet these short stories are wonderful.
I posted my review of Terra Incognita this past week if you want to take a look. I do think you need to bump it to the top of your TBR.
Kelly, I have been putting off reading the books by Keegan for a while, I don't know why. Until I got this one at the book sale, all my copies were ebooks. I hope I will like the short stories as well as you liked the two novellas.
I went over and read your review of Terra Incognita. Thanks for letting me know. As I said at your blog, I will read my copy of Terra Incognita as soon as I finish the book I am starting tonight. So I should get it read in September. My reading is still going slowly, but at least it is steady.
A great fan of Claire Keegan although I have not read this one.
Patti, I need to read both short stories and a novel by Keegan, and I hope this purchase will inspire me to do that.
I like Keegan's work and I enjoy the Laura Lippman books that aren''t too hard boiled. She is a big Betsy-Tacy fan and spoke at the convention in MN before the pandemic.
Constance, I am with you, I like Lippman's books that are not darker or on uncomfortable subjects more. I am guessing the short stories in this collection might be split between the two extremes. I had forgotten that you had mentioned that she is a Betsy-Tacy fan. How cool.
Short story collections can really be excellent, Tracy. I'm glad you found some. I'd like read Keegan's work' I haven't yet. And I do like Laura Lippman's work. I haven't read any of it for a while; maybe I should try some of her stories.
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