Do you like short story collections? Do you enjoy taking little bites of what an author can do? I might have some recommendations for you!

Short story collections.

Over the years I have become quite fond of short story collections. I find them very great introductions to authors but also enjoy dipping in and out of an author’s work and style. It has introduced me to so many new authors because I  find good written short stories such a skill! It’s not secret that I’m a lover of big books, so if I can find a short story completely satisfying as it is, I will admire it even more!

These are a couple of collections I’d like to talk about to share some short-story love.

We’re Flying By Peter Stamm

We’re Flying is a surrealistic collection. Slightly on the big side with over 22 stories, every story still seems to fit so well. From a story about a woman who alone lived in the woods when she was a child. To a husband packing a suitcase for his wife who is in the hospital. The stories seem simple but have a beautiful rhythm to them.

I’ve seen so little people talk about this one, while it really deserves the attention. I think it’s a very good introduction to the genre of short stories too.

The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

This quirky little book is a recent addition to my collection. I won it in an instagram giveaway and couldn’t be more excited to add The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrngton to my collection. Because it does sound super up my alley! 

Leonara Carrington was called the master of macabre, ‘of gorgeous tableaux, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination.’ On the back it mentions something about a girl asking a hyena to go to a ball. Call me intrigued! I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this one.

Angela Carter’s Book of Fairytales

The title says it all for this one. This book of fairytales is quite self-explanatory. This collection is a beautiful book that is filled with fairytales all over the world. Angela Carter is brilliant at retelling and relaying fairytales and this book is no different. Most of these are snippets of tales and it’s a delight to browse this book every now and again.

Also check out her other collection ‘The Bloody Chamber and other stories’, if you’re a fan of fairytale retellings. Angela Carter has this beautiful manner of making the classic fairytales even darker, more sensual and just that bit grittier. 

 

A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel

Don’t tell my other books, but this might be the most beautiful book in my collection! A Guide to Being Born is just overall perfection to me. The so called ‘book porn’, not the mention the beautiful rainbow-like spine! Romana Ausubel’s writing is enchanting, each story seems like a fairytale. A teenager believing she will give birth to animals instead of a baby, a ghost of a civil war victim living in a house and people growing a new arm they fall in love.

It’s a particular one, but give it a chance, Ausubel’s writing will lure you in in a few pages!

A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan

A Portable Shelter is a collection unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

The book opens with two women, expecting their first child. They both tell their unborn child stores, making up the collection. Stories about lessons they’ve learned. About circuses, stargazing, selkies, child-eating witches and broken-toothed dragons. But these stories are to be kept secret because they promised to only tell truths. So they keep these story quietly to themselves, only telling their unborn child when the other is asleep or at work.

This book is so gorgeous and will bring tears to my eyes no matter when I think about it. I could not recommend this collection and author enough!

Signing off!

I hope you liked this little random post on short story collections. I’ve added a goodreads links for all the books in case you want to check them out further or add them to your to-be-read shelf. 😉  And if you want to gush about your own favorite collections, I of course welcome you to do so! I’d love to learn about some new gems! 

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