I’m wrapping up my list of books I’ve read this year and there’s two I really liked that happen to be collections of short stories: Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King and Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. I realized the short story books are so nice for getting over reading slumps! Anything similar I can add to next year’s TBR?
by simplehowdy
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Liberation Day; Sanders dips into Black mirror-esque episodes in his short stories but always to explore one side of humanity. Granted it is a one-dimensional highlight, he finds a way to make the reading experience a joy in a different way for almost every story, but then wraps one or two into the same worldbuilding to surprise you so you sort of felt like you glimpsed into several other dimensions but one of particular relevance.
“The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter is a classic, Carter pushed boundaries by re-interpreting fairy tales to be stories of feminine agency and desire. One of my friends, a passionate genre-fiction fan, said the book inspired them to start writing after a long dry spell.
“The Raven’s Table” and “The Wolf’s Feast” by Christine Morgan are viking horror with a Lovecraftian flavor, a genre people don’t realize they want until they read it.
“Buffalo Is The New Buffalo” by Chelsea Vowel is a collection of Metis futurism stories. Written for an indigenous audience, but with enough explanations that non-indigenous people can still get a lot out of it.
“Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler is a collection of short stories, including her famous ‘botflies, but sympathetic’ story. “Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements” edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha is a collection of stories inspired by her, I particularly love Mia Mingus’s story about a colony of disabled people.
Ted Chiang: Stories of Your Life and Others