Exploring Short Stories

This time I have a selection of short stories, for teens and adults, that you may enjoy.  If you want to listen to the original podcast, the link is here:  Alchemy of Genres    Just like the podcast, I will only explain what KIND of stories are in the collection and maybe share a fav story or two.  

Likely Stories is a collection of stories focused on those told around the bar, Diogenes.  All stories are told in graphic novel format.  

Gaiman has shared stories in multiple collections, and this is no different; but my fav stories in this one are Feeders & Eaters as well as Foreign Parts.

This is a quick read appropriate for teens and adults, though perhaps not teens who are squeamish.

While I am not a huge George R R Martin fan, I did enjoy this book.  There is a great range of authors and different types of stories all featuring a "dangerous woman" but interpreted in so many different ways.  My fav stories in this collection were Hands That Are Not There by Melinda Snodgrass and Wrestling Jesus by Joe Lansdale.  This is a huge book with lots of stories and was published for an adult audience.

This is a book published for teens, but the topic and stories should be explored by all.  The fact that the editors have brought together so many different stories starring disabled teens of many types and with a variety of issues explored makes this both an excellent collection but also a thoughtful one.  Unbroken has a range of stories; romantic, creepy, fantastical and realistic.  My favorite stories are Britt and the Bike God by Kody Keplinger and A Curse, A Kindness by Corinne Duyvis.

Fantastic Hope ended up coming out just as the US shut down for quarantine, which was fortuitous.  I am a huge fan of Hamilton, so, of course I love her story; Zombie Dearest.  McCaskey's story is also good, but my other fav story is Jonathan Maberry's Twilight Falls.

I like that all the stories involve hope and positivity.  This collection was published for adults.

M is for Magic is a collection of Gaiman stories re-edited for 

children and teens.  If you haven't read any of his stories, it's a great place to start.

Smoke & Mirrors has quite a number of Gaiman stories.  He is a master of storytelling, so there are a number of amazing ones to explore.  One of my favs is The Price and Chivalry; but really, they are all amazing.

Zombies vs Unicorns is a tongue in cheek "battle" of which is better; zombies or unicorns.  Many well known teen authors choose a side and share a story.  Bougainvillea by Ryan is really good; as is the intro to the Killer Unicorns series by Peterfreund with the story The Care & Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn.  

This is a fun collection of stories.

One Death, Nine Stories is an unusual collection.  Every story is about the death of  Kevin Nicholas, age 19.  Overall it highlights how a death affects people, even those who don't know you.  This is a really thoughtful and important book, because Kevin wasn't a celebrity, but he was important and his being gone affected things....and for so many, it is an important message to hear.   This book is a quick read and was published for teens.

How They Met is a collection of stories written by David Levithan, a well known and highly regarded YA author.  This collection is all about love, including many LGBTQ teens.  

The Heart2Heart anthologies are all written by various adult authors, with proceeds going to various LGBTQ charities.  Some stories are more graphic, some are sweet, but all are interesting.  The theme that holds this one together is a "Heart2Heart podcast" that in each story someone listens to, or calls into making a wish (usually for love, but not always).  The creator of the podcast "Gene E. Del'Aamp" gets his own story, as the first one and also as the concluding story bringing it all together and also giving him his own wish and explaining how it works.  There are 18 stories, and I enjoyed a lot of them.  I don't know if this is still available (it was released as a Kindle book, and I think it had a limited release), but it may still be found somewhere.  

This is a really fun collection focusing on retellings of Asian myths and legends.  It was published for teens, and all the authors have published teen novels of their own.  One of my favorite stories was Olivia's Table by Alyssa Wong.

This is a fun collection both because it really is short; really quick stories featuring LGBTQ characters & stories.  My favorite was I Ate the Whole World to Find You (forgot to write down the author, sorry)...but a sweet love story.

Hungry Hearts features tales of food and love; and all stories are written by teen authors.  I like the range of types of stories, romance, grief, general realistic stories but all involving food.  My favorite one was Rain by Sangu Mandanna.

I hadn't read any of Jemisin's books, but after reading this collection, I am very interested in reading some more.  This collection is all featuring futuristic and magical tales featuring people of African origins or using African mythologies.  I love that it is about "Black Futures" and also her writings cover a variety of kinds of SF stories.  My favorites of the collection (but again, it is ALL really good) were Valedictorian and The Storyteller's Replacement.  In my podcast I quoted from One's Who Stay & Fight, a utopian story that makes you really examine why the world is the way it is.  This is an adult collection, not really due to content but more due to type of stories as these are all deeper, more thoughtful stories that are not quick and easy but instead make you think or debate or just savor slowly as you parse out the meanings of things and why the story went that way.   Definitely highly recommended.

Fresh Ink features YA authors and stories from people of color.  The stories are a range of kinds, but always feature a nonwhite perspective thus giving a fresh viewpoint to consider.  This was a really good and really quick read.  My favorite stories are Meet Cute by Malinda Lo and Tags by the amazing Walter Dean Myers.

For those who don't know, Joe Hill is a really amazing horror novelist and graphic novel writer.  He also happens to be the son of Stephen King.  This is a collection of stories, two of them written with his father.  I really enjoyed all of the stories, and also highly encourage you not to skip the intro as it gives you a quick bio & explanation of how he got started from Joe.  I have to HIGHLY recommend (with a small note of "prejudgement") the story Late Returns, because it features a bookmobile that can sometimes slip through time to deliver or pick up books from those who are no longer alive (thus the "late" in the title refers to both the lateness of the item and the no longer living status of the borrower).  Some stories are more horrific than others, but there is a nice range.  Joe doesn't write anything but adult stories, but if you are brave teen looking for a new voice in horror, check out anything by Joe.  Also, this is a great place to start for adults who aren't sure if they will like his style.

This collection of stories by Ted Chiang is overall good, and they all seem to be very deep and thoughtful....so it wasn't a quick read.   I am not great at thoughtful, but I try.  My favorite story was Tower of Babylon offering a really interesting story of what happened when they broke through the "gates of heaven" after building the tower, as well as a detailed idea of exactly what it would be like to build a tower that reaches heaven.

This is one of Stephen King's older collections, but it's still King, and still full of interesting and horrible stories that will make you sleep with the lights on, or just shudder at the idea of it.  (Definitely not meant for children).

My favorite stories; Suffer the Little Children and Dolan's Cadillac.