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Dec 23, 2019 · We began with the best debut novels of the decade, and now we’re back with the best short story collections of the decade—or to be precise, the best collections published in English between 2010 and 2019. The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by the Literary Hub staff.
- The Best Reviewed Short Story Collections of 2022 - Literary Hub
Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications,...
- The Best Reviewed Short Story Collections of 2021 - Literary Hub
Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications,...
- The Best Reviewed Short Story Collections of 2022 - Literary Hub
- Free Short Stories to Read Right Now
- “Lamb to The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
- “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
- “How to Become A Writer” by Lorrie Moore
- “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian
- “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
- “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Symbols and Signs” by Vladimir Nabokov
- “Sticks” by George Saunders
- “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
These individual short stories are the best of the best — and the even better news is that they're available for free online for you to peruse. From classics published in the 1900s to a short story that exploded in late 2017, here are ten of the greatest free short storiesfor you to read.
While not exactly a philosophical or political tale like our first two examples, this twisty short storyfrom Dahl does delve into some shady moral territory. We are introduced to Mary Maloney: a loving wife and dedicated homemaker. In just a few short paragraphs describing how she welcomes her husband home, Dahl makes us sympathize with Mary — befo...
A perennial feature in many a high school syllabus, Shirley Jackson’s best-known short storyclinically details an unusual ritual that takes place in a small town. There’s not exactly a lot of plot to spoil in The Lottery — but within a few short pages, Jackson manages to represent the mob mentality that can drive reasonable people to commit heinous...
Told in the second person point of view, this story from Moore’s debut anthology Self-Helptakes an honest look at the inner life of a struggling artist. Through the use of an unusual POV, the author manages to turn her reader into a confidante — making it abundantly clear that the ‘you’ the narrator is speaking about is actually herself. This story...
In the Social Media Age, no short story has gone viral the way this New Yorker contributionfrom Roupenian has. Arriving at the height of #MeToo, it begins with 20-year-old Margot embarking on the early stages of flirtation with an older man, Robert. As she gets to know more about this man (as well as filling in the gaps with her imagination), the p...
First published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1981, “Cathedral”is today known as one of Raymond Carver’s finest works. When it opens, we meet a narrator whose wife is expecting a visit from an old friend, a blind man. Dissatisfied and distrusting of people not like him, our narrator struggles to connect until the blind man asks him to describe a cathe...
Innocuously titled, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”is nevertheless Flannery O’Connor’s bleakest — and most famous — work. It begins unassumingly with a Southern family who’s planning to go on a road trip. Yet the journey is rudely interrupted when their car overturns on an abandoned dirt road — and they are met by an enigmatic group of three men, comi...
The famous author of Lolita wrote “Signs and Symbols”in 1948. Its premise is seemingly simple: an elderly couple visits their mentally ill son in the sanatorium in America. Yet their background and trials come into sharp focus as the story develops, until an explosive ending disrupts everyone’s peace of mind. As you might expect, the somber “Symbol...
Not so much a short story as it is flash fiction, “Sticks”is written from the perspective of a young man whose father has an unusual habit: dressing up a crucifix that’s built of out a metal pole in the yard. One of America’s greatest living short story writers, George Saunders explained: "For two years I'd been driving past a house like the one in...
If there’s anyone who you can trust to deliver thought-provoking, terrifying science fiction on the regular, it’s Ray Bradbury. In “The Veldt,”George and Lydia Hadley have bought an automated house that comes with a “nursey,” or a virtual reality room. Worried about the nursery’s effect on the kids, George and Lydia think about turning off the nurs...
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Dec 18, 2017 · The Best Short Story Collections Of All-Time. December 18, 2017 by. “What are the best Short Story Collections Of All-Time??” We looked at 382 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
#BooksAuthorsLists26A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other ...Flannery O’ConnorGoodreads27After the QuakeHaruki MurakamiBook Riot28American HousewifeHelen EllisBook Riot29At the Mouth of the River of Bees: ...Kij JohnsonBook Riot- A Selected List of Short Story Collections
- Favorite Short Stories Collection
Mar 12, 2018 · From New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld’s dazzling first collection, You Think It, I’ll Say It, to National Book Award winner Denis Johnson’s final collection, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, there’s something for every book lover from Random House.
Sep 30, 2023 · It’s all too easy to pass the time by scrolling on your phone, but what if, instead of passing the time swiping, you could start and finish a story (or even multiple)? Connect with any of these short story collections from acclaimed authors like Lore Segal, Emma Cline and Bryan Washington for a quick and satisfying literary lunch.
