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[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
[[Category:Short Stories|*]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter O'DonnellAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Modesty BlaiseAll Tomorrow's Futures: Live BaitFictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=Graphic NovelsScience Fiction|summary=We're back in 'Opening up new ways of thinking about the gritty yet glamorous world shape of Modesty Blaise - at least, as gritty and glamorous as you could get in the Evening Standard daily comic strip in the late 1980sthings to come. Titan have had a mammoth undertaking to reproduce all the original strips in handy large-format graphic novel compendia, and this latest covers three stories, all of which I consider greater in depth than those in the other volume I've reviewed - [[Modesty Blaise: Sweet Caroline by Neville Colvin and Peter O'Donnell|Sweet Caroline]].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686682</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tessa HadleyB0CDZRGT1M|title=Married LoveSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Married Love is Tessa Hadley’s second collection''Got a minute to be amused, entertained, containing twelve short or challenged?''''These 100 stories looking at (mostly) modern relationships and family dynamics – many are about parents and their grown up children and super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in-laws, others a flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are about couplesshort. Flicking through '' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the flash fictions in a book to choose some of the best and/or most interesting stories to mention, them? I have found don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a difficulty. Almost all fixed definition of these incisiveflash fiction but that for this collection, witty stories reveal an interesting group of characters I would like to know more author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about after the end, sometimes from several different viewpoints, and it is hard to pick out just a fewsingle page in your average paperback. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224096427</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam RossRachel Harrison|title=Ladies and GentlemenBad Dolls|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Adam RossIt's characters are driven - but been some time since I mean that in the wrong way've read any horror. They're not the ones riding on I had a crest couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a wave boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of motivationthe vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, steering their course through life. and I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! NoBut it is creepy, instead they and I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are passengersstories about women, living normal lives, and who or whatever is that at the wheel seems to have lost the satnav. So, least in 'Futures'part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a middle-aged unemployed man finds himself giving life lessons and breakup, trying a kick up the backside new dieting app, going to a teenaged neighbour just as his own career seems about to enter its nth phase, with an airy-fairy psychic-oriented company that won't ever go as far as telling him what his job might be. A professor who has to settle temporarily where his work takes him hen party and not where he would like, has to wonder what to do when told of the action-packed adventures of a devil-may-care, come-what-may mechaniccoping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224087746</amazonuk>1803363932
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Javier MariasB0CCCVRSGX|title=While the Women are SleepingStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=The first thing the trivially minded will note This is that this is not the complete edition Richard F Walker's second volume of While the Women short stories. There are Sleeping, for not thirteen in all the stories in the original Spanish volume are hereand I took something from each of them. You might think thatThere isn's because some have been hived off for t a future 'best of' compilation. But if this isnsingle one that doesn't deserve to be among the best of Javier Mariasothers or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much away, then so I don't know what isll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553929</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739593901
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael MorpurgoB09XZMCDVF|title=WarStories: Stories of Conflict13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary=Throughout history, war has blighted society and had long lasting impacts on not only those directly involved but ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the innocent bystanders too. This collection middle of stories, edited by the magnificent Michael Morpurgo himself, looks to explore the impacts of war on individual soldiers, families and especially children. Every story approaches conflicts from night; a different angle and this ensures that even though there are wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a good number of short stories stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the book, you will never feel as if it is becoming repetitive or dull. The stories do ideal person to have around in a good job of conveying just how multi-faceted and complex lawless village; the new boy on the concept of war pub football team is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447205014</amazonuk>}}very useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ludwig Bechstein, Axel Sceffler and Julia Donaldson1737030942|title=The Gloomster|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We've all been there. Finding fault with everything around us, and perhaps picking on one particular irritant that gets us so rattled, tetchy and narked all we can do is invoke "Hell and damnation!" down on all creation - including, of course, ourselves. After all, our lot is so bad it wonBag O't make anything much worse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571274242</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGoodies|author=Lloyd Jones|title=The Man in the Shed|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=The title is certainly attention-grabbing and I hoped that the book would live up to my expectations. It did. The man in 'The Man in the Shed' is not blessed with a name. His name (whatever it is) is not important or relevant to the tale. It's all about ''why'' he's in the shed in the first place. This particular shed's in a garden of a house inhabited by a family which includes the young narrator. It's pretty clear that the marriage is going through a rocky patch right now. So who, you could reasonably wonder, is the odd one out here - the husband or the man in the shed. Jones tells us in his own way. He's a writer who catches your attention early, or he did in my case. No fancy statements or lazy cliches but good old plain English but with flair.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848544820</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Judith Hermann|title=AliceJolly Walker Bittick
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionAnthologies|summary=Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's 'Alice'Bag O' is Goodies''. I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a collection rollicking tale of what happens when five short stories, linked thematically since they all deal with the subject of death, but they are also linked because the central character, Alice, is the same in each storyyoung men find a base for their partying. So rather than feeling like short stories the book has Right now, I didn't want a hint of the full-length novel , so I turned to it, yet the this anthology of verse and short stories are never completed or fully told so it. Bittick's a novel where you're not always sure what's going onwriting has matured - and so have his characters. Well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668529X</amazonuk>most of them!
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jamil Ahmad1529418100|title=The Wandering FalconBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionShort Stories|summary="In the tangle I'm not usually a fan of crumbling, weathershort stories -beaten and broken hills, where I find it all too easy to put the borders of Iran, Pakistan book down between stories and Afghanistan meet, is forget to pick it up again - but I am a military outpost…" Thus begins the tale fan of Tor Baz, Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the Black Falcon. To this desolate place come two wanderers, a man temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and a woman seeking refuge. Refuge is denied them, since it places duties I'm rather glad that the fort commander cannot accept, but instead he offers them shelter from the wind of a hundred and twenty daysI didn't even try. For as long as they want it. Shelterthose new to the series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and foodthe background to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241145155</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cees Nooteboom and Ina Rilke (Translator)B08NF79QXT|title=The Foxes Come At Night And Other StoriesCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=4.53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=There's a bold statement on the front cover from, as it happens, Thirty-one of my favourite authors-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, [[:Category:A S Byatt|A S Byatt]] saying that Nooteboom is ''one of the greatest modern novelistsCherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she'' so I thought that I was in s nominated for a treat- and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. But I didnShe't enjoy s delighted and the first short story. Not two people she's brought with her to the greatest of startsevent couldn't be more pleased. I was disappointed to say the least Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and was wondering what all the fuss was aboutBrazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Then I started to read the story entitled Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty'Thunderstorms best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica' s husband, Charles and things started to pick uptheir four-year-old daughter, Ava. I appreciated the sparse and elegant language. Lines such as Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn'Five people at an outdoor cafet for one thing: two women ... she misses having a solitary black man in her life... a couple at a table nearby. Enough for a film.' How lovely and evocative is that last line, I'm thinking. I read it twice as it was so good.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050230</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue GeeB08KKQ85FN|title=Last FlingBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Sue Gee is well known for her novels, but this is her first collection of short stories. Short story collections are not for everyone. I've always enjoyed them since they fit easily into 'If a busy life, leaving you feeling as if you've lived through woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a whole story Rottweiler in just lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a short space pampered peacock about to be released into the company of time. It's easier carrion crows or, more to find the time for a quick story sometimes than point, about to sit down with a four hundred page novel!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773061</amazonuk>}}discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E FlanneryB08CHJLNBS|title=Toby's Little EdenCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3.5|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=John E FlanneryHe's debut collection contains four short stories (although one is more of a novella) Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a series of amusing sketches about partner at Wickham Jones, the ground staff at a new Golf Course Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in north Manchesterthe heritage library next door. TheyEmilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she're more varied than they might appear at first glance and demonstrate Flannerys moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's ability philosophies, to get straight to the heart something a little deeper. Charles is more of the story without wasting words and to develop character as economically as possiblea [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, whilst still holding the readerhe's imagination. I knew as soon as I began shocked that Emilia reads ''The GhostwriterGuardian'' that I wasn. They't going to be disappointed as a man who has written successful thrillers is possessed by the spirit re obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of Charles Dickens. his mind? ItShe's a neat riff on John Brainenot his usual type at all: it's idea obvious to his friends. And given that novelist wait for an idea Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to descend on them and Graham Greenehim? The relationship's belief that novelists are like mediums.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445777940</amazonuk>obviously a non-starter, isn't it?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dorothy ParkerMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=The SexesCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary=From the young woman who examined her handkerchief in minute detail, to the soldierCurses. They's leave which didn't live up re there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to expectationdo this, through the thoughts of the early hours of the morning or not to the actress who proved a disappointment be able to her fan and do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on to the glorious culmination verge of the child who should never have been called Lolita we have five wonderful short storiesmarrying, and older people too. They're It seems in a book thatway there's no bigger than most escaping it. Which is why the theme of this book of short stories but buy it is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and it could well that other bewitched person. We'd be the best buy that you make this yearvery wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>014119619X</amazonuk>1789091500
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aidan ChambersStibbe_Xmas|title=The Kissing GameAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensHumour|summary=Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You dononly have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it't see s all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that many short story collections in YA circlesyou can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. But when they do appearChristmas, though, you often wonder why there arenis of course also a time of great boons. It't more s cash in hand for a lot of them. And this is absolutely plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the case with The Kissing Game. Ranging from short pieces of flash fiction thank-you letters to "proper" short storiesaunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, each one will inciteand as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, surprise did they even try and stimulate. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370331974</amazonuk>sell them any other time of the year?
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{{Frontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=A Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William Styron1911115847|title=The Suicide RunNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=A WW2 naval soldier''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, guarding a prison island for those found guilty at courtmartialsNigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is forced to wonder if he is winning his imbued with its very own battles against those arriving and leavingheart of darkness. A soldier remembers calming memories, Danger stalks the shadows and those causing tension, as he rests up before actionpeople are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. And for Kan writes with a highly-charged young man, there may be too much risk vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to be found in his high-octane downtimeachieve a glimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532220</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Saunders1529014484|title=The Vernham ChroniclesExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=45|genre=HumourScience Fiction|summary=Set amidst Over the rolling British countryside around Vernbury Vale is the little village of Vernham. Anyone who lives in a village will recognise it immediatelypast twenty-eight years, with its cobbled streets and Tudor buildings. There was some damage during the war (which mightTed Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, or might not these magnificent stories have been down to won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a lighthouse folly constructed by a local landowner on his lake) but the gaps science fiction fan it is likely that you have been filled with already come across some beautiful, er, mock Tudor buildingsof the work by Ted Chiang. Almost unique and nearly beautiful as the village is, itIf you haven's not the star of The Vernham Chroniclest then take this opportunity to do so now. The stars are the people who live in VernhamTrust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907499598</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John H Watson, Tony Reynolds and Chris Coady1794467440|title=The Lost Stories of Sherlock HolmesWatchwords |author=Philip Neal
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=It is This satisfying collection of short stories has a truth universally acknowledged that a successful detective character will have far too many cases in his career for it to be provenance at all realistic. The worst case in point are least as beguiling as the provenance of the Hardy Boys, who have had two hundred or more adventures and are still not 20. Slightly more literary, but no less busy antique watches that inspired it can seem, was Sherlock Holmes, for Watson declaimed many times that he did not write down all that man's exploits. Tony Reynolds here gives us eight more cases, making Holmes' workload even more impressive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685618</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shena Mackay1529006031|title=The Atmospheric Railway: New and Selected StoriesReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=This volume of short storiesIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first published book she was in 2008 but new [[Alice's Adventures in paperbackWonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, has and I don't remember loving it more as a lot child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to offer those familiar with Shena Mackayenjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. I's previous work and readers ve always preferred coming to her stories for the first timean author's output through their least obvious, with a generous thirty six stories allegedly throw- thirteen recent stories collected in book form for away pieces, and it's the first time are combined same with twenty three from Shena Mackayfranchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's previous collectionsshort novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099469677</amazonuk> For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sheila O'Flanagan1846974658|title=A Season to Remember|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=We first meet the Lodge owners, a likable couple. They find running their upmarket country house type hotel both exhilarating and exhausting. The novel is bang up to date so O'Flanagan gets in the whole recession/banker-bashing thing early on. As the festive season looms, the unthinkable has happened. Empty rooms. They're not used to empty rooms, at any time of the year. Normally the Lodge is a full house. But then a slow and steady trickle starts as our characters book in - and the story starts proper, so to speak.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755375157</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewLong Path To Wisdom|author=John Mortimer|title=Rumpole at ChristmasJan-Philipp Sendker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=This book On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as slim many second-hand escapist tales as one of Rumpolethe next person, what I's beloved packets of cigars and it can also be read in m really looking for is the 'local' – the time it takes an average turkey to cook in cookbook maybe, the oven on Christmas Day. A handful of festivemaps definitely, short stories is covered in this book with its appealing front coverbut above all: the folk tales. Most of the stories have been previously published elsewhereIf I ever get to Burma, mainly in I won'The Strand Magazine' but also in some of the national newspaperst need to hunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141039779</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Raymond CarverB077969HN8|title=Beginners|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary= One thing you soon surmise from reading Raymond Carver is that he was an alcoholic. Carver's characters tend to drink excessively, and his stories often examine the negative impact of drinking on his central character's relationships. But nowadays, what we talk about when we talk about Carver is the role of his editor, Gordon Lish.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540320</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAlternative Medicine|author=Colm Toibin|title=The Empty FamilyLaura Solomon
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=In his first book since Laura Solomon's publisher describes the pitch-perfect [[Brooklyn by Colm Toibin|Brooklyn]], Colm Toibin once more examines the great Irish theme of exile and homecoming in his new collection of short stories, in ''Alternative Medicine'' as 'The Empty Family'. As the title suggests, many black comedy with a twist of the stories also revolve around family relationships, and their sweet and sour Naturesurrealism''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918172</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kurt Vonnegut|title=Look at the Birdie|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=Kurt Vonnegut died a couple of years ago I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after '' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a sci fi writing career spanning over fifty years; he was well-known for his humanist views. This collection fan of unpublished short stories shows Vonnegut at his dark besteither, his theme, individuals out for themselves in an uncaring societybut I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. A colleague at The Bookbag [[Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut|recently wrote]] that Kurt Vonnegutcomedy is not ''too''s early writing black and the surrealism is his strongestgentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. If that is so, then this collection, illustrated with cartoons by Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the author, will be good news for his many fansnicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548852</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryunosuke Akutagawa9386897504|title=The Beautiful Tales of Love and the GrotesqueDisability|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=The author, the tongueI've always believed that less-twisting Akutagawa is 'hailed as one able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of the greatest skill and talent to write a short story writers in world literature' says which holds the reader and keeps them coming back book coverfor more. I was truly impressed and very keen There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to get reading. The front cover is both eye-catching put down and colourful, thereforget after you's no doubt that this book is about Japanve read a couple of pieces. There is I've recently read a comprehensive Introduction with its lovely title couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha'A Sprig Of Wild Oranges Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell' written by the translator. And straight away s Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, so I got a strong sense of his enthusiasm for the short stories was intrigued to followsee what she could do with an even shorter form. It is a good lead-in as it informs the reader of the gulf which exists between Western and Japanese values (a gulf as big as it gets, apparently) and of the conservative nature of the Japanese people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0871401924</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lydia Davis1986586898|title=Going To The Collected Last: Short Stories of Lydia DavisAbout Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=As you might expect In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with short stories, cash in his pocket - and his wife. In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the themes are as varied as ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Fears Story of Mrs OrlandoH' to 'Mothers' and , the story of course, I have my own particular favouritesFoinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people. Most After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of these short stories cover John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a couple no-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of pagesthe race, but others are merely a sentence or twopile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. AndFoinavon, for mewho had been many lengths adrift, cleared the less on fence and galloped to the pageline, winning the more impart the words usually haverace at odds of 100/1. In short (no pun intended) there would seem to be something for everyone in these 700+ pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114504X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kelly Link9386897296|title=Pretty Monsters|rating=3|genre=Fantasy|summary=It goes without saying, but the greatest thing about fantasy fiction is that one can go anywhere with it, and do anything. So a young man can easily try and dig his girlfriend up and retrieve some poetry he romantically left with her - only to have a hairy evening as a result. There can be a psychic link between a young lad, called Onion and doomed to die in a terrorist attack, and his cousin while she works as slave in an odd community of wizards. Several worlds can be accessed through an elderly womanHell's handbag, for better or worse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677843</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewUnveiling|author=A L Kennedy|title=What BecomesLaura Solomon|rating=43.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=YouA little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha're three stories into this collection s Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and two people have cut their hands open preparing food - I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a man with love drooping away from his marriage, making soupspoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and another, particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a greengrocerstrong person, preparing stock and thinking about his own relationshipshe's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. But there Daniel is no pattern framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to thatlive with Marsha. Four stories in and Then, of course, there have been two bursts are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of nonall -sequitur comedysubverted to the devil's evil ends. Why your fruit might be ruined by stray fingers, He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and the thoughts of a woman in a flotation tankas with many foster children, remembering Doctor Who, locked parental doors their self- and the urban myths of gerbilsesteem is very fragile. But there's still This is no pattern small-scale operation, either - and that's the point of these combined stories. Life and all of its emotions does not live devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to ruleHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009949406X</amazonuk>
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