Recommend short stories

[Kas]

I'm looking for the short stories/ esseys or relatively short novels . Anything you can recommend to me?

I read pretty much everything from classics to reportages, sf, crime stories and action. I would like it to be something contemporary, best of the author still alive, but not necessarily.

I more often read novels, but I’m a fan of almost all the essays of Vonnegut I read and sf short stories of Lem. I liked A. Munro stories and “One more year” of Sana Krasikov. I love Ibero-American prose…

 

[citizen cane]

Any short stories by Ernest Hemingway.

 

[miss fortune]

for stories where the author is actually still alive, I'd suggest Neil Gaiman's collections Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors (the later of which has a short story with a rather wicked emotional punch to anyone in a LTR)

I adore Ray Bradbury's stories and he hasn't been dead for long (the October People or the Illustrated Man are good places to start) and Jorge Borges' stories because they're timeless (I have the collection Labyrinths... it's awesome! if you can read spanish I'd suggest reading them in spanish instead of english as well, but they are good in english)

if you poke around the internet enough, you'll find some good short stories that are old and new that are free for the reading too here is a set of 30 suggestions... I've read many of them and found them to be pretty good

 

[Andy]

Godzillas 12 step program by Joe Lansdale, available here..

Godzilla's Twelve Step Program, by Joe R. Lansdale

 

[Lexicon]

The Mist, Stephen King.

 

[Tellenbach]

Her Pilgrim Soul by Alan Brennert
Wong's Lost and Found Emporium by William F. Wu

Both are short stories adapted into Twilight Zone episodes.

 

[ChocolateMoose123]

I'm a big fan of Flannery O'Connor but you're probably familiar with her. If not, 'Everything that rises, must converge' is a good place to start.

Inez Arrodondo "underground river and other short stories" is a very cool read. Mexican author's first English book of stories and it's beautifully done.


I just finished reading 'A man called Ove'. Not a short story but not a long book. Easy to read.

Electric Literature’s 25 Best Story Collections of 2014 | Electric Literature

I always prefer one year behind the current one. Personal preference. There are more critiques/interpretations available to read when finished.

 

[ImaFour]

Are you familiar with the writings of Saki?
This short story, ''Tobermory", is funny and wickedly clever; it's one of my favorites.
Hope you enjoy it.

Short Stories: Tobermory by Saki

 

[Kas]

Thank you for all the ideas!

Any short stories by Ernest Hemingway.

Hmmm honestly I didn't like “The Old Man and The Sea” and because of that I never tried to read anything else of Hemingway, maybe I should give it a chance.


[MENTION=1180]whatever[/MENTION] Borges is definitely on my list! My favourite book seller (quite a persona )claims that he’s one of the two greatest Latin-American writers ever. I trust him a lot about books, still usually I disagree in this case because I’m Cortazar fan (though I have no comparison yet).
My Spanish is not good enough, I only understand parts of dialogues and descriptions could be as well written in Cyrillic. I guess English is challenging enough
The Link looks good.

I'm a big fan of Flannery O'Connor but you're probably familiar with her. If not, 'Everything that rises, must converge' is a good place to start.

Heard about her, but never read anything. And I haven't even heard of Inez Arrodondo.

Are you familiar with the writings of Saki?

No... not yet. Thanks!

 

[iwakar]

I've heard that Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris is riotous. It's a contemporary short story/essay. I haven't read it yet.

 

[Caoimhin]

I would recommend 'The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect' by Roger Williams. It is about 120 pages all-in-all, so very short. However, it is a rather violent story at certain points, and rather gory in how it is penned.

The author of the book has it uploaded for free on the internet over at: The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect: Contents.

 

[Kas]

I would recommend 'The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect' by Roger Williams. It is about 120 pages all-in-all, so very short. However, it is a rather violent story at certain points, and rather gory in how it is penned.

Thanks for recommendation
About violence... it's usually not a problem to me. Though I generally prefer when there is more in book than just attempt to shock readers.

 

[Flâneuse]

my favorite collections of short stories:
First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan (favorite story - "Solid Geometry") (these stories deal with some disturbing themes, but not in a gratuitously shocking way)
In Love and Trouble by Alice Walker
I second MDP2525's recommendation of Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge. "Revelation" is currently my favorite story by this author.

And I've loved most of the stories by Louise Erdrich that I've read.

 

[Galena]

Bringing some sf and some not necessarily alive. Off the top of my head...

E.M. Forester - The Machine Stops
Conan Doyle - The Horror of the Heights

 

[Frosty]

You have probably already read it, but one of my favorites. To Build a Fire by Jack London?

To Build a Fire, by Jack London

Recommended this before somewhere, was turned into a program too, A Childrens Story.

http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/tcs.pdf

And heres part one of the youtube video

One I read in school

http://education.ky.gov/school/documents/examination day by henry seslar.docx

Theres others id like and recommend but those come to mind first

 

[Kas]

There are new

Thank you!

To be honest I've read only a little of recommended stories until now (I had less time than I thought) but I'm going to come back to the list soon.
I read Borges 'The Book of Sand' , 'Godzilla’s 12 step program' (the liked the idea) and Flannery O'Connor but I took what was in my library, so I ended up reading 'Wise Blood' instead of short stories (it was stilll short), I have also "The Violent Bear It Away" and I'm definitely going to read it too.

In Love and Trouble by Alice Walker

It's 'The Color Purple' Alice Walker?

Conan Doyle - The Horror of the Heights

Oh, I haven’t read this one of Conan Doyle

You have probably already read it, but one of my favorites. To Build a Fire by Jack London?

Yes I read it, I love Jack London. I was obsessed about reading whatever I could of his writings…
Weird thing I have never read ‘The Call of the Wild’.

 

[Flâneuse]

It's 'The Color Purple' Alice Walker?

Yeah. If you're not familiar with her short stories I recommend "To Hell with Dying" and/or "Everyday Use" to see if you want to read more.

 

[Ursa]

David Sedaris's "A Plague of Tics" is hilarious. Fun to read aloud to others too!

 

[sorenx7]

Just about any short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Of course, some are pretty much on the dark side.

 

[Coriolis]

I'm looking for the short stories/ esseys or relatively short novels . Anything you can recommend to me?

I read pretty much everything from classics to reportages, sf, crime stories and action. I would like it to be something contemporary, best of the author still alive, but not necessarily.

I more often read novels, but I’m a fan of almost all the essays of Vonnegut I read and sf short stories of Lem. I liked A. Munro stories and “One more year” of Sana Krasikov. I love Ibero-American prose…

Do you like SF/Fantasy? If so, here are a few recommendations:

• Stephen Donaldson, Daughter of Regals
• Ursula LeGuin, The Wind's Twelve Quarters
• Anne McCaffrey, The Chronicles of Pern
• Tanith Lee, Red as Blood

To shift gears completely, here are a couple of essay collections I really enjoyed:

• Celina Spiegel, editor, Out of the Garden, essays on the Bible written by various Christian and Jewish women
• Stephen J. Gould, The Panda's Thumb, essays on evolution and its teaching, science biography, probabilities and common sense.