Summer readers, rejoice! The season for lounging in a hammock all afternoon, or sprawling out on the lawn, or laying beachside with your favorite book….it’s finally here! And so, our girl Megan is back with a sunshine-induced vengeance. But, the good kind of vengeance. The literary kind! She has some fantastic short stories perfect for a summer afternoon. Read on and read up!
Don’t think you have time to read? How about a short story collection? Short stories are great for people who aren’t sure they want to commit to a full-length novel at the moment but are craving some creativity in their reading lives. (Funny emails from co-workers and thinkpieces on Bustle don’t count. Those are great in their own ways – but you need a book in your hands!) Pick up one of these collections in honor of Short Story Month (May), and if you don’t like the stories, just put it down and try another one! That’s the beauty of short stories collections; you can abandon a collection you’re not enjoying and not worry about missing the ending.
What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
This is the first book that really got me into short stories. Novelist Oyeyemi (known for Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird, among others) is responsible for this whimsical and wonderful collection of stories, all of which feature a “key” as a key component (haha).
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
And this is the collection that cemented my love for short stories. These stories are a weird yet wonderful mixture of science fiction, urban myth and horror (none of which are my usual genres) and infused with a queer feminist bent that takes them from extraordinary to exceptional.
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I couldn’t write this list without including my fave Chimamanda. Her story collection includes tales of Nigerians in America and Africa, from a young mother in the United States to a writers’ retreat in South Africa to a riot in Nigeria.
Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
This is poet Jenny Zhang’s first book, but you wouldn’t believe it from reading it. These stories are so real, so uncomfortably real. They all feature young Chinese-American girls growing up in the 1990s, but the portrayals of young female friendships and awkward childhood moments will speak to every woman.
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
This debut collection features a National Magazine Award finalist from The New Yorker, “Who Will Greet You at Home.” These stories all revolve around relationships, whether romantic, familial or otherwise, and the collection made it onto quite a few “best of 2017” lists last year.
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Indian-American household name Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this collection in 2000. All nine stories tell the tales of immigrants caught between “New World” America and “Old World” India as they navigate cultural traditions, complex relationships, and life in general.
Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
This collection is a staple in the short story genre. Link’s stories will appeal especially to fans of science fiction, but don’t let that scare you away if you’re more of a realistic fiction reader. As novelist Meg Wolitzer wrote for NPR, “Link’s fiction may be strange, but so, it seems, are all of us, each with our own highly particular inner lives.”
Runaway by Alice Munro
No short story round-up would be complete without a collection by Alice Munro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature for her short fiction in 2013. Start with Runaway, her 2004 collection of eight stories featuring women of all ages.
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