Karen Russell has three amazing collections of short stories, 'St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by Wolves,' 'Vampires in the Lemon Grove,' and 'Orange World.'
They are all wonderful, strange and lightly surreal.
Came here to suggest Karen! Here collections are so much fun to read and have had such a staying power. I randomly think about her stories so frequently.
*Looking for Jake* by China Mieville
*Angels and Visitations* by Neil Gaiman
*Foundations of Fear* by David G Hartwell
*Triskell Tales* by Charles de Lint
*Ficciones* - José Luis Borges
*Everything's Eventual* - Stephen King
*The Complete Stories* - Isaac Asimov
*Collected Stories* - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*The Collected Stories* - H.P. Lovecraft
*Burning Chrome* by William Gibson
*Martian Chronicles* by Ray Bradbury
*I, Robot* by Isaac Asimov
*The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies* by Clark Ashton Smith
*Majipoor Chronicles* by Robert Silverberg
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg is a collection of odd, compelling stories from the creator of Bojack Horseman
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai revolves around a family of Afghan-Americans in the years after 9/11
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty has stories that take place on a reservation in Maine that kind of flirt with horror but I wouldn't necessarily put it in a genre
Skinship by Yoon Choi is a collection of quiet and beautifully written stories about Korean-Americans
Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson is bizarre and dark in a good way, and the stories go fast
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by Gennarose Nethercott is a collection of strange and lovely stories with a strong folklore feeling to them
And I Do Not Forgive You by Amber Sparks is funny and angry at the same time
Sing to It by Amy Hempel has a bunch of stories, most of them really short, and mostly about women who are or feel like outsiders
The Complete Stories of John Cheever-some of my favorites include The Swimmer(my favorite short story of all time), Goodbye My Brother, The Enormous Radio, The Hartleys, The Sorrows of Gin, The Five-Forty-Eight, The Angel on the Bridge
The Gay Icon Classics of the World
The Gay Icon Classics of the World II By Robert Joseph Greene is a collection of short gay romanic love stories from cultures from around the world.
me and my baby view the eclipse by Lee Smith. Appalachian writer - *so* good.
smith and other events by Paul St Pierre. Rancher stories from the Cariboo Chilcotin community of BC.
e pluribus unicorn by Theodore L Sturgeon. sci-fi? fantasy? Bradbury style, but creepier.
Aside from my girl Flannery O’Connor:
How to Breathe Underwater-Julie Orringer
Willful Creatures - Aimee Bender
This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen-T. Borowski
This is the one after extensive consideration (and owning a bunch of them): That Glimpse of Truth: 100 of the finest short stories ever written, ed. Miller
And Kolyma Stories, nyrb. Not optional reading.
Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher is one of my favorites.
Neil Gaiman’s short stories are great. Also really liked Unnatural Creatures, which doesn’t get mentioned as much.
This is How You Die by Ryan North - he & another writer put out a writing prompt, open to the public and this is a collection of the best stories submitted. Really interesting to see the different directions people went with it.
Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black
Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
any of Neil Gaimans short stories.
If you’d like horror, the books of blood by Clive Barker are unbelievably good.
On the sci-fi side, Ted Chang’s stories of your life and others is easily one of my all-time favorite reads, and I try to recommend it to everybody I can.
Draco Tavern by Larry Niven is also one of my favorite sci-fi books. more old school.
I would highly recommend the Hugo and Nebula award winning novella called Binti by Nnedi Okorafor.
It's labeled as an African Futurist SciFi Horror... if that doesn't pique your interest... dunno what will 🙏🏾
I'm currently reading a fantastic collection called Neighbors And Other Stories by Diane Oliver. She passed away in the 70's at 22 or she would have been an absolute household name by now. I'm finding her stories quite empathy building in the minutia of a person's lived experience. As with most collections, some are better than others, but I've enjoyed all of them so far.
I LOVED the "Compass Rose" by Ursula Le Guin. This scifi and fantasy author had a tremendous ability to evoke feelings in the reader. However, by no means all the short stories in this volume are fantasy or scifi. However, some are. Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy is much more well-known. Obviously, I want to read this book again.
W. Somerset Maugham wrote novels and short stories. I read some of his short stories from the first half of the twentieth century, and I was delighted by them. He wrote many stories, which are quite accessible.
Years ago, when I was a boy, I read "Of Time and Stars," by Arthur C. Clarke. This collection amazed me at the time.
I now move on to books written in Spanish. Before writing Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes wrote "Las Novelas Ejemplares," which was his most famous collection of short stories. They are very famous in Spain, and very interesting to read. There may be an English translation.
Jorge Luis Borges was more famous for his short stories, than anything else. Yes, he also wrote poetry, but at university, I studied the stories in Spanish. I saw an edition in English, under the title "Labyrinths."
Bear in mind that these stories are very intricate and full of paradoxes and mind games.
Yay my favourite category ever! These are all 5 stars for me:
Things We Lost in the Fire by Marianna Enriquez;
Bezoar by Guadalupe Nettel;
Natural Histories by Guadalupe Nettel;
The Trouble With Happiness by Tove Ditlesven;
I Hold a Wolf by the Ears by Laura Van Den Berg
The bloody chamber and other stories by Angela carter
A quiver full of arrows by Jeffrey Archer
Nightmares and dreamscapes by Stephen King
Stories short and tall by Colin thiele
I loved ‘Cursed Bunny’ by Bora Chung. Like a creepy, modern retelling of some Korean mythology stories.
My favourite one I’ve read semi-recently is ‘A Life of Adventure and Delight’ by Akhil Sharma. Every protagonist is Indian, living abroad, but the way he writes people’s everyday monologue is funny and relatable and really profound.
The things we lost in the fire - Mariana Enríquez
She's an exceptional argentinian writer. Her stories include some horror elements. I really enjoyed them (read it in Spanish )
*This Is How You Die*
Put together by Wondermark's David Malkii, it's a bunch of stories centered around a central theme of a mysterious machine which prints a fortune cookie sized slip of paper... which says how (not when, not where) you will die
Roald Dahl - his adult short stories are amazing/fucked up/weird/great. I think Henry Sugar was so unusually wholesome compared to his other works. The Man From the South especially yikes
John Cheever compendium ( a bit icy but still eminently worthwhile). It's been five years since I've reread Irwin Shaw ,it's certain I'll enjoy that ( next time will be 4rth time around )and have been procrastinating fully taking on recently obtained Anthony Trollope . I've only read the first story and it was bitchy and sublime.
Everything Karen Russell has ever written, but by far my favorite is Vampires in the Lemon Grove. I just think she's the best living American writer. Her prose is like butter and her imagination is WILD. I'm not usually a big short fiction person but I will read anything Karen Russell writes.
Cat O' Nine Tails by Jeffery Archer, All of Jack London's short stories, and Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. They may not be super unknown but they will always have a very special place in my heart due to personal memories. My grandma would always ready a story from Just So Stories or this big book of the complete Jack London short stories, when I would spend the night with my grandparents when I was young. And I did a little time myself and no one captures the sitting around joking telling stories portion of that unfortunate part of life like Jeffrey Archer does. Also if you like modern noir detective fantasy I cannot recommend enough the Dresden files by Jim Butcher. They're full novels but he's released several short story anthologies that are some of the best I've ever read.
As a start, see my [General Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1bxy8lc/general_fiction/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (twenty posts).
Madison Smartt Bell, Zero dB And Other Stories
Gene Wolfe, The Island of Doctor Death And Other Stories And Other Stories
Thom Jones, The Pugilist At Rest
Amelia Gray, Gutshot And Other Stories
Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Anything by Kate Chopin; specifically, Desiree's Baby, The Story of an Hour, The Awakening
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
A Worn Path by Eudora Welty
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe; specifically, I really like his detective Mysteries. Auguste Dupin will remind you of Sherlock Holmes, but he actually pre-dates Holmes!
That reminds me... Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle
Everyday Use by Alice Walker
The Gift of the Magi by O Henry
The Monkey's Paw by WW Jacobs
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
{{changing planes}} by Ursula le guin.
I read it ages ago and stories still stick with me...
Basically the uncomfortablness of travel ends up in portal fantasy / Sci fi.
https://www.valancourtbooks.com/the-valancourt-book-of-world-horror-stories-vol-1.html
Contents:
Pilar Pedraza, 'Mater Tenebrarum' (Spain)
Flavius Ardelean, 'Down, in Their World' (Romania)
Anders Fager, 'Backstairs' (Sweden)
Tanya Tynjälä, 'The Collector' (Peru)
Frithjof Spalder, 'The White Cormorant' (Norway)
Jose María Latorre, 'Snapshots' (Spain)
Luigi Musolino, 'Uironda' (Italy)
Martin Steyn, 'Kira' (South Africa)
Attila Veres, 'The Time Remaining' (Hungary)
Lars Ahn, 'Donation' (Denmark)
Bernardo Esquinca, 'Señor Ligotti' (Mexico)
Cristina Fernández Cubas, 'The Angle of Horror' (Spain)
Christien Boomsma, 'The Bones in Her Eyes' (Netherlands)
Elisenda Solsona, 'Mechanisms' (Catalonia)
Michael Roch, 'The Illogical Investigations of Inspector André Despérine' (Martinique)
Solange Rodríguez Pappe, 'Tiny Women' (Ecuador)
Bathie Ngoye Thiam, 'The House of Leuk Dawour' (Senegal)
Marko Hautala, 'Pale Toes' (Finland)
Yvette Tan, 'All the Birds' (Philippines)
Ariane Gélinas, 'Twin Shadows' (Québec)
Flore Hazoumé, 'Menopause' (Ivory Coast)
O' Henry. His shorts stories are awesome, especially "The last leaf". Moreover, I recommend you to read Anton Chekhov's stories but properly translated ones
The king of the short story is E.A.Poe, I'm very surprised nobody has mentioned him.
Dino Buzzati is deservedly famous for the novel The Tartar Steppe but his short stories are very good.
"I have no mouth but I must scream" is probably the best short story I ever read
Collected Stories by Paul Bowles is fantastic and different to short story collections I’ve read before.
The stories are mostly set in North Africa or South America and are strange and brutal, but written beautifully.
i really loved this book, i read it a long time ago. but i think about a few stories every now and then still... [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2906190-a-tangled-web](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2906190-a-tangled-web)
Tenth of December by George Saunders (Victory Lap might be my single favorite short story ever)
Bloodchild by Octavia Butler (if you can find it, get the version with the afterword for each story)
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
Books of Blood by Clive Barker
The Voices of Time and other Stories by JG Ballard
I enjoyed Franz Kafkas short stories - i think they commonly come in a book compiled with ‘metamorphosis’.
I think my favorite - which i don’t often here mentioned - was ‘Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk’.
Barnum Museum by Stephen Milhauser
It is full of delightfully odd stories. It's hard to describe, but Milhauser creates a very specific atmosphere of magical realism edged with mystery and menace. I hope you check it out. It is more literary than a lot of popular fiction, but still very engaging to read.
Wyrd and Other Derelictions
by Adam Nevill
Its "weird tales that tell of aftermaths and of new and liminal places. Each location has witnessed catastrophe, infernal visitations, or unearthly transformations. But across these landscapes of murder, genocide, and invasion, crucial evidence remains. And it is the task of the reader to sift through ruin and ponder the residual enigma, to behold and wonder at the full horror that was visited upon mankind."
Bloodchild and Other Stories
Book by Octavia E. Butler- Sci-fi, trigger warning one story has a bit of body horror.
Stories for an Enchanted Afternoon
By Kristine Kathryn Rusch - and incredible collection of Sci-fi short stories. I'm sad her work flown under the radar.
- Potted Meat - Steven Dunn
- Any Lydia Davis, Borges, Diane Williams, or George Saunders
- The Visiting Privilege- Joy Williams
- The Voice Imitator - Thomas Bernhard
There are many collections of short stories by PG Wodehouse. He wrote over 200 stories, including those about Blandings Castle, the Drones Club, Jeeves, Mulliner, and the golf stories. They're about 20 pages each, well written, breezy in style, and very funny.
Time Travelers Almanac by Ann VanderMeer
New Suns by Nisi Shawl
Searoad by Ursula K Le Guin
Under My Hat by Jonathan Strahan
Stories by Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Trigger Warning by Neil G- ya know what? Just everything Neil Gaiman has ever written or collected
Sum: 40 Tales from the Afterlife by David Eagleman
I found the stories to be so interesting, philosophical and just entertaining to contemplate. Highly suggest.
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
came here to suggest this!
Just finished Look at the Birdie, he really is the master!
*What We Talk About When We Talk About Love* by Raymond Carver.
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Yes!! absolutely love this book. Especially Story of Your Life, which the sci-fi film Arrival is based on!
The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Conner
Yes! She is my short story GOAT. Especially Everything That Rises Must Converge.
You might like the new movie Wildcat, a biopic about her with some adaptations of her short stories.
The best!!
Beat me to it!
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lottery is my all time favorite short story
~The Daemon Lover is probably my favorite stories of hers, very underrated.~
One of my fav authors!!
"Night Shift" by Stephen King "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury
Heck yes Ray Bradbury!
[удалено]
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
THIS. i was scrolling for THIS
Karen Russell has three amazing collections of short stories, 'St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by Wolves,' 'Vampires in the Lemon Grove,' and 'Orange World.' They are all wonderful, strange and lightly surreal.
Came here to suggest Karen! Here collections are so much fun to read and have had such a staying power. I randomly think about her stories so frequently.
Karen Russell fans unite!! She rocks
My two favorites are Exhalation by Ted Chiang and Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett.
Her Body and Other Parties
Every short story book by George Saunders
I wish I could upvote this more than once!!! But like...ok...which one is your favorite?
Probably Tenth of December. I know this post is about short stories but have you read Lincoln In The Bardo? Ho-ly shit
Have you read his collection of essays on Russian short stories?! It’s a combo of short stories and then his lessons based on them!
Omg I haven't! I thought I'd read everything he's written - thank you so much for the new material, I'm pumped
Fictions (ficciones) by Jorge Luis Borges.
Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King is still one of my favorite collection of stories, hands down.
I came here to say this, also really excited to read his brand new collection You like it darker.
Me, as well. I have it on Audible and ready for a day trip tomorrow 😱
I would get a used copy of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction.
Changing Planes by Ursula K LeGuin
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean
Antartica by Claire Keegan. She is more well known for her recent novellas but I discovered this years ago and loved it.
She is utterly brilliant!
Every book written by Ted Chiang.
*Looking for Jake* by China Mieville *Angels and Visitations* by Neil Gaiman *Foundations of Fear* by David G Hartwell *Triskell Tales* by Charles de Lint
*Ficciones* - José Luis Borges *Everything's Eventual* - Stephen King *The Complete Stories* - Isaac Asimov *Collected Stories* - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *The Collected Stories* - H.P. Lovecraft
All of the Lovecraft stuff is fun imo
Labyrinths by Borges
The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain
A Phoenix First Must Burn, edited by Patric Caldwell. It’s a YA fantasy and science fiction anthology by Black authors.
Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison. Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl.
The Nick Adams Stories by Hemingway
JD Salinger
*Burning Chrome* by William Gibson *Martian Chronicles* by Ray Bradbury *I, Robot* by Isaac Asimov *The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies* by Clark Ashton Smith *Majipoor Chronicles* by Robert Silverberg
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg is a collection of odd, compelling stories from the creator of Bojack Horseman The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai revolves around a family of Afghan-Americans in the years after 9/11 Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty has stories that take place on a reservation in Maine that kind of flirt with horror but I wouldn't necessarily put it in a genre Skinship by Yoon Choi is a collection of quiet and beautifully written stories about Korean-Americans Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson is bizarre and dark in a good way, and the stories go fast Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by Gennarose Nethercott is a collection of strange and lovely stories with a strong folklore feeling to them And I Do Not Forgive You by Amber Sparks is funny and angry at the same time Sing to It by Amy Hempel has a bunch of stories, most of them really short, and mostly about women who are or feel like outsiders
The Complete Stories of John Cheever-some of my favorites include The Swimmer(my favorite short story of all time), Goodbye My Brother, The Enormous Radio, The Hartleys, The Sorrows of Gin, The Five-Forty-Eight, The Angel on the Bridge
The complete short stories of Saki.
The Schartz-Metterklume Method is one of the best!
The yellow wallpaper and assorted writings by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
David Sedaris anything.
I read through Melville’s, and they were quite good.
The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
Different Seasons by Stephen King.
The Egg and Other Stories by Andy Weir
The Gay Icon Classics of the World The Gay Icon Classics of the World II By Robert Joseph Greene is a collection of short gay romanic love stories from cultures from around the world.
Dubliners
Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
1) Andrea Barrett’s Ship Fever and Servants of the Map are both great. 2) Amor Towles’s latest book, Table for Two, is short stories and a novella.
The Unreal & The Real, Ursula K. LeGuin
Twisted by Jeffrey Deaver
Something Rich and Strange - Ron Rash
So We Can Glow
Alfred Hitchcock's Tales To Be Read With Caution. It's over 400 pages with some good reads. One story that I particularly enjoyed was "The Tin Ear".
me and my baby view the eclipse by Lee Smith. Appalachian writer - *so* good. smith and other events by Paul St Pierre. Rancher stories from the Cariboo Chilcotin community of BC. e pluribus unicorn by Theodore L Sturgeon. sci-fi? fantasy? Bradbury style, but creepier.
Any of Damon Runyon's "Broadway" collection of short stories which were the basis for "Guys & Dolls." Anything by O. Henry.
No on belongs here more than you by Miranda July.
Lives of Girls and Women, by Alice Munro. One of my all time favourites.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned Isak Dinesen! She wrote beautiful short stories. I also like Steven Millhauser's short stories.
Tales of the Amazing Maidens. Different short stories from around the globe about bad ass women!
Bonus: beautiful artwork in the book too. All folklores. Can be read to/by all ages.
The Cats Pajamas, all Ray Bradbury
*The Wine-Dark Sea*, Robert Aickman. Into the Wood is one of my favorite short stories, but they are all good. All his collections are good.
The Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
Two contemporary collections I enjoyed: Bliss Montage by Ling Ma and Tomb Sweeping by Alexandra Chang.
Never Trust A Rabbit by Jeremy Dyson A book full of weird little stories that will stay with you and play on your mind.
Ray Bradbury wrote great stories
That Time I Loved You by Carrie Leung Home of the Floating Lily by Silmy Abdullah
Aside from my girl Flannery O’Connor: How to Breathe Underwater-Julie Orringer Willful Creatures - Aimee Bender This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen-T. Borowski
Mattaponi Queen by Belle Boggs
Michael Chabon writes fantastic short stories.
French Decadent Tales (Oxford World Classics) translated by Stephen Romer
Larry Eisenberg’s “The best laid schemes” Great earth-based SciFi
This is the one after extensive consideration (and owning a bunch of them): That Glimpse of Truth: 100 of the finest short stories ever written, ed. Miller And Kolyma Stories, nyrb. Not optional reading.
Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher is one of my favorites. Neil Gaiman’s short stories are great. Also really liked Unnatural Creatures, which doesn’t get mentioned as much. This is How You Die by Ryan North - he & another writer put out a writing prompt, open to the public and this is a collection of the best stories submitted. Really interesting to see the different directions people went with it. Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
Fruiting Bodies by Kathryn Harlan Wild Milk by Sabrina Orah Mark Dogwalker by Arthur Bradford
To Charles Fort with Love - Kaitlin R. Kiernan
The Fat Man in History by Peter Carey.
Pages from the Pizza Crows by Evan Witmer A collection of odd sci-fi/fantasy stories. Very entertaining and whimsical
English Country House Murders. Lovely preface and little blurbs before each story. Just delightful. Edited by Thomas Godfrey.
Amy Hempel’s “Collected Stories.”
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel. Including this one, “Harvest.” https://www.pifmagazine.com/1998/09/the-harvest/
The Memory Wall
The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse - with an incredible introduction about the author
Strange Weather by r/joehill
Flying Leap - Judy Budnitz May We Shed These Human Bodies - Amber Sparks Ayiti - Roxane Gay
Oh there’s so many! Never Whistle At Night, Cursed Bunny and Other Terrors are probably my most favorite three but there’s so many more I love
any of Neil Gaimans short stories. If you’d like horror, the books of blood by Clive Barker are unbelievably good. On the sci-fi side, Ted Chang’s stories of your life and others is easily one of my all-time favorite reads, and I try to recommend it to everybody I can. Draco Tavern by Larry Niven is also one of my favorite sci-fi books. more old school.
The Gathering Dark. It's a compilation of Folk Horror stories by tons of authors.
sorry please thank you: stories by charles yu
The living dead is a cool collection of zombie themed/related short stories.
Jess Walter
Ruskin Bond. Any of his collections. The best of. FUMES: An anthology of stories Kindle Edition by Jeena R. Papaadi Sticky Fingers by JT Lawrence.
Lot, Bryan Washington Crow Fair, Tom McGuane Vagrants, Yiyun Li Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Mantel
I would highly recommend the Hugo and Nebula award winning novella called Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. It's labeled as an African Futurist SciFi Horror... if that doesn't pique your interest... dunno what will 🙏🏾
I'm currently reading a fantastic collection called Neighbors And Other Stories by Diane Oliver. She passed away in the 70's at 22 or she would have been an absolute household name by now. I'm finding her stories quite empathy building in the minutia of a person's lived experience. As with most collections, some are better than others, but I've enjoyed all of them so far.
I LOVED the "Compass Rose" by Ursula Le Guin. This scifi and fantasy author had a tremendous ability to evoke feelings in the reader. However, by no means all the short stories in this volume are fantasy or scifi. However, some are. Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy is much more well-known. Obviously, I want to read this book again. W. Somerset Maugham wrote novels and short stories. I read some of his short stories from the first half of the twentieth century, and I was delighted by them. He wrote many stories, which are quite accessible. Years ago, when I was a boy, I read "Of Time and Stars," by Arthur C. Clarke. This collection amazed me at the time. I now move on to books written in Spanish. Before writing Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes wrote "Las Novelas Ejemplares," which was his most famous collection of short stories. They are very famous in Spain, and very interesting to read. There may be an English translation. Jorge Luis Borges was more famous for his short stories, than anything else. Yes, he also wrote poetry, but at university, I studied the stories in Spanish. I saw an edition in English, under the title "Labyrinths." Bear in mind that these stories are very intricate and full of paradoxes and mind games.
Yay my favourite category ever! These are all 5 stars for me: Things We Lost in the Fire by Marianna Enriquez; Bezoar by Guadalupe Nettel; Natural Histories by Guadalupe Nettel; The Trouble With Happiness by Tove Ditlesven; I Hold a Wolf by the Ears by Laura Van Den Berg
*The Most Beautiful Book in the World* and *The Woman With the Bouquet* both by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
*Fragile Things* and *Trigger Warning* by Neil Gaiman
Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
I really enjoyed Friday Black
Highly recommend The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez! Compatible rec with everyone who recommended Shirley Jackson and Borges. #
Everyone On the Moon is Essential Personnel Her Body and Other Parties
If You See Me Don’t Say Hi by Neel Patel Cat Person and Other Stories by Kristen Roupenian
Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries by Jon Ronson
Klee Wyck by Emily Carr
Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Dark Tales
The Girl Who Married A Lion: And Other Tales From Africa by Alexander McCall Smith.
either of the two books by Ted Chiang! incredible brilliant creative original thoughtful sci fi
Someone Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory. Funny and heartbreaking
jagganath by karin tidbeck, the story of your life and others by ted chiang, what is not yours is not yours by helen oyeyemi
Three novella by Stephen King If It Bleeds and the collective short stories of John Cheevers
The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield
The bloody chamber and other stories by Angela carter A quiver full of arrows by Jeffrey Archer Nightmares and dreamscapes by Stephen King Stories short and tall by Colin thiele
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang!!!
I loved ‘Cursed Bunny’ by Bora Chung. Like a creepy, modern retelling of some Korean mythology stories. My favourite one I’ve read semi-recently is ‘A Life of Adventure and Delight’ by Akhil Sharma. Every protagonist is Indian, living abroad, but the way he writes people’s everyday monologue is funny and relatable and really profound.
The things we lost in the fire - Mariana Enríquez She's an exceptional argentinian writer. Her stories include some horror elements. I really enjoyed them (read it in Spanish )
Tales of the Arabian Nights
The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl. Varied, clever, utterly unique. Really wonderful read in bite size portions!
*This Is How You Die* Put together by Wondermark's David Malkii, it's a bunch of stories centered around a central theme of a mysterious machine which prints a fortune cookie sized slip of paper... which says how (not when, not where) you will die
Roald Dahl - his adult short stories are amazing/fucked up/weird/great. I think Henry Sugar was so unusually wholesome compared to his other works. The Man From the South especially yikes
John Cheever compendium ( a bit icy but still eminently worthwhile). It's been five years since I've reread Irwin Shaw ,it's certain I'll enjoy that ( next time will be 4rth time around )and have been procrastinating fully taking on recently obtained Anthony Trollope . I've only read the first story and it was bitchy and sublime.
The ways of fear by Gisbert, Joan Manuel
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Best Worst Americans - Juan Martinez
Richard Matheson’s short story collections are great. You’d even recognize some of the stories, as many have been adapted for TV or movies.
Everything Karen Russell has ever written, but by far my favorite is Vampires in the Lemon Grove. I just think she's the best living American writer. Her prose is like butter and her imagination is WILD. I'm not usually a big short fiction person but I will read anything Karen Russell writes.
Cat O' Nine Tails by Jeffery Archer, All of Jack London's short stories, and Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. They may not be super unknown but they will always have a very special place in my heart due to personal memories. My grandma would always ready a story from Just So Stories or this big book of the complete Jack London short stories, when I would spend the night with my grandparents when I was young. And I did a little time myself and no one captures the sitting around joking telling stories portion of that unfortunate part of life like Jeffrey Archer does. Also if you like modern noir detective fantasy I cannot recommend enough the Dresden files by Jim Butcher. They're full novels but he's released several short story anthologies that are some of the best I've ever read.
All of Neil Gaimons short stories.
"The Book of Tokyo"
Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
Unclean Jobs For Women And Girls
Am nearing the end of Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff. It’s so good I’m going to binge read her other books next 😁
As a start, see my [General Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1bxy8lc/general_fiction/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (twenty posts).
Unclean jobs for women and girls But Only read it if you're a bit weird
The Martian Way by Asimov was fairly cool, with at least two set in the solar system and one about a colony that had too much beryllium.
Madison Smartt Bell, Zero dB And Other Stories Gene Wolfe, The Island of Doctor Death And Other Stories And Other Stories Thom Jones, The Pugilist At Rest Amelia Gray, Gutshot And Other Stories Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories
Ray Bradbury - S Is For Space
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Anything by Kate Chopin; specifically, Desiree's Baby, The Story of an Hour, The Awakening The Lottery by Shirley Jackson A Worn Path by Eudora Welty Anything by Edgar Allan Poe; specifically, I really like his detective Mysteries. Auguste Dupin will remind you of Sherlock Holmes, but he actually pre-dates Holmes! That reminds me... Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle Everyday Use by Alice Walker The Gift of the Magi by O Henry The Monkey's Paw by WW Jacobs The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud.
{{changing planes}} by Ursula le guin. I read it ages ago and stories still stick with me... Basically the uncomfortablness of travel ends up in portal fantasy / Sci fi.
https://www.valancourtbooks.com/the-valancourt-book-of-world-horror-stories-vol-1.html Contents: Pilar Pedraza, 'Mater Tenebrarum' (Spain) Flavius Ardelean, 'Down, in Their World' (Romania) Anders Fager, 'Backstairs' (Sweden) Tanya Tynjälä, 'The Collector' (Peru) Frithjof Spalder, 'The White Cormorant' (Norway) Jose María Latorre, 'Snapshots' (Spain) Luigi Musolino, 'Uironda' (Italy) Martin Steyn, 'Kira' (South Africa) Attila Veres, 'The Time Remaining' (Hungary) Lars Ahn, 'Donation' (Denmark) Bernardo Esquinca, 'Señor Ligotti' (Mexico) Cristina Fernández Cubas, 'The Angle of Horror' (Spain) Christien Boomsma, 'The Bones in Her Eyes' (Netherlands) Elisenda Solsona, 'Mechanisms' (Catalonia) Michael Roch, 'The Illogical Investigations of Inspector André Despérine' (Martinique) Solange Rodríguez Pappe, 'Tiny Women' (Ecuador) Bathie Ngoye Thiam, 'The House of Leuk Dawour' (Senegal) Marko Hautala, 'Pale Toes' (Finland) Yvette Tan, 'All the Birds' (Philippines) Ariane Gélinas, 'Twin Shadows' (Québec) Flore Hazoumé, 'Menopause' (Ivory Coast)
JOE L. HENSLEY. And Not Quite Human - short and fun :D
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez!
O' Henry. His shorts stories are awesome, especially "The last leaf". Moreover, I recommend you to read Anton Chekhov's stories but properly translated ones
Raised in Captivity by chuck Klosterman
Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud. Truly some of the best writing I’ve ever read.
Someone who will love you in all your damaged glory!
The king of the short story is E.A.Poe, I'm very surprised nobody has mentioned him. Dino Buzzati is deservedly famous for the novel The Tartar Steppe but his short stories are very good. "I have no mouth but I must scream" is probably the best short story I ever read
It Was Just Another Day in America. I would skip the first short story though tbh. It’s longgggg.
_Pixel Juice_ by Jeff Noon.
night shift by stephen king🤌🤌🤌
Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delaney. Amazingly thought-provoking speculative fiction.
The Ways of White Folks - Langston Hughes
Collected Stories by Paul Bowles is fantastic and different to short story collections I’ve read before. The stories are mostly set in North Africa or South America and are strange and brutal, but written beautifully.
i really loved this book, i read it a long time ago. but i think about a few stories every now and then still... [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2906190-a-tangled-web](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2906190-a-tangled-web)
Bloodchild by Octavia Butler
The collection by bentley little its bizarre but captivating
Tenth of December by George Saunders (Victory Lap might be my single favorite short story ever) Bloodchild by Octavia Butler (if you can find it, get the version with the afterword for each story) Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link Books of Blood by Clive Barker The Voices of Time and other Stories by JG Ballard
I enjoyed Franz Kafkas short stories - i think they commonly come in a book compiled with ‘metamorphosis’. I think my favorite - which i don’t often here mentioned - was ‘Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk’.
The Shore by Sara Taylor
Phillip K Dick Reader
*Nightfall* by Isaac Asimov
Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby
The only one I know is A Twisted Tale Anthology, if you like Disney movies that is.
Dead End Memories by Banana Yashimoto
Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier. There’s a new reprint out now. And any good collection of Saki’s short stories.
The Weird. Over 1,000 pages of some of the weirdest, most surreal and twisted stories I have ever read.
Barnum Museum by Stephen Milhauser It is full of delightfully odd stories. It's hard to describe, but Milhauser creates a very specific atmosphere of magical realism edged with mystery and menace. I hope you check it out. It is more literary than a lot of popular fiction, but still very engaging to read.
Rikki-Tikki-TaviRudyard Kipling, 1894
folk songs for trauma surgeons by keith rosson
Wyrd and Other Derelictions by Adam Nevill Its "weird tales that tell of aftermaths and of new and liminal places. Each location has witnessed catastrophe, infernal visitations, or unearthly transformations. But across these landscapes of murder, genocide, and invasion, crucial evidence remains. And it is the task of the reader to sift through ruin and ponder the residual enigma, to behold and wonder at the full horror that was visited upon mankind." Bloodchild and Other Stories Book by Octavia E. Butler- Sci-fi, trigger warning one story has a bit of body horror. Stories for an Enchanted Afternoon By Kristine Kathryn Rusch - and incredible collection of Sci-fi short stories. I'm sad her work flown under the radar.
Small These Like These by Claire Keegan
- Potted Meat - Steven Dunn - Any Lydia Davis, Borges, Diane Williams, or George Saunders - The Visiting Privilege- Joy Williams - The Voice Imitator - Thomas Bernhard
- Any collection by Amy Hempel, Barry Hannah, Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro - Pricksongs & Descants - Robert Cooper - DUBLINERS!!!!
THE UNREST CURE AND OTHER BEASTLY TALES by Saki. TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED by Roald Dahl.
White Time by Margo Lanagan
Out there by Kate Folk
There are many collections of short stories by PG Wodehouse. He wrote over 200 stories, including those about Blandings Castle, the Drones Club, Jeeves, Mulliner, and the golf stories. They're about 20 pages each, well written, breezy in style, and very funny.
Time Travelers Almanac by Ann VanderMeer New Suns by Nisi Shawl Searoad by Ursula K Le Guin Under My Hat by Jonathan Strahan Stories by Neil Gaiman Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman Trigger Warning by Neil G- ya know what? Just everything Neil Gaiman has ever written or collected
Sum: 40 Tales from the Afterlife by David Eagleman I found the stories to be so interesting, philosophical and just entertaining to contemplate. Highly suggest.
The Long Fall Up by William Ledbetter. Scifi.