Like most avid readers, I tend to seek out books with a unique voice.  When you read several books a month, it’s easy to find commonalities in books that others might not see.  For instance, there are certain themes that tend to crop up in short story collections again and again.  But I’m happy to [...]

It is true - I received this book a few months ago.  Usually it doesn’t take me so long to review a book, but things have been hopping around here.  (Check out my new venture.) I haven’t had as much time as usual to really sink my teeth into a book, but I’m very happy [...]

Life as an immigrant is filled with challenges–learning a new language, living in a different culture, being far away from home.  The Chinese Knot is a series of short stories by writer Lien Chao, focusing on Chinese immigrants in Canada.  Chao’s own experiences as a Chinese-Canadian in Toronto is one major influence on these stories, [...]

Silent Girl brilliantly takes the short story and adds a Shakespearian twist. Each short, written by Tricia Dower, is based on a work of Shakespeare; but if you’re not well versed in this most famous of writers, you’ll not miss out on enjoying some talented writing. If you do enjoy Shakespeare, then you’re [...]

Ana María Moix, one of Spain’s most well-known writers today, gives us a wonderful collection of short stories, translated by Sandra Kingery. Of My Real Life I Know Nothing is a series of shorts, each containing stories of heartfelt meaning that catches the reader by surprise at each and every ending. For me, nothing gives [...]

If you’ve ever enjoyed a story that seems impossible to categorize, unique and one-of-a-kind, slipping through the cracks of conventional labels, then Interfictions is waiting for you. One imaginative short story after another gives the reader a break from the humdrum, feeding the brain on the real merged with the surreal. Interfictions is filled with [...]

Ever since space exploration first became a real possibility, the people of America have been looking towards the skies with hopeful wonderment. Finally, there is something more mysterious for humans to focus on than our own complicated lives. Susan Woodring’s collection of short stories,Springtime on Mars, captures this sense of the unknown, in regards to [...]

Muriel Spark’s work can be found in every corner of the literary world: Novels, short stories, poetry, reviews, and many other written forms, best known for her novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Walking on Air, Cahier 2 of The Cahier Series published by Sylph Editions, was brought into being shortly after Spark’s death. [...]

Part of the Japanese Literature Series by Dalkey Archive Press, The Glass Slipper and Other Stories features World War II era shorts in a setting unique to American readers. In fact, of the three from this series I’ve reviewed so far, this one is my favorite due not only to the setting, but the contemporary [...]

Voices of the Lost and Found gives the reader a well-written collection of short stories, each crafted in a distinctively different voice than the one before. How author Dorene O’Brien manages to carry all these personalities around in her head, I can’t even begin to imagine. But this, together with edgy story lines and delicious [...]