Grace 🕊🦎
I broke my brain with twitter and am trying to read books again. I find it’s easier to get through short stories and novellas right now. Recommendations for your favorite short reads?
Book mentions in this thread
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark
'Muriel Spark's most celebrated novel . . . This ruthlessly and destructively romantic school ma'am is one of the giants of post-war fiction' Independent 'A brilliantly psychological fugue' Observer The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Muriel Spark's most significant and celebrated novel, and remains as dazzling as when it was first published in 1961. Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher unlike any other, proud and cultured, enigmatic and freethinking; a romantic, with progressive, sometimes shocking ideas and aspirations for the girls in her charge. At the Marcia Blaine Academy she takes a select group of girls under her wing. Spellbound by Miss Brodie's unconventional teaching, these devoted pupils form the Brodie set. But as the girls enter their teenage years and they become increasingly drawn in by Miss Brodie's personal life, her ambitions for them take a startling and dark turn with devastating consequences.The Long Walk
by Stephen King
In this #1 national bestseller, “master storyteller” (Houston Chronicle) Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, tells the tale of the contestants of a grueling walking competition where there can only be one winner—the one that survives. In the near future, when America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules—keep a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you’re out—permanently. With an introduction by Stephen King on “The Importance of Being Bachman.”Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang
Includes 'Story of Your Life' the basis for the major motion picture Arrival, starring Amy Adams, Forest Whitaker, Jeremy Renner, and directed by Denis Villeneuve. With Stories of Your Life and Others, his masterful first collection, multiple-award-winning author Ted Chiang deftly blends human emotion and scientific rationalism in eight remarkably diverse stories, all told in his trademark precise and evocative prose. From a soaring Babylonian tower that connects a flat Earth with the firmament above, to a world where angelic visitations are a wondrous and terrifying part of everyday life; from a neural modification that eliminates the appeal of physical beauty, to an alien language that challenges our very perception of time and reality. . . Chiang's rigorously imagined fantasia invites us to question our understanding of the universe and our place in it.Dubliners
by James Joyce
Dubliners is a book of an Irish writer James Augustine Aloysius Joyce. This is a collection of stories, written in a slightly impressionistic way, in which a life of citizens of the Ireland’s capital city, so-called “middle-level gentlemen”, is described. It is the top of an Irish realistic literature of the beginning of the twentieth century. Joyce made it his aim to “write a chapter of a spiritual history of his nation.”The Machine Stops
by E.M. Forster
E.M. Forster is best known for his exquisite novels, but these two affecting short stories brilliantly combine the fantastical with the allegorical. In 'The Machine Stops', humanity has isolated itself beneath the ground, enmeshed in automated comforts, and in 'The Celestial Omnibus' a young boy takes a trip his parents believe impossible.Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck
Drifters in search of work, George and his childlike friend Lennie, have nothing in the world except the clothes on their back - and a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in California's Salinas Valley, but their hopes are dashed as Lennie - struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and feelings of jealousy - becomes a victim of his own strength. Tackling universal themes of friendship and shared vision, and giving a voice to America's lonely and dispossessed, Of Mice and Men remains Steinbeck's most popular work, achieving success as a novel, Broadway play and three acclaimed films.salt slow
by Julia Armfield
THE ELECTRIFYING DEBUT FROM THE WINNER OF THE WHITE REVIEW SHORT STORY PRIZE 2018 'Thrilling . . . A writer whose next move you wouldn’t want to miss.' Observer 'Wickedly clever prose and a sense of humour that seems to loom up like a character in itself' M JOHN HARRISON, Guardian In her brilliantly inventive and haunting debut collection of stories, Julia Armfield explores bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of her characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession, love and revenge. Teenagers develop ungodly appetites, a city becomes insomniac overnight, and bodies are diligently picked apart to make up better ones. The mundane worlds of schools and sleepy sea-side towns are invaded and transformed, creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to its inhabitants. Blurring the mythic and the gothic with the everyday, Salt Slow considers characters in motion – turning away, turning back or simply turning into something new entirely. Winner of The White Review Short Story Prize 2018, Armfield is a writer of sharp, lyrical prose and tilting dark humour – Salt Slow marks the arrival of an ambitious and singular new voice. 'Salt Slow is exemplary. A distinct new gothic, melancholy, powerful and poised.' China Miéville, author of The City & The City 'Armfield is an enormous, gut-wrenching talent.' Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under 'Truly dazzling . . . so subtle, intelligent and imaginative.' Stuart Kelly, The ScotsmanInvisible Cities
by Italo Calvino
“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” — from Invisible Cities In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo — Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear. “Invisible Cities changed the way we read and what is possible in the balance between poetry and prose . . . The book I would choose as pillow and plate, alone on a desert island.” — Jeanette WintersonVotes: 3
Consider the Lobster
by David Foster Wallace
A collection of essays by the award-winning author of Infinite Jest shares whimsical and biting observations about such topics as the Bush-Kerry presidential race, the pain experienced by lobsters while they are being prepared for the feast, and Franz Kafka's questionable sense of humor. Reprint.Votes: 3
Animal Farm
by George Orwell
The WASP FACTORY
by Iain Banks
The polarizing literary debut by Scottish author Ian Banks, The Wasp Factory is the bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath. Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least: Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through.The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
Presents a satirical drama about Satan's visit to Moscow, where he learns that the citizens no longer believe in God. He decides to teach them a lesson by perpetrating a series of horrific tricks. Combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem.In Praise of Shadows
by Junichir Tanizaki
This Is An Essay On Aesthetics By One Of The Greatest Japanese Novelists. The Text Ranges Over Architecture, Jade, Food, Toilets, And Combines An Acute Sense Of The Use Of Space In Buildings, As Well As Perfect Descriptions Of Lacquerware Under Candlelight And Women In The Darkness Of The House Of Pleasure. The Essay Forms A Classic Description Of The Collision Between The Shadows Of Traditional Japanese Interiors And The Dazzling Light Of The Modern Age.The Yellow Wallpaper
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
'The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing.' Written with barely controlled fury after she was confined to her room for 'nerves' and forbidden to write, Gilman's pioneering feminist horror story scandalized nineteenth-century readers with its portrayal of a woman who loses her mind because she has literally nothing to do. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). Gilman's work is available in Penguin Classics in The Yellow Wall-Paper, Herland and Selected Writings.Death in Venice (A Norton Critical Edition)
by Thomas Mann
Clayton Koelb's masterful translation improves upon its predecessors intwo ways: it renders Mann into American (not British) English, and itremains true to Mann's original text without sacrificing fluency. ForAmerican readers, this is the translation of choice. "Backgrounds and Contexts" includes Mann's working notes, which allowstudents to observe the author's creative process. The notes areavailable here for the first time in English. Illuminating selections from Mann's essays and letters are alsoreprinted, as are period maps of Munich, Venice, and the Lido. "Criticism" includes six essays—by Andre von Gronicka, Manfred Dierks, T.J. Reed, Dorrit Cohn, David Luke, and Robert Tobin—sure to stimulateclassroom discussion. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.Votes: 2
The Westing Game
by Ellen Raskin
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.The Bloody Chamber
by Angela Carter
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HELEN SIMPSON From familiar fairy tales and legends âe" Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves âe" Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.Votes: 1
Lying
by Sam Harris
LyingVotes: 1
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
by Gabriel García Márquez
Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a compelling, moving story exploring injustice and mob hysteria by the Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. 'On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on' Santiago Nasar is brutally murdered in a small town by two brothers. All the townspeople knew it was going to happen - including the victim. But nobody did anything to prevent the killing. Twenty seven years later, a man arrives in town to try and piece together the truth from the contradictory testimonies of the townsfolk. To at last understand what happened to Santiago, and why. . . 'A masterpiece' Evening Standard 'A work of high explosiveness - the proper stuff of Nobel prizes. An exceptional novel' The Times 'Brilliant writer, brilliant book' GuardianANAM CARA
by JOHN O`DONOHUE
John O'Donohue nos recuerda en este maravilloso libro, convertido ya en un clasico, la sabiduria, la poesia y la informacion sagrada que casi cualquier lugar nos ofrece, si tan solo aprendemos a detenernos un momento y escuchar. Combinando el folclore irlandes, la espiritualidad celta y la sabiduria perenne, O'Donohue nos presenta un libro delicioso y un companero perfecto para quien se sienta inclinado hacia el camino espiritual, teniendo al mismo tiempo que convivir con la prisa, el ruido y el estres de la vida moderna. Un verdadero amigo que nos ayudara a volver a aquello que nunca debimos haber olvidado, aquello que desde siempre esta en nuestro interior. "Anam Cara" significa "alma amiga".Votes: 1
The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien
A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.El Lazarillo de Tormes
by Anonimo
Lázaro, hijo de un ladrón y acemilero, queda huérfano en Salamanca. Estará al servicio de diferentes amos (un ciego, un hidalgo arruinado, un clérigo avaricioso, un fraile de la Merced, un buldero farsante, etc.), y ejercerá varios oficios, que permiten al narrador realizar una sátira de los diferentes estamentos de la sociedad de la época y reflexionar con ironía sobre el tema de la honra. Novela picaresca, origen y modelo en su género, se publicó en 1554.Votes: 1
The Lathe Of Heaven
by Ursula K. Le Guin
George Orr discovers that his dreams possess the remarkable ability to change the world, and when he falls into the hands of a power-mad psychiatrist, he counters by dreaming up a perfect world that can overcome his nightmares, in a new edition of the classic science fiction novel. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.The Beautiful Indifference
by Sarah Hall
Winner of the Portico Prize Winner of the Edge Hill University Short Story Prize Short-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Sarah Hall has been hailed as "one of the most significant and exciting of Britain's young novelists" (The Guardian). Now, in this collection of short fiction published in England to phenomenal praise, she has created a work at once provocative and mesmerizing.Know My Name
by Chanel Miller
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING MEMOIR 'Incredibly moving and haunting' Roxane Gay 'I read this book cover to cover and it stunned me' Jia Tolentino 'Powerful, honest and necessary' Marian Keyes 'To girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought every day for you. So never stop fighting, I believe you.' Chanel Miller's story changed our world forever. In 2016 Brock Turner was sentenced to just six months in jail after he was caught sexually assaulting her on Stanford's campus. His light sentencing, and Chanel's victim impact statement, which was read by eleven million people in four days, sparked international outrage and action. Know My Name is an intimate, profoundly moving memoir that exposes a patriarchal culture biased to protect perpetrators, a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and ultimately shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life. Entwining pain, resilience, and humour, this breath-taking memoir will stand as a modern classic. 'I could not put this phenomenal book down' Glennon Doyle, bestselling author of UNTAMED 'To read Know My Name inspires hope' Guardian 'A searing, beautiful book' Sunday Times 'Know My Name marks the debut of a gifted young writer. Miller's words are purpose. They are maps. And she is a treasure who has prevailed' New York TimesExhalation
by Ted Chiang
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Exhalation by Ted Chiang is a collection of short stories that will make you think, grapple with big questions, and feel more human. The best kind of science fiction." --Barack Obama From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others--the basis for the Academy Award -nominated film Arrival: a groundbreaking new collection of short fiction. "THE UNIVERSE BEGAN AS AN ENORMOUS BREATH BEING HELD." In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity's oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will. Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic--revelatory.Unaccustomed Earth (Vintage Contemporaries)
by Jhumpa Lahiri
The stories of Unaccustomed Earth focus on second-generation immigrants making and remaking lives, loves and identities in England and America. We follow brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, friends and lovers, in stories that take us from Boston and London to Bombay and Calcutta. Blending the individual and the generational, the exotic and the strikingly mundane, these haunting, exquisitely detailed and emotionally complex stories are intensely compelling elegies of life, death, love and fate. This is a dazzling work from a masterful writer.