4.25.2007

Short Story Short Challenge - Reading List

Great response on the Short Story Short Challenge! As promised, I compiled a list of all the recommended short stories. Lots of new names and titles to explore.

Thanks to the participants: NOVAREN, CLIFF BURNS, SNACKY WOMBAT, TAI, SUSAN (at A LITERARY RESPITE), WISHY THE WRITER, THE TRAVELLER, JADE PARK, COURTNEY, DARK ORPHEUS, BHADD, EDDIE, LITLOVE , ISABELLA, SFP, D CHEDWICK, KATE S., HENK, BLOGLILY, AMANDA A., VERBIFORE, and ANDI.

Please e-mail me your reactions to the short story you committed to reading: writerlylife at yahoo dot com. And stay tuned for an upcoming Horror Story Short Challenge in October.


Short Story Short Challenge List
The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
Call My Name, Aimee Bender
Civilwarland in Bad Decline, George Saunders
Dirty Wedding, Denis Johnson
Disentangling, Peter Rock
Floating Bridge, Alice Munro
The Hotel Capital, Olga Tokarczuk
Planetisimal, Keri Hulme
The Toughest Indian in the World, Sherman Alexie
White Angel, Michael Cunningham
Hunger, Lan Samantha Chang
Rock Springs, Richard Ford
Miss Gentibelle, Charles Beaumont
It's a GOOD Life, Jerome Bixby
Roses, Rhododendron, Alice Adams
A Christmas Memory, Truman Capote
Sonny's Blues, James Baldwin
Love, William Maxwell
Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Katherine Anne Porter
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, Delmore Schwartz
Love Day, William Styron
The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick
Bartleby the Scrivener, Herman Melville
On Seeing England for the First Time, Jamaica Kincaid
Death of a Pig, E.B. White
The Long Loneliness, Loren Eisley
Chatwin Revisited, Paul Theroux
Good Country People, Flannery O’Connor
White Angel, Michael Cunningham
Fiesta 1980, Junot Diaz
In the Gloaming, Alice Elliott Dark
Hunger, Lan Samantha Chang
The Bear Went Over the Mountain, Alice Munro
Floating Bridge, Alice Munro
Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolff
He’s At the Office, Allan Gurganus
Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx
Penance, Matthew Crain
A Temporary Matter, Jhumpa Lahiri
Dance in America, Lorrie Moore
Pie Dance, Molly Giles
Home Sweet Home, Hannah Tinti
Mirrors, Carol Shield
My Grandmother’s Tale of How Crab-o Lost His Head, Robert Antoni
Light Can Be Both Wave and Particle, Ellen Gilchrist
Leaf Season, John Updike
The Birds for Christmas, Mark Richard
The Man to Send Rain Clouds, Leslie Marmon Silko
The Horse Dealer's Daughter, D.H. Lawrence
Blue Tigers, Jorge Luis Borges
The Way We Live Now, Susan Sontag
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, Joyce Carol Oates
Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Winter Dreams, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Love is Not a Pie, Amy Bloom
Silver Water, Amy Bloom
Meiosis, Italo Calvino
The Johnson Girls, Toni Cade Bambara
The Marquise von O., Heinrich von Kleist
For Esme with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger
Making Love While the Kettle Boils, Kate Sutherland
La plage (The beach), Alain Robbe-Grillet
Cousin Lewis, Jean Stubbs
The Book Club, Ali Smith
The Schartz-Metterklume Method, Saki
The Overcoat, Nikolai Gogol

Also, please support your fellow blogger and writer, Kate Sutherland, by preordering her new collection of short stories, All in Together Girls. Personally, I can't wait to read them!
As for me, I commit to reading the Italo Calvino story (sure it will be way over my head, but I've never read this author's works) and the Jean Stubbs piece (had to get the collection, don't you know). And that's just for starters...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great list! I don't read short stories often so I'm not really in the loop but this is something I can write down and have for easy reference when I go to the library or bookstore. Happy challenge. I'm sorry I won't participate in this one this time around but look forward to the Horror Story Short challenge!

darkorpheus said...

A Horror Story Short Challenge - you really know how to catch my attention. ;)

And it's an amazing list you have here - but my heart warms most to Gogol's "The Overcoat" - hope everyone will get to read it soon.

Thanks for a great, great idea.

Isabella K said...

What a great list, and cross-section of tastes! I've read almost none of these, but will be checking this list regularly over the coming months.

Andi said...

Excellent list! I'm looking forward to participting.

Bob Dylan said...

Am I too late?
I recommend Balzac, he wrote a lot of great short stories, just pick one. I'm going to read a few from your original list.

LK said...

I am just so excited at the great response -- this has really rejuvenated my love for short stories. I will continue to explore the topic, definitely.

In the meantime, SFP at Pages Turned has posted a great list (or two) -- check it out: http://www.pagesturned.blogspot.com

John Ottinger III (Grasping for the Wind) said...

That;s a cool challenge. I'll have to think about it.

I thought you might be interested in the New Notions 5 Reading Challenge

StuckInABook said...

Wandered over, and see that there is no Katherine Mansfield! *Gasp* Surely the queen of the short story? Get her on a list, quick!

LK said...

I know, Stuck, she's great. It is very difficult to whittle choices to 10!