Favorite short stories:

[murielm99]

I don't know if anyone has ever posted this here before. Maybe they have.

I don't read short stories that often, but I think short stories may be harder to write well than longer works of fiction. What are some of your favorites?

I like "Nightfall," by Asimov, and of course, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." Ambrose Bierce has written some great stories. So has Phillip K. Dick.

Those are the obvious ones. What are some others that are your favorites, in any genre? Maybe I can learn something, and find some good, new reading.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

1. Anything by M.R. James (1862-1936)

He's the master of ghost/demon stories and I'm a big fan. It's best to read them on a cold grey evening in front of a roaring fire, with a cup of tea or glass of brandy. His wonderful prose was very English. I'd recommend The Casting Of The Runes (made into the outstandingly creepy and atmospheric black and white horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, Night Of The Demon in 1957). The Mezzotint is another good one, as is The Treaure Of Abbott Thomas (made into a TV horror movie by the BBC in 1974). Robert Bloch is also a favorite of mine. Try The Hungry House which was made into the scariest movie I've ever seen made for TV, The Hungry Glass, part of the early 60s horror anthology series Thriller.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. ANYTHING by O. Henry!

He was a master of the short story.

You might already have read "The Gift of the Magi." It's a wonderful Christmas story.



Also, Stephen King has a book of short stories, one of which is "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption." The movie is from that novella. Very worth-while book!

[elleng]

6. Was going to post the Magi, CalPeg!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. GMTA!

That story has always been one of my big favorites!

my dear elleng!

[Iwillnevergiveup]

39. Yes!

Also "The Last Leaf."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

41. That is a wonderful, very inspiring story...I loved it!

[csziggy]

17. The Ransom of Red Chief!

One of my all time favorite stories.

Read it here:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ransom_of_Red_Chief

And for those who like movie versions, the 1998 made for TV movie is great with Haley Joel Osment, Christopher Lloyd, and Michael Jeter.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. That story is so hilarious!

Thanks for the link.

[csziggy]

20. My little sister could have played the kid, no problem

When I read the story for the first time, I 'saw' her as Red Chief.

The movie I mentioned adds a little bit of an extra twist to the story, but it fits the O. Henry theme so perfectly it's amazing.

[Scuba]

28. Plus One!!!!

[PoliticAverse]

27. Or Guy de Maupassant...

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/maupassant/guy/m45s/

[Ptah]

3. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a 1993 collection of
interconnected short stories by Sherman Alexie. The characters and
stories in the book, particularly "This is What It Means to Say Phoenix,
Arizona" provided the basis of Alexie's screenplay for the film Smoke Signals.

The collection was originally released in 1993; it was reissued in 2005,
with two new stories, by Grove Atlantic Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Ranger_and_Tonto_Fistfight_in_Heaven

[fizzgig]

44. i've been eyeing that on my bookshelf

it's been a long time since i've read that.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

4. I have many favorites

and collect short story volumes. The one story that stands out though, is "One Trip Across" by Ernest Hemingway. It breaks a rule, because the protagonist commits a crime but we don't condemn him for it...............

[frogmarch]

5. Annabelle’s Alphabet

by Tim Pratt



If you want to read it: http://www.ideomancer.com/fy/Pratt-Annabelle/Pratt-Annabelle.htm

I guess it could be called horror fantasy. Whatever it is, I love it.

[msu2ba]

8. Welcome to the Monkey House

The short story and the title of the collection by Kurt Vonnegut.

[Aristus]

9. Anything by Harlan Ellison.

My favorites are his stories with deceptively placid titles:

"A Boy And His Dog".
"Along The Scenic Route."
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes."

[pipi_k]

10. One of yours...

"The Lottery". On my list of favorites too.

"Specimen 313" by Jeff Strand...delightfully creepy.

The short stories in Stephen King's "Night Shift"

Those are the only ones I can think of on the spur of the moment.

[Glorfindel]

11. "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," by Ursula K LeGuin

"The Wendigo," by Algernon Blackwood
"A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," by Ambrose Bierce

I think those are my favorites, but I love short stories generally.

[petronius]

12. Ian McDonald: "The Days of Solomon Gursky"

Stanislaw Lem: Tales of Pirx the Pilot

Cordwainer Smith: "The Game of Rat and Dragon"

Roger Zelazny: "This Moment of the Storm"

[Pool Hall Ace]

13. I thought of "The Lottery" before I opened the thread! :)

I also like

"Mousetrap" by Michael Crichton
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor
"Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway

[Brickbat]

14. One of my very favorites is Vonnegut's "Long Walk To Forever."

[UTUSN]

15. This thread's posters might be able to identify one for me, not a "deep" one

We read it in a text book either in late elementary or middle school. It's about the 1919 World Series disgraced team. One of the ruined players is reduced to non-pro traveling around to play against local teams. The main character is a hero-worshipping kid who is told, just before he goes up to bat, that the second baseman is one of the disgraced dudes who crashed the hero image of baseball. The kid is blinded by rage, hits it just to get to second base, and slides there spiking the dude's shin. The kid sees it all close up as blood seeps out on the sock and the dude silently sits down on the ground and pulls the sock down and all up and down his leg are spike scars: Every town he goes to, somebody spikes him.

Over the years, I've done Searches on "1919 World Series" short stories, literature, etc., and got nothing.

[csziggy]

16. Zenna Henderson's stories about The People

Are wonderful. I have them in the original book but they've been collected in "Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson".

Spider Robinson writes lovely short stories - I particularly like the collection that was published in "Melancholy Elephants" - the title story is very appropriate for the struggles over copyright these days even though the story is nearly thirty years old. His Callahan {Crosstime Saloon} series of stories are great fun, too, even though I think he took the gag a little too far once he got to the fifth or sixth book.

One way I find good science fiction short stories is by collecting old anthologies. Often these are the year's best from a particular magazine or from members of a particular organization, or for award winners, such as the Hugo Awards. I have a collection of SF anthologies dating back to the 50s. It is wonderful how so many of those stories stay relevant even now. While I no longer subscribe to SF magazines, I enjoy seeing the "best of" whenever I can find them for sell.

[Chan790]

19. I have two.

Making Love in 2003 by Miranda July. It's this narrative about a college student sleeping with Madeline L'Engle's husband who goes on as a student teacher to sleep with her students...because a shadow tells her to. It sounds really awful but it's hilarious because the whole thing teeters somewhere between absurd and uncomfortable.

My Life in Heavy Metal by Steve Almond. Just a really good story about a young rock journalist in a long-distance relationship with "the right girl" (ie. the one that everyone tells him he should want) and his growth through discovering who and what he really wants.

[RiffRandell]

21. The Chaste Clarissa by John Cheever. n/t

[Zorro]

22. The House of Asterion by Borges

Only a page or two long, but creepy.

[murielm99]

23. Thanks, everyone!

I knew DUers would come up with some great titles. I will be reading for a long time!

[MiddleFingerMom]

24. From Clive Barker's "Books of Blood Vol 1", something SO outside the box (SPOILER ALERTS)

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"In the Hills, the Cities"
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Two gay men, Mick and Judd, go on a romantic but strained vacation in Yugoslavia. In an isolated rural area,
there happens an astounding event: two entire cities, Popolac and Podujevo, create massive communal creatures
by binding together the bodies of their citizens, with almost forty thousand people walking as the body of a single
giant, as tall as a skyscraper. It's a ritual that occurs every ten years, but this time, things go wrong, and the
Podujevo giant collapses, killing thirty-eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty five citizens horribly.

They come upon the smashed bodies of Podujevo and a ravine awash with blood, but at first do not see the City
of Popolac walking behind nearby hills. Meanwhile, in shock, the entire population of Popolac goes mad, and in
losing their individual minds actually become the giant they are strapped into. Popolac wanders the hills aimlessly.
By nightfall many of the people who made up the giant die from exhaustion, but still it walks.

Mick and Judd are told the truth about the giants by a local man who tried to steal their car in order to catch up
with Popolac and reason with it before it collapses and destroys the people who compose it. But they at first do not
believe his story. They seek shelter at a remote farm, but Popolac blunders right into the farmhouse that night. Its
giant foot kills Judd by accident. The elderly farm couple, who saw Popolac, go crazy with fear. Mick, seeing Popolac,
goes insane too, but wants to join Popolac. He climbs up the tower of ropes and bodies, and is carried away as it
walks into the hills to its fate.
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[Baitball Blogger]

32. I don't think I would enjoy this one.

[pokerfan]

40. Divided by Infinity by Robert Charles Wilson

Tor Books has the complete reprint online. Link below. Enjoy.

Divided by Infinity


Robert Charles Wilson

We hope you enjoy this reprint, originally published in Starlight 2, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tor Books, 1998.

I

In the year after Lorraine’s death I contemplated suicide six times. Contemplated it seriously, I mean: six times sat with the fat bottle of Clonazepam within reaching distance, six times failed to reach for it, betrayed by some instinct for life or disgusted by my own weakness.

I can’t say I wish I had succeeded, because in all likelihood I did succeed, on each and every occasion. Six deaths. No, not just six. An infinite number.

Times six.

There are greater and lesser infinities.

But I didn’t know that then.

http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/08/divided-by-infinity

[Enrique]

25. Frost and Fire by Ray Bradbury

a million stories by Joyce Carol Oates, none of which I can remember the name of.

[hobbit709]

26. For A Breath I Tarry by Roger Zelazny

[Orrex]

29. All the Assholes in the World and Mine -- Bukowski

Where I'm Calling From -- Carver
Cathedral -- Carver
The Immortal -- Borges
The Star -- Clarke

[pscot]

30. The Russians

Chekov and Isaac Babel. And Hemingway. And Borges. Funes the Memorious is a great story. And Bartleby the Scrivener, by Melville. There are just way too many to list. Almost forgot Phillip K, Dick. And Kafka. Any of Kafka's stories, but I really like In the Penal Colony and The Burrow.

[Paladin]

31. "The Destructors" by Graham Greene. (nt)

[pink-o]

33. What, no Poe?

Maybe the stories aren't exactly heart warming (more like heart-beating-thru-the-floorboards!) but none are creepier or more visceral.

And I don't just say this cuz I was born in Baltimore!

[LWolf]

34. Vonnegut.

So many to choose from.

[Rob H.]

35. 'Burning Chrome' by William Gibson

Anything from that entire collection, really. "Johnny Mnemonic" and "The Belonging Kind" are really good, too. (The movie version of "Johnny Mnemonic" was terrible, though.)

[Brigid]

36. "The Enormous Radio" by John Cheever.

This guy who lives in a large apartment building in NYC brings home a large antique radio. Soon he discovers that he can hear what's going on in his neighbors' apartments through it. Hilarity ensues.

[ok_cpu]

37. "Why I Live at the P.O." by Eudora Welty

Lots of stuff by Tim O'Brien, especially "The Things They Carried".

Although I may take some flak for this, I really love Hemingway.

"Pigeon Feathers" by Updike.

And "The Boogeyman" by Stephen King still freaks me out.

[murielm99]

38. Yes! I love Eudora Welty!

I thought about the O'Brien story, too. I am glad you posted this.

[nomorenomore08]

42. 'Jesus' Son' by Denis Johnson. 'Black Tickets' by Jayne Anne Phillips.

These two books really stand out, for me, among all the contemporary short fiction I've read. Julie Orringer and ZZ Packer are two others I've become interested in recently, through reading stories of theirs in an anthology.

And of course there's always the obvious greats like Kafka, Carver, etc. But they've been covered already.

[nolabear]

43. Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find".

It was a different age, admittedly, but she damn well dropped some jaws with that one.

[nomorenomore08]

46. I can't believe I forgot O'Connor!

And though I've read all of 'Everything That Rises Must Converge,' as well as both her novels, I haven't gotten around to 'A Good Man...' apart from the title story.

[DFW]

45. "Lost Legacy" by Robert Heinlein

The closest thing to a Democrats vs. Republicans all out psy war ever written (written in 1939, but so VERY current in its portrayals!!).

[sarge43]

47. Young Goodman Brown by Hawthorne

If you like Nightfall, try Arthur Clarke's short stories, particularly The Star and Superiority