Sacramento Public Library discussion

A friend gave me a few Cordwainer Smith short stories that I have never gotten around to. Also, do anthologies count?

Oh that is bad timing on my part!! I spent February reading my way through a list of short classics posted by Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12...
Now I am trying to catch myself up on the pile of books I ignored last month.

A few of my favorites from the list were:

Silas Marner by George Elliot
It was a wonderful story and well written. I easily think this story could be made into a successful movie.

O Pioneers! By Willa Cather
After reading this, I want to go read more of her books! She made her characters and the scenery come to life!

The Pearl by John Steinbeck
This broke my heart. I knew it would, but Steinbeck is the master at doing it well.

Animal Farm by George Orwell
I knew the story. It was just so funny to see the progression. It all makes such perfect sense!

Would either of these count as short stories?

Life Before Legend by Marie Lu. It's a prequel to her Legend series and I just started reading my e-copy from the library. It's 36 pages long.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It's 85 pages long.

Susan wrote: "A few of my favorites from the list were:

Silas Marner by George Elliot
It was a wonderful story and well written. I easily think this story could be made into a successful movie.

O Pioneers! By..."
We read "My Antonia" in our Women in Lit class last semester. Ms. Cather was a wonderful writer who showed a realistic picture of the Midwest.

I am massaging my true crime fixation and will finish Ann Rule's latest collection of short true crime stories: "Fatal Friends Deadly Neighbors." I will have to look around for some new short stories collections. I have so many novels to read but short stories will definitely mix it up! We had an anthology with short stories by different nationalities and genders. If I find it, I will post it online! It even had poems thrown in for true diversity.

I think I have a short book called Foretold by many authors :)

sounds interesting! I am actually looking for a copy of "The Iliad" for my professor, so I might stumble across my big book of short stories!

I just finished up Pump Six and Other Stories yesterday. Nine of the ten stories are solidly in the realm of Sci-Fi, and include some intense and fascinating worldbuilding. The overall feeling is rather bleak, but there is certainly quite a lot of food for thought on where the world could be headed.

I definitely loved the variety of cultural backgrounds portrayed! It feels well-researched and grounded in existing cultures, while being obviously future-fictionalized.

I think they can lend themselves well to short story form, yes! The short form allows for a lot of punch, which can work well for sf and horror especially. For myself, I'm not sure that it is My preferred format, because it can take more effort to get invested in the characters and to decipher what is going on--though that bias may come partially from having just read Pump Six, which as I said, is a little bleak!

I did catch a good sale on Amazon recently for 100 short stories by Ray Bradbury for $1.99, (though it will probably be a while before I can really start digging into those because I had a cluster of holds come in from SPL around the same time and I'm trying desperately to finish all of those before they are due). I'm not sure that those will be any less bleak though, now that I'm thinking about it!

I have the same problem Seth!! I go so far as to figure out which ones I can renew and which ones have long holds.....and which ones I can get read with the smallest fine.

I just picked up Grim edited by Christine Johnson. It has short stories based on fairy tales by some of the most prevalent YA authors. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Tabitha the Pabkins wrote: "I recently finished The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination - it was a great SFF collection all about the bad guys. Which I really enjoyed."

Hey Tabitha, I just read that I think in December and gave it 3.875 stars (thank you high school math!). Better than average anthology.

I'll request that from the library too - thanks Tabitha :)

I'm reading Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories for this month's challenge. I know it's a short collection, but I remember really loving Young Goodman Brown when I was a wee undergrad. :)

On Tabitha's recommendation, I'm reading The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination

The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination: Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius

I've only read the first few stories, but so far it's really fun: lots of humor with a taste of horror and/or SF/fantasy with authors like Gabaldon, Modesitt, Turtledove, and a whole bunch I haven't heard of.

One of the things I like about short story collections is getting exposed to a lot of authors that are new to me!

I've decided to tackle the pile of unread New Yorker magazines in my family room and read the short fiction published each week. Also, I just bought a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories for a Kindle Daily Deal and I have several "Best Short Fiction of 19??/20??" that I'm going to explore. I'd enjoy re-reading J.D. Salinger's short stories, too. However, I'm reading "The Illuminaries," an 800+ page novel that I checked out as a Lucky Day book so I have to finish that asap.

I read Futureland, difficult but interesting read. It will challenge any preconceptions about race, gender, or the benefits of technology that you have.

I always love to read Sedaris! His compilations of shorts always have me laughing out loud, which I don't normally do with books! I'm starting Lets Explore Diabetes With Owls and I'm sure I'll love it just as much as his others :)

Susan wrote: "I have the same problem Seth!! I go so far as to figure out which ones I can renew and which ones have long holds.....and which ones I can get read with the smallest fine."

Me too! I find all these great books to read and it never fails but they all come in at the same time! I picked up "White Fire" by Preston & Child, as well as my short story book--"Murder California Style" but I know "White Fire" has many holds so I can't even open the short story book!

I'm diving in and out of a book called The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. It's a collection of related short stories that introduce the world of The Witcher, a very popular European epic fantasy that has been made into a series of video games here in America. I've only read a little bit of it, and it's... fine. It's diverting, anyway.

I usually go for Zombies Vs. Unicorns, the Wild Cards series, and anything edited by John Joseph Adams for good genre short stories. Otherwise, I agree with Bubbles; David Sedaris is always good for bite-sized reading.

I finished "White Fire" and "Practice to Deceive" and started my short story book "Murder California Style." The stories are older vintage stories from the mystery writers of America but they are still awesome! They are also a fast read so I will be requesting some of the books suggested in this post. I had forgotten how interesting and well developed short stories could be.

Oooh! Really?? Thank you! Sylvan Oaks is my "home" library.

I am a big cozy fan but if somehow you had a copy of the new JR Ward book I would probably cry tears of joy! (I know, not happening.)

Super! Thanks so much!!