Short Story

Exhalation

Ted Chiang

This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. 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 the temptation of second chances. In the epistolary "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his own people, but for all of reality. And in "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over twenty years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living being. Also included are two brand-new stories: "Omphalos" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom." In this fantastical and elegant collection, Ted Chiang wrestles with the oldest questions on earth--What is the nature of the universe? What does it mean to be human?--and ones that no one else has even imagined. And, each in its own way, the stories prove that complex and thoughtful science fiction can rise to new heights of beauty, meaning, and compassion.

Chiang explores determinism, A.I. and alternate realities. Every tale is unique and fascinating. So much so that I can't choose a favorite. I recommend this to anyone who wants their Sci-Fi to get them thinking. -Brian

A manual for cleaning women : selected stories

Lucia Berlin

FICTION Berlin Lucia
Short Story

"Stories from a lost American classic "in the same arena as Alice Munro" (Lydia Davis) "In the field of short fiction, Lucia Berlin is one of America's best kept secrets. That's it. Flat out. No mitigating conditions." --Paul Metcalf A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With her trademark blend of humor and melancholy, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday--uncovering moments of grace in the cafeterias and Laundromats of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Northern California upper classes, and from the perspective of a cleaning woman alone in a hotel dining room in Mexico City. The women of Berlin's stories are lost, but they are also strong, clever, and extraordinarily real. They are hitchhikers, hard workers, bad Christians. With the wit of Lorrie Moore and the grit of Raymond Carver, they navigate a world of jockeys, doctors, and switchboard operators. They laugh, they mourn, they drink. Berlin, a highly influential writer despite having published little in her lifetime, conjures these women from California, Mexico, and beyond. Lovers of the short story will not want to miss this remarkable collection from a master of the form"--

Lately I've been enjoying collections of short stories. Lucia Berlin's stories are about many characters, but all are semi-autobiographical. And though most stories seem to be about ordinary events in ordinary towns with ordinary people, all contain extraordinary insights into the human condition. -Mari

Hakumei & Mikochi : tiny little life in the woods

Takuto Kashiki‏

MANGA Kashiki Hakumei
Graphic Novels, Nature, Fantasy, Humor, Short Story

"Deep within a lush, green forest live Hakumei and Mikochi. Making their home in trees, using leaves for umbrellas, and riding bugs for transportation is just part of everyday life for these tiny pals!"--

Nonstop cuteness from start to finish--a sweet slice of teeny tiny life! -Casey

Black dahlia & white rose

Joyce Carol Oates

FICTION Oates Joyce
Short Story

Joyce Carol Oates, winner and nominee of several awards, including the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and National Humanities Medal has quite a prolific collection of work. This 2012 collection of stories received the Bram Stoker Award (BSA) for superior achievement in Horror. BSA winners and finalists make great reading options for horror fans as the award winners are chosen by Horror Writer's Association members and lovers of Horror writing. -Shawna

How to love a Jamaican : stories

Alexia Arthurs

FICTION Arthurs Alexia
Short Story, Fiction

Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life. In "Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands," an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In "Mash Up Love," a twin's chance sighting of his estranged brother--the prodigal son of the family--stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In "Bad Behavior," a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In "Mermaid River," a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In "The Ghost of Jia Yi," a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in "Shirley from a Small Place," a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother's big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.

The stories in this book are beautiful, witty, and sparkle with a variety of personalities that all felt real to me. Do pick up this short story collection by Iowa Writer's Workshop grad Alexia Arthurs! -Heidi K

Difficult women

Roxane Gay

FICTION Gay Roxane
Short Story

"Award-winning author and powerhouse talent Roxane Gay burst onto the scene with An Untamed State and the New York Times bestselling essay collection Bad Feminist (Harper Perennial). Gay returns with Difficult Women, a collection of stories of rare force and beauty, of hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection. The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister's marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls' fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America reminiscent of Merritt Tierce, Jamie Quatro, and Miranda July"--

Roxane Gay is always my favorite. But this might be the best book she's written yet. -Heidi K

Strange weather : four short novels

Joe Hill

FICTION Hill Joe
Science Fiction, Short Story

"One of America's finest horror writers" (Time magazine), Joe Hill has been hailed among legendary talents such as Peter Straub, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Lethem. In Strange Weather, this "compelling chronicler of human nature's continual war between good and evil," (Providence Journal-Bulletin) who "pushes genre conventions to new extremes" (New York Times Book Review) deftly expose the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life.--Amazon.com

As a Stephen King fan, I naturally am drawn to his son's books. I had been eagerly waiting for the release of this collection after reading an early release of the story, Snapshot in the magazine, Cemetery Dance. The ideas in these stories have stuck with me and I often find myself thinking back on them. -Shawna

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