Book picks similar to
The Summer Before the Summer of Love: Stories by by Marly Swick
short-stories
fiction
shortstories
contemporary-fiction
If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This
Robin Black - 2010
A father struggles to forge an independent identity as his blind daughter prepares for college. A mother comes to terms with her adult daughter’s infidelity, even as she keeps a disturbing secret of her own. An artist mourns the end of a romance while painting a dying man’s portrait. An accident on a trip to Italy and an unexpected connection with a stranger cause a woman to question her lifelong assumptions about herself.Brilliant, hopeful, and fearlessly honest, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You. This illuminates the truths of human relationships, truths we come to recognize in these characters and in ourselves.
Thirteen Ways of Looking
Colum McCann - 2015
From the author of the award-winning novel Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic comes an eponymous novella and three stories that range fluidly across time, tenderly exploring the act of writing and the moment of creation when characters come alive on the page; the lifetime consequences that can come from a simple act; and the way our lives play across the world, marking language, image and each other.Thirteen Ways of Looking is framed by two author’s notes, each dealing with the brutal attack the author suffered last year and strikes at the heart of contemporary issues at home and in Ireland, the author’s birth place.Brilliant in its clarity and deftness, this collection reminds us, again, why Colum McCann is considered among the very best contemporary writers.
American Housewife
Helen Ellis - 2016
They casserole. They pinwheel. They pump the salad spinner like it's a CPR dummy. And then they kill a party crasher, carefully stepping around the body to pull cookies out of the oven. These twelve irresistible stories take us from a haunted prewar Manhattan apartment building to the set of a rigged reality television show, from the unique initiation ritual of a book club to the getaway car of a pageant princess on the lam, from the gallery opening of a tinfoil artist to the fitting room of a legendary lingerie shop. Vicious, fresh, and nutty as a poisoned Goo Goo Cluster, American Housewife is an uproarious, pointed commentary on womanhood.
Jackie Old: A tale of the future told in the past (Kindle Single)
Armistead Maupin - 2014
As usual, Maupin’s tone is both bittersweet and achingly funny in this tale of a post-catastrophic San Francisco and a young man’s resilient love for his mother. Cover Design by Darryl Vance
The Red Passport
Katherine Shonk - 2003
From My Mother's Garden, the parable of an old woman who refuses to accept the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, to The Young People of Moscow, which describes an extraordinary day in the life of an aging couple selling antiquated Soviet poetry in an underground bazaar, these intricately woven narratives provide unforgettable slices of a Russia that is at once both exotic and disconcertingly familiar.
A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both: Stories about Human Love
Ben Greenman - 2007
With a mix of traditional, literary prose and bold – some might even say irresponsible – experimentation, Ben Greenman explores the ins and outs of modern romance. Expect tears, nudity, and recrimination.Both familiar in their humanness and wholly original, these imaginative stories take us all over the map in time, place, and circumstance. From the halfhearted summer affair between a part-time bartender and a married doctor in a Miami hotel to the cryptic pseudo-erotic love letters to a friend who is “more than a friend,” we experience the love of pop songs, the love of cohabitation in Chicago, and love that is so transporting it takes us to the moon–literally.
Walking Wounded
William McIlvanney - 1989
The walking wounded. These are the stories of ordinary people.
The Broken Places
Susan Perabo - 2001
Subtly heartbreaking and wise, The Broken Places is a masterful exploration of the precarious intersection of honor, duty, and family.
The Secrets of a Fire King
Kim Edwards - 1997
Spanning several generations and transporting us to exotic locations in Europe, Asia, and America, this wise and exquisite story collection marks the debut of a gifted new voice in literature.
The Best American Short Stories 2011
Geraldine BrooksSteven Millhauser - 2011
Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind. The Best American Short Stories 2011 includes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Megan Mayhew Bergman, Jennifer Egan, Nathan Englander, Allegra Goodman, Ehud Havazelet, Rebecca Makkai, Steven Millhauser, George Saunders, Mark Slouka, and others
A Perfect Stranger: And Other Stories
Roxana Robinson - 2005
These people tell us the truth–not only about themselves, their relationships, and their lives, but about ourselves as well. A Perfect Stranger powerfully and affectingly examines the complex, intricate network of experiences that binds us to one another. These stories are tender, raw, lovely, fine–and they reaffirm Roxana Robinson’s place at the forefront of modern literature.
Adverbs
Daniel Handler - 2006
I am Daniel Handler, the author of this book. Did you know that authors often write the summaries that appear on their book's dust jacket? You might want to think about that the next time you read something like, "A dazzling page-turner, this novel shows an internationally acclaimed storyteller at the height of his astonishing powers.""Adverbs" is a novel about love -- a bunch of different people, in and out of different kinds of love. At the start of the novel, Andrea is in love with David -- or maybe it's Joe -- who instead falls in love with Peter in a taxi. At the end of the novel, it's Joe who's in the taxi, falling in love with Andrea, although it might not be Andrea, or in any case it might not be the same Andrea, as Andrea is a very common name. So is Allison, who is married to Adrian in the middle of the novel, although in the middle of the ocean she considers a fling with Keith and also with Steve, whom she meets in an automobile, unless it's not the same Allison who meets the Snow Queen in a casino, or the same Steve who meets Eddie in the middle of the forest. . . .It might sound confusing, but that's love, and as the author -- me -- says, "It is not the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done." This novel is about people trying to find love in the ways it is done before the volcano erupts and the miracle ends. Yes, there's a volcano in the novel. In my opinion a volcano automatically makes a story more interesting.
Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch
Eva Mazza - 2019
Written as fiction to protect the innocent, the book exposes the explosive dark truths of the Winelands' elite. All is revealed through the eyes of stay at home mom, 49-year-old Jen, who is the wife of John, a renowned wine farmer and businessman. Jen, like many of her privileged friends, lives a charmed life provided by her husband, in exchange for conjugal sex and obligatory wifely gratitude. When Jen stumbles upon her playboy husband in a compromising position with his sexy employee, things fall apart. Jen is forced to choose between leaving her marriage, jeopardising her standing and stability in the community or turning a blind eye to his infidelity. The book follows Jen's passage to self-discovery and self-fulfillment, while other characters' perspectives move the story forward as each is privy to (and eventually reveals) at least one 'truth' or 'lie' which Jen must face. Jen's exposition of her husband's infidelity inadvertently mirrors the underbelly of the patriarchal and often duplicitous community of the seemingly perfect Stellenbosch. Led by prominent wine farmers, international businessmen and renowned academics, business and private interests, even if ethically compromised, are staunchly guarded. The unfolding chapters irreverently explore both the emotional growth of the protagonist, Jen, as well as the moral ambiguities of the other players in the book. Characters like Lee, John's childhood friend and unknown ally to Jen, and marriage wrecker, Patty, blur lines between right and wrong and what is decent and moral. The alluring opulence of the rich and privileged setting of the famed Cape Winelands is complemented by the very real, often funny and indeed relatable crises that Jen is forced to confront. Sex,Lies & Stellenbosch is a page turner - sexy, fast-paced and entertaining.
Error Code Love
Suman Bhattacharya - 2013
But my Karma won’t let me, I have to compensate for what I’ve done.”Kolkata, 2008 Driven by a crazed love, Dev, our next door shy software engineer commits the biggest mistake of his life. Over 72 marathon hours, he loses his education, career, love, and life by a single act of madnes.Bengaluru 2012 Years later, Dev reaches Bengaluru in search of a better life. Destiny brings him face to face with his first love once again. He chases the same impossible dream only to find himself burning and failing in love. On the verge of losing everything that mattered, Dev fights his sense of practicality and his crazy, but limitless ‘Love’.Let’s find out who wins!Error Code Love takes you on an epic journey through the roads of friendship, jealousy, obsession, mistakes, redemption and love. It raises questions allied to grey areas of teen emotions and lets you find the answers within.
The Amish Broken Quilter (Amish Romance)
Emma Maas - 2018
But even worse, she doesn't care. She blames God for taking her husband and has since lost her way in both her faith, and her community. But life must go on, and to support herself she makes and mends quilts for the Amish and Englishers alike. Living alone in an apartment above her shop, she works only to live and seemingly not much else as she feels the need to almost punish herself, and God, at the same time. But all that changes when Levi, himself a widow, comes into her shop to mend an old quilt as a surprise for his daughter's first child. He's immediately taken with Hannah. And as his job is repair and fixing broken things in his workshop, his trained eye spots a few problems around her home that could use some neighborly help. But his heart spots some problems, too. Yet Hannah doesn't want the help, or the attention. She resists, but Levi won't take no for an answer. He repeatedly shows up to work on things, trying to slowly chip away at her gruff exterior and win a smile, if not a friend. But Hannah is comfortable in her pain. She certainly has no time for friendships, let alone love. Yet God, and Levi, just might have other plans. Can two people find what they need in the other, when they both need it the most? A desire to mend against a desire to harbor old pains. Will love win out, in this sweet Amish Romance? Read this new book by Emma Maas to find out today...