Book picks similar to
Girly: Two Stories by May-Lan Tan
short-stories
fiction
shorts
summer-reading
In the Mirror
Robin Lythgoe - 2011
"With the help of Lythgoe's spot on descriptions - not to mention the beautiful cover art - I could practically feel the mirror under my fingers. I own an old mechanical typewriter that I used to write many a poem on when I was younger. It belonged to my father and the clack and clatter of it when he used to write was a well-loved sound to me. Lythgoe's story brings to mind many memories of my youth and childhood and how the simple things were very special. In the Mirror is well crafted, full of deep emotion, wonder, loss, hope and most of all, magic."--Kristie Kiessling, Reviewer
The 5:22
George Harrar - 1999
When a fellow passenger on his usual train goes missing, a man begins to wonder if everything is as it seems.
The Best of 2.13.61
Henry Rollins - 1998
Culling over 300 pages of some of today's most thrilling writers, The Best of 2.13.61 Publications hallmarks our company's ten year existence. Excerpts include new material from Henry Rollins and Hubert Selby, Jr, as well as excerpts from Henry Miller's love letters, Nick Zedd's hilarious nihilistic New York urban spelunkings, Ian Shoales' undeniably witty social commentaries and so much more.
A Day at the Beach Hut: Stories and Recipes Inspired by Seaside Life
Veronica Henry - 2021
A celebration of beach hut living, from the bestselling author of the Beach Hut novels.
From a tin mug of crab chowder after a bracing dip to a picnic feast for friends and family, this is a celebration of sunshine and sea air and salt spray; a love letter to the beach hut life.Whether you're dreaming of a coastal retreat or planning Christmas on the beach, this book offers a little taste of the seaside to keep in your kitchen or by your bed for those days when you need to get away from it all. Because we all need an escape every now and then...
Shipwrecked
Mishka Shubaly - 2011
There, Mishka Shubaly learned some valuable life lessons — among them that in the absence of whiskey, wine and water, urine will get the job done.
Dont Get Mad...Get Even
J.L. Campbell - 2011
Take an inside look at Jamaican culture and lifestyle through a collection of award-winning stories. You will laugh, cry and commiserate with a compelling cast of characters, who conquer their challenges in unique ways.
Barbara the Slut and Other People
Lauren Holmes - 2014
She tackles eros and intimacy with a deceptively light touch, a keen awareness of how their nervous systems tangle and sometimes short-circuit, and a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves. In “Desert Hearts,” a woman takes a job selling sex toys in San Francisco rather than embark on the law career she pursued only for the sake of her father. In “Pearl and the Swiss Guy Fall in Love,” a woman realizes she much prefers the company of her pit bull—and herself—to the neurotic foreign fling who won’t decamp from her apartment. In “How Am I Supposed to Talk to You?” a daughter hauls a suitcase of lingerie to Mexico for her flighty, estranged mother to resell there, wondering whether her personal mission—to come out—is worth the same effort. And in “Barbara the Slut,” a young woman with an autistic brother, a Princeton acceptance letter, and a love of sex navigates her high school’s toxic, slut-shaming culture with open eyes. With heart, sass, and pitch-perfect characters, Barbara the Slut is a head-turning debut from a writer with a limitless career before her.
The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories
Emma Donoghue - 2002
An engraving of a woman giving birth to rabbits, a plague ballad, theological pamphlets, and an articulated skeleton are ingeniously fleshed out into rollicking tales. Whether she's spinning the tale of a soldier tricked into marrying a dowdy spinster, or a Victorian surgeon's attempts to "improve" women, Donoghue fills us with the sights and smells of the period as she summons the ghosts of ordinary people, bringing them to unforgettable life in fiction.
Selected Stories
John Updike - 1985
Updike, when asked to described his method of reading aloud, said "I try to picture the things describes, and to speak the words distinctly, and to let the emotion come through on its own."The method works beautifully.
Horsepower & Medicine
Charles de Lint - 2019
Her best friend, Santana Corn Eyes, knows about the project, as does a ghost who visits her, silently urging her on. Yirah says the spirit is that of her departed uncle, but Santana is worried. Why would a ghost be crossing over to this world? Maybe it’s not such a good idea to get a a dead man’s motorbike running again. And if Yirah does succeed, will she be patient enough to learn how to safely handle it? Set in the Painted Hills near Santo del Vado Viejo, this original short story is loosely connected to de Lint’s acclaimed novel, The Wind in His Heart. “One of the most original fantasy writers currently working.”—Booklist “Charles de Lint is the modern master of urban fantasy. Folktale, myth, fairy tale, dreams, urban legend—all of it adds up to pure magic in de Lint’s vivid, original world. No one does it better.”—Alice Hoffman “De Lint creates an entirely organic mythology that seems as real as the folklore from which it draws.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review “De Lint is a romantic; he believes in the great things, faith, hope, and charity (especially if love is included in that last), but he also believes in the power of magic—or at least the magic of fiction—to open our eyes to a larger world.”—Edmonton Journal “It’s hard not to feel encouraged to be a better person after reading a book by Ottawa’s Charles de Lint.”—Halifax Chronicle Herald “If Ottawa-area author Charles de Lint didn't create the contemporary fantasy, he certainly defined it. …writer-musician-artist-folklorist de Lint has lifted our accepted reality and tipped it just enough sideways to show the possibilities that lie beneath the surface… Unlike most fantasy writers who deal with battles between ultimate good and evil, de Lint concentrates on smaller, very personal conflicts. Perhaps this is what makes him accessible to the non-fantasy audience as well as the hard-core fans. Perhaps it's just damned fine writing.” —Quill & Quire “In de Lint's capable hands, modern fantasy becomes something other than escapism. It becomes folk song, the stuff of urban myth.” ―The Phoenix Gazette
What's He Doing in There?
Fritz Leiber - 1957
It was the Professor's Wife, always a perceptive hostess, came to her husband's rescue by saying, "Top of the stairs, end of the hall, last door."Oddly enough, it was the start of a puzzling and all but unspeakable misadventure. As it were.
Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble: Some Things About Women and Notes on Media
Nora Ephron - 1978
In these sharp, hilariously entertaining, and vividly observed pieces, Ephron illuminates an era with wicked honesty and insight. From the famous “A Few Words About Breasts” to important pieces on her time working for the New York Post and Gourmet Magazine, these essays show Ephron at her very best.
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
Denis Johnson - 2018
It follows the groundbreaking, highly acclaimed Jesus’ Son. Written in the same luminous prose, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating old age, mortality, the ghosts of the past, and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death in May 2017, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come.
McSweeney's #59
Claire Boyle - 2020
Featuring the conclusions to Issue 57's cliffhanger stories by Booker Prize nominee Oyinkan Braithwaite, Brian Evanson, and Mona Awad.
This Is Pleasure: A Story
Mary Gaitskill - 2019
In This Is Pleasure, she considers our present moment through the lens of a particular #MeToo incident. The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons—hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable. Gaitskill has said that fiction is the only way that she could approach this subject because it is too emotionally faceted to treat in the more rational essay form. Her compliment to her characters—and to her readers—is that they are unvarnished and real. Her belief in our ability to understand them, even when we don’t always admire them, is a gesture of humanity from one of our greatest contemporary writers.