Six Short Story Collections to Wow You

The Bossy Bookworm
Oct 17
5 min read

Bossy Short Story Love

Some of you bookworms have told me in the past that you don't like or at least don't gravitate toward short stories, whether because you want to dig in more deeply over the course of a longer story and book, because you feel like situations in short stories sometimes feel unresolved, or because you feel like the stories can seem disjointed.

Sometimes short stories tend toward exploring tragedy, as in many of the luminous collections here and their gorgeous heartbreaks. And the dipping-in-and-out without cleaning up the mess of everyday heartbreak might feel unsatisfying.

But sometimes nothing does the reading trick like shorter works--especially when time is tight or when you might have trouble concentrating (for example, during a worldwide pandemic, when I read some of these collections). I especially love an interconnected set of stories that when taken collectively offer the richness of a longer, in-depth story or concepts to reflect upon.

Have you read any of these collections? Do you have any favorite short story collections I should read?

You might also want to chek out the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six More Short Story Collections I Loved.

01 Thunderstruck & Other Stories by Elizabeth McCracken

Whatever you have lost there are more of, just not yours.

McCracken is a fantastic writer who highlights odd, strangely beautiful elements in small moments. Each of the nine stories in this collection builds from a loss of some kind.

In what feels like careful, deliberate shaping by McCracken and her editor, the early stories felt more bleak to me and the later ones offered a little more hope, or at least acceptance.

This was her flaw as a parent, she thought later: she had never truly gotten rid of a single maternal worry. They were all in the closet, with the minuscule footed pajamas and hand-knit baby hats, and every day Laura took them out, unfolded them, tried to put them to use.

McCracken is also the author of novels like The Hero of this Book, The Giant's House, Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry, The Souvenir Museum, Niagara Falls All Over Again, and the beautiful, heart-wrenching An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination.

02 The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

The Office of Historical Corrections offers so much to unpack; Evans's story themes are often haunting, always powerful, and wonderfully nuanced.

She thought the insistence on victims without wrongdoers was at the base of the whole American problem, the lie that supported all the others.

In The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans offers short stories centering around themes of race, relationships, identity, the fallibility of those who shape historical "fact," as well as grief and loss. She beautifully and powerfully illustrates essential, deep truths by tracing moments in her characters' everyday lives.

All of her adult life people have asked Rena why she goes to such dangerous places, and she has always wanted to ask them where the safe place is. The danger is in chemicals and airports and refugee camps and war zones and regions known for sex tourism. The danger also sometimes took the trash out for them. The danger came over for movie night and bought them a popcorn maker for Christmas. The danger hugged her mother and shook her father’s hand.

The themes here are often haunting, always powerful, and wonderfully nuanced, even when the scenes (the artist's exhibition, the actual on-the-spot printed and posted corrections of "fact," and others) take metaphors to their limits.

Click here for my full review of The Office of Historical Corrections.

03 Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy

His heart felt dangerously full, for the first time in years. That dried-up battered organ, suddenly flush with love. It could kill him.

In Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, Maile Meloy keeps you on your toes as you consider what may lay in wait within the relationships she lays out, and you may not be able to anticipate who's going to have a life-changing revelation (or not), who is just who they say they are, and who isn't at all what they seem.

A couple of the eleven stories in Meloy's collection left me wishing for more, but Meloy doesn't leave you hanging, instead drawing you in with the depth of each work.

I was surprised by the poignancy in Meloy's stories.

Meloy is also the author of Do Not Become Alarmed, Liars and Saints, and A Family Daughter as well as the story collection Half in Love. She also wrote the Apothecary trilogy for young readers.

04 Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash

In Nothing Gold Can Stay, a collection by Ron Rash, the stories take place in different eras, but all are set in North Carolina and in heart-wrenching, tough, gorgeous, hardscrabble Appalachia.

The state is as prominent as a character as Rash explores trapped despair, haunting choices, and the beauty of even bleak moments.

Rash's writing here is, as always, exquisite, and within these 14 stories, he turns his attention to characters who yearn, regret, and desperately attempt to hide their fragility behind steely exteriors.

Rash never relishes laying bare a dirty underbelly; he introduces unexpected depth and layers that inspire a reader to reconsider assumptions and leave room for wonder.

North Carolina's Rash (he teaches at Western Carolina University) is also the author of other Appalachia-set books: Serena, The World Made Straight, Burning Bright, Above the Waterfall, The Risen, The Cove, and One Foot in Eden, and The Caretaker, among others.

For more reads set in Appalachia, please take a look at the titles at this link.

05 Redeployment by Phil Klay

There are two ways to tell the story. Funny or sad. Guys like it funny, with lots of gore and a grin on your face when you get to the end. Girls like it sad, with a thousand-yard stare out to the distance as you gaze upon the horrors of war they can’t quite see. Either way, it’s the same story.

In Iraq Marine veteran and Dartmouth grad Phil Klay's National Book Award-winner Redeployment, the author shares short stories about war and the jarring entry into life afterward that read like autobiographical vignettes.

This is, as you might expect, difficult subject matter--exploring powerful emotions, troops haunted by decisions and unforeseen dangers, painful adjustments to life after war, and injury and loss.

But Klay draws you into his characters' situations too fully for you to want to turn away.

For more books set in wartime, please check out the titles at this Bossy link.

06 Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

I love how Strout interlinks characters, backgrounds, and stories so gracefully, yet also allows them to stand on their own.

As soon as I finished reading this short story collection from Elizabeth Strout, I wished I’d slowed down and taken notes or could start all over and read it again immediately. The stories feel immediate and real.

Strout shines a light on turning points: small but powerful shifts of power or emotion, masterfully illustrating how a moment sends ripples through the day or the broader life of those involved in it—it’s fascinating.

Elizabeth Strout is also the author of Olive Kitteridge, Olive, Again, My Name Is Lucy Barton, Lucy by the Sea, Tell Me Everything, and Oh William!

For my full review, please see Anything Is Possible.