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Recommended Reads: Short stories
Short stories contain all the elements of a novel—and sometimes more!—within a limited word count.
Short stories contain all the elements of a novel—and sometimes more!—within a limited word count. Whether experimental or deceptively simple in form, short stories allow authors to explore a variety of characters, subject matter, and literary devices. There is something for everyone, across all genres and preferences.
Digital book (DB), braille (BR), and large print (LT), copies of these titles are available from Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact Perkins Library to order any of these books.
Prepared by Andrea Everett, Reader Advisor, Perkins Library
The Best of O. Henry
by O. Henry
DB 42891, BR 10794, available as BARD download
Twenty-six short stories, originally published in the New York World newspaper, about city life in the early 1900s. Includes such well-known tales as “Gift of the Magi” and less familiar ones, such as “Memories of a Yellow Dog.” While their themes vary, the stories share O. Henry’s incisive humor, irony, and pathos. 1992.
Close Range: Wyoming Stories
by Annie Proulx
DB 48276, BR 24280, available as BARD download
Eleven short stories depict the harshness of making a living in the twentieth-century West–herding animals, riding the rodeo circuit, or getting by in a small town. “Brokeback Mountain” describes complex feelings between two ranch hands in a land where homosexuality is not tolerated. Strong language and some descriptions of sex. 1999.
Download Close Range, DB 48276
Download Close Range, BR 24280
Corpus Christi: Stories
by Bret Anthony Johnston
DBC 18314, available as BARD download
This collection of short stories explores death, grief, lost love, and the power of memories in stories set in and around Corpus Christi, Texas. Three stories describe the efforts of a young high school history teacher, Lee Marshall, to care for his mother as she dies of cancer. “Waterwalkers” relates the meeting of a divorced couple; through flashbacks, we learn that their son’s death drove them apart. “In the Tall Grass” and “Two Liars,” explore the deep relationships between fathers and sons. Some descriptions of sex and some profanity. 2004.
The Eternal Husband and Other Stories
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, trans. by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
DB 66300, BR 17716, available as BARD download
Five short tales by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881). Features “A Nasty Anecdote,” “Bobok,” “The Meek One,” “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man,” and the title piece, in which a widower encounters his deceased wife’s lover. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Includes 1997 preface. 1997.
The Decameron Project: 29 New Stories from the Pandemic
by Victor D. LaValle (Editor)
DB 123413, LT 29825, available as BARD download
Presents a collection of short stories originally commissioned by “The New York Times Magazine” as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, from twenty-nine authors including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Edwidge Danticat, and more, in a project inspired by Boccaccio’s “The Decameron.” 2020.
Download The Decameron Project, DB 123413
“The Deportees” and Other Stories
by Roddy Doyle
DB 67627, BRG 2322, available as BARD download
Eight tales by prize-winning Irish writer explore his homeland’s changing demographics. In “Guess Who’s Coming for the Dinner,” a father who believes himself open-minded meets his daughter’s new boyfriend. Includes “57% Irish” and the title story, which features Jimmy Rabbitte from Doyle’s novel The Commitments (RC 35794). Strong language. 2007.
Difficult Women
by Roxane Gay
DB 87197, available as BARD download
Twenty-one short stories by the author of Bad Feminist (DB 80463), exploring women’s lives. Topics range from sisters escaping from the trauma of their past in “I Will Follow You” to a couple determining the limits of their relationship in “Open Marriage”. Violence and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2017.
Five-Carat Soul
by James McBride
DB 89637, available as BARD download
A collection of previously unpublished short stories exploring the ways that people learn from the world and from individuals surrounding them. Five strangers are thrown together. A president draws inspiration from an overheard conversation. A legendary antique toy is found residing somewhere unexpected. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
Gods of Want: Stories
by K-Ming Chang
DB 110153, available as BARD download
“In “Auntland,” a steady stream of aunts adjust to American life by sneaking surreptitious kisses from women at temple, buying tubs of vanilla ice cream to prepare for citizenship tests, and hatching plans to name their daughters “Dog.” In “The Chorus of Dead Cousins,” ghost-cousins cross space, seas, and skies to haunt their live-cousin, wife to a storm chaser. In “Xífù,” a mother-in-law tortures a wife in increasingly unsuccessful attempts to rid the house of her. In “Mariela,” two girls explore one another’s bodies for the first time in the belly of a plastic shark, while in “Virginia Slims,” a woman from a cigarette ad comes to life. And in “Resident Aliens,” a former slaughterhouse serves as a residence to a series of widows, each harboring her own calamitous secrets. With each tale, K-Ming Chang gives us her own take on a surrealism that mixes myth and migration, corporeality and ghostliness, queerness and the quotidian. Stunningly told in her feminist fabulist style, these are uncanny stories peeling back greater questions of power and memory.”—Provided by publisher.—Unrated. 2022.
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
by Carmen Maria Machado
DB 86967, BR 23543, available as BARD download
A collection of short stories that tear down the boundaries between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
Holiday Magic
by Mary Carter, Terri DuLong, Cathy Lamb, and Fern Michaels
DB 71933, available as BARD download
Four Christmas romances. In the title piece by Fern Michaels, single mother Stephanie works at a Colorado ski lodge and briefly dates her boss Patrick. Patrick fears commitment but after a crisis decides to give love a chance. The other tales are set in Cedar Key, Maui, and Montana. Bestseller. 2010.
The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
DB 53792, BR 10599, LT 35440, available as BARD download
An elderly Cuban fisherman hooks a giant marlin after eighty-five days without a single catch. Then he fights a losing battle with sharks who deprive him of his triumph. Pulitzer Prize. 1952.
The Refugees
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
DB 88948, BR 21968, LT 22279, available as BARD download
Collection of eight short stories from Pulitzer Prize winner. Set in both Vietnam and America, the stories explore immigration and the resulting issues with identity, loyalties, romantic relationships, and family. In “Black-Eyed Women” a writer deals with ghosts of all sorts. Some violence and some descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2017.
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
by Deesha Philyaw
DB 103631, available as BARD download
In this collection of short stories, the author follows four generations of Black women and girls grappling with identity, double standards, their own needs and desires, and a reprieve from being good. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex. 2020.
Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang
DB 87031, BR 21788, available as BARD download
Collection of eight science fiction short stories from award-winning author, including “Story of Your Life”—the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival. Mankind builds a tower to Heaven. The fundamentals of math are discovered to be arbitrary. Exposure to an alien language changes the perception of time. Bestseller. 2002.
“This Year It Will Be Different” and Other Stories: A Christmas Treasury
by Maeve Binchy
DB 43325, available as BARD download
Fifteen tales set in England, Ireland, and Australia telling how family members come to terms with Christmases that circumstances make “different.” In the title story, a mother’s listlessness leads to a change in the way her family observes the holiday. In another a resentful stepdaughter finds love within her new family. Bestseller. 1996.
Download “This Year It Will Be Different” and Other Stories, DB 43325
Twenty Under Forty: Stories from the New Yorker
by Deborah Treisman (Editor)
DB 74751, available as BARD download
Short stories and excerpts of novels-in-progress by twenty North American writers under age forty, selected by the New Yorker. Among those at various stages of their careers bringing news of the world and the human heart: Jonathan Safran Foer, Nell Freudenberger, Yiyun Li, Karen Russell, and Gary Shteyngart. 2010.
Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories
by Karen Russell
DB 76310, BR 19885, available as BARD download
Collection of eight tales from the author of Swamplandia! (DB 72823) that explore magical interpretations of everyday occasions. In the title story Clyde, a vampire, reminisces about his early years as he watches over a tourist spot and befriends a lemonade vendor. Strong language and some violence. Bestseller. 2013.
“Ward Number Six” and Other Stories
by Anton Chekov
DB 32544, BR 8624, available as BARD download
Seven short stories written in the late 1800s by noted Russian author Anton Chekhov. The title story is of Dr. Ragin, the director of a mental hospital, whose own alcoholism and eccentric behavior lead to his committal to the hospital. Other stories in the collection are “The Butterfly,” “Ariadne,” “A Dreary Story,” “Neighbours,” “An Anonymous Story,” and “Doctor Startsev.”
What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky
by Lesley Nneka Arimah
DBC 27201, LT 25347, available as BARD download
A collection of stories exploring the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home. Commercial audiobook. Adult. Unrated. 2017.
Download What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, DBC 27201
Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction
by Irene Gallo (Editor)
DB 93513, available as BARD download
A collection of speculative, fantasy, and science fiction short stories published on Tor. com during its first decade. Includes works from Charlie Jane Anders, N. K. Jemisin, Leigh Bardugo, Jeff VanderMeer, Yoon Ha Lee, Carrie Vaughn, Ken Liu, and many others. Some violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. 2018.
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