The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa is a collection of seven short stories about cats, and is a follow-up to her novel, The Travelling Cat Chronicles (characters from the book appear in the stories, but it is not necessary to have read that title). It is a gentle, moving collection, which delves into human-animal relationships. Sometimes told from a cat’s perspective, the stories take place in ordinary Japanese households, and explore the cycle of life.
Translated from the Japanese, The Goodbye Cat is part of the genre of “healing fiction”--cozy, quirky, sometimes fantastical, feel-good books that are popular in Korea and Japan, and have become a phenomenon in the U.S. Cats are frequently featured in the stories. Many readers find the stories offer comfort, and find reading these books to be a healing experience.
Read-alikes:
The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide
We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki
The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu
She and Her Cat: Stories by Makoto Shinkai
The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi
Norah Gilman, Cold Spring Harbor Library
This anthology of murder and suspense short stories may be short in length, but it isn't short on suspense or twists.
Bruns has brought together eight gifted mystery authors, four of whom are NY Times bestselling writers (Andrew Child, Heather Graham, Reed Farrel Coleman, and John Gilstrap). In addition, there are stories by Rick Bleiweiss, Jennifer Graeser Dornbush, Amanda Flower, and of course Don Bruns.
Normally not a short story reader, I really enjoyed each of these stories. With the exception of Andrew Child (book/TV protagonist Reacher), I was not familiar with most of the authors in this anthology, so this was a nice way to be introduced to them. The book is well balanced, with no author excelling over any of the others. The intensity level and story length was just right. I would recommend this to mystery readers who might be just in the mood for a brief but satisfying story.
"Go ahead. Check in, enjoy some room service, and stay until the very last tantalizing page. Just don’t forget to search the closet or behind the curtains."
Read-alikes:
The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 edited by Lisa Unger
Golden Age Whodunits edited by Otto Penzler
Ink and Daggers edited by Maxim Jakubowski
Sue Ketcham, Retired
Exhalation is a collection of nine speculative fiction short stories by Chinese-American author Ted Chiang. He is well known for his sci-fi short stories and has received many awards for his work including the Nebula and Hugo awards.
Exhalation, written in 2019, is a collection of nine short stories. Each one is a different style, ranging from 1001 Arabian Nights-type fairytales to more traditional sci-fi writing. The stories range from quite short (a page or so) to 50+ pages. Each story follows its own style to deliver its message most effectively. While people may view speculative fiction merely as thrilling stories to entertain and amaze, it is more often used as a lens to examine problems we are dealing with in our everyday lives. By presenting a concept on another planet, or set in the future, or told from the perspective of a robot, we are able to examine these issues without taking immediate offense to them. This is the focus of Exhalation - the stories address such issues as what happens when children are essentially raised by tech instead of people, the question of whether or not we have free will, the impact of technology on humans, morality in the face of difficulties, artificial life and its worth compared to biological life, and even what it means for children to grow up and become mature. By presenting these difficult topics in lands far far away, we are able to think about them objectively.
Having said that, the topics presented in each story are quite heavy. There aren’t any funny or light-hearted stories to break it up, so I found it rather hard to plow through. If you are in an introspective mood and enjoy a wide range of writing styles then this well-crafted book is for you. If you are looking for something light-hearted and fluffy, I would pass on this one.
Read-alikes:
Axiomatic by Greg Egan
The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu (author of Three-body Problem)
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu
Carolyn Brooks, The Smithtown Library - Commack Building
In 2018, a year before passing away, Dorothea Benton Frank attended her fiftieth-class reunion, which inspired her next book idea. She would write a novel about the rivalries, cliques, and long-term friendships. Different characters would resemble South Carolina birds. She chose the title Reunion Beach. Sadly, in September 2019, Dorothea Benton Frank died and there was nothing but the idea for Reunion Beach. Her writer friends were inspired by the idea of Reunion Beach and together wrote an anthology of short stories, essays, poems, and more to honor the spirit of their dear friend, Dottie.
Bridesmaids by Patti Callahan is about four college friends, now in their 60s reuniting in a Lowcountry island to sort out matters of the heart. While in college, the friends chose the type of bird that represents them, which becomes loving nicknames throughout the story. Summer of ‘79 by Elin Hilderbrand is a family reunion of familiar characters from Summer of ‘69. Adriana Trigiani wrote Postcards from Heaven, a series of fictional postcards written by late author Pat Conroy to Dorothea Benton Frank. The postcards welcome Frank into heaven and imagine how Frank would react upon entering heaven to see her dear friend, including the conversations they would have. Both heartfelt and funny. Mary Alice Monroe wrote a touching mother-daughter reunion. Each narrative flows seamlessly into the next, making the collection feel cohesive despite its multiple contributors.
Reunion Beach is perfect for fans of Dorothea Benton Frank and those who enjoy rich, character-driven stories with a Southern flair. It’s also a great pick for book clubs looking for engaging discussions on themes of love and community. This anthology promises to transport you to a world of heartfelt connections and coastal charm. It’s a wonderful homage to a literary giant and a delightful read for anyone seeking warmth and inspiration in their next book.
Read-alikes:
Sullivan's Island by Dorothea Benton Frank
The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
Nanci Helmle, The Smithtown Library - Commack Building
This collection of eleven stories ranges from employees at the DMV and a mother looking out for her son, to a woman catching her husband cheating and Covid life, focusing on relationships of all sorts. With topics such as infidelity, guilt, mental illness, empty-nest syndrome, and death, these stories will tug at the heart strings, make you laugh, and also make you shake your head.
In Chicken-Flavored and Lemon-Scented, the author makes the reader laugh by explaining how the driving instructors pick the people they're going to give the driving test too and some of the awful drivers they've experienced while also giving a glimpse into the loneliness of the instructors' lives.
In Damascus, a mother is worried that her son is doing drugs while also recounting her own experiences in high school and the hard times she went through. While a heady topic, mistakes are made but so are connections as she and her son have an honest conversation.
Twist and Shout deals with the aging and death or parents while Turn Back, Turn Back and King Midas tackle the topic of infidelity. Games and Rituals is about a relationship falling apart while CobRa is about keeping a relationship alive after being married for over twenty years.
Each story has a unique voice and while not all are consistent in quality, overall the book in entertaining and enjoyable. I would recommend this to readers who prefer books about relationships and the human spirit and even to those who don't normally ready short stories but are looking for solid writing and connections. I would definitely read another title by this author.
Read-alikes:
After the Funeral and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories by Lily King
Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro
Azurée Agnello, West Babylon Public Library
Laird Hunt shines a spotlight on small-town life in this collection of short stories all taking place on a single day in Bright Creek, Indiana. Hunt's fans will already be familiar with the characters in these stories, having previously met them in Zorrie, Hunt's 2021 short novel. Each of the 14 bite-sized stories (all are 10-20 pages long) focuses on a different resident of Bright Creek as they go about their day. Some characters are intertwined with others, some cross paths with others, and some characters only have a ripple effect on another.
Although this collection can be read as a stand-alone, this reader recommends picking it up soon after finishing Zorrie for maximum effect.
Read-alikes:
Young Skins: Stories by Colin Barrett
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana
News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories by Jennifer Haigh
Mara Zonderman, Westhampton Free Library
This stories in this collection are all very different yet share a criminal element ranging from petty theft to murder. This is not surprising as the author is a well-known writer of detective mysteries. Two of the stories feature Tess Monaghan, beloved private investigator from the well-known Tess Monaghan book series. All of the stories are set in the Baltimore area, which is where the author lives. These stories were written between 2007 and 2019 and the collection is broken down in to four parts. Only the last story Just One More was written for this collection and boy is it a doozy.
The collection starts with Seasonal Work and tells the heartbreaking story of a young girl, who along with her step-siblings, is dragged all over the US by her scheming step-father. The tale is a sad one and just when you think you couldn’t feel any worse for the daughter, she closes the story out by making a statement so disturbing that it totally throws you off guard. I certainly didn’t see it coming.
Another favorite from part 2 is Cougar. Lenore, the story’s protagonist, is a single mother whose troubled son returns home after 6 months without any explanation. He and his lazy girlfriend have taken over the basement. They make demands and shout insults at Lenore day in and day out and Lenore suspects that her son is cooking meth and dealing drugs. Lenore is terrified that she will lose her house if he is found out but is even more afraid of her son. It isn’t until a friend of her son arrives that life as Lenore knows it starts to turn around. Lenore and the son’s friend, Aaron, who happens to be the same age as her son, form a friendship that quickly turns into a physical relationship. Soon, Lenore confides to Aaron how awful her life is and that’s when things really take a turn for the better or for worse. The reader will have to decide.
However, my all-time favorite of the twelve stories is Just One More. Written about a couple, Kelley and Tom, who are sheltering in place during the Covid pandemic. We learn that Kelley wants to spice things up to break up the monotony of staying home. She proposes that they create dating profiles and try to connect on a dating app. Any married couple would tell you that you are out of your mind to try this, especially after it is revealed that Tom had strayed in the past. What happens is that Kelley becomes obsessed with matching up with her husband. She shares this information with her “good” friend Amy who has hatched a plan of her own.
Review:
As with every collection of short stories, there are the ones that jump off the page and the ones that are lackluster. Fortunately with the exception of one, I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. Lippman is sharp and witty. Her work is relatable and poignant. The stories in this collection are well crafted and intriguing and will keep you guessing right up to the very end.
Read-alikes:
After the Funeral and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
Disruptions by Steven Millhauser
Cardiff, by the Sea: Four Novellas of Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates
Karen McHugh, Harborfields Public Library
McCracken delivers 12 short stories all revolving around the theme of relationships, whether it be romantic, family, or even acquaintances. The reader learns of each character’s point in time and how they cope with life’s battles, wrestling with grief, love, loss, and much more. Each relationship she writes about is unique in it's own way, providing an intriguing plot with realistic circumstances articulated throughout. The setting varies between Europe and America, some places well known to us New Yorkers.
The author opens her short story collection with a light hearted comedy about two people, Jack and Sadie, beginning their relationship and heading to a wedding in Ireland. The American woman in the relationship adjusts to the customs of European banter as she wraps her head around her new mate. This cheerful story provides a good start to the collection, but as the reader continues on, the stories become darker and some even strange. A few bleak narratives include a father and son traveling to Scotland to mourn the loss of their wife/mother as well as a betrayal story of a young woman who checks into a hotel to drink her sorrows away. McCracken also writes a few offbeat plots about a ventriloquist, a mentally ill mother who wants to eat her children, and an actress who played a villainous character on a children’s show, suffering from all the hate she received from the public.
There are some endearing storylines that make the collection more heartwarming and fun to read, one being about a gay couple who takes their little boy on an adventure to a water park. In this story, the writer adds humor with, “He had the panicky, recurring feeling that he’d forgotten to remove his watch, but it was only the shackles of the waterpark around his wrists.” Another fictional account that leaves the reader feeling emotional portrays a young woman’s boyfriend who comes to the aid of her ailing mother and asks him to be her caretaker as her daughter is not fit to care for anyone in her mental state.
I would recommend this short story collection to someone who enjoys characters deeply reflecting on their life circumstances. Since it contained a few bizarre plots along with some depressing moments, this book is not for readers who love whimsical literature. One fictional piece in this 12 story series is named after the title and its content includes a boy and his mom who visit the Souvenir Museum filled with exhibits while adventuring in Denmark with Vikings. The writer ends her compilation of stories with the same two characters she started with, Jack and Sadie. Overall, McCracken’s descriptive language is excellent writing, “Her little house bound up in aluminum cladding the pale green of an after-dinner mint,” and her arrangement of stories is coherent.
McCracken is the writer of other literary novels, a memoir, and another short story collection titled, Thunderstruck and Other Stories. She has received grants and fellowships, and is a teacher at the University of Texas.
Read-alikes:
Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood
After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley
How to Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa
Liana Coletti, West Islip Public Library
Haruki Murakami’s collection of short stories called First Person Singular contains eight stories, all narrated by middle age men. Only one story provides the name of the narrator - Haruki Murakami. This blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction, however the collection is not autobiographical.
Each story is written in Murakami’s typical plain, clear language and embraces alternate, slightly unbelievable realities. In Cream, the narrator tells of a time he is invited to a recital on the top of a mountain but discovers upon his arrival that the recital hall’s gate is closed and locked. He appears to have a panic attack and sits on a bench to wait out the symptoms. An old man challenges him to visualize a “circle that has many centers and no circumference.” (p. 19)
On a Stone Pillow and With the Beatles both discuss young love, albeit from different angles. The narrator of On a Stone Pillow has a one-night stand with a woman who explains that she is in love with someone but cannot be with him. They have one night together, in which she cries the name of the man she loves in the midst of passion, and then disappears. The narrator of With the Beatles uses a brief moment in time, a memory of a girl walking past him in a high school hallway many years before, as a hook to begin his tale of a past girlfriend. Interestingly, the story eventually becomes more about the narrator’s odd interaction with the girlfriend’s older brother than his actual love affair with the girl. In this instance both the girl carrying With The Beatles and the girlfriend are clearly secondary characters.
Murakami uses music as a thread in Carnaval. The narrator meets a woman who he describes as ugly, but captivating. He formulates a friendship with her based around a mutual love of the piece Carnaval by Schumann. The story raises questions about the difference between interior and exterior beauty, and the masks we all wear, which can hide the face of a devil or the face of an angel. Eventually the story takes a surprising turn, with the woman having disappeared because she was arrested for a running a bogus investment company with her husband.
Magical realism, often used by Murakami, allows us to believe that the monkey in Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey is not only able to talk, but is well educated and is pleasant company for the narrator. They drink beer, eat snacks, and chat late into the night at an inn in a hot springs town. The monkey makes confessions to the narrator which are unbelievable, until many years later when an interaction with a random woman seems to substantiate the monkey’s tale.
These short stories are all, as indicated by the title, told in the first person. The Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection is the only one that names the narrator, Haruki Murakami. Is this story non-fiction? Does it have an autobiographical influence? Or, for that matter, do the other stories have a bit of Murakami’s personal experiences written in? While the collection is fiction we can’t help but wonder how much of Murakami’s personal experience influenced these stories.
Murakami is known for his distinctive style. He writes in a straightforward manner, and describes the setting in a way that allows the reader to truly feel immersed in the scene. In these stories, the narrator is always a middle aged to older man. Also typical of Murakami is a treatment of women that often presents them as solely objects of the male characters affection or judgement. In Carnaval he opens the story with: “Of all the women I’ve known until now, she was the ugliest.” (p. 165) The following several pages wax on about the ugliness of some women, and how being beautiful does not seem to make women happy. Female readers may find this persistent objectification offensive.
This collection provides a framework for the author to ask philosophical questions. What is reality? How does physical beauty affect our interactions and perceptions of others? Is it possible for things to be both true and not true at the same time?
This book will appeal to readers who are already fans of Murakami, who enjoy being left with questions to ponder, and who appreciate magical realism.
Read-alikes:
A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel an Stories by Leonard Cohen
The Miniature Wife and Other Stories by Manual Gonzales
The Lost Writings by Franz Kafka
Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki
Ellen Covino, Sayville Public Library
A collection of dark fairytales and folklore about love, yearning and monstrosity, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories reads like hazy, stream of consciousness, little nightmares. The writing is lyrical, descriptive, and character driven with a creepy, whimsical atmosphere. The stories, while vastly different and abstract, center on the desire to be known and loved and the fear of being so deeply known for the bad/monstrous parts within. Each story has a different writing style and a good portion of the book is a bestiary of “monsters” which speeds up the pace. It reads with a sort of detached voice as if being told by these fantastical creatures or a sentient world that they are set in.
The collection explores universal themes of heartbreak, class anxiety, grief, societal cruelty, and the patriarchy, making the supernatural personal and familiar. Some of the stories are more tender than others and each calls forth an emotional response of some sort. One of the stories, The Thread Boy, has a main character who gives away pieces of himself to each person/place he meets until he’s just a bunch of threads pulled in different directions and the imagery is beautiful but sad, as it is for most of the stories. It’s grim, eerie, and unsettling, with settings that could not exist in our world but pull from it making them almost uncomfortable to read. The author doesn’t indicate the year for most of the stories but descriptors like having an *NSYNC sticker, CD jewel case, or Lisa Frank binder suggest a certain time period.
I’d recommend this collection of short stories to readers who like strange fiction, horror, and storytelling that is beautifully written but reads like a fever dream. Also for those who are looking to read deeper into each tale rather than be given a clear start/finish and purpose.
Read-alikes:
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik
Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
Ana Walsh, The Smithtown Library - Kings Park Building
Six stories based in New York City, which consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters, and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood, told from seven different viewpoints, which stars the indomitable Evelyn Ross who was first introduced in Towles’ novel The Rules of Civility. (The Line -- The Ballad of Timothy Touchett -- Hasta Luego -- I will Survive -- The Bootlegger -- The DiDomenico Fragment -- Eve in Hollywood).
All six stories in this collection are engaging, clever, atmospheric, and not related. They are set primarily in Manhattan except for Eve in Hollywood, which enticingly updates readers on the life of Evelyn Ross from Rules of Civility (there is no need to have read Rules of Civility in order to understand this story). In most stories a character accidentally finds a way to improve their circumstances using methods that are not necessarily on the up and up, taking advantage of those more at risk. A Russian man makes money by standing on never-ending lines for others, an aspiring writer realizes he is a good forger, a devious retired art dealer uses his knowledge to his advantage, and an elderly man secretly records Carnegie Hall concerts for his homebound wife. In Eve in Hollywood, a potential 1930’s starlet gets caught up in a noir like ordeal with Olivia de Havilland.
Amor Towles was born in 1964 and grew up in Boston. He attended Yale and then received an MA in English from Stanford. He has received excellent reviews for his novels Rules of Civility (2011), A Gentleman in Moscow (2016), and The Lincoln Highway (2021). He worked as an investment banker and now writes full time in Manhattan where he lives with his wife and two children.
Read-alikes:
Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson
Fourteen Days: A Collaborative Novel edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Jo-Ann Carhart, East Islip Public Library
Dragons, and Djinn, and Fae…oh my!
This is the third volume in Jane Yolen’s collection of short stories in the Circus series. General theme is romance/love, but with a fantasy twist. That’s right - this is a Romantasy short story collection! Tell all of your “Fourth Wing” friends! Each of the ten tales is a stand-alone that takes place in a different realm and time period.
The point of view also differs from story to story. Some are told from the first person POV (ex. “Dark Seed, Dark Stone” a tale about a daughter dealing with the death of her warrior father) while others are expressed in a third person narrative (ex. “Sans Soleil”, a tragic love story about a prince that was told to forever avoid the sun because it would kill him and his new bride’s complete disbelief in the rule).
Out of the ten stories, three are retellings of classic tales that the majority of readers will be familiar with - “Dusty Loves” is a take on “Romeo & Juliet”, “Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn” is a nod to “Aladdin”, and “The Sword in the Stone” is, unsurprisingly, about a young King Arthur.
The stories are evenly paced, perfect to hold the audience’s interest for the duration of a short story.
I would recommend this novel to patrons who enjoy Romantasy. A regular short story reader may be put off by the fantasy elements, but it’s worth a shot to tell them about this collection to gauge their interest.
Read-alikes:
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy Annual Short Story Series
The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen
The Midnight Circus by Jane Yolen
Jessicca Weber, The Smithtown Library - Kings Park Building
