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Eat the Mouth That Feeds You by Carribean Fragoza
An exceedingly underwhelming collection. The cover and title of Carribean Fragoza’s debut collection succeeded in making me want to read it. After reading the first three stories, however, I found myself feeling rather underwhelmed by Fragoza’s storytelling. I, later on, decided to give this collection another shot, hoping that I would find the other stories…
2 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, America, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Carribean Fragoza, collection of short stories, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), Eat the Mouth That Feeds You, female authors, FOLKLORE, grotesque, HORROR, latin america, latin american, latinx author, MAGICAL REALISM, MEXICAN AMERICAN AUTHOR, Mexico, migration/immigration, motherhood, My reviews, paranoia, published in 2021, purply prose, read in 2021, reading, short stories, style over character, stylised prose, surreal -
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories by Hilma Wolitzer
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket is a fairly amusing collection of short stories. While many of the stories were written and initially published during the 1960s and 1970s, Hilma Wolitzer’s style and humour struck me as modern. The issues she touches up also felt surprisingly relevant. The stories read like vignettes and…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, arc, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, collection of short stories, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), female authors, Hilma Wolitzer, HISTORICAL FICTION, HUMOR, interconnected stories, MARRIAGE, mental health, motherhood, My reviews, netgalley, pandemic, pregnancy, published in 2021, reading, short stories, SLICE OF LIFE, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket -
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
“My American adolescence was filled with tales of woe like this, all of them proof of what my mother said, that we did not belong here. In a country where possessions counted for everything, we had no belongings except our stories.” The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a collection of short stories centring on…
1970s, 3 STARS, Adult, America, American, American dream, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, collection of short stories, Contemporary, conversational style, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, gay side characters, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, intergenerational, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, m/m side, male authors, migration/immigration, My reviews, PUBLISHED IN 2017, read in 2021, reading, short stories, social issues, The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Vietnam, vietnam war, Vietnamese American Author -
The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories is a humorous yet unsparing ode to New Orleans. In this polyphonic collection Maurice Carlos Ruffin presents his readers with an unforgettable portrayal of New Orleans, from its unique culture that separates it from other American cities to its people. These stories tap into contemporary issues…
3 STARS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, collection of short stories, Contemporary, conversational style, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), f/f side, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, morality, My reviews, New Orleans, pandemic, published in 2021, RACE, read in 2021, reading, short stories, social issues, strong sense of place, The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You: Stories, trans side characters -
People From My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami
The extremely short stories collected in People From My Neighbourhood bear many of the trademarks that I associate with Hiromi Kawakami’s storytelling and work. Under Kawakami’s hand, slice-of-life scenarios are approached from odd angles and permeated by a sense of surreality that will make readers question what exactly is going. As the title itself suggests…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, collection of short stories, Contemporary, favourite authors, female authors, interconnected stories, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, Kafkaesque, MAGICAL REALISM, My reviews, People From My Neighbourhood, published in 2020, read in 2021, reading, short stories, SLICE OF LIFE, surreal, TRANSLATED FICTION, weird -
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
“You become a creature I can’t understand, my mother sometimes said to me.” Having loved Lily King’s Writers & Lovers I was looking forward to reading more of her work and I can happily say (or write) that her first-ever collection of short stories did not disappoint. More often than not I find short story…
4 STARS, Adult, age gap, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, books about writers, collection of short stories, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, favourite authors, female authors, holidays, introspective, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, m/m side, rich people, short stories, sitter/au pair/governess, Summer, summer reads, unrequited love -
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So
Candid and humorously absurd Afterparties is a collection of short stories that focuses on the experiences of Cambodian-Americans in California. In spite of the occasional Shameless-like scenario, these stories remain grounded in realism, almost to the point of reading like a slice of life. Vo’s stories can also be read as frank vignettes capturing the…
3 STARS, Adult, America, American, autofiction, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, California, cambodia, cambodian american author, cheating, collection of short stories, Contemporary, conversational style, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, gay, HUMOR, intergenerational, lgbtq+, m/m, migration/immigration, millennial, My reviews, published in 2021, RACE, read in 2021, reading, sex, SEXUALITY, short stories, SLICE OF LIFE, social issues, temples -
How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs
How to Love a Jamaican: Stories is a promising debut collection that focuses on the Jamaican diasporic experience, highlighting cultural and generational differences and providing us with some wonderfully realized vignettes. Alexia Arthurs’ prose is engaging, unsentimental yet lyrical, and she’s fully able to bring the places she’s writing of—be it America or Jamaica—to life.…
3.25 stars, Adult, America, American, bi side characters, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Caribbean, caribbean author, class, collection of short stories, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, intergenerational, jamaica, jamaican, jamaican american author, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, migration/immigration, My reviews, published in 2018, read in 2021, reading, short stories -
How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
“It was the kind of giggling they themselves did as kids. Now, that kind of giggle seemed foolish for them to do. It was like a far distant thing, a thing that happened only to other people. All they could do now was be close to it, and remain out of sight.” While How to…
3 STARS, Adult, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, canada, collection of short stories, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, How to Pronounce Knife, intergenerational, language, Laotian Canadian author, migration/immigration, My reviews, published in 2020, read in 2021, reading, short stories, social issues, Souvankham Thammavongsa, unnamed country, work culture -
Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto
“That feeling of security, that sweetness, that pain, that gentleness. I felt sure that every time I saw the green of the trees in my garden awash in light from the street, I’d be struck by a sudden flicker of remembrance—the tail of that soft melody—and I’d chase along behind it, as if sniffing my…
1980s, 1st pov, 3.5 STARS, Banana Yoshimoto, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, collection of short stories, DEATH, Dreams, f/f side, favourite authors, female authors, GRIEF, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, lgbtq+, love triangle, MAGICAL REALISM, My reviews, nostalgic reads, published in 1989, read in 2021, reading, restrained prose, short stories, summer reads, TRANSLATED FICTION, uplifting reads
luce [is reading] 