Category Archives: Short Stories/Essays

It Could Be Worse, You Could Be Me

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Teresa

I’ve been having a hard time focusing on my reading lately, mostly because my work life is taking a lot of my mental energy at the moment, and I don’t have as much to spare for sustained attention to anything … Continue reading →

Posted in Nonfiction, Short Stories/Essays | 5 Comments

Tyrannia: And Other Renditions

Posted on November 24, 2021 by Teresa

The short stories in this collection by Anya Johanna DeNiro are enjoyably dark and weird, sometimes a little too weird, in fact. But the stories that hit me right were so great that I don’t really mind the stories that … Continue reading →

Posted in Short Stories/Essays, Speculative Fiction | Leave a comment

I’ll Tell You in Person

Posted on September 29, 2021 by Teresa

Sure, I’m writing about myself. Duh. But that’s not the point of this book or these essays. I hope you will project your mistakes and failures and heartaches and joys onto mine. I hope you will feel a touch of … Continue reading →

Posted in Nonfiction, Short Stories/Essays | 1 Comment

If It Bleeds

Posted on June 13, 2021 by Teresa

Stephen King’s newest book, If It Bleeds, is a collection of three stories and one novella. Two of the stories are dark wish-fulfillment fantasies, in the vein of “The Monkey’s Paw.” The first, “Mr Harrigan’s Phone,” is set in the early … Continue reading →

Posted in Short Stories/Essays, Speculative Fiction | 7 Comments

The Department of Historical Corrections

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Teresa

The first story in this collection by Danielle Evans begins: When Lyssa was seven, her mother took her to see the movie where the mermaid wants legs, and when it ended Lyssa shook her head and squinted at the prince and … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays | 4 Comments

Her Body and Other Parties

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Teresa

I have a much higher tolerance for weirdness and experimentation in short stories than in novels. In fact, I tend to prefer my short stories to be a little weird, whether in the story itself or in the way the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays | 2 Comments

Stories of Your Life and Others

Posted on December 14, 2019 by Teresa

The stories in this collection by Ted Chiang all deal with our perceptions of the world and how those perceptions may be off or incomplete or … just not the only way to see the world. Sometimes that’s a source … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays, Speculative Fiction | 6 Comments

Don’t Look Now

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Teresa

The nine short stories in this collection by Daphne du Maurier are wonderfully dark, some of them downright terrifying. Two of them — “Don’t Look Now” and “The Birds”— have been made into classic horror films, and the stories are … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Short Stories/Essays | 16 Comments

The Puttermesser Papers

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Teresa

Ruth Puttermesser is a single, Jewish New Yorker in her 30s who, despite being a well-read intellectual, is stuck in a dull civil service job. In fact, her intellect got in her way, causing her to be demoted from a … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays | 4 Comments

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Posted on August 26, 2018 by Teresa

I became interested Sherlock Holmes mostly through Laurie King’s Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. Prior to reading those books, I’d read maybe a handful of Conan Doyles’s short stories and The Hound of the Baskervilles. But I’m enjoying slowly working through the originals. … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction, Mysteries/Crime, Short Stories/Essays | 4 Comments