Short Story Book Clubs

Were you ever in a book club that fizzled-out?

I’ve been in more than a few that went kaput.

One common reason is that not everybody reads the assignment.

Right?

I’m here to suggest you switch to short stories.

Why?

First, the discussions are as satisfying as picking apart a full novel.

Second, anyone can find 45 minutes (or so) each month to read the material.

Third, good short stories—of course—are amazing.

Last spring my wife and I moved from Denver to Mancos and one of the things we miss the most is our short story book club. (Well, I guess it’s not a ‘book’ club, but you know what I mean.) When we moved, we were close to our 100th meeting.

Every gathering was often the highlight of the month. Of course, we included dinner, wine, and catching up. But then came the discussions. They were often quite rich. And hilarious. Or both.

Short stories offer a great way to keep your literary analysis skills sharp and a great way to expose yourself to some knockout writers.

That’s my simple suggestion for the month.

Short stories are here to help!
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Herewith some of the stories we devoured:
The Half Skinned Steer by Annie Proulx
Rose Johnny by Barbara Kingsolver
Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver
Awake by Tobias Wolfe
Reconstruction by Mark Halperin
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
I Only Came to Use the Telephone by Carlos Fuentes
For Esme With Love and Squalor by J.D. Salinger
What Now? By Ann Patchett
Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
Some Other, Better Otto by Deborah Eisenberg
The Bull by Saki by Hector Hugh Munro
Gladius Day by Thomas Mann
The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face by Tom Perrotta
Silk Parachute by John McPhee
Premium Harmony by Stephen King
Boar Taint by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Child’s Play by Alice Munroe
The South by Jose Luis Borges
Goodbye My Brother by John Cheever
Spring in Fialta by Vladimir Nabokov
Guy de Maupassant by Isaac Babel
Quality of Life by Christine Sneed
Citizen Conn by Michael Chabon
Errand by Raymond Carver
The Language of Men by Norman Mailer
Free Ride by Charles Connery
Romance at Droitgate Spa by P.D. Wodehouse
The Rumor by John Updike
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
The Luau by Jim Gavin
Foes by Lorrie Moore
Don Juan or The Elixir of Life by Honoré de Balzac
The Tenth of December by George Saunders
Don’t Eat Cat by Jess Walter
The Not Dead and the Saved by Kate Clanchy
The Bible by Tobias Wolfe
The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis by Karen Russell
Second Lives by Daniel Alarcón
The Tunnel under the World by Frederick Pohl
To Room Nineteen by Doris Lessing
Bartleby The Scrivener by Herman Melville
Executor of the Important Energies by Wells Tower
Farrell’s Caddie by John Updike
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Twin Forks by Daniel Woodrell
Disembarkation by Lorrie Moore
The Blush by Elizabeth Taylor
The Tiny Feast by Chris Adrian
Some Rain Must Fall by Michael Faber
The Open Window by Saki
Strawberry Lipstick by Kseniya Melnik
Signs and Symbols by Vladimir Nabokov
Jesus Out to Sea by James Lee Burke
The Summer People by Kelly Link
Via Negativa by James Salter
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
Climber Room by Sam Lipsyte
Map of the Americas by Wendy J. Fox
God Sees The Truth but Waits by Leo Tolstoy
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
Anything For You by Ottessa Moshfegh
How Wang Fo Was Saved by Marguerite Yourcenar
How to Become a Writer by Lorrie Moore
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Maybe It’s the Distance by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Prairie Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Last Day of Muhammad Atta by Martin Amis
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
The Zero Meter Diving Team by Jim Shepard
Rooms By the Sea by Nicholas Christopher
All The Keys to All The Doors by Claire Beams
Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood
The Knowers by Helen Phillips
The Biography Man by Gary Reilly
A Resolute Man by Annie Proulx
1955 by Alice Walker
Light & The Future Looks Good by Leslie Nneka Arimah
The Dark Glasses by Muriel Spark
The Magic Shop by H.G. Wells
Cue by Chesya Burke
The Hammer God by Arthur C. Clarke
Fox 8 by George Saunders
The Tree Line, Kansas, 1934 by David Means