Orsinian Tales by Ursula K Le Guin

Recommended by: Jill S., student
Call Number: PS3562.E42 O7

While Ursula K Le Guin is well known for her science fiction writing (particularly Earthsea). This, however, is a collection of short stories that take place in the fictional eastern European nation, Orsinia. Each story follows an every day working person from the middle ages up to the 1960s. Her writing reminds me of Kafka or Anton Chekhov. It is a book that is probably overlooked by Earthsea fans since it is not science fiction or fantasy and also overlooked by those that don't like science fiction or fantasy since it is written by Ursula K. Le Guin, but both groups should read it!

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander

Recommended by: Phyllis Freeman, Professor of Psychology
Call number: Stacks PS3555.N424 F67 1999

I just finished For Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander, a wonderful first volume of short stories. The volume opens with a story of the last night in prison of 26 celebrated Yiddish writers arrested during Stalin's purge and an unpublished loner picked up by mistake with them. He composes a work during their last evening on earth and recites this to the others. Another lighter story is about a rabbi who unhappily plays Santa each year at a department store. My favorite story is about a group of villagers who board the "wrong" passenger train instead of the cattle car to the concentration camp and then disguise themselves as circus performers. The book is wise, powerful, brilliantly ironic, and a must read. The stories and the issues they raise have stayed with me. The book earned him a PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
I decided to read the short stories after finishing his deeply satisfying first novel (which the Library should purchase) The Ministry of Special Cases, about the "disappeared" in Argentina. Unforgettable characters and heartbreaking situations very reminiscent of the best of Gogol, Kafka, and Singer.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Recommended by Heather C. Whalen, STL Librarian
Call Number: Stacks PR6057.A319 F73 2006

This book is a series of short stories and poems written by famed fantasy writer, Neil Gaiman. As a series of short stories, it is easy to pick up and read on and off throughout the semesters.

Interested in Reading Short Stories?

Here are a few other short stories owned by the Sojourner Truth Library that may interest you.