Title: Into the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City Writer: Various, edited by Elizabeth Dearnley Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: August 20th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Like London fog itself, the power of the weird tale lies in its potential to suddenly shift from benign to baleful as the light…
Tag: short stories
Dead Relatives
Τitle: Dead Relatives Writer: Lucie McKnight Hardy Publishing House: Dead Ink Date of Publication: October 21st 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’The garden lies quiet, as if it’s sleeping. Nothing grows this late in November, and everything is sad and grey. The only thing of beauty is the lake that lies at the bottom of the…
How We Disappear: Novella & Stories
Title: How We Disappear:Novella & Stories Writer: Tara Lynn Masih Publishing House: Press 53 Date of Publication: September 13th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Yesterday I found myself in St. Servaasbasiliek, and lit two candles. Organ music wended its way into my history, drawing forth doubts. It is music – caught, held, and shot back down…
A Postcard for Annie
Title: A Postcard for Annie (original title: Postcort til Annie) Writer: Ida Jessen (translated by Martin Aitken) Publishing House: Archipelago Books Date of Publication: May 10th 2022 (first published January 1st 2013) Rating: 5 stars ‘’In her coat, standing at the counter, Tove wrote: ‘’I’ve gone out.’’ She then crumpled the note in her hand…
Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold
Title: Love in Colour Writer: Bolu Babalola Publishing House: Headline Date of Publication: August 20th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘You are a queen. You are Lorde, Angelou, Simone, Walker, Hooks, Davis, Morrison, Knowles, Fenty, Robinson-Obama. You will shake the world, you will move the earth, you will be audacious with your essence, you will take…
Life Ceremony
Title: Life Ceremony Writer: Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) Publishing House:Grove Press Date of Publication: July 5th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’A hundred years later, what would our bodies be used for? Would we be chair legs or sweaters or clock hands? Would we be used for a longer time after our deaths…
Minor Hauntings (Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth)
Title: Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth Writer: Various edited by Jen Baker Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: April 29th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Many years ago there stood at the corner of the street leading out of Upper Kennington – lane a great red-brick mansion, which one very wet evening,…
The Trouble With Happiness
Title: The Trouble With Happiness and Other Stories Writer: Tove Ditlevsen (translated by Michael Favala Goldman) Publishing House: Penguin Classics Date of Publication: March 3rd 2022 Rating: 5 stars “There is nothing so merciful as love.” The Umbrella: An umbrella becomes the metaphor for a young woman’s unsatisfactory life in the hands of a cruel,…
Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean
Title: Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Carribean Writer: Various edited by Peekash Press Publishing House: Peekash Press Date of Publication: March 17th 2014 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Here in the rocky haunts of the islanders themselves are landscapes where ‘’the rocks are sharper than a coconut vendor’s cutlass, and the waters lash with a vengeance,’’…
Nordic Tales: Folktales from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark
Title: Nordic Tales: Folktales From Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark Writer: Various, illustrated by Ulla Thynell Publishing House: Chrinicle Books Date of Publication: August 13th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’In the days of our forefathers, when there was nothing but wretched boats up in Nordland, and folks must needs buy fair winds by the…
A World Full of Nature Stories: 50 Folktales and Legends
Title: A World Full of Nature Stories: 50 Folktales and Legends Writer: Angela McAllister, illustrated by Hannah Bess Ross Publishing House: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Date of Publication: April 12th 2022 Rating: 5 stars Another outstanding collection of myths, legends and fairy tales centred around Nature and its gifts, beautifully written by Angela McAllister and…
Winter’s Tales
Title: Winter’s Tales (original title: Vinter- Eventyr) Writer: Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) Publishing House: Penguin Modern Classics Date of Publication: September 27th 2001 (first published 1942) Rating: 5 stars ‘’You have drunk with Sunniva now,’’ she said. ‘’You have drunk down a little wisdom, so that in the future all your thoughts shall not fall…
Midwinter Folk Tales
Title: Midwinter Folk Tales Writer: Taffy Thomas Publishing House: The History Press Date of Publication: February 1st 2015 (first published October 15th 2014) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and a talk beside the fore, it is the time for…
Antrim Folk Tales
Title: Antrim Folk Tales Writer: Billy Teare & Kathleen O’Sullivan Publishing House: The History Press Ireland Date of Publication: February 1st 2014 Rating: 5 stars ”Folk tales are not defined by scholars and students of folklore. They are, very simply, the stories that people choose to tell, remember and retell time and again and they…
The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights
Title: The Haunting Season Writer: Various Publishing House: Sphere Date of Publication: October 21st 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’He stared down at the trees, feeling a kind of vertigo that was not quite fear. The unearthly light – the dark shapes against the moon-drenched sky – the clarity of outline, the density of the shadows…He…
The Hotel: Ghost Stories with a Feminist Twist
Title: The Hotel Writer: Daisy Johnson Publishing House: BBC Audio Date of Publication: May 27th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’There were 63 jars here and this is the room of 63 fears, all clamoring, all so loud. It is the room I will come back to and, perhaps, this room leads only into the ground.’’…
Crimson Snow
Title: Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries Writer: Various, edited by Martin Edwards Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: November 10th 2016 Rating: 5 stars ‘’But seated in the holly-decked apartment before a noble fire which roared bravely up the wide chimney we cared nothing for the frozen world out of doors. We laughed…
A Surprise for Christmas
Title: A Surprise for Christmas Writer: Various, edited by Martin Edwards Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: October 10th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’It was Christmas Eve and nearly five of the clock, but an afternoon less like the traditional ideas of the seasons would be hard to imagine. True, a little…
Stories for Christmas
Title: Stories for Christmas Writer: Various, illustrated by Bernadette Watts Publishing House: NorthSouth Books Date of Publication: September 14th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’High in the sky, higher than you could ever see, the snowflakes gathered. They came together in huge crowds, whispering all the time about the journey they would soon make to earth….
A Very Russian Christmas
Title: A Very Russian Christmas Writer: Various Publishing House: New Vessel Press Date of Publication: September 26th 2016 Rating: 5 stars ‘’A frosty day. From the window, one can see the fluffy white snow covering the streets, the roofs of homes, and the trees. An early twilight. The sky is turning blue.’’ Lida and I…
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