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Amanda Assenza

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Short Story Collections (Also: We Love You, Alice Munro)

We're certainly not short on love for short stories over here at 20SomethingReads.com. So we were super excited when we found out that Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature last week. Munro --- who writes mainly about female protagonists and small-town dramas --- is a gracious and deserving winner, and her triumph inspired us to put together a bookshelf of some of our favorite short story collections.

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Andrew Grant

Andrew Grant is the author of RUN, FALSE POSITIVE, FALSE FRIEND, FALSE WITNESS, INVISIBLE and TOO CLOSE TO HOME. He was born in Birmingham, England. He attended the University of Sheffield, where he studied English literature and drama. He ran a small independent theater company, and subsequently worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years. Grant and his wife, the novelist Tasha Alexander, live on a wildlife preserve in Wyoming.

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Quinn Colter

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Ronald H. Balson, author of Once We Were Brothers

Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, the Butcher of Zamosc. Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser, Solomon, encourages attorney Catherine Lockhart to bring Rosenzweig to justice, revealing that the true Piatek was abandoned as a child and raised by Solomon's own family, only to betray them during the Nazi occupation. But has Solomon accused the right man?

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Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

In 1923, 15-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave.

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Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison

With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money 10 years ago. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to 15 months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187-424 --- one of the millions of women who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the American penal system.

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Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Lowland

Two brothers born in Calcutta during World War II share a close childhood but separate from one another as adults. Subhash, the older, quieter brother, moves to the US to study marine chemistry. Udayan, the younger and more volatile, stays in India and becomes active in the Naxalite Communist movement. The circumstances that draw them apart and eventually bring their families together form the drama of Jhumpa Lahiri’s second novel.

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Strings Attached by Joanne Lipman

STRINGS ATTACHED centers on the legacy of Mr. K, the sharp-spoken, foot-pounding, never-praising Ukrainian-born despot whose music lessons and orchestra rehearsals reduced students to tears. Yet, when he passed away, more than 100 students from three generations returned to play in a memorial concert and acknowledge the amazing lesson he instilled: Demand great things of yourself.

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The Preservationist by Justin Kramon

To Sam Blount, meeting Julia is the best thing that has ever happened to him. Working at the local college, he’d been feeling troubled about his approaching 40th birthday, but being with Julia makes him feel young and hopeful. Their relationship is tested by a shy young man with a secret, Marcus Broley, who is also infatuated with Julia.

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