The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe

The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like that it appears to switch from horror to mystery.

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Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe

Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this a few times wondering what I was missing. I don't know. Possibly it's just not that great?

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The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The dark delight in this one comes from my love of the cat and hate of the man.

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The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What happens when a mild asshole befriends a murderous sociopath? Detailed and bizarre horror.

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The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A house with a haunted atmosphere works its negative influence on the inhabitants. A study in how location and company can affect your mental state.

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The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe

The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The type of thinking demonstrated in Poe’s conclusion is not an insubstantial part of my life philosophy.

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The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Took me nearly 4 months to get through it because it is so long. It's a good quarantine read as the main characters are themselves in a bit of a quarantine bubble. There are a hundred stories of varying quality, but some of them were cheerful and bawdy. The tenth day of stories was a bit of a bummer though as things got even more misogynistic and cruel towards the end, especially with the husband that tortured the wife for years and is presented as wise for doing so.

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Humorous Stories and Sketches by Mark Twain

Humorous Stories and Sketches by Mark Twain
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Most of these stories didn't pass the test of time, but I enjoyed "The Private History of a Campaign that Failed," about some Confederate soldiers who avoid fighting in the Civil War.

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really only liked the first story, "Why Don't You Dance?"

I didn't even like the title story that much, though I did like this one quote in it: "Well, the husband was very depressed for the longest while. Even after he found out that his wife was going to pull through, he was still very depressed. Not about the accident, though. I mean, the accident was one thing, but it wasn't everything. I'd get up to his mouth-hole, you know, and he'd say no, it wasn't the accident exactly but it was because he couldn't see her through his eye-holes. He said that was what was making him feel bad. Can you imagine? I'm telling you, the man's heart was breaking because he couldn't turn his goddamn head and see his goddamn wife.'"

Took me much longer to read this collection than I expected given how short it is.

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Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were 22 stories in this collection, and I especially enjoyed 5 of them: They're Not Your Husband, Neighbors, What's in Alaska, Bicycles, and the title story. Carver seems especially good at the sadness of disappointment though Bicycles, in particular, seemed like the opposite- about a boy's admiration of his father. I have been told I need to read What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

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Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway

Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good writing but I had to force my way through.

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Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of short stories interlinked by families and houses on Cape Cod. I really enjoyed this collection and it was beautifully written. It’s very rare that I fall in love with characters this quickly. I'm not likely to forget Violet or the people she loved any time soon. I’m very interested in reading more by this author.

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Runaway by Alice Munro

Runaway by Alice Munro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great writing, but I didn't find myself passionately loving any of these short stories the way I sometimes love stories.

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Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken

Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those rare short story collections where all the stories are good. There are nine stories and my favorites are the first one, It's Bad Luck to Die, about a man who tattoos his wife a great deal, and Some Have Entertained Angels Unaware, which is both moving and hilarious. I also really liked June, Secretary of State, and the title story.

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You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett

You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an excellent collection. Almost all the stories are about mental illness with a few exceptions. I especially appreciated “Notes to My Biographer,” “The Good Doctor,” “The Beginnings of Grief,” and “Devotion” (one of the few in the collection not about mental illness). After the first four the stories were harder for me to get through, but still very good.

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In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A short story collection that is kind of all over the place. I loved "Cat in the Rain," for what I, in my very modern view, saw as an indictment of the husband in the story, though I suspect less modern readers, and maybe Hemingway himself, saw as an indictment of the wife. On the other hand, "Indian Camp" is unsympathetic horror of a short story. Just a mess. The other stories ranged in between the two extremes for me.

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Fox 8 by George Saunders

Fox 8 by George Saunders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kind of sad. It's hard out there for a fox with humans destroying habitats. Very short book to fill my animal-perspective category for Book Riot's Reading Challenge and George Saunders never fails.

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The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather

The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a completely cheesy very short story.

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The Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia

The Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This story is full of high drama told in a British slang dialect. It feels messy and it's a lot to wade through.

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Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This isn’t a novel. This is a short story collection. While many of the stories revolve around Olive, some of them have no real link to her or the important people in Olive’s life.

There are beautiful sentences, and a little bit of light humor, but there’s a lot of desperation threaded through the stories that make this collection difficult to enjoy. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more when I was sadder myself, but now it feels like an undertow trying to drag me back.

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