Need recommendations for great short story books

[Indian Boy]

I just finished reading Drown, by Junot Diaz, and also The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie. I loved these short story books because I could feel an underlying theme in each of them. In Drown it's all about hopelessness in Dom. Republic and NJ. In Lone Ranger and Tonto it's all about hopelessness again, this time with some humor, on the indian reservation. I'm looking for another short story like these books. Not necessarily the hopelessness aspect but just short story books with interesting themes. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[ris]

hmm well I like f. Scott fitzgerald and his short stories are generally interesting in my opinion .... But may have no relevance to what you're looking for.. Just recently I read a bunch - I think the title of the collection was The Popular Girl or some such...

[Gustavo L.]

I don't know if these are somewhat similiar to the books you have finished, but since you are also looking for any short story books with interesting themes, I'd recommend "Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday", compiled by Italo Calvino (it's my favorite short story anthology), Jorge Luis Borges' "Fictions" and "The Aleph", and any well translated anthology of Machado de Assis' stories.

[JacobF]

Well, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury is probably one of my favourite books, and definitely my favourite book of short stories. If you have even a remote interest in science fiction I think you'll enjoy it. Even if you don't, you can still get something out of it I think. The stories span over a few decades and all share the same foundation: humans going to Mars.

[Gustavo L.]

Well, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury is probably one of my favourite books, and definitely my favourite book of short stories.

Yeah, great book. I’m not a big fan of most of Bradbury’s work, but I love this one dearly.

[Mariamosis]

'The Call of Cthulhu' -HP Lovecraft
'Letters From the Earth' - Mark Twain

[Eryk]

Guy de Maupassant

I Wish Someone Were Waiting For Me Somewhere - Anna Gavalda

The Years Best Fantasy Series edited by David G. Hartwell

[General Urko]

-Dubliners by James Joyce
-In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
-Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner (although many people actually consider this a novel rather than a collection of short stories)
-Esther Stories by Peter Orner (all revolve around the past, memories, loss, growing old, etc.)

[JBI]

Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You by Alice Munro, though, one cannot really go wrong with Munro.

[Stargazer86]

I was going to mention Bradbury and deMaupassant but I see others have already mentioned it. Rudyard Kipling is good as well. Frank Stockton, O. Henry,

Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles are great, but he has a whole bunch of other short stories besides the martian ones. Very entertaining reading

[Uberzensch]

Might not fit, per se, but I've always liked Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House.

[sixsmith]

Close Range - Annie Proulx (all set in Wyoming and focusing on the people who live there)
A multitude of sins - Richard Ford (all focused on infidelity)
Women with men - Richard Ford (as the title suggests)
The Quantity Theory of Insanity - Will Self (all focus on the mind and its various deficiencies)

[oopsycandy]

From yesterdays Independent;

'The news that Alice Munro has won the Man Booker prize is a triumph.....she has never written a novel, and so has been doomed to remain a 'writers writer'.....Munro (like Raymond Carver, like Lorrie Moore and like Grace Paley) can pack more into one of her stories,- more subtelty, more grace, more tender twists of the human heart- than many novelists do in a lifetimes ouevre, but somehow the myth remains that the short story is obsolete.....'

Ive never heard of Alice Munro and am not a huge fan of literature prizes but Im interested in reading her now x

[Indian Boy]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the suggestions. I will probably read a few of the books that have been mentioned. As for now, my friend recommended "The Things They Carried", by Tim O'Brien - a short story book all about Vietnam. I'm halfway done and so far I'd say its excellent.

[joao_oliveira]

I also recommend for "The Martian Chronicles". I believe it is the only book I've read that mixes sci-fi with poetry and, as the space sceneries work perfectly well at a visual level, than the whole book is a feast for the eyes. I would also recommend Salinger's "Nine Stories", Raymond Carver's "What do we talk when we talk about love" and Haruki Murakami's "After the Quake". They're all very alike and, I believe, very contemporary.

[J.D.]

If you're looking for more recent collections, check out Facing the Music and Big Bad Love by Larry Brown, Letting Loose the Hounds by Brady Udall, Cold Snap, Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine, and The Pugilest at Rest by Thom Jones.

[Lynne50]

From yesterdays Independent;

'The news that Alice Munro has won the Man Booker prize is a triumph.....she has never written a novel, and so has been doomed to remain a 'writers writer'.....Munro (like Raymond Carver, like Lorrie Moore and like Grace Paley) can pack more into one of her stories,- more subtelty, more grace, more tender twists of the human heart- than many novelists do in a lifetimes ouevre, but somehow the myth remains that the short story is obsolete.....'

Ive never heard of Alice Munro and am not a huge fan of literature prizes but Im interested in reading her now x

Funny you should mention all those writers. I just picked up from my library, a collection of short stories, all love stories. It was edited by Jeffrey Eugenides. He wrote Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides. The title of the collection is "My Mistress 's Sparrow is Dead. It includes writers from Chekhov to Munro. This might give you a flavor of each of these writers, to stqrt, instead of focusing on one particular one.