Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Short Story Collections/Short Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week's topic is meant to highlight short stories, but here's the problem...I don't actually read much in the way of short stories. I have included one collection I enjoyed, but I chose to highlight mostly quite short books I've read that have packed a punch.



What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours: My token short story collection...I don't usually read short stories because I tend to find them uneven and this book was no different, but these stories centering on keys and possession were powerful and still pop back up in my head sometimes when I least expect it.

Animal Farm: Absolute classic based on the Russian Revolution, except with barnyard animals. I reference that "some are more equal than others" line at least once a month.

Anthem: This is a solid little dystopian novella about a world in which individuality itself has been stamped out. Yes, it's Ayn Rand so you've got that whole thing going on but it's a good book.

12 Years A Slave: The memoir from a free black man in the antebellum north who's kidnapped and sold into slavery and held for over a decade is very eye-opening and very good.

Siddhartha: This book is quite short but I found it profoundly moving, both in message and in style.

The Alchemist: I loved this book when I read it in high school and am honestly a little bit afraid to re-read it because I'm worried it will have lost some of the magic.

The Stepford Wives: If you've ever used the phrase but haven't read the book, it's a very quick read and very good.

Between the World and Me: What this book lacks in page count, it makes up for in power. As a white lady, I sometimes felt uncomfortable reading this...which was the entire point.

The Prince: I work in politics, of course I've read this. If all you know about it is a general idea of what people mean when they say "Machiavellian", it's worth it to read it for yourself. Very interesting insights into leadership.

I Am Legend: The Will Smith movie they made out of this completely changes the ending of the book and therefore completely subverts its very real message. Read the book instead!

8 comments:

  1. The Stepford Wives and Animal Farm are two of my favorite books! I am Legend is also great. I wanted to like What Is Not Yours but couldn't really get into it.

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    1. What Is Not Yours was something I read for book club, and I actually liked it more after I had the chance to really dig into talking about it!

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  2. I didn't know that Stepford Wives and I am Legend were books! Couple for the list :) I never usually read short stories either, but the ones I have read I've enjoyed.

    My TTT: https://basedonthebook.blogspot.com/2018/07/top-ten-er-wednesday-films-based-on.html

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    1. I'm just never really in the mood for short stories, I think. And collections tend to be so hit-and-miss! There'll be one or two I love and then a couple I hate and the rest are mostly okay. I'd definitely recommend reading I Am Legend, I read it back in high school and still think about it all these years later!

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  3. I love I Am Legend. Such a great twist! This list is full of some good stuff. I didn't know The Stepford Wives was a short book, that makes me want to give it a chance, since I love the movie!

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    1. Less than 150 pages! I actually haven't seen either version that was made, which one is the good one?

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  4. Great list! I read Animal Farm when I was a kid and probably didn’t appreciate it as much as I would have as an adult. I have a feeling that I missed A LOT. I read Anthem in college and liked it more than Rand’s other books.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. I read it in high school (for fun, not assigned) so I 1000% missed all the references to the Communist movement in Animal Farm. I just thought it was a clever story. Anthem is pretty good, honestly. I've read all of her fiction and that and We The Living are the only things that I'd ever come back to.

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