Summer Reading Book Recommendations: Three Collections of Short Stories 

From Iris Johnston, Library Specialist, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine Library 
  

Three Collections of Short Stories 

I love a short story. In our fast-paced world, a good short story delivers complexity and nuance in a brief page length. No pointless subplots, no B-tier characters whose names I’ve already forgotten, and no room for authors to indulge what Stephen King calls “diarrhea of the pen.” Here are 3 of my favorite collections of short stories. 

	1. Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories by various authors – These stories by modern Inuktitut writers aren’t gory or disturbing. Instead they’re atmospheric, almost cozy, and draw the reader in to familiar settings populated by unusual characters. This book is a refreshingly chilly breeze in the dead summer heat.
	2. Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson – The genius of this little collection isn’t just that it spans multiple genres- there’s romance, futurism, a couple of folk tales, a proper campfire horror- but that Hopkinson can write in so many different styles as if each is her favorite. And the language is so palpably rich you’ll find yourself rereading sentences, savoring their deliciousness.
	3. Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge – Technically a novel, the chapters function more like interrelated short stories. The “strange beasts” here are 9 types of creatures living alongside humans and interacting with us in ways suspiciously similar to the ways we interact with one another. Read this if you love stories about cityfolk, about modern China, or about humanity in general.