Suggestions on the best short reads to get through in one day?
Suggestions on the best short reads to get through in one day?
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Suggestions on the best short reads to get through in one day?
Goosebumps
I just read Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster and am currently working on her follow up, Dear Enemy. The second one is a bit longer than the first, but Daddy Long Legs I read in a day.
CJ Box has some great short reads.
Love,Love Daddy Long Legs <3
The Outsiders
For adults? Definitely “Silas Marner” by George Eliot. Great book!
Oh, my goodness, yes!
Wishful Drinking and Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
Gifts from the sea by Anne Morrow Llindburgh
Our “Women’s night out” just read parts of this. It’s wonderful. I just bought a copy for a gift.
She wrote beautifully!
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Wonderstruck
Both by Brian Selznick
Where the sidewalk ends. by Shel Silverstein. “Falling Up” and “A light in the Attic” are also good.
Oh, and The Pearl by Steinbeck, many of Mitch Album’s books, and any or all of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories. Also, if there are any series that you read, check to see if there are any side stories to the series. Those are usually short.
Ella Minnow Pea. Intriguing fantasy in letters.
“El Señor Presidente” Miguel Angel Asturias, in English translation. Nobel Prize winning author. I read it in four hours. Excellent book, a truly chilling portrayal of a dictatorship.
The House on Mango Street
Cannery Row, Steinbeck
The Pearl
Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Coraline
Coraline is so good and creepy! ?
BAT the book, differs from the film.
We should all be feminists
“The Most Dangerous Game.”
Very very creepy.
I just read this aloud to freshman. They said short stories in high school are much different than middle school ?
@Beth My favorite teacher ever made us read it in 1994 when I was a high school freshman. I thought it was amazing.
@Ryan , tomorrow is “The Sound of Thunder”
The Giver.
Check out Ellen Gilchrist, she has great short stories. Victory Over Japan is a classic collection, IMO.
The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles by Kij Johnson
Or the Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
Ghost. Read it today at lunch. So good!!
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate. Must read, amazing.
Mark Twain’s short stories
The Red Badge of Courage
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson…and other short stories by her
The Old Man and the Sea
Short stories by O. Henry…the Gift of the Magi and others
Five People You Meet in Heaven is a great short read, but maybe a little more than 1 day. Maybe 3 depending on your time.
Handmade Coffins by Truman Capote
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella https://g.co/kgs/Uov7bx
Samauri’s Garden
The Little Chinese Seamtress and Balzac
Lucy Gayheart
Dances with Wolves.
I’ve read some of Anne Tyler’s in a day while on vacation, stuck in a snow storm, and traveling long distance for work.
Saint Maybe might be a day and a half book.
Oh! Lady Susan by Jane Austen.
Remembrance of Things Past. BWAHAHAHAHAHA
My dad’s favorite was How to build a fire by jack london
Of Mice and Men
The Old Man and the Sea
Was about to recommend this book.?
Another Brooklyn by Jackeline Woodson.
Sarah, Plain and Tall
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
Love that dog. It is meant for kids but it is SO good.
An Uncommon Reader
Loved it !
Of Mice and Men and The Pearl. I’m Steinbeck fan. Love, love, these books.
The Stephanie Plum Series
“The House on Mango Street”
Omg! I was thinking of this exact book while reading this post!
I lived in Chicago near the author’s neighborhood…. I knew exactly what she was writing. I absolutely loved this book of short stories…
I love you, too, for suggesting it!
84 Charing Cross Road, Awakening by Kate Chopin, a woman of independent means
84 Charing Cross Road…definitely.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, Don’t Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, The Dead by James Joyce, Billy Budd by Herman Melville, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, Being There by Jerzy Kosinski, The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth, The Lover by Marguerite Duras, Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones, The Mist by Stephen King, Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, Fast One by Paul Cain, Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, The Stranger by Albert Camus, Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, and Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
I’m so impressed by your list! (I would also say any of Ian Fleming’s Bond stories would fit the bill. I especially like Goldfinger.)
Anthem
The Pecan Man And I just found out it has a sequel. I read this book in less than three hours but it is so so good
The Filtered Soul http://thefilteredsoul.com/
Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (and probably some of her others). Baracoon, by Zora Neale Hurston. Wil Wheaton’s books Dancing Barefoot and Happiest Days of Our Lives. The Betsy-Tacy books.
I loved Binti, but you really need to read the whole trilogy, just to see where it goes. (The first book is hands down the best)
The Wife
A Cask of Amontillado
If you want an ugly boo hooo cry book:
A Monster Calls
By Patrick Ness
The crime novels of Georges Simenon and Jean-Patrick Manchette are short and deliciously nasty.
We will be discussing this book at our book club in November. I haven’t read it yet. It’s a collection of 13 short stories. “I Hate to See that Evening Sun Go Down” by William Gay.
A river runs through it
Wasn’t on the list but. Ethan Frome is short and ironic and great.
The Stranger Albert Camus
Anguished English
Love that Dog
Of Mice and Men
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? By Lorrie Moore
@Louise I have been wanting to read that one. Is it good?
Mark Twain’s short stories. Subscribe to The North American Review.
I Am Legend. Don’t let that terrible movie influence you, this short story is phenomenal.
I love I Am Legend!
Agatha Christie is great for train and plane rides! Short and fun if you like misteries
My Antonia – Willa Cather
I love reading the poem ‘Evangeline”
Short stories by Louis L’Amour
Call The Midwife
The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner–collection of short stories; Drew Barrymore’s Wildflower chapters could be read individually. They’re like little snapshots of her life.
Speak by Laurie Halsey Anderson. Great message. I read it, then handed it to my teen daughter who read it later the same day.
Try the wonderful Alice Munro’s short stories. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0084TWN9K/ref=dbs_a_def_awm_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
Especially her story The Bear Came Over The Mountain: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/21/the-bear-came-over-the-mountain-2
@Jeff she has mastered the short story. ?
I agree. Great writer.
the storied life of aj finkery
You took the title right out of my mouth. Haha.
Anything written by Kent Haruf
The Giver by Lois Lowery
Excellent question. I’m going to read the responses you have, so far. I’ll be back if I have something new to offer.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, or Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Old Man and the Sea
Bridges of Madison County
Pretty much anything by Mitch Albom.
Following!
I recently bought The Grownup by Gillian Flynn. I have only read the 1st page and I can’t wait to really get started.
Like Water for Chocolate
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (novella)
The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman); Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood); Ella Minnow Pea (Mark Dunn). All short reads.
My record was Shogun, 700 odd pages in one day
The Help
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Just starting a very slim book”The Heart” which looks very good. Reccomended by Bill Gates. About a transplant from donor ,through procedure ,to recipient.
The lottery
The Alchemist!
Rip Van Winkle
Room, The Catcher in the Rye, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Last Lecture
Convenience Store Woman. Only 187 pages and the book is a short size so it goes very quickly.
Sherlock Holmes short stories. Adventures of, Memoirs of, and Return of.
The Little Prince.
Short stories by your favorite writers. I’m reading one by Laurence Block now.
Call of the wild
The Old man and the Sea, by Hemingway.
Anything by James M. Cain.
Amazing author
“The Brothers K”. Is the single most enjoyable book I have ever read more than ten times!
Given to me by my aunt that taught literature and theater arts.
Books by Harriet Scott Chessman: “Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper”, “The Beauty of Ordinary Things”, “Someone Not Really Her Mother” are literary gems each about 140 pages long.
Stand by me, Stephen king
Tom Hanks – Uncommon Type!!
Explore short stories or novellas.
The Shack
The Great Gatsby
The Reader
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
News of the World, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Black Klansman, The Body by Stephen King
The Bloodlands collection! A quick short real story series…. kinda gruesome though.
The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrick Backman
News of the World by Paula Jiles
Girl, Wash Your Face
Any thought about Viola Davis’ remarks on saying she was sorry she ever was in the movie “The Help”? IMO she should have kept her views to herself. I think it was a slap in the face of her fellow actors in the film and especially to Kathryn Stockett who wrote a wonderful book. I realize many actors regret movies they have been in…but “The Help” was such a special book and film.
I understand where she is coming from, nothing against how good the book is or the writer. She regrets being in something that is about the African American experience told through a white person’s point of view. Which our history and literature is already full of. We need more of the stories told through the point of view of those affected most by the experience not others telling their story. Yes writers make up stories all the time. However when it concerns historical events we should look for those voices that are often ignored. I admit I thought the book and movie were okay. The acting was awesome, but I personally didn’t like it being told through the white person’s point of view either. Viola is perfectly justified in her comments and since her fellow actors haven’t come out against it, I think they are fine with it too.
I also understand where he is coming from, I just don’t agree with her.
I understand where she is coming from. The book came out at a time when stories about African Americans were used as a vehicle to spotlight whites who “save” poor blacks. The movie “The Blind Side” comes to mind. Sandra Bullock gave a great performance but the black teen she takes in is really just a cypher in the film. I liked the movie version of “The Help.” The actors- Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Cicely Tyson- gave voice to the maids they were portraying. That equalized the narrative for me. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and we all see and experience things in different ways from our own unique perspective .
I hope we can agree to disagree.
Katherine Darlene just stating my thoughts. Good reading ?
I agree completely ‘agree to disagree’. That is why I love this group…DISCUSSIONS! .
The Painted Veil
I just read Ghosted in one day.