The Best Short Story Collections Of All Time
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The Best Short Story Collections Of All-Time

“What are the best Short Story Collections Of All-Time??” We looked at 382 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 25 titles, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Short Story” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 350+ books, as well as the lists we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!



Top 25 Short Story Collections



25 .) 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

Lists It Appears On:

  • Av Club
  • Goodreads
  • Long Beach Public Library

“Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . .

Francis was human once, but now he’s an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .

John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of ’77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds. . . .

The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. . . .”

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24 .) A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Paste Magazine
  • Spectator

“A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians.

Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they’d ever overlooked her in the first place.”

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23 .) Can’t And Won’t by Lydia Davis

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bust
  • Scottic Book Trust
  • Paste Magazine

“Her stories may be literal one-liners: the entirety of “”Bloomington”” reads, “”Now that I have been here for a little while, I can say with confidence that I have never been here before.”” Or they may be lengthier investigations of the havoc wreaked by the most mundane disruptions to routine: in “”A Small Story About a Small Box of Chocolates,”” a professor receives a gift of thirty-two small chocolates and is paralyzed by the multitude of options she imagines for their consumption. The stories may appear in the form of letters of complaint; they may be extracted from Flaubert’s correspondence; or they may be inspired by the author’s own dreams, or the dreams of friends.
What does not vary throughout Can’t and Won’t, Lydia Davis’s fifth collection of stories, is the power of her finely honed prose. Davis is sharply observant; she is wry or witty or poignant. Above all, she is refreshing. Davis writes with bracing candor and sly humor about the quotidian, revealing the mysterious, the foreign, the alienating, and the pleasurable within the predictable patterns of daily life.”

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22 .) Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King

Lists It Appears On:

  • Ranker
  • Goodreads
  • Listverse

“A collection of fourteen dark tales, Everything’s Eventual includes one O. Henry Prize winner, two other award winners, four stories published by The New Yorker, and “Riding the Bullet,” King’s original ebook, which attracted over half a million online readers and became the most famous short story of the decade.

Two of the stories, “The Little Sisters of Eluria” and “Everything’s Eventual” are closely related to the Dark Tower series. “Riding the Bullet,” is the story of Alan Parker, who’s hitchhiking to see his dying mother but takes the wrong ride, farther than he ever intended. In “Lunch at the Gotham Café,” a sparring couple’s contentious lunch turns very, very bloody when the maître d’ gets out of sorts. “1408,” the audio story in print for the first time, is about a successful writer whose specialty is “Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Graveyards” or “Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Houses,” and though Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel doesn’t kill him, he won’t be writing about ghosts anymore.”

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21 .) In the Country by Mia Alvar

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Knopf Doubleday
  • Paste Magazine

In these nine globe-trotting tales, Mia Alvar gives voice to the women and men of the Philippines and its diaspora. From teachers to housemaids, from mothers to sons, Alvar’s stories explore the universal experiences of loss, displacement, and the longing to connect across borders both real and imagined. In the Country speaks to the heart of everyone who has ever searched for a place to call home—and marks the arrival of a formidable new voice in literature.

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20 .) Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson

Lists It Appears On:

  • Ranker
  • Cool Material
  • Publishers Weekly

Jesus’ Son is a visionary chronicle of dreamers, addicts, and lost souls. These stories tell of spiraling grief and transcendence, of rock bottom and redemption, of getting lost and found and lost again. The raw beauty and careening energy of Denis Johnson’s prose has earned this book a place among the classics of twentieth-century American literature.

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19 .) Night Shift by Stephen King

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Goodreads
  • Ranker

Night Shift—Stephen King’s first collection of stories—is an early showcase of the depths that King’s wicked imagination could plumb. In these 20 tales, we see mutated rats gone bad (“Graveyard Shift”); a cataclysmic virus that threatens humanity (“Night Surf,” the basis for The Stand); a smoker who will try anything to stop (“Quitters, Inc.”); a reclusive alcoholic who begins a gruesome transformation (“Gray Matter”); and many more. This is Stephen King at his horrifying best.

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18 .) Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • Huffington Post
  • Ranker

The Stories: A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, Just Before the War with the Eskimos, The Laughing Man, Down at the Dinghy, For Esme — With Love and Squalor, Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes, De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period, and Teddy.

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17 .) No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bust
  • Ranker
  • Scottic Book Trust

Award-winning filmmaker and performing artist Miranda July brings her extraordinary talents to the page in a startling, sexy, and tender collection. In these stories, July gives the most seemingly insignificant moments a sly potency. A benign encounter, a misunderstanding, a shy revelation can reconfigure the world. Her characters engage awkwardly—they are sometimes too remote, sometimes too intimate. With great compassion and generosity, July reveals their idiosyncrasies and the odd logic and longing that govern their lives. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a stunning debut, the work of a writer with a spectacularly original and compelling voice.

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16 .) Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Goodreads
  • Scottic Book Trust

Stories of Your Life and Others delivers dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar, often presenting characters who must confront sudden change—the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens—with some sense of normalcy. With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty, but also by beauty and wonder. An award-winning collection from one of today’s most lauded writers, Stories of Your Life and Others is a contemporary classic.

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15 .) The Best American Short Stories (annual)

Lists It Appears On:

  • Acton Memorial Library
  • Long Beach Public Library
  • Acton Memorial Library

The Best American Short Stories 2017 casts a vote for and celebrates all that is our country. Here you’ll find a man with a boyfriend and a girlfriend, naval officers trapped on a submarine, a contestant on America’s Funniest Home Videos, and a gay man desperate to be a father—unforgettable characters waiting for an outcome, burning with stories to tell.

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14 .) The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Goodreads
  • Ranker

“One of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1948. “”Power and haunting,”” and “”nights of unrest”” were typical reader responses. Today it is considered a classic work of short fiction, a story remarkable for its combination of subtle suspense and pitch-perfect descriptions of both the chilling and the mundane.

The Lottery and Other Stories, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson’s lifetime, unites “”The Lottery”” with twenty-four equally unusual short stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson’s remarkable range — from the hilarious to the horrible, the unsettling to the ominous — and her power as a storyteller.”

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13 .) The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Bust
  • The Guardian

In these twelve dazzlng stories, the bestselling, award-winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie’s signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.

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12 .) Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works by Kurt Vonnegut

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • Ranker
  • Long Beach Public Library

Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.

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11 .) Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bust
  • Cool Material
  • Huffington Post
  • Ranker

Already an award-winning writer, ZZ Packer now shares with us her debut, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Her impressive range and talent are abundantly evident: Packer dazzles with her command of language, surprising and delighting us with unexpected turns and indelible images, as she takes us into the lives of characters on the periphery, unsure of where they belong. We meet a Brownie troop of black girls who are confronted with a troop of white girls; a young man who goes with his father to the Million Man March and must decides where his allegiance lies; an international group of drifters in Japan, who are starving, unable to find work; a girl in a Baltimore ghetto who has dreams of the larger world she has seen only on the screens in the television store nearby, where the Lithuanian shopkeeper holds out hope for attaining his own American Dream.

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10 .) Dubliners by James Joyce

Lists It Appears On:

  • Cool Material
  • Goodreads
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Ranker

James Joyce’s Dubliners is a vivid and unflinching portrait of “dear dirty Dublin” at the turn of the twentieth century. These fifteen stories, including such unforgettable ones as “Araby,” “Grace,” and “The Dead,” delve into the heart of the city of Joyce’s birth, capturing the cadences of Dubliners’ speech and portraying with an almost brute realism their outer and inner lives. Dubliners is Joyce at his most accessible and most profound, and this edition is the definitive text, authorized by the Joyce estate and collated from all known proofs, manuscripts, and impressions to reflect the author’s original wishes.

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9 .) Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Bookstr
  • Cool Material
  • Paste Magazine

“Throughout these six stories, Pulitzer Prize winner Adam Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal, giving voice to the perspectives we don’t often hear.

In “Nirvana,” a programmer whose wife has a rare disease finds solace in a digital simulacrum of the president of the United States. In “Hurricanes Anonymous,” a young man searches for the mother of his son in a Louisiana devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. “George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine” follows a former warden of a Stasi prison in East Germany who vehemently denies his past, even as pieces of it are delivered in packages to his door. And in the unforgettable title story, Johnson returns to his signature subject, North Korea, depicting two defectors from Pyongyang who are trying to adapt to their new lives in Seoul, while one cannot forget the woman he left behind.”

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8 .) Get in Trouble by Kelly Link

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bustle
  • Goodreads
  • Paste Magazine
  • Book Riot

“She has been hailed by Michael Chabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction” and by Neil Gaiman as “a national treasure.” Now Kelly Link’s eagerly awaited new collection—her first for adult readers in a decade—proves indelibly that this bewitchingly original writer is among the finest we have.

Link has won an ardent following for her ability, with each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. The nine exquisite examples in this collection show her in full command of her formidable powers. In “The Summer People,” a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house. In “I Can See Right Through You,” a middle-aged movie star makes a disturbing trip to the Florida swamp where his former on- and off-screen love interest is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. In “The New Boyfriend,” a suburban slumber party takes an unusual turn, and a teenage friendship is tested, when the spoiled birthday girl opens her big present: a life-size animated doll.

Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas, The Wizard of Oz, superheroes, the Pyramids . . . These are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded by sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailty—and the hidden strengths—of human beings. In Get in Trouble, this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do.”

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7 .) Pastoralia by George Saunders

Lists It Appears On:

  • Av Club
  • Cool Material
  • Goodreads
  • Huffington Post

Hailed by Thomas Pynchon as “graceful, dark, authentic, and funny,” George Saunders gives us, in his inventive and beloved voice, this bestselling collection of stories set against a warped, hilarious, and terrifyingly recognizable American landscape.

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6 .) Runaway by Alice Munro

Lists It Appears On:

  • Av Club
  • Bustle
  • Cool Material
  • The Guardian

This acclaimed, bestselling collection also contains the celebrated stories that inspired the Pedro Almodóvar film Julieta. Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband, to three stories about a woman named Juliet and the emotions that complicate the luster of her intimate relationships. In Munro’s hands, the people she writes about–women of all ages and circumstances, and their friends, lovers, parents, and children–become as vivid as our own neighbors. It is her miraculous gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own.

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5 .) Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

Lists It Appears On:

  • Av Club
  • Ranker
  • Scottic Book Trust
  • Book Riot
  • Goodreads

Fragile Things is a sterling collection of exceptional tales from Neil Gaiman, multiple award-winning (the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Newberry, and Eisner Awards, to name just a few), #1 New York Timesbestselling author of The Graveyard Book, Anansi Boys, Coraline, and the groundbreaking Sandman graphic novel series. A uniquely imaginative creator of wonders whose unique storytelling genius has been acclaimed by a host of literary luminaries from Norman Mailer to Stephen King, Gaiman’s astonishing powers are on glorious displays in Fragile Things. Enter and be amazed!

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4 .) Tenth of December by George Saunders

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookstr
  • Goodreads
  • Ranker
  • Scottic Book Trust
  • The Guardian

“One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet.

In the taut opener, “Victory Lap,” a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In “Home,” a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders’s signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation.

Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human.”

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3 .) Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Cool Material
  • Goodreads
  • Ranker
  • The Guardian
  • Long Beach Public Library

Navigating between the Indian traditions they’ve inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri’s elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In “A Temporary Matter,” published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.

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2 .) What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Riot
  • Bustle
  • Cool Material
  • Goodreads
  • Knopf Doubleday
  • Ranker

In his second collection, including the iconic and much-referenced title story featured in the Academy Award-winning film Birdman, Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated short-story writers in American literature—a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark.

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1 .) This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bookstr
  • Book Riot
  • Bustle
  • Cool Material
  • Goodreads
  • Huffington Post
  • Ranker
  • Scottic Book Trust

“From the award-winning author, a stunning collection that celebrates the haunting, impossible power of love.

On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In a New Jersey laundry room, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness–and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses.”

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The 350+ Additional Short Story Books



 

#BooksAuthorsLists
(Titles Appear On 2 Lists Each)
26A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other StoriesFlannery O’ConnorGoodreads
Ranker
27After the QuakeHaruki MurakamiBook Riot
Cool Material
28American HousewifeHelen EllisBook Riot
Knopf Doubleday
29At the Mouth of the River of Bees: StoriesKij JohnsonBook Riot
Goodreads
30Because They Wanted ToMary GaitskillBook Riot
Publishers Weekly
31Dark Lies the IslandKevin BarryBook Riot
Scottic Book Trust
32Dear LifeAlice Munro
Knopf Doubleday
Goodreads
33DrownJunot DíazGoodreads
Ranker
34FiccionesJorge Luis BorgesGoodreads
Ranker
35Girl Boy EtcMichael Weinreb
Long Beach Public Library
Ranker
36Going to Meet the ManJames Baldwin
Publishers Weekly
Ranker
37Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, MarriageAlice Munro
Long Beach Public Library
Scottic Book Trust
38How to Escape from a Leper ColonyTiphanie YaniqueBook Riot
The Daily Beast
39I Am An Executioner: Love StoriesRajesh Parameswaran
Cool Material
Scottic Book Trust
40Just After SunsetStephen KingGoodreads
Long Beach Public Library
41Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other WritingsJorge Luis BorgesBook Riot
Goodreads
42Leaving the SeaBen MarcusBook Riot
Scottic Book Trust
43Magic For BeginnersKelly LinkAv Club
Goodreads
44Moral Disorder and Other StoriesMargaret AtwoodBook Riot
Long Beach Public Library
45Nightmares and DreamscapesStephen KingGoodreads
Listverse
46Public LibraryAli Smith
Knopf Doubleday
Spectator
47RedeploymentPhil KlayGoodreads
Scottic Book Trust
48St. Lucy’s Home for Girls RaisedKaren RussellGoodreads
Book Riot
49Stone Mattress: Nine TalesMargaret AtwoodBustle
Goodreads
50The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan DoyleGoodreads
Long Beach Public Library
51The Bloody Chamber and Other StoriesAngela CarterBook Riot
Goodreads
52The Complete Short Stories of Ernest HemingwayErnest Hemingway
Cool Material
Ranker
53The Complete StoriesFranz Kafka
Cool Material
Publishers Weekly
54The Garden Party and Other StoriesKatharine MansfieldBook Riot
The Guardian
55The Illustrated ManRay BradburyBook Riot
Goodreads
56The Martian ChroniclesRay BradburyGoodreads
Ranker
57The O. Henry Prize Stories. SS Prize (annual)Laura Furman
Knopf Doubleday
Long Beach Public Library
58The Tsar of Love and TechnoAnthony MarraBook Riot
Paste Magazine
59There’s Something I Want You to DoCharles BaxterBook Riot
Bookstr
60This isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like YouJon McGregor
Scottic Book Trust
The Guardian
61Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and DisturbancesNeil GaimanBustle
Goodreads
62Vampires in the Lemon GroveKaren RussellBookstr
Goodreads
63What is Not Yours Is Not YoursHelen OyeyemiBook Riot
Goodreads
64You Are Not a Stranger HereAdam Haslett
Huffington Post
Knopf Doubleday
(Titles Appear On 1 Lists Each)
65
100 years of the best American short stories
Acton Memorial Library
66
20 under 40: stories from The New Yorker
Acton Memorial Library
67
50 Great Christmas Stories, Poems, and Books
American Literature
6850 Great Short Stories. SS Fifty
Long Beach Public Library
69
999: new stories of horror and suspense
Acton Memorial Library
70A Better AngelChris AdrianBook Riot
71
A Century of Great Western Stories. WES
Long Beach Public Library
72A Hand Reached Down to Guide MeSpectator
73
A Prisoner of Memory: And 24 of the Year’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. MYS
Long Beach Public Library
74A Safe Girl to LoveCasey PlettBust
75A Taste of HoneyJabari Asim
The Daily Beast
76A Treasury of Short Stories: Favorities of the Past Hundred Years from Turgenev to Thurber, from Balzac to HemingwayBernardine Kielty
Long Beach Public Library
77
A Walk in My World: International Short Stories about Youth
Long Beach Public Library
78
Adaptations: From Short Story to Big Screen: 35 Great Stories That Have Inspired Great Films
Long Beach Public Library
79Almost Famous WomenMegan Mayhew BergmanBustle
80Alone With The HorrorsRamsey CampbellListverse
81Alone With YouMarisa Silver
The Daily Beast
82
American fantastic tales: terror and the uncanny
Acton Memorial Library
83Amor and PsychoCarolyn CookeBook Riot
84Ancient, AncientKiini Ibura SalaamBook Riot
85
Angels and Awakenings: Stories of the Miraculous by Great Modern Writers
Long Beach Public Library
86AnthropologyDan Rhodes
Scottic Book Trust
87Arranged Marriage: StoriesChitra Divakaruni
Long Beach Public Library
88AyitiRoxane GayBook Riot
89Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short FictionKurt VonnegutBook Riot
90Barbara the Slut and Other PeopleLauren HolmesBust
91BarkLorrie MooreBookstr
92BattlebornClaire Vaye WatkinsBook Riot
93
Beautiful as the Moon, Radiant as the Stars: Jewish Women in Yiddish Stories: An Anthology
Long Beach Public Library
94Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool SelfDanielle EvansBust
95
Best of the South: From the Second Decade of New Stories from the South
Long Beach Public Library
96Binocular VisionEdith PearlmanBook Riot
97Birds of AmericaLorrie MooreBook Riot
98Bits of Paradise: 21 Uncollected Stories by FF Fitzgerald
Long Beach Public Library
99BlasphemySherman AlexieBook Riot
100Bloodchild and Other StoriesOctavia ButlerBook Riot
101Bobcat and Other StoriesRebecca LeeBook Riot
102Books of Blood, Volumes 1-3Clive BarkerListverse
103Brief Interviews with Hideous MenDavid Foster WallaceRanker
104Brooklyn Noir. MYS
Long Beach Public Library
105BrownsvilleOscar CasaresBook Riot
106Burning BrightRon RashBook Riot
107Cat o’ Nine Tales: And Other StoriesJeffrey Archer
Long Beach Public Library
108Chelsea GirlsEileen MylesBust
109Chicago Blues
Long Beach Public Library
110Cities I Never Lived InSara MajkaBook Riot
111Civilwarland in Bad DeclineGeorge SaundersBook Riot
112
Classic Yiddish Stories of S. Y. Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and I. L. Peretz
Long Beach Public Library
113Collected stories of Wallace StegneWallace StegnerRanker
114Complete StoriesHenry James
Long Beach Public Library
115Coronado: StoriesDennis Lehane
Long Beach Public Library
116Cowboys Are My WeaknessPam HoustonBook Riot
117Cries For Help, VariousPadgett Powell
Paste Magazine
118Crow FairThomas McGuaneBook Riot
119
Death Dines at 8:30: A Short Story Anthology. MYS
Long Beach Public Library
120Delicate Edible Birdsby Lauren GroffBook Riot
121Different SeasonsStephen KingGoodreads
122Difficult LovesItalo CalvinoBook Riot
123Dog Run MoonCallan WinkBook Riot
124Don’t Look NowDaphne du MaurierRanker
125
Dreaming Again: Thirty-Five New Stories Celebrating the Wild Side of Australian Fiction
Long Beach Public Library
126East, WestSalman RushdieBook Riot
127
Ebony Rising: Short Fiction of the Greater Harlem Renaissance Era
Long Beach Public Library
128
Eclipse One: New Science Fiction and Fantasy. SF
Long Beach Public Library
129Enormous Changes at the Last MomentGrace PaleyBook Riot
130Everything Ravaged, Everything BurnedWells TowerBook Riot
131Everything That Rises Must ConvergeFlannery O’ConnorBook Riot
132
Facing the Holocaust: Selected Israeli Fiction
Long Beach Public Library
133
Fall of poppies: stories of love and the Great War
Acton Memorial Library
134Falling In Love With HominidsNalo HopkinsonBook Riot
135Family FurnishingsAlice MunroBook Riot
136Favorite Chekhov Short Stories – Volume IAnton Chekhov
American Literature
137Favorite Chekhov Short Stories – Volume IIAnton Chekhov
American Literature
138Favorite Short Stories by H.H. MunroH.H. Munro (aka SAKI)
American Literature
139Favorite Short Stories from Bret HarteBret Harte
American Literature
140Favorite Short Stories from Jack LondonJack London
American Literature
141Favorite Short Stories from Mark TwainMark Twain
American Literature
142Favorite Short Stories from Mary E. Wilkins FreemanMary E. Wilkins Freeman
American Literature
143Final ReckoningsRobert BlochListverse
144Forty storiesAnton ChekhovRanker
145Four Past MidnightStephen KingGoodreads
146Full Dark, No StarsStephen KingGoodreads
147FurnaceWayne Price
Scottic Book Trust
148Further Adventures in the Restless UniverseDawn Raffel
The Daily Beast
149Ghost SummerTananarive DueBook Riot
150Ghostly: a collection of ghost stories
Acton Memorial Library
151Ghosts and Grisly ThingsRamsey Campbell
Long Beach Public Library
152Girls’ Night Out
Long Beach Public Library
153Goodbye, ColumbusPhilip RothRanker
154
Great Stories of the American West II. WES
Long Beach Public Library
155Gut ShotAmelia GrayBook Riot
156Hardly Knew Her: StoriesLaura Lippman
Long Beach Public Library
157High LonesomeJoyce Carol OatesBook Riot
158HoneydewEdith PearlmanBookstr
159How This Night is DifferentElisa AlbertBust
160How to be BothSpectator
161How to Leave HialeahJennine Capó CrucetBook Riot
162How We Are HungryDave Eggers
Scottic Book Trust
163Hundreds of Great Ghost Stories
American Literature
164
Hundreds of great stories, fables, fairy tales, & nursery rhymes
American Literature
165I, RobotIsaac AsimovGoodreads
166If I Loved You, I Would Tell You ThisRobin Black
The Daily Beast
167In Cuba I Was a German ShepherdAna MenéndezBook Riot
168In Our TimeErnest HemingwayRanker
169In The Garden Of The North American MartyrsTobias WolffRanker
170IndigoSatyajit RayBook Riot
171
Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
Long Beach Public Library
172Irish Girls Are Back in Town
Long Beach Public Library
173Kate Chopin’s Best Short StoriesKate Chopin
American Literature
174Krik? Krak!Edwidge Danticat
Long Beach Public Library
175Lady with the Dog and Other StoriesAnton ChekovBook Riot
176Leaf StormGabriel García MárquezRanker
177
Legal Fictions: Short Stories about Lawyers and the Law
Long Beach Public Library
178Little Black Book of StoriesA.S. ByattBook Riot
179Lost in the FunhouseJohn BarthRanker
180Love is Power, Or Something Like ThatA. Igoni Barrett
Publishers Weekly
181Lovers on All Saints’ DayJuan Gabriel VasquezBook Riot
182
Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown
Long Beach Public Library
183Miguel StreetV.S. NaipaulBook Riot
184Miss Marple: The Complete Short StoriesAgatha Christie
Long Beach Public Library
185
Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience
Long Beach Public Library
186Monday or TuesdayVirginia WoolfBook Riot
187MonstressLysley TenorioBook Riot
188
More Stories We Tell: The Best Contemporary Short Stories by North American Women
Long Beach Public Library
189Mothers, Tell Your DaughtersBonnie Jo Campbell
Paste Magazine
190Murder Is My Business. MYS
Long Beach Public Library
191My Father’s Tears And Other StoriesJohn UpdikeAv Club
192My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday StoriesStephanie PerkinsGoodreads
193
Mystery Writers of America presents The blue religion : new stories about cops, criminals, and the chase
Acton Memorial Library
194
Mystery Writers of America presents the prosecution rests: new stories about courtrooms, criminals, and the law
Acton Memorial Library
195
Mystery Writers of America presents vengeance
Acton Memorial Library
196n Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other StoriesAmbrose BierceListverse
197NakedDavid SedarisRanker
198
Nebula Awards Showcase. SF (annual)
Long Beach Public Library
199New and Selected StoriesAlan Sillitoe
Long Beach Public Library
200Night at the FiestasKirstin Valdez Quade
Paste Magazine
201Night Shade: Gothic Stories by Women
Long Beach Public Library
202Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror StoriesRichard MathesonListverse
203NightscapeDavid Morrell
Long Beach Public Library
204Nine Favorite Short StoriesEdgar Allan Poe
American Literature
205Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and NightfallKazuo IshiguroGoodreads
206Nora Jane: A Life in StoriesEllen Gilchrist
Long Beach Public Library
207Norse MythologyNeil GaimanGoodreads
208North American Lake MonstersNathan BallingrudBook Riot
209Not the End of the WorldKate Atkinson
Scottic Book Trust
210
Nothing but you: love stories from the New Yorker
Acton Memorial Library
211NotwithstandingLouis de Bernières
Knopf Doubleday
212Novelties & SouvenirsJohn CrowleyAv Club
213OblivionDavid Foster WallaceBook Riot
214Olive KitteridgeElizabeth Strout
Huffington Post
215On the WayCyn VargasBustle
216One More ThingB.J. Novak
Paste Magazine
217Oye What I’m Gonna Tell YouCecilia Rodriguez MilanesBook Riot
218Pale Horse, Pale RiderKatherine Anne PorterBook Riot
219
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy. SF
Long Beach Public Library
220Paper Lantern: Love StoriesStuart DybekBookstr
221Paradise ElsewhereKathy PageBook Riot
222
Passport to Crime: The Finest Mystery Stories from International Crime Writers. MYS
Long Beach Public Library
223Peace in the House: Tales from a Yiddish KitchenFaye Moskowitz
Long Beach Public Library
224Peaceable KingdomJack KetchumListverse
225
Poe’s children: the new horror: an anthology
Acton Memorial Library
226Portraits of the Few People I’ve Made CryChristine SneedBustle
227Presence: StoriesArthur Miller
Long Beach Public Library
228PulseJulian Barnes
The Guardian
229Raymond Chandler: Collected StoriesRaymond Chandler
Long Beach Public Library
230Revenge: Eleven Dark TalesYoko OgawaBook Riot
231RoguesGeorge R.R. MartinGoodreads
232Science fiction hall of fame
Acton Memorial Library
233Seasonal VelocitiesRyka AokiBust
234
Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story: Family Matters (CD)
Long Beach Public Library
235Selected StoriesCharles BeaumontListverse
236Selected StoriesAlice Munro
Publishers Weekly
237Self-HelpLorrie Moore
Huffington Post
238Shakespeare’s KitchenLore SegalAv Club
239Shivers III
Long Beach Public Library
240
Sholem Aleichem. Some Laughter, Some Tears: Tales from the Old World and the New. SS Aleichem
Long Beach Public Library
241
Short Shorts: An Anthology of the Shortest Stories
Long Beach Public Library
242Short StoriesLangston Hughes
Long Beach Public Library
243
Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real
Long Beach Public Library
244Skeleton CrewStephen KingGoodreads
245Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and IllusionsNeil GaimanGoodreads
246
Speaking with the Angel: Original Stories
Long Beach Public Library
247SpectacleSusan SteinbergBook Riot
248
Spooky Tales Inspired by Real Ghost Stories
Ranker
249Starting OverElizabeth Spencer
Huffington Post
250Stories from Other PlacesSpectator
251
Sudden fiction international: sixty short-short stories
Acton Memorial Library
252Summer MorningRay Bradbury
Long Beach Public Library
253T.C. Boyle StoriesT.C. Boyle
Cool Material
254Tales of the Jazz AgeF. Scott FitzgeraldRanker
255Tales of the Out & GoneAmiri Baraka
Long Beach Public Library
256Ten Favorite Short StoriesO. Henry
American Literature
257Ten Favorite Short StoriesW.W. Jacobs
American Literature
258That Glimpse of TruthDavid Miller
The Guardian
259
The American short story: a collection of the best known and most memorable short stories by the great American authors
Acton Memorial Library
260
The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories
Long Beach Public Library
261The Annotated Baseball Stories of Ring W. LanderRing Lardner
Long Beach Public Library
262
The art of the story: an international anthology of contemporary short stories
Acton Memorial Library
263The Barrens and OthersF. Paul WilsonBook Riot
264The Bazaar of Bad DreamsStephen KingGoodreads
265The Beautiful IndifferenceSarah J. E. Hall
Scottic Book Trust
266
The Best American short stories of the eighties
Acton Memorial Library
267The best of McSweeney’s
Acton Memorial Library
268
The best of the best. Volume 2, 20 years of the best short science fiction novels
Acton Memorial Library
269The Birthday of the WorldUrsula K. Le GuinBook Riot
270
The Black Lizard big book of locked-room mysteries: the most complete collection of impossible crime stories ever assembled
Acton Memorial Library
271The BoatNam LeBook Riot
272The Collected Short Stories of Louis L’Amour (5 volsLouis L’Amour
Long Beach Public Library
273The Collected StoriesLydia Davis
Publishers Weekly
274The Collected StoriesKatherine MAnsfieldRanker
275The Collected StoriesLorrie Moore
The Guardian
276The Collected Stories of Eudora WeltyEudora Welty
Long Beach Public Library
277The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne PorterKatherine Anne PorterRanker
278The complete poems and stories of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeRanker
279The Complete Short StoriesH.G. Wells
Long Beach Public Library
280The Complete StoriesFlannery O’Connor
Cool Material
281The Complete WorksIsaac Babel
Publishers Weekly
282The Dark Side of Guy de Maupassant: A Selection and TranslationGuy de Maupassant
Long Beach Public Library
283The Dream Life of AstronautsPatrick RyanBook Riot
284The Elephant VanishesHaruki MurakamiGoodreads
285The Essential Tales of ChekhovAnton Chekhov
Long Beach Public Library
286The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and SuspenseJoyce Carol OatesRanker
287The Frangipani HotelViolet KupersmithBook Riot
288
The Giant Book of Scottish Short Stories
Long Beach Public Library
289The Girl in the Flammable SkirtAimee BenderBook Riot
290The Great FrustrationSeth FriedBook Riot
291The Great Short WorksLeo Tolstoy
Publishers Weekly
292The Heaven of AnimalsDavid James Poissant
Huffington Post
293
The Horror Writers Association presents Blood lite: an anthology of humorous horror stories
Acton Memorial Library
294The Ladies of Grace AdieuSusanna ClarkeRanker
295The Life to Come and Other StoriesE. M. ForsterRanker
296The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in HeavenSherman AlexieGoodreads
297The Loss of All Lost ThingsAmina GautierBook Riot
298The Love ObjectEdna O’BrienBook Riot
299The Magic of BloodDagoberto GilbBook Riot
300
The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories
Long Beach Public Library
301The Mammoth Book of Zombies
Long Beach Public Library
302The Metamorphosis and Other StoriesFranz KafkaBook Riot
303The Monkey’s PawKate Chopin
American Literature
304The most of P.G. WodehouseP. G. WodehouseRanker
305
The New Mystery: The International Association of Crime Writers’ Essential Crime Writing of the Late 20th Century. MYS
Long Beach Public Library
306The New Space Opera. SF
Long Beach Public Library
307The Night in QuestionTobias WolffRanker
308
The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990. SF
Long Beach Public Library
309
The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories. MYS
Long Beach Public Library
310
The Oxford book of American short stories
Acton Memorial Library
311
The Oxford book of English short stories
Acton Memorial Library
312The Oxford book of Jewish stories
Acton Memorial Library
313
The Oxford book of modern women’s stories
Acton Memorial Library
314The Oxford Book of Travel Stories
Long Beach Public Library
315The Paper Menagerie and Other StoriesKen LiuGoodreads
316The Penguin book of Irish Fiction
Acton Memorial Library
317
The Penguin Book of Jewish Short Stories
Long Beach Public Library
318The People on Privilege Hill: And Other StoriesJane Gardam
Long Beach Public Library
319The Pier Falls and Other StoriesMark HaddonBook Riot
320
The Pushcart Book of Short Stories: The Best Short Stories from a Quarter-Century of the Pushcart Prize
Long Beach Public Library
321The Red ConvertibleLouise ErdrichBook Riot
322The Rental Heart and Other FairytalesKirsty Logan
Scottic Book Trust
323The Return JourneyMaeve Binchy
Long Beach Public Library
324The Safety of ObjectsA.M. HomesBook Riot
325The Secret GoldfishDavid MeansRanker
326The Southern CrossSkip HorackBook Riot
327The Stone ThrowerAdam Marek
Scottic Book Trust
328
The Storytellers’ Collection: Tales of Faraway Places
Long Beach Public Library
329
The Student Body: Short Stories about College Students and Professors
Long Beach Public Library
330
The Subway Chronicles: Scenes from Life in New York
Long Beach Public Library
331The Tales of Beedle the BardJ.K. RowlingGoodreads
332The Temple of AirPatricia Ann McNairBustle
333The Things They CarriedTim O’BrienBook Riot
334The Triumph of the EggSherwood AndersonRanker
335The Turn of the Screw and Other StoriesHenry JamesRanker
336
The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories
Long Beach Public Library
337
The Voice of the Turtle: An Anthology of Cuban Stories
Long Beach Public Library
338The Ways of White FolksLangston HughesRanker
339The White People and Other Weird StoriesArthur MachenListverse
340The Whole Story and Other StoriesAli Smith
Scottic Book Trust
341The Woman Who Gave Birth to RabbitsEmma DonoghueBook Riot
342
The World of the Short Story: A Twentieth Century Collection
Long Beach Public Library
343
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. SF (annual)
Long Beach Public Library
344
The Year’s Best Mystery and Suspense Stories. MYS (annual)
Long Beach Public Library
345
The Year’s Best Science Fiction. SF (annual)
Long Beach Public Library
346There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sisters Husband and He Hanged HimselfLudmilla PetrushevskayaBook Riot
347These Heroic, Happy DeadLuke MogelsonBook Riot
348Thirteen Ways of LookingColum McCannBookstr
349This Is Chick-Lit
Long Beach Public Library
350
This Is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America’s Best Women Writers
Long Beach Public Library
351Thunderstruck and Other StoriesElizabeth McCrackenBook Riot
352To Build a FireMark Twain
American Literature
353ToastCharles StrossAv Club
354TrashDorothy AllisonBook Riot
355Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and MoneyRebecca Curtis
Long Beach Public Library
356Twenty-first century science fiction
Acton Memorial Library
357Twilight Of The SuperheroesDeborah EisenbergAv Club
358Unaccustomed EarthJhumpa LahiriGoodreads
359
Unusual Suspects: Stories of Mystery and Fantasy. MYS
Long Beach Public Library
360Up in the Old Hotel and Other StoriesJoseph Mitchell
Long Beach Public Library
361Voices in the NightSteven MillhauserBookstr
362VoltAlan HeathcockBook Riot
363Walk the Blue FieldsClaire Keegan
Scottic Book Trust
364War FeverJ. G. BallardRanker
365Wasted in LoveAllan Wilson
Scottic Book Trust
366
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. SF
Long Beach Public Library
367We Live in WaterJess Walter
Scottic Book Trust
368We Should Never MeetAimee PhanBook Riot
369What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves UsLaura van den BergBook Riot
370When You Are Engulfed in FlamesDavid SedarisRanker
371Where I’m Calling FromRaymond CarverRanker
372Wild Stars Seeking Midnight SunsJ Cooper
Long Beach Public Library
373Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?Raymond Carver
The Guardian
374Willful CreaturesAimee BenderRanker
375Wish I Was HereJackie Kay
Scottic Book Trust
376Woman Hollering CreekSandra CisnerosBook Riot
377
Women of Wonder: The Classic Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s. SF
Long Beach Public Library
378Yesterday’s Weather: StoriesAnne Enright
Long Beach Public Library
379You Can’t Keep a Good Woman DownAlice WalkerBook Riot
380Young SkinsColin Barrett
Scottic Book Trust
381Young VisitersSpectator
382ZigzaggerManuel MunozBook Riot


20 Best Short Story Collection Sources/Lists



SourceArticle
Acton Memorial Library A Selected List of Short Story Collections
American Literature Favorite Short Stories Collection
Av Club The 10 best short-story collections of the ’00s
Book Riot 100 MUST-READ SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Bookstr Ten Short Story Collections to Fit Into Your Busy Schedule
Bust 10 Short Story Collections Written By Women To Add To Your Reading List
Bustle 11 Short Story Collections Your Book Club Will Love Discussing
Cool Material 15 Short Story Collections Every Guy Should Read
Goodreads Popular Short Story Collection Books
Huffington Post Brevity Has Its Advantages: 9 Astounding Short Story Collections
Knopf Doubleday 8 Story Collections So Good They’ll Leave You Wanting More
Listverse Top 10 Spine Tingling Short Story Collections
Long Beach Public Library SELECTED SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Paste Magazine 10 Essential Short Story Collections
Publishers Weekly The 10 Best Short Story Collections
Ranker The Best Collections of Short Stories
Scottic Book Trust 25 Great Short Story Collections from the 21st Century so far
Spectator The best short story collections — from childish gabbling to jaded nihilism
The Daily Beast 5 Must-Read Short-Story Collections
The Guardian The 10 best short story collections