What's your favorite short story ever?

[NewOrleans]

I've been thinking I need to read more short stories. 

My favorites are The Yellow Wallpaper, Araby, Rose for Emily, Little Things, a few out of Interpreter of Maladies, and Sonny's Blues which I love so, so much.  

Lay some more on me.  I like my stories lyrical but complex.

[rosiebear]

Oh I love short stories. I like getting "The Year's Best" collections.

I remember liking The Knife Thrower. I am not good at remembering titles, though.

[readyin07]

Man. It's been a while since I read any short stories.

Pretty much anything by Flannery O'Conner. I was trying to google some Faulkner short stories, but I can't remember names. Have you read all of Dubliners? There are a few in there that I like. The Boarding House is the one that first comes to mind.

If you happen to come upon any others that you like you'll have to report back.

[ttt]

The Story of an Hour is so short but it has always stuck with me since reading it in high school.

Kaleidoscope actually disturbed me emotionally. I felt shaken for a few days after reading it - I'm not really sure why it had such an impact on me, but something about it haunted me deeply.

ETA: the entire Illustrated Man collection is excellent, if you like scifi. It's available online too. greenhumanities.edublogs.org/files/2012/09/Bradbury-Illustrated-Man-1wytglb.pdf 

[readyin07]

Ooh. I didn't notice that you had a Rose for Emily. I think I remember liking that one.

Google is my friend. Eudora Welty Why I Live at the PO. And she has others I think I enjoyed.

[bernsteincat]

The Yellow Wallpaper and The Lottery

[readyin07]

Try en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry_Award

[StrawberryBlondie]

The Yellow Wallpaper and A Rose for Emily. A Good Man is Hard to Find.

[darthnbjenni]

Apr 27, 2016 19:17:21 GMT -5 ttt said:

The Story of an Hour is so short but it has always stuck with me since reading it in high school.

Kaleidoscope actually disturbed me emotionally. I felt shaken for a few days after reading it - I'm not really sure why it had such an impact on me, but something about it haunted me deeply.

ETA: the entire Illustrated Man collection is excellent, if you like scifi. It's available online too. greenhumanities.edublogs.org/files/2012/09/Bradbury-Illustrated-Man-1wytglb.pdf 

Ray Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains still pops in my brain every time I teach about the Cold War. Haunting is a good word for his work. 

[ttt]

Apr 27, 2016 19:22:54 GMT -5 darthnbjenni said:

Apr 27, 2016 19:17:21 GMT -5 ttt said:

The Story of an Hour is so short but it has always stuck with me since reading it in high school.

Kaleidoscope actually disturbed me emotionally. I felt shaken for a few days after reading it - I'm not really sure why it had such an impact on me, but something about it haunted me deeply.

ETA: the entire Illustrated Man collection is excellent, if you like scifi. It's available online too. greenhumanities.edublogs.org/files/2012/09/Bradbury-Illustrated-Man-1wytglb.pdf 

Ray Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains still pops in my brain every time I teach about the Cold War. Haunting is a good word for his work. 

Yes that's another favorite! I think about it every time I read about the whole smart home thing.

[chickadee77]

I second Flannery O'Connor.

The Lottery.

Lorrie Moore - she has some short novels, too, that are excellent.

Honestly, I love short story anthologies - it's in keeping with the short attention span thing, lol. That way I can explore further if I like.

[ESF]

Margaret Atwood's Rape Fantasies is the one that sticks with me the most.

The last collection I read that I really enjoyed was This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz.

[mouse]

I love almost anything by Kelly Link. "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose?" probably comes to me at the oddest hours. Fair warning, her stuff is pretty weird and mildly disturbing.

She put her first two books in the public domain (I think minus the Nebula award winners, because of an agreement with them?).

smallbeerpress.com/

I also love the yellow wallpaper, although I'll admit I was first exposed to the story from the PBS movie.

[ESF]

Apr 27, 2016 19:17:21 GMT -5 ttt said:

The Story of an Hour is so short but it has always stuck with me since reading it in high school.

Thank you for this. I had also read this in high school and remember finding it so profound and amazing that it was the one I chose to write about it for my take home final exam that semester.  At some point, the name and author of it had forever escaped me and for years, I've been trying to remember it.

[bellejar]

If you haven't read it, The Swimmer by John Cheever is a classic.

I second Lorrie Moore. I also like Raymond Carver's stories.

[greeneggs]

I'm another one who loves Flannery O'Connor but as much as I love A Good Man is Hard to Find I think that Good Country People would be my all time favorite. I also love The Story of an Hour and Desiree's Baby will always break my heart.

[pixy0stix]

Yellow Wallpaper

Stephen King's - The Mist

[nannerl]

Unaccompanied Sonata by Orson Scott Card

[vanillacourage]

EPICAC by Vonnegut. 

The Field or Charon by Lord Dunsany. 

[Gato]

I absolutely loved Brokeback Mountain, the story. Another good one that turned into a movie is Baster, by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Anything by Alice Munro; I probably like the Hateship, Friendship and Friend of My Youth collections best.

In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders
Who's Irish? by Gish Jen
Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor
The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits (these are personal essays, but they are excellent)

[nicbreeful]

Purely entertainment by Stephen King.

The Jaunt (read for free), A Good Marriage and Fair Extension.  The last two are both in Full Dark, No Stars.

[msmerymac]

I came in here to say A Rose for Emily... assuming someone would have already, but it was you.

[NewOrleans]

Apr 27, 2016 19:34:28 GMT -5 ESF said:

Margaret Atwood's Rape Fantasies is the one that sticks with me the most.

The last collection I read that I really enjoyed was This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz.

I fucking love Margaret Atwood. I got to meet her some years ago.  This story (like most of her work) is so wtf

[NewOrleans]

Apr 27, 2016 20:42:59 GMT -5 @bunnybean said:

The Scarlet Ibis has always stuck with me.

[MrsAxilla]

I don't read many short stories, although I have been doing it more often since my slump. I'm reading some Neil Geiman short stories now and I've liked them all My favorites are The Veldt by Ray Bradbury (I even wrote a short story in the eighth grade inspired by it. I ran across is recently and it wasn't too bad!), and The Juant and The Long Walk by Stephen King.

[lissaholly]

I don't read nearly enough and I haven't read short stories in ages. I remember loving Bernard Malumud's short stories. If I remember correctly, they were very lyrical.

[bernsteincat]

Gotta bookmark this thread because the only ones I've read were required in MS and HS (though, thankfully they were good ones.) Short stories are a genre I've never delved into.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Apr 27, 2016 20:42:59 GMT -5 @bunnybean said:

The Scarlet Ibis has always stuck with me.

I remember I had a strong feeling about this one. I can't remember if it was positive or negative.

[Michelle]

I have only really read classics in the short story category and hands down The Tell-Tale heart wins.

But I also loved A Room of One's own although I don't think it is technically a short story...

I like the suggestions in this thread for ideas!

[leeba25]

Two by Stephen King that have always stuck with me: Survivor Type (part of Skeleton Crew) and The Long Walk, which was more of a novella than a short story. It was written under Richard Bachman and later part of the Bachman books. I always thought that it must have been the inspiration for The Hunger Games.

Both of them were so haunting that I read them at least 25-30 years ago originally and never forgot either of them.