Exhalation
Ted Chiang
Ted Chiang's stories make me think harder than almost anything. Big ideas with real heart.
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Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)
Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout centers on Olive, a teacher living in coastal Maine — and one of my all-time favorite heroines. This book has an unusual structure: It’s a series of short stories revolving around Olive, letting us get to know her through different perspectives. She’s thorny yet compassionate, stubborn yet capable of growth. I feel like I understand her more deeply with each reading, and despite (or because of) her flaws, I see myself in her.
My Dear You
Rachel Khong
Ten stories with premises that shouldn't work — a woman killed by a crocodile on her honeymoon picks out her appearance for the afterlife; a factory worker falls for an AI sex doll — and absolutely do. I've been a Khong fan since Goodbye, Vitamin, and this collection is her at her strangest and most playful.
Show Don't Tell
Curtis Sittenfeld
Sittenfeld's short stories are every bit as sharp and funny as her novels. She just gets people.