Staff Reviews
Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for May 2023
This magnificent anthology features essays of some of the best contemporary writers sharing their admiration for their favorite short stories. The experience of reading it is like being a member of the best book club in the world. If you're like me and cannot wait for the release of the Best American Short Stories Anthology every year, this is the perfect book for you!
— From
This is Why I Read - Aggie’s Monthly Picks
Description
A moving and inspiring anthology of masterful essays on stories that touch the hearts and minds of readers.
"A writer," Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow once said, "is a reader who is moved to emulation."
New York Times bestselling novelist and memoirist Andre Dubus III took that idea and invited acclaimed authors to write about short stories that altered their view of life and their place in it--short stories that, ultimately, made them want to write something substantial themselves.
Here is Richard Russo on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," Joyce Carol Oates on John Updike's "A&P," Tobias Wolff on Hawthorne's "Wakefield," Michael Cunningham on James Joyce's "The Dead." Readers will gain new insight into these masterfully written stories but also on the contributors' own lives and work.
The fifty contributors are T.C. Boyle, Russell Banks, Richard Bausch, Robert Boswell, Charles Baxter, Ann Beattie, Madison Smartt Bell, Ron Carlson, Lan Samantha Chang, Michael Cunningham, Junot Diaz, Anthony Doerr, Emma Donoghue, Stuart Dybek, Dagoberto Gilb, Julia Glass, Mary Gordon, Lauren Groff, Jennifer Haigh, Jane Hamilton, Ron Hansen, Paul Harding, Ann Hood, Pam Houston, Gish Jen, Charles Johnson, Phil Klay, Dennis Lehane, Lois Lowry, Colum McCann, Sue Miller, Rick Moody, Antonya Nelson, Bich Nguyen, Joyce Carol Oates, Stewart O'Nan, Peter Orner, ZZ Packer, Ann Patchett, Edith Pearlman, Jayne Ann Phillips, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Anna Quindlen, Ron Rash, Richard Russo, Dani Shapiro, Mona Simpson, Jess Walter, Tobias Wolff, and Meg Wolitzer.
Reaching Inside will remind you why you fell in love with reading.
