Short stories are always hard to consume quickly, but this compilation was even more difficult. So many of the stories dealt with tales of the oppressed. ( )

I used to be sceptical about themed collections of short stories but this one is phenomenal. The stories are each carefully chosen, mostly incredible, and either a fascinating introduction to new writers or a comforting distillation of familiar ones.

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin: perfect example of a short story in the traditional sense but also a beautiful snapshot of the feeling of female freedom and emancipation.

The Other Two by Edith Wharton: classic Wharton.

A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather: a heartbreaking reminder of sacrifices that marriage and motherhood implicitly demand of women.

The Secret Woman by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette: the secret and sexy lives of women!

Miss Furr and Miss Skeene by Gertrude Stein: a Stein is a Stein is a Stein.

The New Dress by Virginia Woolf: lovers of Mrs Dalloway rejoice! Stream of consciousness just goes so well with laying bare insecurities, that wonderful contrast of our inner and outer lives.

The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: A jewel of a story.

Rope by Katherine Anne Porter,: A long-form metaphor! I first encountered Porter's name when she was mentioned glowingly in the Flannery O'Connor collection I read last year.

Winter Night by Kay Boyle: a reminder of the atrocities buried in the past for glittery facades.

A Worn Path by Eudora Welty: an author whose name often comes up in my internet searches about books. With the particular setting and influences of the American South, one for fans of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor.

The Scream on Fifty-Seventh Street by Hortense Calisher: as a woman living alone, this one hit straight to my heart.

Like a Winding Sheet by Ann Petry: taut and distressing reminder of the ingrained racism and injustices accumulated over centuries.

In a Café by Mary Lavin: grief of widowhood and the constraints of propriety and an unexpected joy.

I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen: motherhood fraught with regrets, I first sort of read this on the internet and properly read it in this book. Definitely a story that rewards you with rereadings. I first came across Olsen's name in the Wikipedia article on Lucia Berlin mentioned by Lydia Davis.

The Eldest Child by Maeve Brennan: aching portrait of a grieving mother.

Wunderkind by Carson McCullers: I love stories about musical passions, and the idea that ex-prodigies can feel when they've lost that particular inner essence which embues their music with more than just technical accuracy -- or in Piano Lessons by Anna Goldsworthy's case, when she found that inner essence after years of technical accuracy. An Equal Music by Vikram Seth also did a great job of capturing what I imagine that feeling is like.

To Room Nineteen by Doris Lessing: immortalised in word-form my fear of having an identity being wholly consumed by motherhood. The double-edged sword of wry awareness (and supposed intelligence) that Lessing mockingly embues the couple with made the inevitable even more tragic.

An Interest in Life by Grace Paley: a reread and made even better by it.

Revelation by Flannery O'Connor: ditto above, I really enjoy the ugliness of Southern literature, especially when paired with religiosity.

Cousin Lewis by Jean Stubbs: it built up so well, although I'm not sure about the childhood trauma being used as the catalyst for the twist. Its structure is great (I'm a sucker for a good framing device, mmm, symmetry) even if it could only be pushed along by the weak insecure characterisation of the husband.

A Journey by Edna O'Brien: underwhelmed by the plot. I'm generally uninterested by stories of a woman who seems to be just following a man around, even when they're set in an interesting political time.

The Office by Alice Munro: a reread and reminder of frustrating gross men who inhabit this world.

In a Region of Ice by Joyce Carol Oates: underwhelmed by the cliche of brilliant student with mental illness.

The Gifts of War by Margaret Drabble: the structure is a bit shonky, very abrupt, but the theme of war (and the joy despite and at times because of it) is very well done.

Day-Old Baby Rats by Julie Hayden: the style left me underwhelmed. Theoretically, I understood what Hayden was trying to do but I never connected to the story. Interestingly, there's a New Yorker podcast of Lorrie Moore reading the Hayden (whose first experience with it was from reading this very collection as an assigned text at uni!) and discussing it afterwards if you're interested. Also, looking up the title (and only the title) of the story is a terrible, terrible mistake.

Everyday Use by Alice Walker: loved it. A mother's relationships with her daughters and the clash of generations. Actually quite a relevant story for now.

*italics = loved this story. ( )

overall great choices in both authors and stories but for some reason i had a hard time wanting to really pick this book back up each time i laid it down. maybe i just wasn't in the mood for short stories.

anyway, the only selection i really didn't like was gertrude stein's (miss furr and miss skeene) although there were a couple of others i didn't connect all that well with. but i did enjoy most of them, and was glad to read a number of authors for the first time (either in general or in short story form).

my favorites were katherine anne porter (rope) and doris lessing (to room nineteen). (i have really disliked doris lessing's novels, so it was a really pleasant surprise to find that i loved this short story of hers.) others that i really liked were flannery o'connor (revelation), katherine mansfield (the garden party, which i'd read before), ann perry (like a winding sheet - i'd never even heard of her before), and (no surprise) stories by joyce carol oates, margaret drabble, alice walker, and alice munro.

thinking about all the stories that i liked in here i really can't say why it took me so long to get through it. it's a nice collection with a lot of voices and styles and is definitely worth a read. ( )

This is a great anthology of women’s fiction, with lots of classic work. They range from Kate Chopin’s intense “Story of an Hour” to Alice Walker’s sixties-flavored “Everyday Use”. In between there’s Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Colette, Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, Tillie Olsen, Doris Lessing, Grace Paley, Flannery O’Connor, Margaret Drabble, and more. How could you go wrong? ( )

This is a great anthology of women’s fiction, with lots of classic work. They range from Kate Chopin’s intense “Story of an Hour” to Alice Walker’s sixties-flavored “Everyday Use”. In between there’s Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Colette, Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, Tillie Olsen, Doris Lessing, Grace Paley, Flannery O’Connor, Margaret Drabble, and more. How could you go wrong? ( )

For a person who claims not to like short stories, I've read an awful lot of short story collections this year.

This was by far the best of them. I don't know where I got this book from, but I have definitely known for awhile that I need to read more women authors, especially considering my Philip Roth obsession.

The worst story in this book was easily Miss Furr and Miss Skeene by Gertrude Stein. Here's a sample paragraph :

"To be regularly gay was to do every day the gay that they did every day. To be regularly gay was to end every day at the same time after they had been regularly gay. They were regularly gay. They were gay every day. They ended every day in the same way, at the same time, and they had been every day regularly gay."

The entire story was like this. Sentences full of how gay they were, every day, in every way. Over and over again.

The best was Winter Night by Kay Boyle. Of course I don't remember anything about it.

Other authors in this collection that have been added to my watch list are :

Doris Lessing
Grace Paley
Alice Munro ( )

A nice short-story anthology. Every year I re-read Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing." ( )