Short Story Masterpieces by American Women Writers (Dover Thrift Editions: Short Stories)

We’ve just started this book with our weekly book club. We read and discuss one story each week and are having lively discussions!

A great collection of stories. While I was familiar with just about all of the authors, most stories except for maybe one or two were new to me and I majored in English a million years ago when it was still pretty much a respectable major though it has now become as Scott Adams called the major “a prerequisite for unemployment”. These are all well-written, compelling, each with its own unique style. It was great fun reading. I unreservedly recommend the book for all lovers of the “well turned phrase”.

My headline pretty much says it. Was surprised by how small the print is. But the collection is a good one, with engaging stories by both new-to-me and favorite authors.

It was for a short story book club. Everyone expressed there enjoyment of the stories we have read.

Needed for a class at school

This new anthology of 14 stories by acclaimed American women authors follows on from an earlier volume from the same publisher entitled Great Short Stories by American Women. This new collection has stories from famous names such as Edith Wharton and Alice Walker, but also offers one from the now little remembered Constance Fenimore Wilson, a great friend of Henry James, and the virtually unknown Mary E Wilkins Freeman. So there’s much variety of style and subject matter to be enjoyed here, and as each one comes with a short biographical note, the book provides a very interesting selection of women's writings from the 19th to the 21st century.

The stories in this book are boring. Also, their vocabulary is somehow hard to understand. I had to read them for an English class.