September 2018 – The Wandering Wordsmith

Not everyone enjoys anthologies, but they are some of my favorites. I’ve always been a lover of the short story and that love was fostered by some teachers who also thought they were a great medium. In some ways they can be more difficult to write as they must be much more concise and concentrated than a full length novel. In this post I’m going to talk about a few I’ve recently read as well as some of my favorites. All pictures of the covers will be linked to the book’s Amazon page so that you can pick them up if you want to.

Recently I was given the opportunity through NetGalley to read two anthologies which recently came out. They were very different genres and subjects, but I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

Toil and Trouble: 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft, which was edited by Tess Sharpe and Jessica Spotswood, included stories that represented a number of cultures, mythologies and genres. My detailed review of each story is on my Goodreads so I won’t rehash that here, but I can say that while there were some stories I didn’t enjoy as much as others it was an enjoyable read. It would be perfect for reading not only around Halloween, but anytime during the year.

The other anthology I received on NetGalley was Fresh Ink, which was done in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Having already read Flying Lessons, I was super excited to be able to read this one ahead of time. I wish there were more anthologies like these two as they explore topics and situations that often need to be explored and discussed by wider audiences. Again, I didn’t love every story in this anthology, but it exposed me to a number of authors I had not previously read. That’s another great thing about anthologies, you get to read stories from so many authors who you often may not have read from before.

I have a number of anthologies on my bookshelves, so picking out favorites is not always an easy task. I have anthologies in different genres and with different subject matter, but I’ve chosen a few that I really loved when I read them. My True Love Gave to Me and Summer Days & Summer Nights are collections which were edited by Stephanie Perkins. One has love stories based in the winter while the other is set during the summer (bonus, the story in Summer Days & Summer Nights by Perkins is a continuation of the story she wrote for My True Love Gave to Me and I LOVED them both).

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys and Unnatural Creatures both tackle darker subjects and were both amazing. They are perfect to read closer to Halloween and each have a spooky vibe that I enjoyed immensely. There are some stories in them which are definitely not for the faint of heart. I especially loved that Unnatural Creatures was edited by Neil Gaiman. A lot of the stories in these two anthologies had great twists and were very addictive.

Meet Cute is an anthology purely about the initial interactions between characters that lead to a romance, or the “Meet Cute.” There are some stories in this one that are absolutely amazing and each one leaves you wanting more, but in a good way.