2016 Favorites
Strange year, 2016.
I got married. That was pretty cool.
Donald Trump got elected. Not so great.
Overall, let’s call it a win for me personally; a loss for the world.
Here at Short Story Magic Tricks, where the personal and political intertwine everyday, we wrap up our third year with a giant thank you to everyone who has read, commented and supported us.
My wife, Cameron, launched the Magic Trick Twitter feed. I got something resembling a monthly short story newsletter off and running.
And of course there were a lot of magic tricks.
Here is the countdown of the stories I read for 2016 in order of my personal enjoyment. You can check out the comparable lists for 2014 and 2015 as well.
Enjoy, and thank you!
- ‘Blight’ by Stuart Dybek
- ‘The Vanishing American’ by Leslie Parry
- ‘Eisenheim The Illusionist’ by Steven Millhauser
- ‘The Red-Headed League’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
- ‘Dog Heaven’ by Stephanie Vaughn
- ‘The Overcoat’ by Nikolai Gogol
- ‘The Swimmer’ by John Cheever
- ‘The Story Of My Dovecote’ by Isaac Babel
- ‘In The Garden Of North American Martyrs’ by Tobias Wolff
- ‘An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘Diary Of A Madman’ by Nikolai Gogol
- ‘The Garden Of Forking Paths’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘Walker Brothers Cowboy’ by Alice Munro
- ‘The Lesson’ by Jessamyn West
- ‘Chef’s House’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘Cowboy’ by Thomas McGuane
- ‘The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow’ by Washington Irving
- ‘The Birds’ by Daphne du Maurier
- ‘A Country Doctor’ by Franz Kafka
- ‘A Horseman In The Sky’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘The Night In Question’ by Tobias Wolff
- ‘Slave On The Block’ by Langston Hughes
- ‘A Scandal In Bohemia’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
- ‘Of Mystery There Is No End’ by Leonard Michaels
- ‘Red Dress – 1946’ by Alice Munro
- ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘The Ransom Of Red Chief’ by O. Henry
- ‘The Bear Came Over The Mountain’ by Alice Munro
- ‘The Gospel According To Mark’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘The Falls’ by George Saunders
- ‘Pet Milk’ by Stuart Dybek
- ‘The Final Problem’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
- ‘Nachman From Los Angeles’ by Leonard Michaels
- ‘The Penultimate Conjecture’ by Leonard Michaels
- ‘Cryptology’ by Leonard Michaels
- ‘The Tree Line, Kansas, 1934’ by David Means
- ‘The Gift’ by John Steinbeck
- ‘Scheherazade’ by Haruki Murakami
- ‘A Worn Path’ by Eudora Welty
- ‘The Embassy Of Cambodia’ by Zadie Smith
- ‘The Luck Of Roaring Camp’ by Bret Harte
- ‘Chopin In Winter’ by Stuart Dybek
- ‘Gloomy Tune’ by Grace Paley
- ‘Nachman At The Races’ by Leonard Michaels
- ‘The Full Glass’ by John Updike
- ‘Ice’ by Thomas McGuane
- ‘Mastiff’ by Joyce Carol Oates
- ‘A Day In The Country’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘The Valiant Woman’ by J.F. Powers
- ‘Drummond & Son’ by Charles D’Ambrosio
- ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- ‘The Swim Team’ by Miranda July
- ‘The Office’ by Alice Munro
- ‘Blumfeld, An Elderly Bachelor’ by Franz Kafka
- ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County’ by Mark Twain
- ‘The Hunger Artist’ by Franz Kafka
- ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘The Offshore Pirate’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘The Judgment’ by Franz Kafka
- ‘Killed At Resaca’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘Dance Of The Happy Shades’ by Alice Munro
- ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’ by Ursula K. Le Guin
- ‘Mr. Parker’ by Laurie Colwin
- ‘Nachman’ by Leonard Michaels
- ‘The Bet’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘A Short Trip Home’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘War Dances’ by Sherman Alexie
- ‘The Five Orange Pips’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
- ‘Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowning’ by Donald Barthelme
- ‘Idiots First’ by Bernard Malamud
- ‘Me And Miss Mandible’ by Donald Barthelme
- ‘The Eighty-Yard Run’ by Irwin Shaw
- ‘Goodbye And Good Luck’ by Grace Paley
- ‘The Contest’ by Grace Paley
- ‘Commercial’ by John Updike
- ‘Vitamins’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘Bottle Caps’ by Stuart Dybek
- ‘Passing’ by Langston Hughes
- ‘An Honest Woman’ by Ottessa Moshfegh
- ‘All Summer In A Day’ by Ray Bradbury
- ‘Spunk’ by Zora Neale Hurston
- ‘Domestic Life In America’ by John Updike
- ‘Break It Down’ by Lydia Davis
- ‘Four Days In Dixie’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘Nevsky Prospect’ by Nikolai Gogol
- ‘Unjust’ by Richard Bausch
- ‘Under The Radar’ by Richard Ford
- ‘Accident At The Sugarbeet’ by Tom Drury
- ‘Runaway’ by Alice Munro
- ‘Ambush’ by Donna Tartt
- ‘A Summer’s Reading’ by Bernard Malamud
- ‘Edison, New Jersey’ by Junot Diaz
- ‘At The Bay’ by Katherine Mansfield
- ‘The Other Place’ by Mary Gaitskill
- ‘When Everyone Was Pregnant’ by John Updike
- ‘The Leader Of The People’ by John Steinbeck
- ‘The Shining Houses’ by Alice Munro
- ‘Preservation’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘Nachman Burning’ by Leonard Michaels
- ‘The Fire Balloons’ by Ray Bradbury
- ‘The Off Season’ by Ray Bradbury
- ‘Gimpel The Fool’ by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ by Hans Christian Andersen
- ‘A Baffled Ambuscade’ by Ambrose Bierce
- ‘O Tannenbaum’ by Maile Meloy
- ‘The Adventure Of The Solitary Cyclist’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
- ‘Delivering’ by Andre Dubus
- ‘Minutes Of The Last Meeting’ by John Updike
- ‘Awaiting Orders’ by Tobias Wolff
- ‘Thank You, Ma’am’ by Langston Hughes
- ‘Fat And Slim’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘Farwell’ by Stuart Dybek
- ‘The Lottery Ticket’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘1-900’ by Richard Bausch
- ‘Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka And His Aunt’ by Nikolai Gogol
- ‘The Duplicity Of Hargraves’ by O. Henry
- ‘The Carriage’ by Nikolai Gogol
- ‘You Could Look It Up’ by James Thurber
- ‘Somewhere Else’ by Grace Paley
- ‘Beginners’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘Dice, Brassknuckles & Guitar’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘Dance In America’ by Lorrie Moore
- ‘Herself In Love’ by Marianne Wiggins
- ‘Her Son’ by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- ‘Gorilla, My Love’ by Toni Cade Bambara
- ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ by Tillie Olsen
- ‘The Library Of Babel’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘My Father Sits In The Dark’ by Jerome Weidman
- ‘Fever’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘The Gilded Six-Bits’ by Zora Neale Hurston
- ‘The Swimmers’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘Privacy’ by Richard Ford
- ‘Calling’ by Richard Ford
- ‘Sanity’ by Tobias Wolff
- ‘The Approach To Al-Mu’tasim’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘Prizes’ by Janet Frame
- ‘Puppy’ by Richard Ford
- ‘A Day’ by William Trevor
- ‘Reunion’ by Richard Ford
- ‘Esther’ by Jean Toomer
- ‘Serve-And-Volley Near Vichy’ by Greg Jackson
- ‘Niagara’ by Mark Twain
- ‘The Working Girl’ by Ann Beattie
- ‘Durling, Or The Faithless Wife’ by Sean O’Faolain
- “The Sensible Thing” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘Next Door’ by Tobias Wolff
- ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘Financing Finnegan’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- ‘When We Were Nearly Young’ by Mavis Gallant
- ‘Say Yes’ by Tobias Wolff
- ‘Homage To Switzerland’ by Ernest Hemingway
- ‘But The One On The Right’ by Dorothy Parker
- ‘First Husband’ by Antonya Nelson
- ‘The World Of Apples’ by John Cheever
- ‘This Is A Story About My Friend George, The Toy Inventor’ by Grace Paley
- ‘What We Don’t Know Hurts Us’ by Mark Schorer
- ‘The Student’s Wife’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘Ben’ by Kay Boyle
- ‘The Poor Relation’s Story’ by Charles Dickens
- ‘The Christmas Masquerade’ by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
- ‘Night Women’ by Edwidge Danticat
- ‘The Baby-Sitter’ by Jane Yolen
- ‘The Postmaster’ by Rabindranath Tagore
- ‘(I Thought My Father Looked Like FDR)’ by George Chambers
- ‘A Presidential Candidate’ by Mark Twain
- ‘The Mechanic’ by Lena Dunham
- ‘Vicious Circle’ by Thomas McGuane
- ‘Problems’ by John Updike
- ‘Fauntleroy’s Ghost’ by Vinnie Wilhelm
- ‘Chablis’ by Donald Barthelme
- ‘Wants’ by Grace Paley
- ‘Love’ by Grace Paley
- ‘Debts’ by Grace Paley
- ‘The Adventure Of Abbey Grange’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
- ‘The Centerpiece’ by Peter Matthiessen
- ‘Gender Studies’ by Curtis Sittenfeld
- ‘The Writers’ Trade’ by Nicholas Delbanco
- ‘Gallatin Canyon’ by Thomas McGuane
- ‘The Train’ by Raymond Carver
- ‘Unhappiness’ by Franz Kafka
- ‘The Ledge’ by Stephen King
- ‘The Cop And The Anthem’ by O. Henry
- ‘Tobin’s Palm’ by O. Henry
- ‘Late’ by Steven Millhauser
- ‘On Exactitude In Science’ by Jorge Luis Borges
- ‘The Drummer Boy Of Shiloh’ by Ray Bradbury
- ‘Chameleon’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘Old Friends’ by Thomas McGuane
- ‘The King Of Norway’ by Amos Oz
- ‘A Little Woman’ by Franz Kafka
- ‘New Year’s Night’ by Henry Lawson
- ‘Long Walk To Forever’ by Kurt Vonnegut
- ‘Zapatos’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle
- ‘The Clarion Call’ by O. Henry
- ‘Do Stay, Giraffe’ by Wolfgang Borchert
- ‘Merry Christmas’ by Stephen Leacock
- ‘Bertie’s Christmas Eve’ by Saki
- ‘Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desire’ by Michael Tournier
- ‘The Christmas Story’ by Vladimir Nabokov
- ‘Descent Into The Maelstrom’ by Edgar Allan Poe
- ‘Christmas; Or, The Good Fairy’ by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- ‘The Fight Of The Good Ship Clarissa’ by Ray Bradbury
- ‘Grandmother’s Christmas Story’ by Faith Wynne
- ‘The World In A Bowl Of Soup: A Christmas Story” by Annie Dillard
As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.
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