2016 favorites

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!

1. ‘Blight’ by Stuart Dybek
2. ‘The Vanishing American’ by Leslie Parry
3. ‘Eisenheim The Illusionist’ by Steven Millhauser
4. ‘The Red-Headed League’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
5. ‘Dog Heaven’ by Stephanie Vaughn
6. ‘The Overcoat’ by Nikolai Gogol
7. ‘The Swimmer’ by John Cheever
8. ‘The Story Of My Dovecote’ by Isaac Babel
9. ‘In The Garden Of North American Martyrs’ by Tobias Wolff
10. ‘An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge’ by Ambrose Bierce
11. ‘Diary Of A Madman’ by Nikolai Gogol
12. ‘The Garden Of Forking Paths’ by Jorge Luis Borges
13. ‘Walker Brothers Cowboy’ by Alice Munro
14. ‘The Lesson’ by Jessamyn West
15. ‘Chef’s House’ by Raymond Carver
16. ‘Cowboy’ by Thomas McGuane
17. ‘The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow’ by Washington Irving
18. ‘The Birds’ by Daphne du Maurier
19. ‘A Country Doctor’ by Franz Kafka
20. ‘A Horseman In The Sky’ by Ambrose Bierce
21. ‘The Night In Question’ by Tobias Wolff
22. ‘Slave On The Block’ by Langston Hughes
23. ‘A Scandal In Bohemia’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
24. ‘Of Mystery There Is No End’ by Leonard Michaels
25. ‘Red Dress – 1946’ by Alice Munro
26. ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
27. ‘The Ransom Of Red Chief’ by O. Henry
28. ‘The Bear Came Over The Mountain’ by Alice Munro
29. ‘The Gospel According To Mark’ by Jorge Luis Borges
30. ‘The Falls’ by George Saunders
31. ‘Pet Milk’ by Stuart Dybek
32. ‘The Final Problem’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
33. ‘Nachman From Los Angeles’ by Leonard Michaels
34. ‘The Penultimate Conjecture’ by Leonard Michaels
35. ‘Cryptology’ by Leonard Michaels
36. ‘The Tree Line, Kansas, 1934’ by David Means
37. ‘The Gift’ by John Steinbeck
38. ‘Scheherazade’ by Haruki Murakami
39. ‘A Worn Path’ by Eudora Welty
40. ‘The Embassy Of Cambodia’ by Zadie Smith
41. ‘The Luck Of Roaring Camp’ by Bret Harte
42. ‘Chopin In Winter’ by Stuart Dybek
43. ‘Gloomy Tune’ by Grace Paley
44. ‘Nachman At The Races’ by Leonard Michaels
45. ‘The Full Glass’ by John Updike
46. ‘Ice’ by Thomas McGuane
47. ‘Mastiff’ by Joyce Carol Oates
48. ‘A Day In The Country’ by Anton Chekhov
49. ‘The Valiant Woman’ by J.F. Powers
50. ‘Drummond & Son’ by Charles D’Ambrosio
51. ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
52. ‘The Swim Team’ by Miranda July
53. ‘The Office’ by Alice Munro
54. ‘Blumfeld, An Elderly Bachelor’ by Franz Kafka
55. ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County’ by Mark Twain
56. ‘The Hunger Artist’ by Franz Kafka
57. ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ by Raymond Carver
58. ‘The Offshore Pirate’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
59. ‘The Judgment’ by Franz Kafka
60. ‘Killed At Resaca’ by Ambrose Bierce
61. ‘Dance Of The Happy Shades’ by Alice Munro
62. ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’ by Ursula K. Le Guin
63. ‘Mr. Parker’ by Laurie Colwin
64. ‘Nachman’ by Leonard Michaels
65. ‘The Bet’ by Anton Chekhov
66. ‘A Short Trip Home’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
67. ‘War Dances’ by Sherman Alexie
68. ‘The Five Orange Pips’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
69. ‘Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowning’ by Donald Barthelme
70. ‘Idiots First’ by Bernard Malamud
71. ‘Me And Miss Mandible’ by Donald Barthelme
72. ‘The Eighty-Yard Run’ by Irwin Shaw
73. ‘Goodbye And Good Luck’ by Grace Paley
74. ‘The Contest’ by Grace Paley
75. ‘Commercial’ by John Updike
76. ‘Vitamins’ by Raymond Carver
77. ‘Bottle Caps’ by Stuart Dybek
78. ‘Passing’ by Langston Hughes
79. ‘An Honest Woman’ by Ottessa Moshfegh
80. ‘All Summer In A Day’ by Ray Bradbury
81. ‘Spunk’ by Zora Neale Hurston
82. ‘Domestic Life In America’ by John Updike
83. ‘Break It Down’ by Lydia Davis
84. ‘Four Days In Dixie’ by Ambrose Bierce
85. ‘Nevsky Prospect’ by Nikolai Gogol
86. ‘Unjust’ by Richard Bausch
87. ‘Under The Radar’ by Richard Ford
88. ‘Accident At The Sugarbeet’ by Tom Drury
89. ‘Runaway’ by Alice Munro
90. ‘Ambush’ by Donna Tartt
91. ‘A Summer’s Reading’ by Bernard Malamud
92. ‘Edison, New Jersey’ by Junot Diaz
93. ‘At The Bay’ by Katherine Mansfield
94. ‘The Other Place’ by Mary Gaitskill
95. ‘When Everyone Was Pregnant’ by John Updike
96. ‘The Leader Of The People’ by John Steinbeck
97. ‘The Shining Houses’ by Alice Munro
98. ‘Preservation’ by Raymond Carver
99. ‘Nachman Burning’ by Leonard Michaels
100. ‘The Fire Balloons’ by Ray Bradbury
101. ‘The Off Season’ by Ray Bradbury
102. ‘Gimpel The Fool’ by Isaac Bashevis Singer
103. ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ by Hans Christian Andersen
104. ‘A Baffled Ambuscade’ by Ambrose Bierce
105. ‘O Tannenbaum’ by Maile Meloy
106. ‘The Adventure Of The Solitary Cyclist’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
107. ‘Delivering’ by Andre Dubus
108. ‘Minutes Of The Last Meeting’ by John Updike
109. ‘Awaiting Orders’ by Tobias Wolff
110. ‘Thank You, Ma’am’ by Langston Hughes
111. ‘Fat And Slim’ by Anton Chekhov
112. ‘Farwell’ by Stuart Dybek
113. ‘The Lottery Ticket’ by Anton Chekhov
114. ‘1-900’ by Richard Bausch
115. ‘Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka And His Aunt’ by Nikolai Gogol
116. ‘The Duplicity Of Hargraves’ by O. Henry
117. ‘The Carriage’ by Nikolai Gogol
118. ‘You Could Look It Up’ by James Thurber
119. ‘Somewhere Else’ by Grace Paley
120. ‘Beginners’ by Raymond Carver
121. ‘Dice, Brassknuckles & Guitar’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
122. ‘Dance In America’ by Lorrie Moore
123. ‘Herself In Love’ by Marianne Wiggins
124. ‘Her Son’ by Isaac Bashevis Singer
125. ‘Gorilla, My Love’ by Toni Cade Bambara
126. ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ by Tillie Olsen
127. ‘The Library Of Babel’ by Jorge Luis Borges
128. ‘My Father Sits In The Dark’ by Jerome Weidman
129. ‘Fever’ by Raymond Carver
130. ‘The Gilded Six-Bits’ by Zora Neale Hurston
131. ‘The Swimmers’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
132. ‘Privacy’ by Richard Ford
133. ‘Calling’ by Richard Ford
134. ‘Sanity’ by Tobias Wolff
135. ‘The Approach To Al-Mu’tasim’ by Jorge Luis Borges
136. ‘Prizes’ by Janet Frame
137. ‘Puppy’ by Richard Ford
138. ‘A Day’ by William Trevor
139. ‘Reunion’ by Richard Ford
140. ‘Esther’ by Jean Toomer
141. ‘Serve-And-Volley Near Vichy’ by Greg Jackson
142. ‘Niagara’ by Mark Twain
143. ‘The Working Girl’ by Ann Beattie
144. ‘Durling, Or The Faithless Wife’ by Sean O’Faolain
145. “The Sensible Thing” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
146. ‘Next Door’ by Tobias Wolff
147. ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
148. ‘Financing Finnegan’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
149. ‘When We Were Nearly Young’ by Mavis Gallant
150. ‘Say Yes’ by Tobias Wolff
151. ‘Homage To Switzerland’ by Ernest Hemingway
152. ‘But The One On The Right’ by Dorothy Parker
153. ‘First Husband’ by Antonya Nelson
154. ‘The World Of Apples’ by John Cheever
155. ‘This Is A Story About My Friend George, The Toy Inventor’ by Grace Paley
156. ‘What We Don’t Know Hurts Us’ by Mark Schorer
157. ‘The Student’s Wife’ by Raymond Carver
158. ‘Ben’ by Kay Boyle
159. ‘The Poor Relation’s Story’ by Charles Dickens
160. ‘The Christmas Masquerade’ by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
161. ‘Night Women’ by Edwidge Danticat
162. ‘The Baby-Sitter’ by Jane Yolen
163. ‘The Postmaster’ by Rabindranath Tagore
164. ‘(I Thought My Father Looked Like FDR)’ by George Chambers
165. ‘A Presidential Candidate’ by Mark Twain
166. ‘The Mechanic’ by Lena Dunham
167. ‘Vicious Circle’ by Thomas McGuane
168. ‘Problems’ by John Updike
169. ‘Fauntleroy’s Ghost’ by Vinnie Wilhelm
170. ‘Chablis’ by Donald Barthelme
171. ‘Wants’ by Grace Paley
172. ‘Love’ by Grace Paley
173. ‘Debts’ by Grace Paley
174. ‘The Adventure Of Abbey Grange’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
175. ‘The Centerpiece’ by Peter Matthiessen
176. ‘Gender Studies’ by Curtis Sittenfeld
177. ‘The Writers’ Trade’ by Nicholas Delbanco
178. ‘Gallatin Canyon’ by Thomas McGuane
179. ‘The Train’ by Raymond Carver
180. ‘Unhappiness’ by Franz Kafka
181. ‘The Ledge’ by Stephen King
182. ‘The Cop And The Anthem’ by O. Henry
183. ‘Tobin’s Palm’ by O. Henry
184. ‘Late’ by Steven Millhauser
185. ‘On Exactitude In Science’ by Jorge Luis Borges
186. ‘The Drummer Boy Of Shiloh’ by Ray Bradbury
187. ‘Chameleon’ by Anton Chekhov
188. ‘Old Friends’ by Thomas McGuane
189. ‘The King Of Norway’ by Amos Oz
190. ‘A Little Woman’ by Franz Kafka
191. ‘New Year’s Night’ by Henry Lawson
192. ‘Long Walk To Forever’ by Kurt Vonnegut
193. ‘Zapatos’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle
194. ‘The Clarion Call’ by O. Henry
195. ‘Do Stay, Giraffe’ by Wolfgang Borchert
196. ‘Merry Christmas’ by Stephen Leacock
197. ‘Bertie’s Christmas Eve’ by Saki
198. ‘Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desire’ by Michael Tournier
199. ‘The Christmas Story’ by Vladimir Nabokov
200. ‘Descent Into The Maelstrom’ by Edgar Allan Poe
201. ‘Christmas; Or, The Good Fairy’ by Harriet Beecher Stowe
202. ‘The Fight Of The Good Ship Clarissa’ by Ray Bradbury
203. ‘Grandmother’s Christmas Story’ by Faith Wynne
204. ‘The World In A Bowl Of Soup: A Christmas Story” by Annie Dillard

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