2019 Favorites

Year Six of magic tricks is a wrap.

All a blur, really, if we’re being honest. Having a newborn will do that – priorities shifting; fewer short stories, more board books.

That doesn’t mean the magic tricks here are stopping, though. If anything, these stories have taken on a new depth, thanks to the new perspective that comes with a baby.

Plenty more to read, plenty more to learn, plenty more to share.

And as is SSMT tradition, here is the annual list ranking the stories I read this year in order of my own enjoyment.

Have a wonderful new year!

1. ‘The Beginning Of A Long Story’ by Maeve Brennan
2. ‘The Point’ by Charles D’Ambrosio
3. ‘The Doll Queen’ by Carlos Fuentes
4. ‘Pig-hoo-o-o-o-e-y’ by P.G. Wodehouse
5. ‘Mystery In São Cristóvão’ by Clarice Lispector
6. ‘Ultima Thule’ by Vladimir Nabokov
7. ‘The Springs Of Affection’ by Maeve Brennan
8. ‘Secretary’ by Mary Gaitskill
9. ‘In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried’ by Amy Hempel
10. ‘The Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Andersen
11. ‘The Surrogate’ by Tessa Hadley
12. ‘When It’s Human Instead Of When It’s Dog’ by Amy Hempel
13. ‘My Man Bovanne’ by Toni Cade Bambara
14. ‘The Carpet With The Big Pink Roses On It’ by Maeve Brennan
15. ‘Stories Of Africa’ by Maeve Brennan
16. ‘Silk Brocade’ by Tessa Hadley
17. ‘Guests Of The Nation’ by Frank O’Connor
18. ‘On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning’ by Haruki Murakami
19. ‘The Decapitated Chicken’ by Horacio Quiroga
20. ‘The Drowned Man’ by Maeve Brennan
21. ‘The Elephant Vanishes’ by Haruki Murakami
22. ‘Romantic Weekend’ by Mary Gaitskill
23. ‘The Vane Sisters’ by Vladimir Nabokov
24. ‘An Affair Of Honor’ by Vladimir Nabokov
25. ‘Family Walls’ by Maeve Brennan
26. ‘Rip Van Winkle’ by Washington Irving
27. ‘Heat’ by Joyce Carol Oates
28. ‘The Death Of Halpin Frayser’ by Ambrose Bierce
29. ‘Too Early Spring’ by Stephen Vincent Benet
30. ‘The Girl Who Raised Pigeons’ by Edward P. Jones
31. ‘Young Lions’ by Edward P. Jones
32. ‘How Can I Help?’ by Rivka Galchen
33. ‘The Card Trick’ by Tessa Hadley
34. ‘A Village After Dark’ by Kazuo Ishiguro
35. ‘Charles’ by Shirley Jackson
36. ‘The Peace Of Utrecht’ by Alice Munro
37. ‘Silences’ by Helen Elaine Lee
38. ‘Voices’ by Alice Munro
39. ‘Dear Life’ by Alice Munro
40. ‘The Enduring Chill’ by Flannery O’Connor
41. ‘The Eye’ by Alice Munro
42. ‘Sensini’ by Roberto Bolaño
43. ‘The Fifth Story’ by Clarice Lispector
44. ‘A Bundle Of Letters’ by Henry James
45. ‘When We Went To See The End Of The World By Dawnie Morningside, Age 11¼’ by Neil Gaiman
46. ‘A Losing Game’ by J.F. Powers
47. ‘Someone Has Been Disarranging These Roses’ by Gabriel García Márquez
48. ‘City Lovers’ by Nadine Gordimer
49. ‘The Balcony’ by Filisberto Hernández
50. ‘The Photograph’ by Enrique Amorim
51. ‘Violets’ by Edna O’Brien
52. ‘Night’ by Alice Munro
53. ‘Armistice’ by Bernard Malamud
54. ‘The Lesson’ by Toni Cade Bambara
55. ‘The Sofa’ by Maeve Brennan
56. ‘Breaking The News’ by Vladimir Nabokov
57. ‘The Morning After The Big Fire’ by Maeve Brennan
58. ‘The Store’ by Edward P. Jones
59. ‘On The Hill’ by Elizabeth Spencer
60. ‘In The Region Of Ice’ by Joyce Carol Oates
61. ‘Ghost Girls’ by Joyce Carol Oates
62. ‘The Heroine’ by Patricia Highsmith
63. ‘High Lonesome’ by Joyce Carol Oates
64. ‘The Poor Men And Women’ by Maeve Brennan
65. ‘Bad Characters’ by Jean Stafford
66. ‘The Possibility Of Evil’ by Shirley Jackson
67. ‘The Loudest Voice’ by Grace Paley
68. ‘Tom Wolfe’s My Name’ by Jessamyn West
69. ‘The Faithful’ by James Alan McPherson
70. ‘Cecilia Awakened’ by Tessa Hadley
71. ‘The Sound Of Summer Running’ by Ray Bradbury
72. ‘The Swimmers’ by Joyce Carol Oates
73. ‘Feathertop’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
74. ‘Victory Over Japan’ by Ellen Gilchrist
75. ‘A Young Girl Can Spoil Her Chances’ by Maeve Brennan
76. ‘Trilobites’ by Breece D’J Pancake
77. ‘The Patterns Of Love’ by William Maxwell
78. ‘Real Estate’ by Lorrie Moore
79. ‘White On Black’ by Tess Slesinger
80. ‘A Free Choice’ by Maeve Brennan
81. ‘The First Day Of Winter’ by Breece D’J Pancake
82. ‘The Nine Billion Names Of God’ by Arthur C. Clarke
83. ‘The Crime Of The Mathematics Professor’ by Clarice Lispector
84. ‘The Anatomy Of Desire’ by John L’Heureux
85. ‘The Actual Thing’ by William Maxwell
86. ‘O Youth And Beauty’ by John Cheever
87. ‘The Trouble With Mrs. Blynn, The Trouble With The World’ by Patricia Highsmith
88. ‘The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen’ by Graham Greene
89. ‘Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird’ by Toni Cade Bambara
90. ‘Happy Birthday’ by Toni Cade Bambara
91. ‘Sweet Town’ by Toni Cade Bambara
92. ‘The Eldest Child’ by Maeve Brennan
93. ‘Music’ by Vladimir Nabokov
94. ‘Encarnación Mendoza’s Christmas Eve’ by Juan Bosch
95. ‘The Discovery Of Christmas’ by Carson McCullers
96. ‘The Christmas Turkey’ by Mário de Andrade
97. ‘The Blanket’ by Mary Gaitskill
98. ‘Because They Wanted To’ by Mary Gaitskill
99. ‘Man-Eating Cats’ by Haruki Murakami
100. ‘The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day’ by Haruki Murakami
101. ‘A Butterfly On F Street’ by Edward P. Jones
102. ‘His Mother’s House’ by Edward P. Jones
103. ‘The Children’s Party’ by Amy Hempel
104. ‘The Twelfth Wedding Anniversary’ by Maeve Brennan
105. ‘A Matter Of Time’ by Frank London Brown
106. ‘The Shadow Of Kindness’ by Maeve Brennan
107. ‘Love, Death, And The Ladies’ Drill Team’ by Jessamyn West
108. ‘Peace On High’ by Rómulo Gallegos
109. ‘The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World’ by Gabriel García Márquez
110. ‘Tennessee’s Partner’ by Bret Harte
111. ‘The Silver Bullet’ by James Alan McPherson
112. ‘The Thistles In Sweden’ by William Maxwell
113. ‘In The White Night’ by Ann Beattie
114. ‘No One’s A Mystery’ by Elizabeth Tallent
115. ‘The Battle Of The Suits’ by Jessamyn West
116. ‘Homecoming’ by Jessamyn West
117. ‘Vicious Circle’ by Langston Hughes
118. ‘Paste’ by Henry James
119. ‘Clever Girl’ by Tessa Hadley
120. ‘Agatha’ by John O’Hara
121. ‘Greville Fane’ by Henry James
122. ‘One Saturday Morning’ by Tessa Hadley
123. ‘I See You Never’ by Ray Bradbury
124. ‘The Honored Dead’ by Breece D’J Pancake
125. ‘The Way It Has To Be’ by Breece D’J Pancake
126. ‘Birthday Girl’ by Haruki Murakami
127. ‘A Dream Of Men’ by Mary Gaitskill
128. ‘A New Man’ by Edward P. Jones
129. ‘La Moretta’ by Maggie Shipstead
130. ‘One Friday Morning’ by Langston Hughes
131. ‘After Twenty Years’ by O. Henry
132. ‘Tonight Is A Favor To Holly’ by Amy Hempel
133. ‘The Worm In The Apple’ by John Cheever
134. ‘The Mysteries Of Life In An Orderly Manner’ by Jessamyn West
135. ‘The Long QT’ by Hilary Mantel
136. ‘A Sense Of Story’ by James Alan McPherson
137. ‘The Story Of A Dead Man’ by James Alan McPherson
138. ‘By The Way Of Morning Fire’ by Michael Weaver
139. ‘The Story Of A Scar’ by James Alan McPherson
140. ‘The Tragedy At Marsdon Manor’ by Agatha Christie
141. ‘Three Is A Lucky Number’ by Margery Allingham
142. ‘A Dark Night’ by Edward P. Jones
143. ‘The Artist’ by Patricia Highsmith
144. ‘Mortals’ by Tobias Wolff
145. ‘Uncles’ by Peter Taylor
146. ‘The Magic Shop’ by H.G. Wells
147. ‘In The Dry’ by Breece D’J Pancake
148. ‘Santa Claus Is A White Man’ by John Henrik Clarke
149. ‘The Cliff’ by Charles Baxter
150. ‘Two Turtledoves’ by John O’Hara
151. ‘A Sincere Friendship’ by Clarice Lispector
152. ‘The Book Of Sand’ by Jorge Luis Borges
153. ‘The Nightingale And The Rose’ by Oscar Wilde
154. ‘The Remarkable Rocket’ by Oscar Wilde
155. ‘The Devoted Friend’ by Oscar Wilde
156. ‘The Moon Child Of Wolfe Creek’ by Jesse Stuart
157. ‘Can-Can’ by Arturo Vivante
158. ‘The Pink Pale Roast’ by Grace Paley
159. ‘The Trojan Women’ by William Maxwell
160. ‘What’s Your Problem?’ by Robert Boles
161. ‘His Final Mother’ by Reynolds Price
162. ‘Sleep’ by Haruki Murakami
163. ‘Rose’ by Mavis Gallant
164. ‘On The Street Where You Live’ by Yiyun Li
165. ‘The Pilgrimage’ by William Maxwell
166. ‘Heaven On A Summer Night’ by Ann Beattie
167. ‘The Coming Of The King’ by Laura E. Richards
168. ‘All That’ by David Foster Wallace
169. ‘The Ice Man’ by Haruki Murakami
170. ‘The King Of Jazz’ by Donald Barthelme
171. ‘Are We Not Men?’ by T. Coraghessan Boyle
172. ‘The Gray Hare’ by Leo Tolstoy
173. ‘The Selfish Giant’ by Oscar Wilde
174. ‘The Wish’ by Roald Dahl
175. ‘The Happy Prince’ by Oscar Wilde
176. ‘Second-Hand Man’ by Rita Dove
177. ‘The Special Type’ by Henry James
178. ‘Miss Gunton From Poughkeepsie’ by Henry James
179. ‘Principal Alpaca’ by Richard Leise
180. ‘Batman And Robin Have An Altercation’ by Stephen King
181. ‘The Evolution Of Knowledge’ by Niccolo Tucci
182. ‘The Thunderstorm’ by Vladimir Nabokov
183. ‘The Buffalo’ by Clarice Lispector
184. ‘The Slaves In New York’ by Tama Janowitz
185. ‘Who, Me A Bum?’ by Luisa Valenzuela
186. ‘Jerry And Molly And Sam’ by Raymond Carver
187. ‘Afterward’ by Edith Wharton
188. ‘The Threshold’ by Cristina Peri Rossi
189. ‘Weekend’ by Amy Hempel
190. ‘Popular Mechanics’ by Raymond Carver
191. ‘The Shirt-Collar’ by Hans Christian Andersen
192. ‘How The Camel Got His Hump’ by Rudyard Kipling
193. ‘The Poor Orphan Girl’ by William Maxwell
194. ‘Tied In A Bow’ by Langston Hughes
195. ‘The Stranger’ by Rainer Maria Rilke
196. ‘Breaking The Pig’ by Etgar Keret
197. ‘Lars Farf, Excessively Fearful Father And Husband’ by George Saunders
198. ‘The Lookout’ by Cyrus Colter
199. ‘Coney Island’ by Ann Beattie
200. ‘Pygmalion’ by John Updike
201. ‘Lofty’ by Ann Beattie
202. ‘High School’ by Ann Beattie
203. ‘To The Moon And Back’ by Etgar Keret
204. ‘Memorial Day’ by Peter Cameron
205. ‘The Doll’s Ghost’ by F. Marion Crawford
206. ‘The Leather Funnel’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
207. ‘Levitation’ by Cynthia Ozick
208. ‘In A House Of Wooden Monkeys’ by Shay Youngblood
209. ‘The MYMan Solution’ by Helen Phillips
210. ‘Reading The Paper’ by Ron Carlson
211. ‘Invasion Of The Martians’ by Robert Coover
212. ‘Backwacking, A Plea To The Senator’ by Ralph Ellison
213. ‘The Mixer II: He Moves In Society’ by P.G. Wodehouse

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