2025 4th Quarter favorites

4th Quarter 2025

The 4th Quarter (Oct-Dec) stories ordered solely by my personal tastes.

  1. ‘The Best Of Everything’ by Richard Yates
  2. ‘A Manual For Cleaning Women’ by Lucia Berlin
  3. ‘The Canal’ by Richard Yates
  4. ‘A Wrestler Of Sharks’ by Richard Yates
  5. ‘The Deposition’ by Tobias Wolff
  6. ‘A Really Good Jazz Piano’ by Richard Yates
  7. ‘Intruders Of Sleepless Nights’ by Pamela Painter
  8. ‘The Little Statue’ by Maeve Murphy
  9. ‘Minotaur’ by Jim Shepard
  10. ‘A Glutton For Punishment’ by Richard Yates
  11. ‘Liquid Papers’ by Nicolette Polek
  12. ‘American Beauty’ by Ethan Canin
  13. ‘The B.A.R. Man’ by Richard Yates
  14. ‘Xmas, Jamaica Plain’ by Melanie Rae Thon
  15. ‘The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes’ by Henry James
  16. ‘Delivery’ by Bruce Barrow
  17. ‘Dirt’ by Maud Casey
  18. ‘The Rider Was Lost’ by Nancy Hale
  19. ‘The Fir Tree’ by Hans Christian Andersen
  20. ‘Live Wires’ by Thomas Beller
  21. ‘Let’s Play Dead’ by Senaa Ahmad
  22. ‘Doggerland’ by Kaliane Bradley
  23. ‘Crouch End’ by Stephen King
  24. ‘Happy’ by Richard Ford
  25. ‘Dagon’ by H.P. Lovecraft

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

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March 2020 favorites

March 2020

The March stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  2. ‘Wakefield’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  3. ‘The Death Of A Government Clerk’ by Anton Chekhov
  4. ‘A Dead Woman’s Secrets’ by Guy de Maupassant
  5. ‘Her Letters’ by Kate Chopin
  6. ‘The Birth-Mark’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  7. ‘The Lightning-Rod Man’ by Herman Melville
  8. ‘The Pelican’ by Edith Wharton
  9. ‘Wild Frank’s Return’ by Walt Whitman
  10. ‘A Winter Courtship’ by Sarah Orne Jewett
  11. ‘My Friend Bingham’ by Henry James
  12. ‘The Haunted Mind’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  13. ‘Nanette: An Aside’ by Willa Cather
  14. ‘The Striding Place’ by Gertrude Atherton
  15. ‘Is He Living Or Is He Dead?’ by Mark Twain
  16. ‘The Maypole Of Merry-Mount’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  17. ‘Legend Of The Two Discreet Statues’ by Washington Irving

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

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February 2020 favorites

February 2020

The February stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘Lunch At The Loyola Arms’ by Stuart Dybek
  2. ‘The Most Girl Part Of You’ by Amy Hempel
  3. ‘The Proxy Marriage’ by Maile Meloy
  4. ‘Snow’ by Ann Beattie
  5. ‘The Metal Bowl’ by Miranda July
  6. ‘A Talking Cure’ by Justin Taylor
  7. ‘Turgor’ by Mary Gaitskill
  8. ‘The Sock’ by Lydia Davis
  9. ‘The Tree Of Knowledge’ by Henry James
  10. ‘Life After High School’ by Joyce Carol Oates
  11. ‘My Sister’s Marriage’ by Cynthia Marshall Rich
  12. ‘Reading Lessons’ by Edwidge Danticat
  13. ‘Northeast Regional’ by Emma Cline
  14. ‘Show Don’t Tell’ by Curtis Sittenfeld
  15. ‘The Hanging Of The Schoolmarm’ by Robert Coover

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

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June 2019 favorites

June 2019

The June stories ordered solely on my personal tastes.

  1. ‘The Surrogate’ by Tessa Hadley
  2. ‘The Card Trick’ by Tessa Hadley
  3. ‘Silk Brocade’ by Tessa Hadley
  4. ‘A Bundle Of Letters’ by Henry James
  5. ‘Cecilia Awakened’ by Tessa Hadley
  6. ‘The Sound Of Summer Running’ by Ray Bradbury
  7. ‘The Long QT’ by Hilary Mantel
  8. ‘Paste’ by Henry James
  9. ‘Clever Girl’ by Tessa Hadley
  10. ‘Agatha’ by John O’Hara
  11. ‘Greville Fane’ by Henry James
  12. ‘One Saturday Morning’ by Tessa Hadley
  13. ‘Second-Hand Man’ by Rita Dove
  14. ‘The Special Type’ by Henry James
  15. ‘Miss Gunton From Poughkeepsie’ by Henry James
  16. ‘Principal Alpaca’ by Richard Leise
  17. ‘Reading The Paper’ by Ron Carlson
  18. ‘Invasion Of The Martians’ by Robert Coover

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

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