Short Story Book Club Short Story Book Club

Upcoming Discussions

The Short Story Book Club meets on the Last Wednesday of every month 7:00 – 8:00 PM.

For more information about the Short Story Book Club, please contact Bridget Cooley at bcooley@LowellLibrary.org or call 978-674-1548.

Upcoming Discussions

May 25 at 7:00 pm 

Here are this month’s readings with the theme of flowers:

Previous Discussions – 2022

April – Humor

Charles by Shirley Jackson
Lord Oakhurst’s Curse by O. Henry
Maddened By Mystery; Or, The Defective Detective by Stephen Leacock
I’m a Short Afternoon Walk and You’re Putting Way Too Much Pressure on Me by Emily Delaney
Optional: A Dish Best Served Cold by Tristan Jimerson (audio only)

March – Women’s History Month Writers

Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
You’re Ugly, Too by Lorrie Moore
A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin
Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood
Stone Boy by Gina Berriault 
Rules of the Game by Amy Tan 

February – Black History Month Writers

A Loaf of Bread by James Alan McPherson
Proper Library by Carolyn Ferrells
The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara
Johnnieruth by Becky Birtha
New Day’s Lyric by Amanda Gorman

January – Year of the Tiger

The Nodding Tiger (Chinese Folklore)
Tiger! Tiger! by Rudyard Kipling
The Tyger by William Blake (poem)
The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton
Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger by H.H. Munro (SAKI)

2021
December – Bittersweet Theme (All Best American Short Story Selections from the past few years)
The Art of Losing – Yoon Choi
The Big True – Dina Nayeri
Sibling Rivalry – Michael Byers
Something Street by Carolyn Ferrell

November Selections – Native American Writers
The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday (1969)
Yellow Woman by Leslie Marmon Silko (1993)
Whereas by Layli Long Soldier (2017)
Stolen from Our Bodies by Qwo-Li Driskill (2003)
Indian Education by Sherman Alexie (1991)

October Selections – Spooky
Test by Theodore L. Thomas (1962)
Ruthless by William de Mille (1945)
Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl (1953)
Premium Harmony by Stephen King (2009)
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (1890)
Optional Read: The Doll by Daphne du Maurier (1937)

September Selections 
The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov
Snow by Julia Alvarez
The School by Donald Barthelme
The Answer is No by Naguib Mahfuz
Dead Man’s Path by Chinua Achebe

August Selections
All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
Raymond’s Run by Toni Cade Bambara
Lob’s Girl by Joan Aiken
The Summer of my 17^th Year by H.O. Santos

July
A Favorable Favor by Brendan Dubois
The Disappearance of Daniel Question by Barrie Roberts
Artistic License by Edward Marston
Possibilities by Bill Pronzi

June 
A Father & His Sons by Aesop (1484)
The Father by Guy de Maupassant (1880s) – de Maupassant is considered the father of the short story.
The Prodigal Father by Jack London (1912)
The Semplica-Girl Diaries by George Saunders (2012)

May
“My Dear You” by Rachel Khong (Tin House, May 2017)
“A Flawless Silence” by Yiyun Li (The New Yorker, April 2018)
 “Sweetheart Sorrow” by David Hoon Kim (The New Yorker, June 2007)
Oral History Selection: June Tiang

April
Hanan al-Shaykh’s “God, It’s as Though You’re Sewing a Dress For a Flea,” tr. Randa Jarrar (Lebanon)
Basma al-Nsour’s “Disappointments (and a Few Clarifications),”tr. Andrew Leber (Jordan) 
 “The Abandoned Village” by Hassan Blasim, translated by Jonathan Wright
 “Rhythmic Exercise” by Mohamed Makhzangi, translated by Yasmeen Hanoosh
Optional Reads: Ruminations: Warm Memories of Government Cheese by Tracey Lynn Lloyd  13 Haikus for Anyone Who’s Ever Eaten a Grilled Cheese by Andrew Peña

March
Weaving (Poem) by Lucy Larcom (c. 1862)
The Giant Wistaria by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1891)
Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston (1926)
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973)
The White Umbrella by Gish Jen (2019

February 
Eve’s Diary and Extracts from Adam’s Diary. (1906)by Mark Twain
Little Miss Sophie by Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1895)
Sticks by George Saunders (1995)

January
Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville (1856)
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell (1917)
Thank you, Ma’am by Langston Hughes (1958)

Previous Discussions – 2020

December

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

November

Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen by O.Henry  
Three Thanksgiving Kisses by Edward Payson Roe
Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1863 by Abraham Lincoln 

October
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Symbols and Signs by Vladimir Nabokov

September 
Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/theliteratureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalDocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf
Cathedral by Raymond Carver – http://www.giuliotortello.it/ebook/cathedral.pdf

August
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

July 
The Story of B24 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle access at https://www.dfw-sherlock.org/uploads/3/7/3/8/37380505/1899_march_round_the_fire_x_–_the_story_of_b_24.pdf