2024 the best american short stories 2024 review

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(as of Dec 15, 2024 02:13:15 UTC - Details)

America’s most talented storytellers share their most interesting, engaging, unputdownable work in a collection made for story lovers.

The third volume of the annual anthology that’s been praised nationwide by readers and numerous award-winning and bestselling authors, COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024 exudes its editors’ philosophy that a collection of widely appealing short stories can make for common ground that could unite rather than divide Americans.

Toward this end, COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024 features a funny yet heart-stopping story by Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony Award winning Tara Laskowski, author of the heralded One Night Gone; a suspenseful and thought-provoking story about trust by widely acclaimed playwright D.W. Gregory; and rising star Matthew Goldberg's hilarious tale about family love in a future dominated by robotics and AI.

And since interesting storytelling―rather than a bunch of publishing credits―matters most to story-hungry readers, COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024 also includes a laugh out loud page-turner about a young woman’s search for love in Paris by brand new author Hannah Mumm; a shocking dystopian tale about sacrifices necessary for survival by up-and-coming author T. N. Eyer; and a haunting rural mystery by novelist Dennis McFadden―among others in this treasure trove of unputdownable, sharply written, sometimes comic, sometimes frightening, always suspenseful stories loaded with twists and turns.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CHXZCWMY
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Coolest Stories Press (October 24, 2023)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 24, 2023
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1240 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1737573962
Reviewer: Terri Brown Davidson
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Fourth Best Short-Story Collection of All Time (With Rankings)
Review: COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024 floored me. Yes, floored me. And, truly, it's difficult for me to be wowed by any short-story anthology. My background in literature includes a Ph.D. in English, an MFA in poetry, and an MA in English and fiction. I mention this only because I want to demonstrate that I'm not an idle reader.I am, in fact, an almost insanely avid one.So when I began this collection, I was tentatively optimistic because--in the interest of a full disclaimer here--I have a story, "Amberwood," that's included in COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024. But this does not mean that I am blind to the merits of other stories in the collection. I merely hoped, when I started to read this edition of COOLEST, to "appreciate" what the other authors had accomplished in terms of their stories and the relative artistic success thereof."Appreciate"--note--is a tepid word. A cautious word.And I did, indeed, approach this collection with caution.But, within a page of reading the first story, Hannah Mumm's "Intercultural," I was guffawing so violently that I inhaled my coffee.Funny story? You think?I was still laughing when I finished it. I don't remember ever laughing so wildly at a story I read or wishing so furiously that the story wouldn't end--because it IS that terrific.The second story, Jeremy Stelzner's "Bank on It," was so surreal and wild that I almost forgot which planet I was on as I devoured it. The plotting in this story is magical and will keep any reader guessing. But the conclusion! The conclusion is a veritable body blow. I was shocked at how this story ended. The twist is very O'Henry-like, but MORE powerful than anything I can recall from an O'Henry ending.Story after story struck me as poignant or beautiful or strange or riveting. T.N. Eyer's "Daddy's Girl" is BY FAR the best post-apocalyptic story I've encountered in any book, in any context. Grotesque, gruesome, unsettling, horrifying, wonderful. Deliciously dark, delectably dark. A showstopper and irrefutably one of the most important stories in the history of my own reading experience for what it suggests about human nature.As the cumulative effect of these stories grew and continued to have an impact, I realized that this wasn't a good short-story anthology but a GREAT one.And I began to review the other collections I've encountered in my long and profound reading life in terms of comparisons. Yes, I am, admittedly, a list maker. I am a person who ranks experiences, especially literary experiences, based on impact or quality. But you have to understand this: I LOVE GLORIOUS WRITING. I LOVE EXCEPTIONAL WRITING.And COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024 is among the most exceptional short-story collections I've ever encountered.I state this with the most humble objectivity that I can manage, even while recognizing that all reading experiences are necessarily subjective; they are aesthetic experiences, after all.So this is my nod to the greatest short-story collections and anthologies of all time, my aesthetic list laid bare for your consideration, with a note that the first three on the list are single-author collections; only COOLEST 2024, an anthology with short stories by different authors, is excellent enough to be included behind the first three titans.1. "THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH" AND OTHER STORIES, Leo Tolstoy2. "DEATH IN VENICE" AND OTHER STORIES, Thomas Mann3. WINESBURG, OHIO, Sherwood Anderson4. COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024, Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey, editorsDoubtless there are those who will question my selections as well as my rankings. This is the fodder for any sort of healthy literary debate because the arts themselves, all of them, dwell in the realm of absolute subjectivity, as even this oxymoron suggests. But this begs the question, of course.If you are also an avid reader, and one reader deems this collection spectacular, do you need to investigate it?You do if you crave a night of binge reading, because, once you start COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024, you will not be able to put this collection down. Consider this a warning or a promise, however you want to frame it.I think of it as a guarantee.And here's a more significant guarantee.If you purchase and read COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES 2024, you will never be able to forget it.That's right: for the entire rest of your life.And this is the beauty and the bounty and the blessing of this particular collection.

Reviewer: Kathy Downs
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Best Collection of Short Stories I've Read in Years!
Review: This is, hands-down, the best collection of short stories I've read in at least a decade. It embodies what the Best American Short Stories and O'Henry stories used to be in times gone by. This is high praise indeed; I'm difficult to impress. If you're a fan of the short story genre, this collection is just what you need. Now, I'm going to order the two previous volumes. Enjoy!

Reviewer: PLC
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Best Short Fiction Around
Review: I loved reading this book. Every story was fresh, biting, and memorable. There were certainly times when I wanted to binge, but I didn't bite. I savored each story and allowed one per day. Buy this book. Short fiction is back!

Reviewer: novel reader
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: these stories are stunning!
Review: Iconic short story writer Bobbie Ann Mason said this about this stunning anthology of stories: "This baker’s-dozen assortment contains a wide range of pleasures and surprises. The stories are tender, moving, electrifying, comical, and quirky. They are altogether cool." And Bobbie Ann was right. The 13 stories in this book (and they are *stories*, not mere character sketches) will not only impress you as extraordinarily well-written--they'll also make you laugh, make you cry, & urge you to keep turning pages. & often they'll make you think: Wow.

Reviewer: Kevin Malloy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Cool, Cooler, Coolest! CAS Keeps Getting Better
Review: I'm not a heavy reader or literary type, but because I enjoyed Coolest 2022 and Coolest 2023 so much, I ordered Coolest 2024 as soon as Amazon made it available. I seriously wondered if the 2024 edition could keep me as riveted as the earlier two, and found the answer to that question to be a resounding "yes."The stories covered a gamut of emotions and styles. Humor in the first two stories Hannah Mumm's "Intercultural" and Jeremy Stelzner's "Bank on It:" pathos in Therese Eiben's "Pass the Baby" and Carly Lynn Gate's "Paul;" and some eye-opening looks into the future with M.C. Schmidt's "Manna America." My personal favorite: Cynthia Weiner's provocative "A Castle in Outer Space." Speaking of space, CAS 2024 is a 5-star, 5-constellation read, no question! I couldn't put the book down after starting it. Now I simply look forward to Coolest 2025 and for 13 wonderful stories to be adapted into screenplays and/or movies!

Reviewer: RGinCT
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Fine Anthology
Review: RGinCTCoolest American Stories 2024 is a treat. The stories are engaging, consistently well written, and full of unexpected twist and turns — you won’t find too many tales of murder from the perspective of a cat ("Steinbeck the Cat"). The characters, hard to forget, are drawn with telling careful details, e.g., “Lily is tooth-rotting sweet (“Daddy’s Girl”). They're mainly likeable — some, not so much — but all of them are interesting. The bottom line: read it; highly recommended.

Reviewer: yankeeduke
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: If you can’t sit for a novel, read this!
Review: COOLEST’24 engulfs the reader with creative wave after wave. So many of the stories are unforgettable, and some, like Steinbeck, the cat, are troubling. I’ll never look at a TV game show, or a weather prediction, the same. The unwed pregnant teen provides compelling social commentary. The oversized Jiffy Mart cashier, left with little, escapes through poetry and romantic adventure. All come with a twist O. Henry would admire.

Reviewer: Jim Marquis
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Solid Collection
Review: I have been reading a lot of short stories lately and this might be the most consistently good group I've come across for at least a couple years. Entertaining, thought provoking and sometimes shocking.