There is a particular kind of precision required to write good short stories, sometimes less really is more. Here are some of the best examples I've come across. Twenty One Stories by Graham Greene Graham Greene's novels are revered globally and rightly so, his short stories are not as well known although they are excellent. This collection is variously comedic, violent, thought provoking, and dark. I think of Greene as a natural storyteller and short stories gave him room to flex his literary muscles. Written between 1929 - 1954, these stories are always unmistakably Greene. Includes The Destructors, set in the 50s, a gang...

Seven Days in June - Tia WilliamsWhen a book forces you to put it down, pace the room for a bit, and then pick it right back up again, you know it’s a good’un. One hot New York summer and best-selling romance writer Eva Mercy has been invited to a literary panel of black writers. Who should she see, but her first great love (and now literary golden-boy) Shane Hall. Over the course of one week they grapple with reacquaintance over a decade since their catastrophic teenage relationship. Full of yearning, flirting, and the messy baggage of past-selves, Shane and...

Uprooted - Naomi NovikThe perfect introduction into adult fantasy, and definitely the book that made me go ‘oh this is what reading can be.’ Naomi Novik’s wonderful novel creates a rich Eastern-European based world, where a deadly forest is slowly poisoning the neighbouring valley. Only the Dragon, an immortal magician of unfathomable power, can protect them . . . but at a cost. Every ten years a girl is taken, and Agnieszka is stunned when it is her. Thrown into the chaotic world of politics, magic, and ancient power that is stirring in the dark, Agnieszka and the Dragon must...

Since reading Alice Winn's In Memoriam Abbie is reading nothing but war-related books.  Here are eight of our favourites, discover a whole host more on our bookshop.org list.   In Memoriam by Alice Winn "A tender, affecting debut . . . Winn strikingly evokes the torment and brutality of life of the front" - The Times Tracing the love story between two WWI soldiers, In Memoriam is a luminous, heart-breaking meditation on the tragedies of war and the precious sanctuary that can be found in deep human connection.   The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon "A staggering work of beauty...

Ranging from chilling murders to family holiday dramas, this genre has everything needed to keep you on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what will happen next.   One Of Us Is Lying series by Karen M. McManus Five students walk into detention: a geek, a jock, a criminal, a princess and an outcast. Only four walk out alive. By the end of detention, Simon is dead. And the next day, he'd planned to release the four's worst secrets online. This thrilling debut from Karen M. McManus navigates the lives of four teenagers who become murder suspects. They all...