Speculative Short Stories to Read or Listen to Online

Friday the 13th of March was a dynamic scene at the Central Library, with patrons queuing for help to find good books to read during the library’s closure, and the DVD aisles packed with browsers. I miss assisting patrons in person in finding a great story to read or watch – though do visit my colleagues at I at Your Next Five Books where we continue to advise readers and listeners online. Fortunately, there are many other ways to enjoy stories right now.

If you have internet access, here are some places to find speculative stories – e.g. science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, slipstream, and anything in the realms of the imagination. Because it times like these, we need stories that take us away from our current realities, don’t you agree?

Tor.com is a publisher of books, yes, but they also post full-text short stories, as well as blog posts about books and popular culture weekly. Stories are updated in the carousel at the top of the site. Recent stories stories have been written by the likes of Maria Dahvana Headley, Charlie Jane Anders, Harry Turtledove, Garth Nix, and Neil Gaiman.

Bus Reads for March: Quarantine Edition

Commuting to Seattle by bus five days a week gives me a lot of reading time, but in the world of quarantine being home does too! Here’s what I read at home in March:

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman. Sad and beautiful. I tend to shy away from any books that have to do with WW2 because it just breaks my heart too much. But this novel with it’s mixture of history and magical realism, while still sad, was easier to take in for me. It’s also a novel that has amazing women in it–with all the strength and power they possess. It was awe inspiring to read. A story of motherhood, of loss, of faith, but mostly of love.

New fiction roundup, March 2020

Bus Reads for February

Commuting to Seattle by bus five days a week gives me a lot of reading time. Here’s what I read on the bus in February:

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera. This novel reminded me of Where the Crawdads Sing and I can’t quite tell you why. Three women, Gertrude, Retta and Annie, from three different classes, while seen as so different come together to find strength. Gertrude seen by everyone as poor white trash will do ANYTHING she can to save her daughters, Retta a first generation freed slave that works for the Coles, the family that once owned her family. And Annie the matriarch of the Coles. All in all this story just reminded me of the strength of women and how powerful we can be.

Fantastic Librarians of the Future!!

Many years ago – back in the ‘oughts – we did a couple of popular posts on librarians in fiction, and in fantasy. Since then, librarians have only stepped up their fictional game, appearing in more and more novels, not so surprising when we consider that many authors basically grew up in libraries. They pop up in all genres, from Romance to Mystery to literary fiction from around the world, such as Dag Solstad’s T. Singer, Jennifer Tseng’s Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness, Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera’s The Awakening of Miss Prim, or Jenny Offill’s novel Weather. But most of all, librarians appear in the extraordinary realms of science fiction, fantasy and magical realism. Here are a few recent examples: find more on our list in the catalog.