Hi! My wife and I decided that one of the things we'd like to do in 2026 is to read a bit together each night. (Meaning I'll be reading out loud, and then we discuss afterwards.)
We've read and liked:
- Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Glory by Bob Waksberg → Loved it in pretty much every way; the prose was fun to read aloud, the compilation had a nice variety, and the stories led to interesting discussions;
- Alice Munroe → Probably our favorite shared author, but (a) the stories were a bit too long for me to read aloud in a sitting (b) my wife is not a native English speaker and she found the vocab/prose a bit difficult
- Ted Chiang → Similar feedback as for Bob Waksberg—nice variety, fun discussions—but the more serious tone and heavier sci-fi flavor was a negative for us
- Raymond Carver & Amy Hempel → My personal favorite authors (on the off chance that y'all also have suggestions for me to read on my own 💪)
We're not looking for:
- Dark / scary stuff → In theory we'll be sleeping shortly after reading, haha
- Overly plot-focused stories → We aren't necessarily looking explicitly for litfic, but we value the discussions prompted by these stories as much as the stories themselves
- Wordsmith-y stuff → We both like Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald, but we'll be reading together in English, and it kinda kills the vibe if I have to stop after every other sentence to explain what word means
In a sentence:
- We'd really like to find a few short story compilations that touch on big topics, despite not taking themselves too seriously, and who have some variety or are unpredictable in terms of what sort of mood we'll find ourselves in after finishing a story. (Some of Waksbergs' stories cracked us up, some made us cry, many left us somewhere in the middle. That was great.)
Thanks!
by SuikaCider