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Be on the lookout; finding short stories is as much an adventure as reading them. From my dusty bookcase, a classic collection of hardbound books from Book League circa 1941 eyes me. A subscription to One Story delivers small bound booklets to my mailbox.

Subscribers to LinkedIn Fiction Writers Guild forum suggest titles and authors. The Groveland Friends of the Library Saturday book sale, literary magazines, zines and ezines—short story sources are endless. Unknown authors, famous authors—old and new—first-time authors, authors who write genre or genre benders—it’s a bowl of fruit piled high for the plucking.

• “Argive Burial”, by David Luntz and “Maroon Knickers”, by Mary McCluskey, Matterpress.com

Flash fiction is a story form that plays with compression and decompression. At Hoot Review postcard size stories (150 words or fewer) capture an Aha! moment. Writing is tight, vivid and startling. I want to try this. 

• “The Saint”, by V.S. Pritchett, 50 Great Short Stories edited by Milton Crane, a Bantam Classic (2005)

Eric Schwartz recommended V.S. Pritchett. This story explores the nature of faith and the origin of evil—a gross ape that follows a young boy into manhood. Mr. Timberlake exhibits the integrity of emptiness. ..

his dullness was a sort of earthly deposit left by a being whose diluted mind was far away in the effervescence of metaphysical matters.

• “The Schwartz-Metterklume Method”,  by “Saki” (H.H. Munro), 50 Great Short Stories edited by Milton Crane, a Bantam Classic (2005)

Richard Rose recommended Saki, a turn of the twentieth century British author. At first I was put off by the antique language, but I was so thoroughly taken in by audacious Lady Carlotta I got over my reservation quickly. Munroe would be fun at a party, I’ll bet.

• “Women”, by Ring Lardner, The Collected short Stories of Ring Lardner, Modern Library, circa 1925

The authors note says that Lardner writes about the haunts of obscure but ambitious, if slightly inarticulate, Americans. Reading Lardner’s stories you can almost hear that voice crackle across radio waves.

• “The Evening Sun”, by William Faulkner, 50 Great Short Stories edited by Milton Crane, a Bantam Classic (2005)

Faulkner is a master of show don’t tell. The way Nancy uses her limp, long, brown hands tells the story of her predicament.

• “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff

One long sentence; a mother passes family tradition and culture onto her daughter; but what if…; listen to what I’m saying, slut.

• “Free”, by John Updike, My Father’s Tears and other stories

About a man with a moral center and immoral proclivities, what else? Nobody does conflicted better than Updike.