Loving Short Stories: Friday Finds

What great books did you hear about/discover this past week? Share with us your FRIDAY FINDS!


Every Friday, Should be Reading invites readers to share their favorite finds of the last week.

I am so excited about this week's find (although technically it was just at the end of last week, but I had scheduled posts to run and family fun to enjoy). There's little better than hearing about a new work from a favorite author.

I was thrilled to see Shauna Kelley's announcement on Facebook that she just published a collection of short fiction, Listening In and Other Stories.

From Amazon: A sick girl lives her life by listening in to her family beneath her. An alcoholic is haunted by music as she mourns the death of her child. A newly dead woman speaks of her demise, and shares a glimpse of what heaven must be like.

Shauna Kelley, author of Max and Menna, a Foreword Book of the Year Award finalist, brings these and more stories to life in her first collection of short fiction. From the mentally ill to the destitute to a sort-of prostitute, these stories shed light into the lives and minds of an unusual batch of characters, battling the situations life has thrust them into.

With her usual candor and eloquence, Kelley offers you seven tales of seven people trying to find a home, a life, and a place.

Shauna's debut novel, Max and Menna, was a heartbreaking and gritty tale about alcohol and growing up. The characters stay with me and have for months. I don't know a better compliment to give a work of fiction. My full review can be found on Rebeccas Reads.

I have no doubt her newest work will be equally as intriguing. I look forward to reading and reviewing it.

What did you stumble across this first Friday of 2012?