Short Stories to Read on the Fly With Your Book Club

Our Zero to Well Read episode on “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville got me thinking of the form and how interesting it can be within the book club setting. If you haven’t already explored reading short stories with your book club, now may be the time to. Apart from not requiring the usual time commitment of a novel, they can be excellent examples of compact and efficient storytelling.

There are even a few short stories you and your other book club members can read during your book club meet-up to discuss right after, if you’re feeling funky.

“Sweetness” by Toni Morrison, excerpt from God Help the Child (published in The New Yorker)

Though this is an excerpt from a novel, it does well alone. In just a few lines, it shines a light on the beginning of a mother-daughter dynamic over which colorism looms large, with prose that could only come from thee Toni Morrison.

“Girl” By Jamaica Kincaid in At the Bottom of the River

I read this with my writing workshop and remember it feeling like taking a deep breath and holding it for really, really long. It cuts so cleanly into what it means to be a girl turned woman surviving that it will leave you gasping.

“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang

My introduction to Ted Chiang came via the hit movie Arrival, which had one of the most intriguing alien concepts I’ve ever seen. And it seems like Chiang’s unique and tender way of seeing the universe is on full display, both in this short story—which is centered around a message from a scientist from an advanced group of beings—and the larger collection the story is contained within.

“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” by P. Djeli Clark

Yes, if you didn’t already know, George Washington’s teeth were from enslaved people. Clark takes this literal fact and constructs a whole world around it with his usual magic.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

If you’re looking to read a classic short story, this is one of the most famous ones within the American literary canon. It had people shook upon its release! They were mailing in letters and everything.

In it, a small town is about to hold a lottery. It’s an annual tradition that the whole town is excited about it, but that no one wants to win.

“Mr Salary” by Sally Rooney

Rooney is one of the most popular contemporary writers out of Ireland, and here she turns her discerning eye for relationships to Sukie, who moved in with Nathan because of a difficult family situation.

Other Collections to Read in Their Entirety or to Pull From:

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

The characters in this Pulitzer Prize-winning collection weave in and out of Indian traditions and the new world’s orders.

Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li

Life is strange, and Li’s stories showcase just how strange, even as they center the mundane.

Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar

This collection comes from the co-author of This Is How You Lose the Time War—another shorter read, if you’re in the market for a poetic and time-jumping sapphic sci-fi novella. It’s full of award-winning stories, which themselves are made of biting fairytales and magical worlds.

And, as always, if you need some jumping-off points for discussion, we have our list of book club questions. One of the great benefits of reading short stories for book clubs is that they lend themselves to the moment. You can get people’s immediate response to the text, and the vast difference in perspectives can be even more pronounced, making for a great conversation.

If your book club is feeling the shorter texts, here are even more short stories to read for free online.