Average Rating:

.

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: Angela Carter

January 03, 1998
I never found myself impressed by Carters writing technique. She writes in a very long winded, self-indulgent way often making the reader feel lost and disengage with her stories altogether. I personally find her rambling stories unimaginative in the way they all seem to portray males as perverted and evil for example. She often attempts to shock the reader by the use of vulgar imagery and though she does succeed in this, i simply cannot understand how this is meant to endear readers into her stories . I also question the format of short stories, they do not give the reader a chance to explore the characters and therefore make it difficult to 'get into' any of her stories. I honestly do not understand why the book is so popular as I found it ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

The Metamorphosis (Dover Thrift)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: Franz Kafka

August 26, 1996
I don't know all the metaphorical significance of this book, but I feel on the surface that the book is an intersting read, that you want to know what is going to happen to the family and especially the protagonist. You also feel for these people, which is, considering how short the story is, uncommon.
You have to read it to appreciate it, but it definately deserves a place as a classic.

Average Rating:

.

Edge of Desire, the (Bastion Club) (Bastion Club)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: Stephanie Laurens

September 01, 2008
Having been a massive fan of Stephanie Laurens for a while I have been waiting for this book to arrive and was sadly more than a little dissapointed. After the cliffhanger intro in the previous book I had really been anticipating so much and what a let down...

I had hoped Christian and Leticia would have caught my imagination as the previous main characters in the Bastion Club novels had but they didn't at all. It was a great shame, but the back plot build up of Royce kept me reading and I will be getting the final book as I am sure many others will.

To be honest this book was a dissapointment and I had the feeling Stephanie Laurens was writing to a formula and not really investing herself in the book.Apparently the Vaux family are a bit ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

The Turn of the Screw (Penguin Popular Classics)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: Henry James

April 28, 1994
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

Dubliners

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: James Joyce

March 28, 1996
This is a collection of short stories, centering around characters in Dublin. Joyce's grasp of human psychology is profound, and he weaves this into narratives of domestic life and tensions. He manages to create a nostalgia within these stories that resonates with a wistful sadness, almost as if the personalities encapsulate his own regret or yearning for the past.

Although the ability of the book to really grab the reader is limited, Joyce's writing and the depth of character of his stories, really makes the effort worthwhile.

Average Rating:

.

Fine Just the Way it is: Wyoming Stories (Wyoming Stories 3)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: Annie Proulx

September 01, 2008
Annie Proulx's trilogy of Wyoming short stories "Close Range", Bad Dirt" and now "Fine Just The Way It Is", is a magnificent testament to a landscape and its people. In the latest collection, three outstanding Proulx Wyoming 'specials' - drawing on early pioneering struggles, hardship during the Great Depression years and life in present-day Wyoming - open a window into the lives of Wyoming people, past and present.

A sad story, set in the 1880's, "Them Old Cowboy Songs" records the gruelling pioneering experience of young newly-weds. Annie Proulx doesn't do 'sentimental' : what she does do in her distinctive unsparing prose, is stark reality treatment of the West, uncompromising portraits of Wyoming folk hard-pressed to scrape to-gether a living. Some homesteaders struggled through ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

Sharpe's Story

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: Bernard Cornwell

November 15, 2007
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Average Rating:

.

"The Yellow Wallpaper (Dover Thrift)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1998-02
This is a spine-tingling (not necessarily in a good way!) long short story with hauntingly gothic imagery that shifts and stirs beneath a prosaic surface.

The female protagonist is confined to her room as a 'rest cure' which might be associated with what we now recognise as post-natal depression, but the enforced 'rest' that is more akin to imprisonment releases something in her psyche that might be madness...

The yellow wallpaper of the title is both a kind of fairy-tale mirror and a window to another world that allows the narrator to see the female figures caught beneath it and living out their lives beneath its shadows, an incredibly haunting and indicting imagery for Victorian England.

This is only short (more a long short story than a novella) but it will ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: AND Through the Looking Glass (Penguin Classics)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
by: Lewis Carroll

March 27, 2003
Well that says it all really. A fair chunk of the book provides a fascinating commentary and background to the author which deeply enrich the stories. I didn't read the story as a child - I gain far more from it as an adult. Its entrancing and an excellent, whimsical escape from the bothers of the day.

Average Rating:

.

Sony ICFC318S Clock Radio

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Short Stories
from: Sony

March 10, 2007
Just what i was looking for.

Dual alarms, so you dont have to hit the snooze button 5 times before you get out of bed. Both alarms can be set differently [radio comes on at 645, if your still not up, buzzer can go off at 0700] and both are extremely easy to set.
great radio receiver and decent quality sound. glad i bought the right one after searching through amazons selection.