(Michael Joseph, $40)
If short story collections are like boxes of chocolates, this is a three-layer extravaganza.
Whether you like nuts, fruits, sweet or dark, there’ll be something for everyone here: indeed I can see it making a welcome addition on Christmas (dare I mention it) shopping lists for that twenty-to-fifty-something female friend you can’t quite find anything else for.
The one-size-fits-all nature of it is hardly surprising given that the 50 stories are written by the crème de lacrème of contemporary women’s fiction.
Even those with merely a passing interest in this popular genre will recognise the names.
There’s our favourite, Marian Keyes; the recent visitor to our shores, Cathy Kelly; Sex and The City’s CandaceBushnell; shopaholic Sophie Kinsella; famous Aussies Kathy Lette and Kaz Cooke and other names that will alsosound familiar, like Freya North, Sheila o’Flanagan and Adele Parks.
Not only does this book give you a largely cheerful taste of what these clever writers can do, but in buyingit you support War Child, the charity which helps kids affected by war and conflict. So far the Girls’ Night In series has raised over $3 million for this charity.
Feel good and do good at the same time? It’s a bit of a no-brainer really.
I dived straight for the Marian Keyes short (in more ways than one) story and was not disappointed, then headed back to Jessica Adams’ opening story because I met her once and she was very nice. Next I moved on to Gretel Killeen’s Bullet Points and licked my lips over Monica ocInerney’s Just Desserts.
oy favourite, however, could well be Adam Hills’s Letter From The Hangover Fairy. I’d not heard of or Hills before but on the strength of the whining ruminations of his overworked fairy (aka Garry) I’ll be looking out for him infuture, which is what short story collections are all about.
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