Books like 'The Best American Short Stories 2012'
Readers who enjoyed The Best American Short Stories 2012 by Tom Perrotta, Heidi Pitlor, Alice Munro, Lawrence Osborne, Julie Otsuka, Edith Pearlman, Angela Pneuman, Eric Puchner, George Saunders, Taiye Selasi, Sharon Solwitz, Kate Walbert, Carol Anshaw, Jess Walter, Adam Wilson, Taylor Antrim, Nathan Englander, Roxane Gay, Mary Gaitskill, Jennifer Haigh, Mike Meginnis & Steven Millhauser also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery literary-fiction classics
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Gunner by Heather Slade
6 ratingsFalling for the enemy... K19 Security Specialist Gunner Godet is so deep undercover that nobody on his team knows where he is or what he's signed up for. And now that he's vowed to help a sexy and mysterious woman from the dirtiest Russian organization in all of Eastern Europe, his only chance at survival lies in her hands—and arms...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction romance military suspense action-adventure crime contemporary -
![Monk by Heather Slade]()
Monk by Heather Slade
8 ratingsHis lips are sealed, but she’s screaming for more . . . Silence is his most dangerous weapon… K19 Security Solutions partner, Rhys “Monk” Perrin works hard and keeps his mouth shut. Doing what he’s told, when he’s told, Monk’s missions are the most perilous and extreme. After all, he’s riddled with guilt from years ago that’s left him numb and dangerous...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction suspense military mystery action-adventure drama contemporary -
![The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe
16 ratingsTHE PURLOINED LETTER THE THOUSAND-AND-SECOND TALE OF SCHEHERAZADE A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTRÖM. VON KEMPELEN AND HIS DISCOVERY MESMERIC REVELATION THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR THE BLACK CAT. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER SILENCE—A FABLE THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO... -
![Small Town Mountain Daddy by K.C. Crowne]()
Small Town Mountain Daddy by K.C. Crowne
10 ratings"Three babies?? This has got to be a serious mistake." How did this happen?Ezra is the last guy I should be creating a human with.Never mind THREE.Sure he's sinfully hot...But he's also a cocky Neanderthal.And the man who bullied me since I can remember.One major lapse in judgement leads to three heartbeats in my sonogram visit...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction action-adventure adult angst billionaire book contemporary -
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![K19 Security Solutions Team One Boxed Set by Heather Slade]()
K19 Security Solutions Team One Boxed Set by Heather Slade
10 ratingsRugged. Dangerous. And mouth-wateringly sexy.They’re the protective and powerful partners of K19 Security Solutions.With bold and beautiful women by their side, our country is safe, sound, and secure.Introducing the daring and dangerous private intelligence agency, K19 Security Solutions...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction contemporary military animals fiction new-adult action-adventure -
![Poison, Shadow, and Farewell by Javier Marías]()
Poison, Shadow, and Farewell by Javier Marías
12 ratingsPoison, Shadow, and Farewell, with its heightened tensions between meditations and noir narrative, with its wit and and ever deeper forays into the mysteries of consciousness, brings to a stunning finale Marías’s three-part Your Face Tomorrow... -
![Junior For The Mountain Man by K.C. Crowne]()
Junior For The Mountain Man by K.C. Crowne
14 ratingsMy sister's gorgeous best friend and her little boy are in serious trouble.Now, I can't rest until I know the two of them are safe.I'm not afraid to show those scums they never should have set foot on these mountains.My mountains.Combat may have left me broken...But Piper's surprising return woke my passion for life again.Now, men with a death wish want to cause her and her little boy harm...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary female-mc fiction -
![Grinded by Heather Slade]()
Grinded by Heather Slade
6 ratingsWhen the odds are against them, they fight for each other.First loves torn apart…With a Tuscan backdrop of romance and innocence, sixteen-year-olds Miles "Grinder" Stone and Pia Deltetto learn of love and loss. After a whirlwind romance, they return to their separate lives with a hope of reconnecting someday.Broken and battered…Severely wounded in battle, Grinder refuses Pia's sympathy and pity... -
![Bucked by Heather Slade]()
Bucked by Heather Slade
6 ratingsShe's a city slicker. He's a cowboy to the core. Together, opposites may attract but, will sparks fly.BUCK Getting called back to the ranchAfter my dad dies,I know I have my work cut out for me.As a CIA operative, I can juggle it all.Always have.Always will.But when she needs my help,I can't possibly refuse.After all, she's the sexiest city slickerThis BUCK has ever seen...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction suspense military mystery action-adventure contemporary drama -
![Defending Isabella by P.J. Fiala]()
Defending Isabella by P.J. Fiala
6 ratingsA GHOST operative who loves the thrill.A doctor who will do anything for her brother.And the danger and passion that ignites their spark.Dr. Isabella Martinez will do anything to help others. Walking away from her brother, who dabbles on the wrong side of the law, was one of the hardest things she's ever done... -
![The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis]()
The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis
16 ratingsA man is seized from his afternoon drink at the Café Sport by two agents of the Regime - though what exactly he is suspected of we do not know, and neither, apparently, does he.What follows is a journey by car toward Special Branch headquarters, and the interrogation that undoubtedly awaits him there... -
![Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges]()
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges
14 ratingsHere is a handsome edition of one of Borges' "ficciones," in a translation first published in "Labyrinths" in 1962. It's an important story in the Borges' canon, incorporating most of the author's philosophical and esthetic preoccupations in a typically brief compass...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary fiction -
![When Harry Met Sally by Nora Ephron]()
When Harry Met Sally by Nora Ephron
16 ratingsA romantic comedy about the difficult, frustrating, awful, funny search for happiness in an American city where the primary emotion is unrequited love. The complete screenplay... -
![Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar]()
Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar
18 ratingsA young girl spends her summer vacation in a country house where a tiger roams . . . A man reading a mystery finds out too late that he is the murderer's victim . .Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror -
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![Edged by Heather Slade]()
Edged by Heather Slade
6 ratingsThis rebel has a cause…Former M15 agent, Keon “Edge” Edgemon is counting the seconds until he can get back to the one woman who’s piqued his interest. After a perilous mission for the Invincibles, Edge spends months in recovery from a gunshot wound that almost ended his life. Finally back home in Texas, he discovers that Lucy “Rebel” Marks is in jail for murder... -
![Mistletoe by Heather Slade]()
Mistletoe by Heather Slade
6 ratingsMore is at stake than a holiday surprise or two... The K19 Security Solutions team is typically ready to serve and protect at any given time. But the holidays call for even more vigilance and protection—from each other. As families navigate through Thanksgiving and Christmas, more conflicts arise. Just as Zary and Gunner discover a Christmas miracle, Ava and Razor have a secret of their own...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction romance military audiobook action-adventure contemporary multi-pov -
![Defending Keirnan GHOST Prequel by P.J. Fiala]()
Defending Keirnan GHOST Prequel by P.J. Fiala
8 ratingsAll Keirnan Vickers ever wanted was to be a teacher. Having realized that dream, she’s focusing on helping the local library with desperately needed repairs so she has a place to host her growing reading program. Just when her life is beginning to look like a storybook, an enemy of her father's threatens her very existence.Single father Dane Copeland has known his share of heartaches... -
![Dance and Dream by Javier Marías]()
Dance and Dream by Javier Marías
12 ratingsYour Face Tomorrow, Javier Marias's dazzling unfolding magnum opus, is a novel in three parts, which began with Volume One: Fever and Spear. Described as a "brilliant dark novel" (Scotland on Sunday), the book now takes a wild swerve in its new volume. Skillfully constructed around a central perplexing and mesmerizing scene in a nightclub, Volume Two: Dance and Dream again features Jacques Deza... -
![The Overcoat, and Other Tales of Good and Evil by Nikolai Gogol]()
The Overcoat, and Other Tales of Good and Evil by Nikolai Gogol
14 ratingsWith the publication of "The Overcoat" in 1842, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) inaugurated a new chapter in Russian literature, in which the underdog and social misfit is treated not as a figure of fun or an object of charity, but as a human being with as much right to happiness as anybody else...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary fiction humor -
![Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates]()
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
18 ratingsThe sixties and seventies witnessed the emergence of Joyce Carol Oates as one of America's foremost writers of the short story. In 1962, 'The Fine White Mist of Winter, ' composed when the author was 19 years old, appeared in The Literary Review and was selected for both the O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories of that year...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies coming-of-age contemporary dark -
![Narraciones Extraordinarias by Edgar Allan Poe, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]()
Narraciones Extraordinarias by Edgar Allan Poe, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
18 ratingsEdgar Allan Poe created some of the finest literature the world has ever known. His name conjures up thoughts of hearts beating long after their owners are dead, of disease and plague amid wealth, of love that extends beyond the grave, and of black ravens who utter only one word. Poe perfected the psychological thriller... -
![Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec]()
Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec
18 ratingsLife: A User's Manual is an unclassified masterpiece, a sprawling compendium as encyclopedic as Dante's Commedia and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and, in its break with tradition, as inspiring as Joyce's Ulysses... -
![Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb]()
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
18 ratingsA major classic of 1930s literature, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (Utas és Holdvilág) is the fantastically moving and darkly funny story of a bourgeois businessman torn between duty and desire.'On the train, everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice ...'Mihály has dreamt of Italy all his life...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
![Night in Question by Tobias Wolff]()
Night in Question by Tobias Wolff
18 ratingsAuthor most recently of a stunningly clear-eyed memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff's new collection of short stories maintains a similar steady gaze on his fictional creations. The author steels himself with a fine sense of irony and an awareness of moral ambiguity against the unjust suffering that is part of life...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary crime -
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![Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler]()
Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler
24 ratingsEbullient and perverse, thrice married, Barney Panofsky has always clung to two cherished beliefs: life is absurd and nobody truly ever understands anybody else. But when his sworn enemy publicly states that Barney is a wife abuser, an intellectual fraud and probably a murderer, he is driven to write his own memoirs... -
![Plays, Prose Writings, and Poems by Oscar Wilde]()
Plays, Prose Writings, and Poems by Oscar Wilde
6 ratings(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)Introduction by Terry EagletonOscar Wilde has been acknowledged as the wittiest writer in the English language. This collection proves that he was also one of the most versatile... -
![The Untethered by S.W. Southwick]()
The Untethered by S.W. Southwick
10 ratingsWhat Roble wants to create is illegal...if not impossible.And everyone seems determined to stop him from trying. But when a few unrepentant ladies join his fight to live free, the Las Vegas desert is going to light up like the 4th of July. ----------------------- "If you want a cross-breed between an Ayn Rand novel and a techno-thriller, this is the best you'll read...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction action-adventure adult book coming-of-age contemporary fiction -
![High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 by Joyce Carol Oates]()
High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 by Joyce Carol Oates
10 ratingsAn unprecedented collection of the best of Joyce Carol Oates's short stories combined with eleven new storiesNo other writer can match the impressive oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates, and High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 gathers stories from Oates's seminal collections, including The Wheel of Love (1970), Marriages and Infidelities (1972), and Heat (1991), arranged by decade...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction gothic -
![The Lime Works: A Novel (Vintage International) by Thomas Bernhard]()
The Lime Works: A Novel (Vintage International) by Thomas Bernhard
12 ratingsFor five years, Konrad has imprisoned himself and his crippled wife in an abandoned lime works where he’s conducted odd auditory experiments and prepared to write his masterwork, The Sense of Hearing. As the story begins, he’s just blown the head off his wife with the Mannlicher carbine she kept strapped to her wheelchair... -
![Brown Dog by Jim Harrison]()
Brown Dog by Jim Harrison
14 ratingsNew York Times best-selling author Jim Harrison is one of America’s most beloved writers, and of all his creations, Brown Dog, a bawdy, reckless, down-on-his-luck Michigan Indian, has earned cult status with readers in the more than two decades since his first appearance... -
![Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka]()
Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka
14 ratingsWinner of Commonwealth Book Prize,AsiaChinaman is the story of W.G. Karunasena, a fictional retired sports writer and major alcoholic. In his last days, Karunasena decides to make a documentary on Sri Lankan cricket, with special focus on Pradeep S. Mathew, a forgotten Sri Lankan spin bowler. Karunasena, along with his friend Ari, sets off on a journey to find him...Categorized as:
literary-fiction classics fiction sports contemporary humor historical-fiction 21st-century -
![The Lyre of Orpheus by Robertson Davies]()
The Lyre of Orpheus by Robertson Davies
16 ratingsHailed as a literary masterpiece, Robertson Davies' The Cornish Trilogy comes to a brilliant conclusion in the bestselling Lyre of Orpheus.There is an important decision to be made... -
![Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo, Joseph Farrell]()
Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo, Joseph Farrell
16 ratingsIn its first two years of production, Dario Fo's controversial farce, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, was seen by over half a million people. It has since been performed all over the world and is widely recognised as a classic of modern drama... -
![The Dead Girls by Jorge Ibargüengoitia]()
The Dead Girls by Jorge Ibargüengoitia
16 ratingsThis is the first appearance in English of a Mexican novelist of enormous talent. His brilliant novel is based on fact: the discovery in the yard of a small-town brothel of the corpses of six prostitutes... -
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![Shadowless by Hasan Ali Toptaş]()
Shadowless by Hasan Ali Toptaş
18 ratingsHasan Ali Toptas exquisitely weaves an enigmatic, mystical tale of memory and identity, displacement and belonging 'I'm a barber,' he said. 'I come from afar. Across lands already forgotten…' In an Anatolian village forgotten both by God and the government, the muhtar has been elected leader for the sixteenth successive year... -
![Selected Poems & Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Neil Gaiman]()
Selected Poems & Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Neil Gaiman
6 ratingsFor more than a century-and-a-half, Edgar Allan Poe's poems and tales have thrilled readers with chilling accounts of matters mysterious and macabre... -
![Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas by Arthur Schnitzler, John Simon]()
Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas by Arthur Schnitzler, John Simon
6 ratingsThese artful new translations of nine of Schnitzler's most important stories and novellas reinforce the Viennese author's remarkable achievement... -
![Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren]()
Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren
8 ratingsNever Come Morning is unique among the novels of Algren. The author's only romance, the novel concerns Brun Bicek, a would-be pub from Chicago's Northwest side, and Steffi, the woman who shares his dream while living his nightmare. "It is an unusual and brilliant book," said The New York Times. "A bold scribbling upon the wall for comfortable Americans to ponder and digest... -
![The Audacity of Goats: A Novel by J.F. Riordan]()
The Audacity of Goats: A Novel by J.F. Riordan
8 ratingsAll is not well north of the tension line. A series of unsettling nighttime incidents have left the islanders uncertain whether to be nervous or annoyed... -
![American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Brockden Brown]()
American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Brockden Brown
12 ratingsJoyce Carol Oates has a special perspective on the “gothic” in American short fiction, at least partially because her own horror yarns rank on the spine-tingling chart with the masters. She is able to see the unbroken link of the macabre that ties Edgar Allan Poe to Anne Rice and to recognize the dark psychological bonds between Henry James and Stephen King... -
![Entrance by J.J. Sorel]()
Entrance by J.J. Sorel
12 ratingsClarissa Moone’s a smart, quirky art history grad with an almost unhealthy obsession for vintage clothes. When she lands a job working for the enigmatic Aidan Thornhill, she doesn’t quite know what to expect—but certainly not romance.Aidan is a self-made billionaire whose early life is shrouded in mystery...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary drama -
![Blood-Drenched Beard by Daniel Galera]()
Blood-Drenched Beard by Daniel Galera
16 ratingsFrom Brazil’s most acclaimed young novelist, the mesmerizing story of how a troubled young man’s restorative journey to the seaside becomes a violent struggle with his family’s past—So why did they kill him?—I’m getting there. Patience, tchê. I wanted to give you the context... -
![Night at the Vulcan by Ngaio Marsh]()
Night at the Vulcan by Ngaio Marsh
16 ratingsA London actor was dying for a star billing...From the leading lady's liaison to the harassment of an aging juvenile lead-there's never a dull moment, darling, at the Vulcan Theatre. But vanity and hysterics, suspicion and superstition, brandy and jealousy, are upstaged by a death on opening night... -
![Small World by Martin Suter]()
Small World by Martin Suter
16 ratingsAt first, they put Konrad's absentmindedness down to an immoderate fondness for alcohol. For years he had been a benign parasite on the Koch family, first as the childhood playmate of Thomas, heir to the Koch family fortune, later as caretaker of the Koch family holiday villa on Corfu. And they, in their turn, had used him as the mood took them... -
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![The Hustler by Walter Tevis]()
The Hustler by Walter Tevis
16 ratingsThe legendary novel from the bestselling author of The Queen's Gambit about an ambitious pool shark who discovers what it takes to make the big time. The basis for the acclaimed film starring Paul Newman. To the strangers he plays in darkened pool halls, at first "Fast" Eddie Felson seems like a sloppy pool player with bright eyes and an extraordinary grin... -
![Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie]()
Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie
18 ratingsSherman Alexie offers nine poignant and emotionally resonant stories about Native Americans who find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads. In 'The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above', an intellectual feminist Spokane Indian woman saves the lives of dozens of white women all around her, to the bewilderment of her only child...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction anthologies coming-of-age contemporary family fiction historical-fiction -
![I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch]()
I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch
18 ratingsArrested and imprisoned in a small Swiss town, a prisoner begins this book with an exclamation: "I'm not Stiller!" He claims that his name is Jim White, that he has been jailed under false charges and under the wrong identity...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary crime -
![Harvey by Mary Chase]()
Harvey by Mary Chase
20 ratingsWhen Elwood P. Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend Harvey, a six and a half foot rabbit, to guests at a dinner party, his sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter, Myrtle Mae, and their family, from future embarrassment... -
![Cuentos de Amor de Locura y de Muerte by Horacio Quiroga]()
Cuentos de Amor de Locura y de Muerte by Horacio Quiroga
24 ratingsThis collection of stories includes tales about illness, despair, exile, and human brutality. The author himself compiled the selection. Held to be among the greatest writers of short-fiction, Horacio Quiroga has been compared to Kipling and Poe...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
![The Scapegoat by Daniel Pennac]()
The Scapegoat by Daniel Pennac
24 ratingsPathetic, contrite and hapless, Benjamin is nonetheless the scapegoat at The Store: there is nothing for which he cannot be blamed. While his blunders remain minor, most of his unwitting victims can find it in their hearts to forgive him, but when violent explosions begin to follow him around, he inevitably becomes the prime suspect...
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