World Storytellers Day: Explore these 5 short story collections across genres

For the scifi geeks Buy Jupiter and Other StoriesIsaac AsimovThis collection of 24 stories has been collated from two decades of the master of science fiction Isaac Asimovrsquos oeuvre Asimov gives us plenty of bizarre characters whose conversations draw us in instantly A friend claims he built a time machine to travel to the Mesozoic era and now knows what happened to the dinosaurs Uncle Otto creates a flute that can be played by the power of mind alone no skill necessary a pair of explorers find habitable planets far far away where plants control everythingFor the mystery fanatics The Memoirs of Sherlock HolmesSir Arthur Conan DoyleMeet the inimitable detective Sherlock Holmes and his loyal companion Dr Watson in 12 thrilling stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle A true Holmes experience includes entering a world where powers of deduction logic and forensics mdash matters of exact science mdash take precedence over emotions The collection includes The Musgrave Ritual where an old acquaintancersquos butler goes missing The Greek Interpreter where his brother Mycroft reports of a kidnapping as well as The Final Problem where readers meet his archnemesis Professor MoriartyFor the horror lovers Dark TalesShirley JacksonSeventeen chilling stories by Shirley Jackson lay bare the horrors of our everyday lives Louisa escapes from her home and disappears but when she returns her family fails to recognise her two friends joke about a painting and their grandfatherrsquos spirit wandering about it before one of them gets trapped inside it Margaret has terrifying thoughts of killing her husband Ethel and Jim move into the Sanderson house but something sinister begins to take place In the haunting world of Jackson the inside is as unsettling as the outsideBONUS Her Body and Other PartiesCarmen Maria MachadoCarmen Maria Machadorsquos collection is becoming a genrebending modern classic Stories draw on urban legends or are tales about a sales clerk finding something unusual in the seams of prom dresses in a store a womanrsquos weightloss bringing in an unwanted houseguest a reimagining of LawandOrder episodes For the ticklers and the dreamers Petersburg TalesNikolai Gogol Pics CourtesyWikimedia CommonsNikolai Gogolrsquos satirical short stories were written during his time at St Petersburg Russia in the 1830s A nose falls off an officialrsquos face and develops a life of its own a poor government clerk seeing his old overcoat in tatters dreams of buying a new one and later haunts the city as a ghost a lieutenant and his acquaintance pursue two women on Nevsky Prospect In the final story readers encounter the mind of the protagonist that descends from displaying its oddities into revealing his insanity The theme of alienation is central to Gogolrsquos stories For the modernday romantics The Women Who Forgot to Invent Facebook and Other StoriesNisha SusanNisha Susanrsquos women are mostly creatives navigating virtual and real worlds in these humorous endearing and dazzling stories of intimacy and everyday quandaries Friends plan to create a map of their hookups online two lovers speak over Facebook messenger a debut author is under attack by an army of trolls a classical singer connects with a prince in a chat room Susanrsquos stories are refreshingly modern often fastpaced and never dull Her characters are among us theyrsquore flawed they lie They laugh out loud cry and look for ways to surviveOthers reccosgtgt Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butlergtgt The Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories by Ruskin Bondgtgt Breast Stories by Mahasweta Devigtgt A Haunted House and Other Stories by Virginia Woolf