What short novels and novellas do people really like/ love? I’m on the hunt for books that can be read quickly and joyful. There are too many longish unfinished books languishing on shelves…
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I see Becky Chambers has been covered. If you enjoy fantasy, Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle novellas are wonderful. Folkloric, fun, and beautifully written. The first is The Empress of Salt and Fortune.
Hard to respond without knowing your preferred (or detested) genre. If you like science fiction, I cannot recommend highly enough Ursula K. LeGuin's Hugo & Nebula winning novella "The Word for World is Forest." There's also Robert Silverbeg's "Born With the Dead."
Thanks for these! Will have a look at them. Have tried LeGuin in the past and struggled, but I’ve always been very annoyed by that so maybe I should read Hugo!
Do you read romance? Holiday's with the Wongs by Jackie Lau is a delightful series of holiday novellas set in Canada. If you want speculative elements, In Memoriam is a wonderful timey-wimey story by 'Nathan Burgoine.
Just as an FYI, the Lau stories are steamy (very cute and joyful too, but also unapologetically sex-positive) In Memoriam is also a romance, but closed door and more of an exploration of time, mortality and regret (but still joyful at heart!)
Edith Wharton's 'Summer' and 'Ethan Frome' are excellent and very different. You might like Gaskell's 'Cousin Phillis'. George Eliot's 'The Lifted Veil' is so, so well written.
Since you are a fellow Victorianist: How about a historical romance set against the backdrop of the Eglinton Tournament? My novella The Bride Prize: Allan's Miscellany 1839 is the first in my series about a fictional Victorian magazine. (Later installments include much fangirling over Punch 😊)
(I no longer work in academia, but my last research project back in the day focused on Punch, and it kind of shows in my fiction. LOL! I'm currently trying to incorporate a Punch Pocketbook into a short story...)
Murderbot, anything by Becky Chambers, literally any Georgette Heyer but I particularly love Sylvester and the Nonesuch, Rivers of London, Murder Must Advertise
84 Charing Cross is brilliant. I also really liked the film. I’ve seen so many people reading Lolly Willowes that I must get my hands on it- thanks for the reminder!
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War. Will check the others out- thank you!