I haven't had nearly enough time to read lately (as I've mentioned on another thread, I've been tied up with a federal criminal trial since February), but when I have been able to grab a few minutes here and there, here are a couple of short story collections that have given me great pleasure:
--William Maxwell,
All the Days and Nights
A longtime fiction editor at
The New Yorker, as well as a much esteemed novelist and short story writer in his own right, Maxwell writes about everyday characters in everyday situations in prose that is as graceful as it is haunting. In a blurb on the back cover, Reynolds Price gets it just right: Maxwell's stories "achieve their greatness invisibly." I can't think of anyone whose stories are any quieter, or more powerful, than Maxwell's. (Today, an off-day from my trial, I took in the big Edward Hopper exhibit that's been traveling the country - Hopper's paintings and Maxwell's stories have more than a little in common.)
Amazon.com: All The Days And Nights: The Collected Stories of William Maxwell: William Maxwell: Books
--Richard Ford (ed.),
The New Granta Book of the American Short Story
If there's a collection of short stories that exhibits greater range than this one, I'm not familiar with it. Brilliantly edited by Richard Ford, it takes the reader from Flannery O'Connor to Junot Diaz, from John Cheever to Jhumpa Lahiri - not to mention, oh, Lorrie Moore, Richard Yates, Andre Dubus, Raymond Carver, Stuart Dybek,
et al., along the way. Read one of these stories each night before you go to bed: your life won't get any easier, but it will become richer and more interesting.
Amazon.com: The New Granta Book of the American Short Story: Richard Ford: Books