James Baldwin grew up in New York in the forties and fifties, and then fled to France to live the rest of his life. He was troubled not only by American racism, but homophobia from blacks as well, as he was gay. This is a collection of his early stories, including the titanic “Sonny’s Blues,” about two brothers, one of which is a heroin-addicted pianist. Great book.
Adichie is a Nigerian writer who has become and international superstar. This is a collection of her stories that displays her talent. The best story is the last one, about a young Nigerian immigrant at Oxford researching her grandmother’s people.
Alice Munro is considered one of the best short story writers in history, and rightfully won a Nobel Prize some time ago. Her work is very impressive and I’m hard pressed to list a short story writer better than her.
This book won the Pulitzer Prize a few years back. It’s not perfect, but the good stuff is REALLY good. Mostly dealing with how time changes us, it’s very innovative and heartbreaking at points.
Chekhov is an older Russian writer, but his short stories are timeless. This was a bigger book than the others but it was great.
Annie Proulx got famous when I was young when she won the Pulitzer for her book, “The Shipping News.” This is part of a series of books of short stories she has written about Wyoming. It includes the famous “Brokeback Mountain,” which is some heartbreaking shit.
Of the twenty-five or thirty books I read last year, these were the best.
I didn't know that Baldwin was gay. My mom encouraged me to read a couple of his books when I was in middle school/early high school. He's a great writer.
Chekhov was also an amazing playwright. Our high school used to get tickets for plays at the Portland Stage Company and I used to get to go to at least one play a year. One year, we saw The Cherry Orchard. Funny and heartbreaking at the same time.
What’s that book you keep recommending? I forgot.
City of Thieves by David Benioff. Read it. You'll like it.
On one hand, I know what Baldwin is talking about. On the other hand, I know a few people who are both black and gay, and man does it compound the problem.
Fairly certain I saw Chekhov's Three Sisters in college.
And I thought Brokeback Mountain was a full novel rather than a short story.
nah, it's just like a twenty-five page story. Pretty good, too.
When I was a kid I had a Russian Blue cat named Chekov.
I think I knew that! 
It's good to see folks actually read from physical books instead of an app (Me) or listen to the audiobook (again Me). That's a solid lineup of books to read, I'm going to check out Jennifer Egan once I finish the Tom Clancy book I started.
I really prefer to read physical books. But I have decided to read nonfiction and history books on my iPad cause they tend to be heavier.
I've been thinking a lot about black writers and how I've read very few of them. I just read about this black poet from the 1900s Paul Lawrence Dunbar I never knew about.
Yeah I’ve been trying to read more diversely. I alternate between male and female writers too. Just finished a book by a South Asian woman.
I was thinking, since I'm doing a lot of cooking lately, that I'd choose a different ethic cookbook every month and then tie it to my reading and games too. Darn, that would be fun. Too bad I've already chosen my year's theme, but maybe I'll amend it some.