Santa Womble Needs To Mix it Up
Helloooo!
And so it begins - I don the red cape and become Wom-Ra The Ever Tempting! Alll shall despair…..apologies that is next month ahem. I shall don the red SUIT and become Santa Womble helping you for the perfect gifts. At teens of the year I’ll give you my favourite reads of the year but here are a lot of my ones I’d say many of you should enjoy!
Today on the blog we look at short story collection and anthologies. They’re the selection boxes we can take one by one or devour in one go. I am sure we will not judge you for your choices as there are no rules at this time of year. Here are some choices for gifts for you or yes perhaps your loved ones.
Schrodinger's Wife (and Other Possibilities) by Pippa Goldschmidt — Runalong The Shelves - A really powerful set of stories that blur science and science fiction with an important feminist perspective too. Huge amounts of stories to enjoy
Bury Me Cold & More Last Words by Jacob Steven Mohr — Runalong The Shelves - Here is a really interesting set of tales using letters, emails, blogs and more to tell haunting stories and lots to enjoy and appreciate how storytelling works in these formats.
One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed — Runalong The Shelves - A fascinatings et of tales from one of my favourite authors that explores life living in a totalitarian state. Who are the bad guys? Potentially everyone and this as well as delivering great stories has some messages for us now too to think about.
An Orchid In My Belly Button by Katy Wimhurst — Runalong The Shelves - Tales of the surreal, the fantastical and with a huge theme of protecting our environment. I really enjoyed this.
All The Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma — Runalong The Shelves - Just a gorgeous read of dark and fascinating stories by one of our finest short story writers. A treat of a read
Elemental Forces edited by Mark Morris — Runalong The Shelves - A Horror annual treat reaches the letter E but also supplies a host of great authors delivering their A game!
Great Robots of History by Tim Major — Runalong The Shelves - Tim major always knows how to tell interesting stories and here we play with the concept of robots in lots of ways from humour to more darker tales
The Big Book of Cyberpunk Volume 1 edited by Jared Shurin — Runalong The Shelves - An intriguing look at how cyberpunk has not just born and died in the 1980s and the scale and way a genre changes are really well portrayed in a host of great stories. I promise a review of Part 2 soon!
Dark Crescent by Lyndsey Croal — Runalong The Shelves - An author to watch out for and this mixes the fantastical and nature plus the seasons into some really powerful stories.
Heartwood - A Mythago Wood Anthology edited by Dan Coxon — Runalong The Shelves - I have still not read Mythago Wood (its been a weird year) but this anthology explores the fascinating idea of a world where all myths are real and dwell within our own world.
Black-Winged Angels by Angela Slatter — Runalong The Shelves - Angela Slatter combines revisions of fairy tales with an adult approach with a fascinating look at the history of the retelling and some of the earlier authors using this method o various degrees of effectiveness
Roots of My Fears edited by Gemma Amor — Runalong The Shelves - If there is one horror anthology I could implore you to read this year its this one! The use of international perspectives to explore how our pasts dominate our future sits makes this a anthology to read and does something very very fresh in the genre.
Uncertain Sons And Other Stories By Thomas Ha — Runalong The Shelves - Ha’s collection of tales floored me with e quality and the range displayed. This is an author who can make the world seem very strange and yet everything works and at the same time makes a point about our own world. An author to pay attention to
runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/10/7/a-graveside-gallery-tales-of-ghosts-and-dark-matters-by-eric-j-guignard - a Really good horror series
Make-Believe And Artifice by Rose Biggin — Runalong The Shelves - Biggin is an author I so so enjoy reading and this very varied collection demonstrates why I’m a huge fan
Unquiet Guests edited by Dan Coxon — Runalong The Shelves - Now this horror collection brings ten fascinating takes on the idea of a haunted house house and is a classic in the making
Futures To Live By - by Ana Sun — Runalong The Shelves - A hugely impressive collection of SF tales that also combine a sense of environmental concerns and for me demonstrating where SF may be going and finding new purpose
Blood In The Bricks edited by Neil Williamson — Runalong The Shelves - Lets take folk horror to the city is the idea of this story and its really played with by its authors and for me a fascinating read.
Hiding Under The Leaves edited by Donna Scott — Runalong The Shelves - A different take on folk horror here but equally a lot of fun to read
