Book cover of Emergency: Stories

Book description

A professor finds a photograph of her deceased mother in a compromising position on the wall of a museum. A twenty-something's lucrative remote work sparks paranoia and bigotry. A transplant to a new city must make a choice about who she trusts when her partner reveals a violent history. The…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Emergency as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The title says it all. In this short story collection, simply being a woman is a kind of emergency. These stories are slow burns, full of interiority and character development. The devastation is in the details: tiny moments that reveal deep-seated fears and barely acknowledged longings.

Each story is full of quiet revelations: there’s subtlety in the dangers these women face; in fact, it’s woven into the very fabric of their lives.  

Alcott’s prose is stunning, and I found these stories haunting in the best possible way. Her vivid descriptions of place add authenticity to these stories of women seeking a modicum of happiness in their struggle for personal and financial freedom. To pick up the pieces, or finally be rid of what’s best left behind. For me, every complicated relationship, every aspiration and self-destructive choice, rang true.

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Aggressor by FX Holden,

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The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

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