Quoted: Listen to Confucius

 January has just flown by and already we’re on day two of our shortest month of the year. If you’ve resolved to read more this year and so far you’re not doing that well, we’ve got a solution. Why not try short stories or novellas? Even if you can only carve out a little time to read, you can still get the whole story!Just Pretending by Lisa Bird-Wilson (Coteau Books)At the centre of this collection of short stories are notions of identity and belonging, and the complex relationships between children and parents, both those who are real and those who are just pretending.The Western Home by Catherine Cooper (Pedlar Press)”Home on the Range” is the protagonist of The Western Home, a collection of stories with a cast of supporting characters who helped shape the song’s destiny by writing, rewriting, singing, recording, claiming and disowning it.Swimming With Chaucer by Dan Yashinsky (Insomniac Press)Dan Yashinsky has been a working storyteller for more than thirty years. In this collection of stories and thoughts, Dan Yashinsky shares gems from his treasure trove of material.Some Extremely Boring Drives by Marguerite Pigeon (NeWest Press)Marguerite Pigeon’s gifts for quick characterization and muscular dialogue are on full display in this collection of short stories, filled with lost souls drifting through exotic locales, reinventing themselves on the fly.Brilliant by Denise Roig (Signature Editions)Brilliant is a collection of short stories set in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, a polyglot city where cultures collide and converge, where money, and sometimes justice, is no object, where in less than two generations towers have replaced tents.Everything is So Political, edited by Sandra McIntyre (Roseway Publishing)The stories within Everything Is So Political explore the intersection between politics and the contemporary short story. From the overt to the subtle, this collection tackles a broad range of topics and themes, from women’s rights and Aboriginal culture to environmentalism, terrorism and totalitarianism.Moss-Haired Girlby R.H. Slansky (Anvil Press)In this ambitious short novel, R.H. Slansky weaves a complex narrative about the very nature of narrative: it is an annotated re-issue of a fictional autobiography that casts a questioning eye on the reliability of family lore.Full of Lit, edited by the Literary Press GroupNot sure where to start with short stories? Try our sample of short stories that we put together for Short Story Month 2014. Full of Lit includes 12 stories from 12 different publishers and writers.