SHOW DON’T TELL by Curtis Sittenfeld
⭐️ rating: 6.5/10

read if you like:
📚 short stories
👩‍❤️‍👨 stories about human relationships

summary:
Short stories are always an interesting read. They provide a quick burst of plot, keeping you engaged, but before you know it, they’re over. That being said, I had a chance to review this book, and given I don’t read a lot of short stories, it might not be the most objective view, but I highly encourage you to check this book out if you DO like short stories!

These stories revolve around human relationships at pivotal points in their characters lives, forcing them to make choices. One character finds herself with a fellowship at a critical point in her education. Another meets a man after a tumultuous divorce. Another finds herself attracted to a man at her high school reunion. While none of the characters are wildly likable, all of their journeys are interesting, and following their choices and decisions at critical times in their lives is fascinating and thought-provoking. And as a bonus, if you loved PREP as much as I did, you get to read about Lee Fiora’s future, which I loved! (Still wish there had been a sequel).

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the advanced copy, and check out these stories when they release on February 25!

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfield. This was my first short story collection by her and I loved it. I've read her novels prior and really enjoyed them, so I was excited when I saw this was coming out. I really enjoyed the writing style here as well as the stories. Many of them made me think and talk to friends about them after I read them. A few I didn't click with, but like many story collections that is so normal. I also have to admit...the cover is eye catching and it got me!

I definitely plan to pick up a novel by this author. Really liked her unapologetic way of writing characters and some of the stories reminded me of HBO Girls but if they were in their 40s. I didn’t absolutely love every single story, but this was super readable and pretty amusing.

Curtis Sittenfeld could write a pamphlet on wound care and I’d read it, but her talent is definitely remarkable and these stories are well curated gems.

Neutralizing Social Anxiety and PREP and SHOW DON’T TELL by Curtis Sittenfeld

In 2005, Curtis Sittenfeld published PREP, a coming-of-age novel informed by her experiences as a boarding school student and faculty member. Sittenfeld’s upcoming (Feb. 2025) SHOW DON’T TELL revisits Lee, the main character from PREP.

Lee was a “normal” teen who attended the ultra-privileged boarding school, Ault. From day one, Lee worried that she was both different and worse or less than her affluent, effortlessly social classmates. Throughout her time at Ault, Lee followed strict rules and guidelines to avoid embarrassment in front of her peers. She never went to school dances, dodged speaking in class, edited everything she was considering saying before talking, rarely discussed feelings, and did everything possible to withhold showing her true self.

Thirty years, a successful career, marriage, divorce, and two kids later, Lee returned to Ault for a reunion. She had been back for several reunions at this point, traveling to Ault to move past the insecurity and anxiety she’d experienced back then. But, once on campus, she realized that residual point, her anxiety had dissipated.

As a high school student, Lee experienced social anxiety. It’s normal for teenagers to worry that they will embarrass themselves or feel ashamed in social settings. The difference between normal teenage jitters about socializing and social anxiety is engaging in situations, even if they feel nervous, versus going out of their way to avoid anxiety-provoking social situations.

Here are tips to neutralize social anxiety.

Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Picture looking at yourself in a funhouse mirror and seeing a distorted reflection. Social anxiety is a funhouse mirror to your thoughts, distorting them.

Use Your True Values as a Compass: What traits do you want to embody? What characteristics do people you admire hold? Make decisions that move you closer to the qualities you value.

Avoid Avoiding: Expose yourself to social anxiety provoking situations to master recognizing distorted thoughts, replacing them with balanced beliefs, and building success in social settings.

I love Curtis Sittenfeld’s writing so much. She manages to be funny, tender, acerbic, and profound within the space of a paragraph. I prefer her short stories to her novels, so I was thrilled to dive into this collection. There’s definitely a standard main character in these stories - a privileged forty-something white woman who spends a lot of time in her own head, but Curtis is so perceptive in how she writes these characters that their sameness doesn’t bother me. I always leave her stories feeling like she understands people and friendship and marriage on a remarkable level. I was also beyond delighted to get the short story featuring Lee from “Prep.” I so enjoyed my time with this collection.

Thank you for this ARC! I am a huge fan of Curtis Sittenfeld and this did not disappoint. Her short stories are among my favorites. Every story had interesting characters, the right amount of drama and a satisfying ending. I highly recommend this book!

Curtis Sittenfeld gives us exactly what the blurb says it does….
“A wry, fiercely intelligent and moving collection of short stories exploring themes of marriage and female friendship—including a story that revisits the main character from her iconic novel, Prep—from the New York Times best selling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy. Curtis Sittenfeld wields her razor-sharp wit in her second provocative collection of short stories. ….
…..read the rest of the blurb ….(it’s right on—beautifully written and should inspire any reader to grab a copy).
These are very enjoyable short stories!!

I love Curtis Sittenfeld. I’m a mushy-fan!
I haven’t missed reading anything she’s published.

“Show Don’t Tell” explores the lives of characters — of people — that we recognize — flawed — with struggles, and circumstances that can’t be controlled by force….we experience uniqueness and familiarity with our characters and stories throughout.

TOTALLY DELICIOUSLY ENJOYABLE STORYTELLING!!

Sittenfeld examines the tenuous relationships-between friends, lovers, husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, parents and child, siblings, even strangers.

In the title story …. “Show Don’t Tell”, the first story we read….(loved it) ….
Ruthie was waiting for a funding letter to arrive in the mail. Only four students from her seminar program would receive a Ryland W. Peaslee fellowship for the following year at the University. It’s a writing scholarship.
The story could have gone in a few different directions…
does Ruthie win the writing competition or not?….
But adding more to the college story are the friends and other people Ruth meets.
Ruthie was looking back at her younger self in the story …
Years later, Ruthie revisits those younger years with insights, realizations, intrigue, and down right interest.
One of my favorite stories in the collection.
Yet —
immediately I enjoyed the next story:
“The Marriage Clock”.
We met Heather Theisen. She is forty-two year old. Married to husband, Nick. Not ‘particularly happy in her own marriage at the time.
She will be flying to Mobile, Alabama to speak with the author of ‘’The Marriage Clock”….. a marital self-help book that since it’s publication four years ago, twenty million copies have been sold. It’s been translated into forty-two languages.
The plan is for a film to be made from the popular book.
Three married couples will be cast. They will be following the self-help marriage advice from the insights learned.
Heather‘s job is to convince the author. Brock Lewis, to permit one of the three fictional couples to be gay, thus far Brock Lewis retains creative approval rights of the film. He expressed an unwillingness to have one of the married couples be gay.
Heather has already made many assumptions about Brock’s character….. even before meeting him
Or reading his successful best selling book.
Fun story — could not pull away …
The friction and attraction felt between Heather & Brock is thick enough to cut the air they both share with a knife.
Great story!

The next story is called:
“White Woman LOL”

Kiwi, a Shih Tzu dog, gets loose on the Thursday before the schools and the district let out for winter break.
Kiwi’s mother is a celebrity. She’s an anchor on channel 8 evening news. And it’s widely agreed that she’s the most beautiful mother at Hardake East Elementary School. She is Black (one of the very few Black families at the school)

Another - very fun story. There’s a party you won’t want to miss …
And here’s one small excerpt to share from this story:
“It’s interesting how Kiwi has mobilize people, Ken says. If our neighbors paid a fraction of the attention, they’re giving a dog to any qualities in public education, what could be achieved?”

In the story:
“THE RICHES BABYSITTER IN THE WORLD” …. we become quickly involved in the tale.
A young, bright, educated couple hires a babysitter for three year old Sophie.
Diane and Byron are the parents.
Readers will be curious about the title of this story right away …
I loved how it’s told and all comes together.
Insights and even inspiration are what I was left with.

This review would be pages longer if I share tidbits from each story …
So….
I’ll simply wrap this review up by sharing that universal themes are examined in all the stories.
Curtis is fabulous in presenting stories that feel real - interesting- funny - and are thought-provoking…
Be it a friendship, an issue about race, or class, art, literature, marriage, dreams, old memories, sexuality, coming of age, parenting, education, career,struggles and conflicts….
the stories are engaging and entertaining.

“Are you in more of a Kleenex mood or a wine mood?”
“Option C, Kleenex, and wine”. 📚✍️🍷🍕👩‍🎓💃🕺🏼🤷🏿‍♂️

Terrific!!! Highly recommend! ❤️

A collection of mismatched, highly flawed humans are navigating their lives mistakes in Show Don't Tell. The question is, have they learned? Can they change? Sittenfeld offers up frighteningly real scenarios and characters so sharply realized that it's still a pleasure (even when you might recognize your own misdeeds in their stories).
Darkly ironic, straightforward and sharp - this is a perfect set of short stories #randomhouse #curtissittnfeld #showdonttell

I received a copy of this collection of short stories from the publisher via NetGalley.

I enjoyed these, but they were fairly same-y. The tone didn't vary much, and there were a lot of protagonists who were upper middle-class/wealthy white women in their forties coming to the end of a first marriage who are prone to overthinking things and who on meeting a new person note and muse on whether they are Black or not and what this means.

My favourites were 'A for Alone', about a woman who invites male friends and acquaintances to have lunch with her for an art project about Mike Pence/Billy Graham's policy of never being alone with a woman who is not their wife (or whatever the exact working is); and the final one, 'Lost But Not Forgotten', which was sweetly romantic.

I will read anything Curtis Sittenfeld writes. I prefer her novels over her short stories but that is because I just love longer stories in general. She writes with great detail and each story is different and I enjoyed each one. I really liked that I got to read about the main character from Prep and see what she was up to. The characters in these stories seem real and so you want to keep reading. That makes a great book.

I think that Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the most talented American short fiction writers working today, and I absolutely adored this collection. The stories are funny, sharp, and poignant by turns, and distinct enough to feel unique yet thematically linked. She is so good at establishing character in just a few pages (or even sentences) and I tore through this collection even as I marveled at the skill of it. I particularly enjoyed The Marriage Clock, White Women LOL, and The Richest Babysitter in the World, and between this collection and Romantic Comedy I think Sittenfeld is on a real hot streak.

This collection of short stories is another home run for Curtis Sittenfeld. I enjoyed all of them, and I was particularly happy to catch up with Lee from “Prep”. Highly recommended!

I am a big, big fan of Sittenfeld (although I wasn't crazy about Romantic Comedy but that's ok) and even though I'm not a big short story person, I remember liking her other collection of short pieces (You Think It, I'll Say It) so I requested this ARC (thank you NetGalley!). Every piece is a gem. A gem. They're all about women just like us--women who are trying to do their best, but the crazy world sometimes gets in the way. I loved every single story in this collection, even the one I read earlier (The Tomorrow Box) and I can tell this is a collection I'll return to again and again to absorb the nuance and beauty of Sittenfeld's writing.

This book was just sooooo good! I can not wrap my head around it still, days later. It was just such a fantastic story. I have shared it with everyone. It was wonderful. It'd be a great book club read.

Curtis Sittenfeld returns with Show Don’t Tell: Stories, a compelling collection of short stories that delves deep into the complexities of relationships, artistic pursuits, and the relentless quest for personal meaning. Through sharp wit, unflinching honesty, and a dose of humor, Sittenfeld explores marriage, long-term friendships, fame, and ambition in ways that are both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Each story introduces characters at crucial junctures in their lives—whether they’re facing the tension of a strained marriage, reflecting on past choices, or struggling to define themselves amid societal expectations. Sittenfeld’s signature insight shines through, capturing the inner conflicts of her characters, who often find themselves torn between societal norms and their personal desires.

In some of the stories, the characters aren’t always easy to love. But their flaws only make them more real, as they grapple with the emotional weight of ambition, privilege, and identity. There’s a rawness to these interactions, whether it’s the discomfort of a reunion with old friends or the complications of an ill-advised creative experiment. And as the stories unfold, readers are invited to examine their own lives and beliefs, even when the characters’ journeys are messier than anticipated.

One standout tale revisits Lee Fiora from Prep, offering fans a glimpse into how time has shaped her in unexpected ways. This sense of revisiting the past, whether through familiar characters or reflective moments, is a recurring theme, adding depth to the collection’s exploration of adulthood.

Sittenfeld has always excelled at humanizing her characters, and here, even the more unsympathetic ones are written with empathy, revealing the vulnerabilities beneath their hardened exteriors. The dialogue feels sharp and authentic, drawing us into the characters’ lives with the ease and precision of a seasoned storyteller.

Overall: Show Don’t Tell is a masterful collection that captures the messiness of life in a way only Sittenfeld can. These stories are both funny and poignant, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of characters who, like many of us, are still figuring it all out. Fans of her novels will appreciate the nuanced storytelling and emotional depth that makes this collection so captivating.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group to provide me this engaging story book's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange of my honest thoughts.

Love the premise of these short stories. Interesting reads for women especially. Definitely something to keep on your radar when released next year!

It is always a treat to read a new book by Curtis Sittenfeld. Her writing never disappoints.

Her newest is short story collection, in which we meet various characters at pivotal points in their lives. There is a similar trajectory that runs throughout these vastly varied plots: the dilemma of leading a quiet life, married or not, kids, career or reaching for ones dreams and doing anything to get there.

I didn't find the characters in these stories to be particular empathetic towards either others or themselves. In fact, many were unlikeable and there is plenty of cliqueishness, infighting, frenemies, and the like. But the story carried the characters on the someone surprising conclusions, and in the end the reader realizes that the unlikeable woman or man is simply trying to make sense of their own lives, although perhaps doing some damage along the way they may or may not apologize for.

It's a book of stories that makes the reader think: about priorities, satisfaction vs gratification, and with a lot of flashbacks to earlier years in these stories, how to proceed with ones' adult lives.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.