I always intend to read more short stories so this was a great opportunity to make good after loving the author’s novel Romantic Comedy. And after reading this collection, I’m even more sure I’ll enjoy her earlier books. The stories cover a range of topics: marriage, race, and how the past might seem different through another lens. Every story had fully developed characters who felt real to me despite the short amount of time I spent with them. A couple stood out more than others. A movie producer going to visit a Christian author to try to convince him to let them include a LGBTQ+ couple in the movie adaptation of his self help book The Marriage Clock. An artist starts a project where she invites men she knows to have lunch with her to test the Mike Pence rule—that married people shouldn’t be alone with members of the opposite sex.

Each story left me with a lot to ponder and, for many of them, I would have gladly stayed in the world of the story for an entire novel. Which is why I came to the conclusion that I might not actually be the right audience for short stories. As good as I can tell you these were, and as much as I enjoyed the characters, they all left me unsettled (a feeling I especially don’t want at this particular moment in time) and I wanted to know more about almost all them. Which is not to say that the stories weren’t perfect encapsulations of what the author wanted to communicate. They were beautiful. Fascinating. Thought provoking. I just finished the book wanting more. Which is not a bad thing considering still have Sittenfeld’s backlist to tackle.

The audiobook for this one was really well done with seven narrators tackling the twelve stories, including some of my absolute favorites like Michael Crouch and the author herself. It definitely helped to immerse me in the different stories immediately to have such talented narration.

I loved Prep so much. But all of Curtis’s other books have been so different! Which is ok. I just haven’t loved them as much. This one was a lot of short stories.

I asked to review this book because I've read all of Curtis Sittenfeld's books and loved them.

This book was not an exception. I feel like she does such a good job of crafting characters that are three dimensional. Sometimes you like them, sometimes you don't, and sometimes you relate to them and feel seen because it's the unlikable part that is reminding you of yourself. I also enjoy how she manipulates the timelines in her stories, bouncing back in time and slowly revealing backstory and building meaning.

My favorite stories were:
"A for Alone" - the premise that the main character was experimenting with a rule Billy Graham and Mike Pence both live their lives by was intriguing to me since both those men are so anathema to me (much like the protagonist of that story).
"Giraffe and Flamingo" - Great example of the non-linear timeline.
"The Hug" is kind of a story about nothing, but in a way that felt really true to how over wrought things could feel during COVID.

Show Don’t Tell is Curtis Sittenfeld, a woman nearly the same age as me, putting her musings to paper as she tries to make sense of her place in the world at this stage in her life. She questions the strength and dynamics of marriages and parent-child relationships, the nature of friendships, the validity of decisions made early in life, and the consideration of a middle-aged woman’s view of her role and contributions to society and social norms. It is a natural reflection as we figure out where we are and what comes next.

However, despite the relatability of her musings, Sittenfeld falls short in translating them into coherent short stories. I would go so far as to say she falls short in showing and not telling her stories, having to explain at the conclusions of many of them.

Short stories are one of my favorite genres because while they only provide a snapshot in time of a great story, the reader can often see the backstory and extrapolate the future. I could not do these with most of the stories and found myself disappointed at the end of each one.

The title story “Show Don’t Tell” was the strongest for me, yet the transitions between past and present seemed clunky, and the Ruthie-Lorraine connection could have made for a more beautifully human story. “The Marriage Clock” featured a producer ready to jump into an affair without fully fleshing out the downward spiral of her marriage to show exactly how ironic is the outcome of the story. “White Women LOL” and “The Patron Saints of Middle Age” give cringy looks at relationships based on race without exploring them enough to make sense of why they had to be so cringy. The theme of self-acceptance by examining past behaviors in “The Tomorrow Box”, “A For Alone”, and “Giraffe and Flamingo” never fully developed.

While I can confidently say the Sittenfeld is a talented writer with a loyal following and that I have enjoyed her work in the past, I can also confidently say this was not a rewarding or substantially impressive collection for me.

Thank you to Random House for the ARC of this book through NetGalley, which I received for my honest review. Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld will be available to the public on February 25, 2025.

Show Don't Tell is a collection of short stories by Curtis Sittenfeld. She is the author of Romantic Comedy and Eligible, both of which I have read and greatly enjoyed. So when I had the opportunity to snag an advanced copy of her newest collection, I jumped at it. Each and every story left me wanting more. I could devour an entire novel about each of the characters--primarily strong, midwestern individuals--and what happens to them after the end of the narrative.

I never read Prep, which is one of those quintessential coming of age stories. But the final story in this collection features the main character, Lee Fiora, as an adult returning to her boarding school for a reunion and now Prep is on my must read list.

Curtis Sittenfeld is by far one of my top three favorite authors of all time, and I will read anything and everything she writes, happily and without delay. She is masterful because she can weave together an entire tale that takes the better part of 400 pages, but she can also tell a short story with the best of them. I have found myself thinking about the Lee Fiora (MC in Sittenfeld's 2004 novel Prep) college reunion story for weeks now, because it was such a bold, exciting choice for an author to make.

Most people know Curtis Sittenfeld for her bestselling novels, Prep, Eligible, and Romantic Comedy, among others. This is her second short story collection; the first is You Think It; I’ll Say It. In Show Don’t Tell (an admonition attributed to Anton Chekov that is often given to writers) you will find her trademark humor. These very modern stories feature working women (usually wives – with varying degrees of happiness) in contemporary situations. In “The Marriage Clock,” Heather is married to a stay-at-home dad, a bassist in a rock band who wears a man-bun. She can’t help but compare him to the Christian conservative author wearing khakis and Top-siders she has flown south to meet in order to get him to concede to the addition of a gay couple in the film version of his book. Another selection, “White Women LOL” features a lost Shih Tzu named Kiwi and an awkward social encounter that goes viral. It’s funny, but also thought-provoking. The characters have inner narratives to go with the dialogue, and most likely, you will recognize their busy, fraught lives.
Again, short stories are easily picked up and put down, but you might want to read more than one at the time.

This was a trough read. It did not grip me & I did not find the charcters particularly interesting. I am a big fan of some of the authors previous works; Eligible & Romantic Comedy. Those stories were both great! For those who have read Prep, there will be motivation to pick up this collection of short stories. These short stories just weren't my style but other fans of the author may feel differently. It just didn't captivate my attention. The stories felt boring & not fully planned out. I will still look forward to author's next novel as I have loved the two I read.

This was a fantastic short story collection. There wasn’t one story I didn’t throughly enjoy. My favorite was A For Alone. I thought Irene’s idea was a good one but I thought the direction the story took was not what I expected.

To me, a good measure of a short story is: does it make me want more? Do I wish it were turned into a longer story?
The case with most of the stories in Sittenfeld's new collection is yes, I felt invested in the story and wished I could carry on through these women's lives. I enjoyed the addressing of many contemporary issues without too much weight (but I still always want more).
They stories were engaging and easy to read - I wanted to start another as soon as I finished one.

This collection of short stories feels simultaneously timely and timeless. Centered around characters (mostly women of various ages) living with two feet on the same ground we walk day to day, each story captures a piece of a life with care, detail, and the magic of observation. My personal favorite stories from the collection were "The Marriage Clock," about a producer's encounter with a perfectly written amalgam of every conservative-ish relationship guru, and "White Women LOL" about...you can probably guess. There's not really a throughline to these stories other than "living as a person in the world," and truly that's one of my favorite themes.

An engaging collection of 12 stories (which have been published elsewhere) about women at crossroads. Sittenfeld spares us drama and focuses on the small things in life (and the medium ones at well) inflection points. These women are not always likable but you will recognize them. While much has made of the fact that we get a followup on the life of Lea Flora from Prep, don't worry if you haven't read that novel (or don't remember the details) as the story stands on its own. I enjoyed these stories and would recommend reading them one per day because there is a certain sameness that might otherwise feel large. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

The first 2-3 stories had laugh out loud moments or twists that were fairly good. As a collection, these stories feature mostly middle aged women dealing with a variety of contemporary social issues, and even as individual stories it feels like doing a bit too much and none of it deeply enough.

This was a good compilation of short stories about women. If you're a fan of Curtis Sittenfeld, I think you will like this one.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely

To be shared on Instagram and goodreads on 2/25:

Curtis Sittenfeld’s new short story collection, Show Don’t Tell, delighted me with masterfully written quick slices from the lives of other women (and at least one man). I found the stories fun to read, relatable and thought-provoking without being preachy or heavy-handed. I love short stories because they seem like a collection of glimpses into the author’s mind, and this collection delivered.

This was my first time reading a Sittenfeld short story collection. Wow - a tour de force. Heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, immersive from start to finish. Sittenfeld packs emotional punches in short-form fiction more effectively than many authors are able to convey in long-form. Brava!

4.5 stars! An absolutely stellar short story collection from Curtis Sittenfeld. The last story features Leigh Fiorra, the protagonist from Sittenfeld's novel, Prep. So glad we get to drop in and see how she's doing after all this time!
Pretty sure Curtis Sittenfeld can do no wrong. She is highly clever and highly entertaining.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this digital e-arc.*

I'm going to be completely honest with you: I don't like short stories. I have read all of the Lydia Davis and George Saunders and they are never the right fit for me. But I knew I had to read Show Don't Tell when I heard that we were going to revisit the world of Prep, a book that I must have read 5x in my university years. And I am so glad that I did.

Anyone who has ever read Curtis Sittenfeld knows she is clever and funny and always has just the right take on the world. These stories feature grown women, something that is such a theme in publishing right now, and I am here for it. Contemplative and heartwarming, these stories were a lot of fun to read. And of course, I enjoyed getting a glimpse of Lee's life! Maybe I'm a short story convert after all.

I read and loved PREP as a teenager in 2005, and I can't believe how similarly SHOW DON'T TELL affects me as an adult. Sittenfeld's writing identifies something in me I struggle to name; it makes me feel more seen and less alone & ridiculous in my inescapable human-ness. I didn't go to a fancy boarding school but PREP still cut to the heart of who I was, and that's true of this story collection at my age now, though I'm neither a mother nor a wife. Sittenfeld is such a talent. Her observations are incisive and devastating, and her work has a deeply sad/funny quality that I absolutely love in a piece of writing. Her voice rings so absolutely true. I can't wait to buy this one for my own collection in addition to the library's!

I've been a giant fan of Curtis Sittenfeld for a while now. She's for sure an auto read author for me. Although I don't often read short stories, I requested this book from Net Galley as soon as I saw it. I loved it. Sittenfeld does such a great job of letting the reader feel for her characters and never once did I feel like this was less than due to the short length. In fact, all of the stories were so satisfying I didn't feel like I was missing anything a longer time with the characters would have given me.
Curtis Sittenfeld is for sure one of my favorite authors and this just further solidifies that.

Attention St. Louisans: There are sooooo many references to such specific STL things in these stories (Waterman and McPherson, The Loop, the amount of time it takes to walk around Tower Grove, Forest Park running trail, the Hill, etc.). This was just an added bonus for me and I couldn't love it more.
Many thanks to Net Galley, the publisher, and of course, Curtis Sittenfeld for allowing me the early opportunity to read this book. I can't wait for more to have the chance to do so.