I LOVE this author so clicked request without really paying attention to the description. I just am not a big fan of short stories. I appreciate the artistry and creativity with them but I want more time with the story and characters.

I have read many of Sittenfeld's books, and think I like her full length novels better than the short stories. I really liked "Romantic Comedy" and some others farther back. I read "You think it, I'll say it" and I think if you liked that, you'll like this.

As usual, her writing and astute observations are precise. But the stories mainly get their (usuallly middle aged women) main characters into really akward or uncomfortable situations, and then just end -- they leave you hanging or give you what feels like a little shove off a cliff.

I did like the 'later in life' story about the girl from PREP, though I read that so long ago, I didn't really remember any of the specific characters. But that one at least had some sense of contentment at the end. The rest just felt like they had abrupt cut-offs or didn't really conclude, which I think was intended, and is often the way with short stories.

So - good, but I prefer her novel-length writings.

Story collections can be hit or miss. It’s not unusual for some to include exceptional stories followed by a dud or for a story to feel incomplete. This collection is filled with winners and all totally satisfying! Each story is so smartly written. At first glance you might think the stories are pretty straightforward but there is so much nuance when you dig a little deeper. Her characters are so real and many of their situations are relatable.

I read this in print and audio - both were fantastic! I would eagerly reread any one of these stories. As a non-rereader that tells me this collection is deserving of five glowing stars!

Read If You Like:
- Short stories exploring contemporary life
- Character-driven narratives
- Themes of marriage, friendship, and personal reflection
- Witty and keen observations of social dynamics
- Revisiting familiar characters from previous works

Curtis Sittenfeld's *Show Don't Tell* is a compelling collection of short stories that delves into the intricacies of modern relationships, personal ambitions, and the subtle complexities of everyday life. The anthology features protagonists, often middle-aged, who find themselves at pivotal moments of introspection and change.

In The Richest Babysitter in the World, a professor reflects on her decision to decline a job offer from a now-prominent tech mogul, finding contentment in her chosen path. A for Alone presents a married artist embarking on a project to challenge societal norms about male-female interactions, inspired by the Mike Pence rule. Fans of Sittenfeld's debut novel *Prep* will appreciate Lost but Not Forgotten, which revisits protagonist Lee Fiora as she attends her boarding school's 30-year reunion, offering a poignant look at growth and the passage of time.

Sittenfeld's sharp observational skills bring depth to her characters, capturing the nuances of their thoughts and interactions. Her writing balances humor and insight, making these stories both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Thanks so much to the publisher for my gifted ARC!

After loving Sittenfeld’s previous novel Romantic Comedy, I was excited to read this new short story collection. While the writing is immersive, and some of the stories are quite impactful, the overarching tone is very melancholy, which was unexpected after the sparkling humour of her earlier novel. I appreciated Sittenfeld’s interest and commitment to portraying the daily lives and internal struggles of middle-aged Midwestern women, but I found this focus made it almost impossible to differentiate between the narrators of each story; the effect was that it read almost like a novel of individual snapshots from the same perspective, following pretty much the same format, instead of a collection of distinct pieces. The recurring themes of unhappy marriages and missed chances added to this effect, so though I recognize the technical craft of the stories, I was left feeling underwhelmed.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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.