Dear Readers,
How have you been?
In India, the past few days have been a riot of colors and sparkles as families got together for the Deepawali celebration – The Festival of Lights. And let’s not forget the grand exchange of sweets and savouries that could give a dessert buffet a run for its money.
Ah, the sweet memories of yesteryears! I used to be the pint-sized accomplice to my parents’ sweetmeat heist. We’d embark on a mission to the sweet shop, conducting serious taste tests of every conceivable sugary delight. It was like a covert operation, deciding which treats made the cut for bulk purchases meant to impress relatives and friends.
Years later came the Kindle era, and oh boy, the parallels were uncanny! Exploring the Kindle store felt like navigating a literary sweet shop. Each book tempting with a 10% free sample – a literary amuse-bouche. It was like saying, “Here, have a bite, and if you fancy it, the whole feast is just a click away!”
And just like those delightful days of sampling sweets, the Kindle store had its own version of literary treats – free, bite-sized stories that you can devour in one sitting. It’s like having a quick literary snack, maybe the equivalent of a mini bowl of rasmalai.
In today’s post, I share with you some of the best bite-sized stories that I have read and loved on Amazon Kindle. And the best part? They are absolutely free!
Note: If you do not have the Kindle device you can download the Free Kindle app on your phone and read.
She was the only person left in the city. Maybe even in the world.
Manorama wakes up to an empty world. The birds still chirp outside, but every single human being seems to have disappeared, along with her husband Vinod and their two children.
And then, even before Manorama has had a chance to deal with the situation, there is a phone call from an unknown number. Perhaps she’s not as alone as she thought. Soon, she discovers a child who claims to be her husband’s illegitimate son.
As Manorama and her unlikely companion embark on a journey to find some answers, they realize that the nightmare is only just beginning.
Can Manorama confront the demons from her past to make sense of the present, or will the truth destroy her?
The Last Ones is a crowdsourced story about loneliness and human connections, built chapter by chapter by writers across the world, brought together by the power of storytelling.
Authors include Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Nikita Singh, Sandeepa Mukherjee Datta, Kanchana Banerjee, Sumira Khan, Krusha Sahjwani, Neha Gupta, Mohana Talapatra, Snigdha Mallik, Harini Srinivasan, Gitanjali Maria, Shreya Gupta, Shylin Sam, Ananya Banerjee, Leena Pandey and Priyadarshika Ingle.
A woman on the run finds refuge in a motel at the edge of the woods, with plenty of vacancies. Check in for the night with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.
Eve has a fake ID, a .38, and a violent lover receding in the rearview mirror. He’ll never find her at the isolated motel, and its kindly manager is happy to ease her fears. But if Eve is the only guest, whom does she keep hearing on the other side of the wall? Eve won’t get a good night’s rest until she finds out.
Lisa Unger’s The Sleep Tight Motel is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.
A genealogy test sparks a woman’s reflection on the two accounts of her life—the real one and the one she’s always told the world—in this poignant short story by Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild.
In 1964 teenage Geraldine Waters was sent away by her parents to an unwed mothers’ home, where she gave up her newborn for adoption. Ever since, she’s lived an alternative narrative. Decades later, it’s time for Geraldine to reconcile the telling of her life, to finally grieve, and to discover what happened to that part of her past that slipped away.
Cheryl Strayed’s This Telling is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
The emotional storms weathered by a mother and daughter yield a profound new understanding in a moving short story by the bestselling, award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists.
When Zikora, a DC lawyer from Nigeria, tells her equally high-powered lover that she’s pregnant, he abandons her. But it’s Zikora’s demanding, self-possessed mother, in town for the birth, who makes Zikora feel like a lonely little girl all over again. Stunned by the speed with which her ideal life fell apart, she turns to reflecting on her mother’s painful past and struggle for dignity. Preparing for motherhood, Zikora begins to see more clearly what her own mother wants for her, for her new baby, and for herself.
A special Christmas gift for fans of Sophie Kinsella, available to download for free! Includes a mini short story, Six Geese a-Laying, and sneak peak at the first chapter of Sophie’s fabulous new novel, I’ve Got Your Number.
In Six Geese a-Laying, Christmas is approaching, and Ginny is looking forward to the birth of her first baby. It’s a pity her partner Dan is so useless, and she has to keep reminding him where he’s going wrong. Luckily she’s enrolled into the most exclusive antenatal class going – all the highest achieving, smartest mothers-to-be aspire to be taught by the legendary Petal Harmon. Like the other five women in the class, Ginny already knows exactly what she wants, and how she’s going to handle motherhood.
But when they turn up for the final class it isn’t quite what they expect. As Ginny discovers what parenthood is really going to be like, she begins to realize the things that really matter…
Liked these? Then you might like the ones below as well (by Yours Truly)
