Deal Me In Short Story Challenge

(Deal Me In logo above created by Mannomoi at Dilettante Artiste)

I came across this challenge and was immediately intrigued. A challenge devoted not to full length books, but rather to the short story? How excellent! The challenge is hosted here and I highly encourage you to join. It involves just a short amount of time a week (enough time to read 1 short story, or even less if you choose a lower option) and at the end of the week you will have covered a lot of different stories.

I am actually going to sign up to do 2 short stories a week. I want to do one for me from my short story collections that have been collecting dust on my overfull bookshelves and I am also to set up a second set to read and discuss with my kids. Each week I will draw one card from each of two decks of playing cards and whatever suit and number is on the card will determine which entry I read for the week. Aces will be the #1, and the face cards will be #11 for Jack, #12 for Queen and #13 for King.

My Selections for me will be taken from the following books:

Home from the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean (all 16 stories)

My Best Stories by Alice Munro (all 17 stories)

Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe (the first 19 stories)

• Hearts
1. SM - Dave Cooks the Turkey
2. SM - Holland
3. SM - Valentine's Day
4. SM - Sourdough
5. SM - Music Lessons
6. SM - Burd Week #1, Read January 2nd
7. SM - Emil
8. SM - The Birthday Party
9. SM - Summer Camp
10. SM - The Cottage
11. SM - Road Trip
12. SM - Labour Days
13. SM - School Days
• Diamonds
1. SM - A Day Off
2. SM - On the Roof
3. SM - Polly Anderson's Christmas Party
4. AM - Royal Beatings
5. AM - The Beggar Maid
6. AM - The Turkey Season
7. AM - The Moons of Jupiter
8. AM - The Progress of Love
9. AM - Miles City, Montana
10. AM - Friend of My Youth
11. AM - Meneseteung
12. AM - Differently
13. AM - Carried Away
• Spades
1. AM - The Albanian Virgin
2. AM - A Wilderness Station
3. AM - Vandals
4. AM - Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
5. AM - Save the Reaper
6. AM - Runaway
7. AM - The Bear Came Over the Mountain
8. EAP - The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
9. EAP - The Balloon-Hoax
10. EAP - Mesmeric Revelation
11. EAP - Ms. Found in a Bottle
12. EAP - A Descent into the Maelstrom
13. EAP - Von Kempelen and his Discovery
• Clubs
1. EAP - The Gold-bug
2. EAP - The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
3. EAP - The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
4. EAP - The Murders in the Rue Morgue
5. EAP - The Mystery of Marie Roget
6. EAP - The Fall of the House of Usher
7. EAP - The Purloined Letter
8. EAP - The Tell-tale Heart
9. EAP - The Black Cat
10. EAP - The Imp of Perverse
11. EAP - The Premature Burial
12. EAP - The Island of the Fay
13. EAP - The Cask of Amontillado

My Selections to read with the kids will be taken from the following books:
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (all 13 stories)
Hans Christian Anderson Treasury (all 11 stories)
Centuries of Stories edited by Wendy Cooling (all 20 stories)
Cautionary Tales by Hilaire Belloc (all 8 sets of tales)

• Hearts
1. RK - How the Whale got his Throat
2. RK - How the Camel got His Hump
3. RK - How the Rhinoceros got his Skin
4. RK - How the Leopard got his Spots
5. RK - The Elephant's Child
6. RK - The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo
7. RK - The Beginning of the Armadillos
8. RK - How the First Letter was Written
9. RK - How the Alphabet was Made
10. RK - The Crab that Played with the Sea
11. RK - The Cat that Walked by Himself
12. RK - The Butterfly that Stamped
13. RK - The Tabu Tale
• Diamonds
1. HCA - The Red Shoes
2. HCA - The Little Mermaid
3. HCA - The Fellow Traveler
4. HCA - The Snow Queen
5. HCA - The Garden of Paradise
6. HCA - The Ice Maiden
7. HCA - The Fir Trees
8. HCA - The Little Match Girl
9. HCA - The Emperor's New Clothes
10. HCA - The Tinder Box
11. HCA - The Wild Swans
12. CoS - In Ancient Time
13. CoS - Into the Dark
• Spades
1. CoS - The Wall
2. CoS - The Valley of Crocuses
3. CoS - Wistan the Strange
4. CoS - A Taste of Freedom
5. CoS - Angel to Angel
6. CoS - Odin's Day
7. CoS - Brother Aelred's Feet
8. CoS - The Hammer and the Cross
9. CoS - A Falcon for a Queen
10. CoS - The Mask
11. CoS - The Death of a Prince
12. CoS - Why Would I Lie?
13. CoS - The Mystery of the Invisable Friends
• Clubs
1. CoS - The Daughters
2. CoS - London Rises from Ashes
3. CoS - Toinette
4. CoS - North
5. CoS - Swimming in Time
6. HB - Cautionary Tales for Children
7. HB - New Cautionary Tales
8. HB - The Bad Child's Book of Beasts
9. HB - More Beasts for Worse Children
10. HB - More Peers
11. HB - A Moral Alphabet
12. HB - Ladies and Gentlemen
13. HB - The Modern Traveler