Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant and haunting!
Review: I read this book last summer and some of the stories are still lurking in my head... quite an amazing feat for tales only 55 words long! Each story (with few exceptions) made me feel as if I had just read a novel. This book is essential to any story-lover's library.
Rating: 
Summary: A new genre -- tight writing
Review: Perhaps we should all limit our book reviews to 55 words... Like haiku, this genre is minimalist. Like haiku, the best is eternal; the worst is DOA. This tiny volume sits on my shelf silenty questioning me .... What would Thomas Carlyle or Sir Walter Scott have thought? ( And this review now is at 55 words....)
Rating:
Summary: A new genre -- tight writing
Review: Perhaps we should all limit our book reviews to 55 words... Like haiku, this genre is minimalist. Like haiku, the best is eternal; the worst is DOA. This tiny volume sits on my shelf silenty questioning me .... What would Thomas Carlyle or Sir Walter Scott have thought? ( And this review now is at 55 words....)
Rating: 
Summary: As uneven as any anthology
Review: Short-shorts are a natural story form - parables, fables, religious teaching tales, jokes ... Stories in 55 words or less, however, are artifical - essentially placing restrictions on the story as a challenge or exercise. Such exercises are useful as they develop a sense of the raw materials - words; but as literature only a few succeed.Some of the more enjoyable stories in this collection add additional restrictions - all nouns, words all starting with the same letter, etc. - in a manner similar to the Oulipo group. The stories that work best are one's where the surprise ending is not one of identity ... e.g. the stories work better if the surprise is not who is attempting to murder you but one of that they are trying to kill you. Bedtime Story by Jeffrey Whitmore is a memorable story that succeeds on this basis. Another type of story that seems to work as literature are those that are not artificially compressed but which could easily be passed on in daily conversation in as compact a from as they are written. A Second Chance by Jay Bonestell fits in this category. I am less impressed by stories such as Rites of Passage which reminded me too strongly of the Country song "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" - the story set up the misconception that "He" refers to lover or would-be-lover that the actual identity of "Father" only half takes hold. I can recommend this book as a bridge between poetry and prose, as inspiration for writing exercises etc., but I only recommend it as literature for about a quarter of its content.
Rating:
Summary: great readers, great stories...
Review: Suzanne Toren, Kathy Garver, and the King at this stuff...Frank Muller. You couldn't ask for a better group of readers for this project. This recording is a collection of "fifty-five fiction" stories. "Fifty-five fiction" stories are short stories that must be told in fifty-five words or less. Like this review was. Get it today.
Rating:
Summary: One example of the greatness this book has to offer
Review: Thanks to Jay Bonestell: A SECOND CHANCE: His love had gone. In despair, he flung himself off the Golden Gate Bridge. Coincidentally, a few yards away, a girl made her own suicide plunge. The two passed in mid-air. Their eyes met. Their chemistry clicked. It was true love. They realized it. Three feet above the water. Breathtaking! MW
Rating: 
Summary: Review of the World's Shortest Stories
Review: The New York Post says: "Shorter and sassier are these tiny tales, all amazing for their telling brevity. There are dozens of stories, not one of which is longer than 55 words. Some are humorous, some are gory, some are romantic, and almost all have a twist. ...quite terrific."
Rating: 
Summary: The best short stories and a few that don't deserve the hype
Review: The reason I give this book a 2 out of 5 stars is because only 2 out of 5 of the stories are good at all.(ratio) Some of the short stories are great.....but a lot of them are terrible. It's hard to judge a story in 50 words but that is no excuse for understanding the difficulty and excepting it as a good story.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT!!! It shows less is MORE!!!
Review: This book contains incredibly complete and haunting 55-word stories (this review is 55 words). Horror. Romance. Mystery. Crime. Many have trick endings. You'll read this wonderful book repeatedly. I've always wanted to write a 55-word story about a hideous monster who devours people who write too many reviews for Amazon but no one would believe
Rating:
Summary: GREAT!!! It shows less is MORE!!!
Review: This book contains incredibly complete and haunting 55-word stories (this review is 55 words). Horror. Romance. Mystery. Crime. Many have trick endings. You'll read this wonderful book repeatedly. I've always wanted to write a 55-word story about a hideous monster who devours people who write too many reviews for Amazon but no one would believe
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