Delightfully Short Books
I recently wrote about really long books, so I am presenting the opposite in this post. Maybe this is your idea of summer reading. Need a book you can read in one sitting? Want something lightweight to pack in your luggage? These novellas will entertain and inspire.
Foster by Claire Keegan (2010)
128 pages
This brief novella felt more like a short story than a novella. A girl in Ireland is sent to live with distant relatives for a season while her family is overwhelmed. With the old farming couple, she finds the unconditional love she was lacking at home.
Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire (started 2016)
Book 1, 176 pages; Book 2, 198; Book 3, 176; Book 4, 208; etc.
What happens to children who have gone through doors to magical worlds and then returned to this reality? One option is to attend a boarding school for others like them, where they try to cope with being stuck in this world and wait for the day when their magic doorway reappears. The series of novellas and short novels follows many different characters, sometimes in this world, sometimes in the magic worlds, and sometimes in between.
Fractured Fables series by Alix E. Harrow (started 2021)
Book 1, 112 pages; Book 2, 196
This series begins with A Spindle Splintered, a Sleeping Beauty retelling. The novella, which can be read deliciously in one sitting, focuses on Zinnia, who is about to turn 21. Her birthday is significant because she has a rare disorder with which no one has lived past that age. Zinnia is magically pulled into the Sleeping Beauty tale. Within, she may find a way to extend her life and save others doomed to their fates. I adored this exploration of victims and heroes.
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (2025)
176 pages
Four robots who were indentured to work in a now-defunct restaurant reboot themselves and restart the venue as a noodle shop in a post-apocalyptic California. Because robots aren’t allowed to own property, they have to be sneaky in their endeavors. An embittered smear campaign on a delivery app threatens to shut them down. The four characters are sweet and complex; a funny and delightful read.