Whimsical prose and characters with depth are what keep this book afloat. Unfortunately, I started each story excited for what was coming and always grew bored about halfway through. I don’t believe that any of this was due to anything except my own personal preferences!

Heiny is one of my favorite short story authors! She draws you into the inner lives of the characters so quickly and intensely. CobRa was my favorite from this collection, mixing humor with a very relatable story of a seasoned marriage. Thank you Net Galley and Knopf for the ARC.

Not a massive fan of short stories but love giving anything a go! This had lots of different stories that were very relatable, there was even one regarding the pandemic.
Being short stories I could read one in between a stand alone which I loved!
The authors writing style was easy to read too!

Katherine Heiny's short story compilation "Games and Rituals" definitely had me hoping for more. Certain stories really got me, certain stories didn't really feel as though they resonated with me as much. I would have read certain of these as books, but I was left hanging and wanted for more.

‘Games and Rituals’ by Katherine Heiny is a short story collection following the lives of ordinary people dealing with life and the funny, sad, inconvenient, and chaotic situations. These 11 short stories focus on relationships with humour and heart.
All the stories are so different but the standouts were the story of the woman whose father ate his $4000 hearing aid mistaking it for a cashew, and the story of a man who is afraid his Marie Kondo-ing wife shall find that he sparks no joy and discard him.

I rarely read short stories but I was able to get this from Netgalley (thank you Netgalley and Knopf for the copy) and I was flying for a few hours. So what's better than reading short stories on the plane? Definitely did not regret that decision because I enjoyed this book so much. Each story somehow feels like a full one, I could relate with some of the characters and felt like I understand their motivations. I haven't read Katherine Heiny's other books but I'll add them to my TBR now for sure!

Waste of my time. Short, not credibly good stories. Author uses current political social media references with my least favorites -- Trump, Markle and profanity. I read for pleasure, and I find it responsible for such things to be poignantly brought up in fiction. The storylines were mundane.

Published: 04/18/23

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for accepting my request to read and review Games and Rituals.

Perfect bite sized stories to consume you in single sittings. The stories were relatable in the shimmering way you can relate to someone you have nothing in common with. I've got Heiny on my must-read list now!

Games & Rituals by Katherine Heiny
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 stars

Thanks for the ARC @netgalley and @aaknopf !

Publication date: 4/17/23

Synopsis: The beloved author of Early Morning Riser ("The funniest novel of the year." --The Washington Post) brings us eleven glittering stories of love--friendships formed at the airport bar, ex-husbands with benefits, mothers of suspiciously sweet teenagers, ill-advised trysts--in all its forms, both ridiculous and sublime.

Thoughts:
-A darling collection of short stories
-very entertaining and varied
-really enjoyed and can’t wait to revisit some of these

4 stars!

"Games and Rituals" by Katherine Heiny is an interesting, visceral, confounding series of short stories that I really enjoyed reading. They are powerful, heartbreaking, introspective, absurd, and myopic. They show the best and the worst of what humanity can be. These stories tackle a gamut of emotions through an array of subjects, including political arguments, the COVID-19 pandemic, infidelity, creepy bosses, assault, motherhood, substance abuse, relationships between exes, mundane work, exciting jobs, etc. My favorites included "561" (my favorite, so depressing but so important), "Pandemic Behavior" (dear god, did Katherine Heiny write this short story about me and my time during the pandemic?!), “Turn Back, Turn Back“ (the way this story took me on a journey, my god, it is so so good!), “CobRa,“ and “Twist and Shout“ (I am sure this accurately describes sooooo many boomer parents, this one made me so, so angry but so, so sad). Please give this awesome collection a read. It's got something for everyone!

Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Heiny, and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

My review appears on Boston's ArtsFuse.

https://artsfuse.org/272344/book-review-katherine-heinys-games-and-rituals-charmingly-amusing-stories/

I do not award stars -

What a fantastic collection of short stories. I knew nothing about this before beginning to read and am obviously a little slow on the uptake as it took me 2-3 stories to realise that each one was going to be about a different character’s life with the ‘rituals’ forming a cohesive backbone.

These rituals include mundane acts like making a late night phone call outside an NY bodega, the types of student driver each driving examiner takes, a woman Kondo-ing her whole house…so they’re delightfully diverse. While plenty of the themes are serious there’s a playfulness to the book, perhaps because of the rituals and games of each character, which made it really enjoyable.

The writing is great and the storytelling even better, achieving that rare result of wanting more about each character while being satisfied with the ending.

I enjoyed this book of short stories, which I rarely like. Of course, like any good short story, I'm still wondering about what happened to some of the characters.

I loved Early Morning Riser, so I was thrilled to get a chance to read Games and Rituals. True story: I didn't know it was a book of short stories when I started reading. And I didn't immediately realize it was a book of short stories. However, I finally wised up. If you love Katherine Heiny's spare style, a style that reminds me a lot of Elizabeth Strout, this collection of short stories will resonate. There's a little something for everyone, and I especially enjoyed Twist and Shout, about the challenges of dealing with an aging parent. I would like an entire novel featuring the characters from Chicken Flavored and Lemon Scented.

I am not typically a short story reader but this collection was so good. It is hard to pick a favorite because so many were so good but I think my favorite may be Turn Back, Turn Back, Games and Rituals, CobRa, and Bridesmaid Revisited. This is such a great collection and Katherine Heiny's style of writing grabs the reader right away, each story was exactly right in capturing human emotions and experiences.

I enjoyed Katherine Heiny's newly released (April 2023) short-story collection, Games and Rituals: Stories. Thank you, NetGalley, for the early review copy!!

At ~240 pages it is a quick read, and I found it a good match for women who are old enough to have kids, be involved in their parents' lives, and generally have had some adult situations that they've lived through. That's me lol. I found the stories engaging, liked the focus on relationships, and some often complex dynamics within. If anything, some of the stories felt a little abrupt in their endings, but I guess that is part of the short story style. Recommend, 4-stars.

I love Katherine Heiny and Early Morning Riser is one of my favorite books. I enjoyed her stories and writing, but personally I just realized that I prefer a novel over short stories. So if you do love a collection of short stories, this will be for you!!

An eclectic assortment of short stories. Each stands alone in the sense that the characters and stories are not interwoven, but they tell a larger story of love, health, family, infertility, and life transitions.

Eleven short stories that perfectly capture how mundane, sad, joyful and downright absurd life can be. This collection is not to be missed. Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I adored the author's books Standard Deviation and Early Morning Riser so decided to give her latest a try, which is a collection of short stories.

This isn't my favorite genre, but there are exceptions. Some of the stories I loved, others not so much, but overall I'm glad I read it and recommend for fans of the author and/or genre.