Member Reviews
I wanted to read Games and Rituals because I enjoyed Heiny’s writing in her novel Early Morning Riser and I was drawn to this cover.
Games and Rituals is one of the most enjoyable short story collections I have read. I highly recommend this collection of tender and, at times, humorous stories of personhood.
If I had to choose a favorite, I would choose the first story “Chicken-Flavored and Lemon-Scented” (the title alone had my attention). The clever and relatable “CobRa'' story also stands out in my mind and makes me smile. I truly liked each story and wanted to keep reading.
I found the stories poignant and thoughtful, but still light and pleasing. The stories capture day-to-day human behaviors and stages of life and regrets.
This review is posted on Instagram and Facebook @beginandendwithbooks and Goodreads Michelle Beginandendwithbooks
Games and Rituals is a compilation of interesting, humorous, and emotional short stories. I actually really enjoy short stories because they can be a nice break after reading a big emotional book. They aren't long enough to get super attached to the characters or stories but just long enough to keep you interested until the end. With 11 stories in total it's difficult to summarize but each were unique and I enjoyed them in their own way! I highly recommend it you enjoy short stories and quick reads. I think this would be perfect to bring along while traveling.
Thank you to @netgalley and @aaknopf for allowing me access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review!
Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny is a unique collection of stories about love that feature fascinating characters. The stories are not connected, but Heiny takes each plot and makes the ordinary extraordinary. The collection begins with Colette and her coworkers who are driving examiners. . Heiny's compassion and humor give the reader an insightful look into Colette's life at work and home. Each story is spellbinding, and although short in length, very well developed. Games and Rituals is an entertaining and thought provoking collection. I look forward to reading whatever Heiny writes next.
GAMES AND RITUALS
Katherine Heiny
More than a book about infidelity GAMES AND RITUALS by Katherine Heiny is out today where books are sold.
Most of the stories in the book are observational and affirmative in nature. There is a story about how much we drank during the pandemic (PANDEMIC BEHAVIOR), a story about DMV employees every driver can relate to (CHICKEN FLAVORED AND LEMON SCENTED) (one of my favorites), and even a story about being organized out of your life by your partner (COBRA).
Overwhelmingly this short story collection is about infidelity. Infidelity is discussed and explored in more than half of the stories featured in this collection. The book is called GAMES AND RITUALS and its namesake story is about the relationship games people play.
Although infidelity is discussed at length, going beyond that, the theme running throughout the stories is grief. Namely, an exploration of grieving how things are different from how you thought they would be, different than you planned them to be, and different than you wish they were.
It’s an exploration of the million little deaths we die every day. Everyday deaths and moments of loss that we move through as time eventually passes.
If you read GAMES AND RITUALS, come back and tell me your favorite story.
It’s out today and the audiobook version was an additional enjoyment.
Thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Random House Audio, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the advanced copies!
GAMES AND RITUALS...⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I just loved this book of short stories. Katherine Heiny has the ability to give you an understanding of fully-formed, complex characters in just a few lines, so her stories feel rich and full and complete. She deftly walks the line between light humor and depth and I just love her writing style. I adored her novel Standard Deviation, and I will be reading the other books in her backlist asap!
This writing was so good. There were a few stories I really loved that I wanted more of- Chicken Flavored and Lemon Scented, and CobRa. Heiny is amazing!
There's a link between yesterday's review and today's: Jenny Jackson, author of Pineapple Street is Katherine Heiny's editor. No prizes for guessing which book I preferred.
Games and Rituals is a collection of short stories, Heiny's second, and the follow-up to her two novels Standard Deviation (still my favourite of hers) and Early Morning Riser.
I'd put Heiny in the same category as Judy Blume, Lily King, Anne Tyler, Hilma Wolitzer - brilliant observational writing with moments of real humour and heart. I think if you like any of these authors, or shows like Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm, you'll enjoy her books.
A few stories in here made me laugh out loud. Heiny unearths hilarity and poignancy in the most mundane things - marriage, infidelity, a delayed flight, moving house, the driving test centre, the pandemic, intransigence in old age and Marie Kondo.
These are perfect stories to dip in and out of if you're time poor. I read them over the course of a couple of weeks, letting each story marinate for a day or two. While some stories were better than others (rare to find a short story collection where this isn't the case), the writing is sharp throughout, and the characters full of life. Standout stories for me were
Chicken-Flavoured and Lemon-Scented
Twist and Shout
CobRa
Pandemic Behaviour
Bridesmaid, Revisited
*Many thanks to the publisher @knopf @vintagebooks for the arc via @netgalley. Games and Rituals was published today. As always, this is an honest review.*
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for gifting me an ARC of Katherine Heiny’s short story collection Games and Rituals. In exchange I offer my unbiased opinion.
If you’re familiar with Heiny’s writing you will absolutely adore this quirky collection of 11 short stories featuring original characters and situations that only Heiny can create. Though I’m generally not a fan of short stories this collection was the perfect blend of humor and heart. From aging parents to uncoupling couples, coworkers and roommates; each story contained a slice of life that left me wanting more!!. Definitely add this one to your summer reading list!
A collection of eleven short stories about friendship, infidelity, marriage and love.
Thanks so much to Knopf Publishing and NetGalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I loved Katherine Heiny’s novel ‘Early Morning Riser’ so I was super excited to receive an advanced copy of her next book. I’m not usually a huge fan of short stories but I really enjoyed most of these. They are funny, endearing, and relatable. There is also one centered around the pandemic that hits especially close to home.
Though each story has different characters, there does seem to be a common vibe that threads all of them together. Pick this one up if you’re looking for some bite sized reads!
Katherine Heiny's writing is always a win for me. I've enjoyed her novels and I equally enjoyed this short story collection. Each of the 11 stories are captivating with quirky characters working through an array of feelings and challenges. I could have spent more time with each one. Will be recommending to my friends!
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a great short story collection you can read incrementally or in one sitting. The stories walk the beautiful balance of striking an emotional chord while also being digestible. The stories made me feel everything from somber, to anxious, to warm, to amused, to grieving.
While I enjoyed the collection, I’m not the target demographic as someone in their mid-twenties. The majority of the stories are about aging, marriage (and its dissolution), and being… more of an adult than I am, I guess. Not a bad thing; I just think millennials might connect to these stories more than I’m able to.
My favorite stories, in no order:
- Chicken-Flavored and Lemon-Scented
- CobRa
- Games and Rituals
- Twist and Shout
Overall, would highly recommend this collection, especially to read on the beach this summer.
This book is truly the first short story collection I’ve really enjoyed. I’m not usually a fan of books referencing COVID but I didn’t mind it with these. The writing was gripping and fun. Overall, a quick, entertaining read.
Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny is composed of 11 stories of people engaging in various games and rituals, as the name suggests. Each one delivers a new world with new characters, and masterfully pulls on a range of emotions. Some consider very simple experiences that we all often face while others go beyond the every day. My favorite story was Lemon Scented which is about test drivers at the DMV - it takes a turn I didn't see coming!
Overall, this is a lovely short story collection that I highly recommend. Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for the ARC. Games and Rituals is out tomorrow, 4/18/23.
I read Katherine Heiny's Early Morning Riser when it came out and it quickly became one of my favorite books of that year. I devoured her writing style and fell in love with her characters that felt quirky yet mundane at the same time (in a good way). I was excited to consume anything new of Heiny's, but unfortunately this fell flat for me.
This is a series of short stories about everyday life, filled with odd and interesting characters. I do not often read or enjoy short stories but I was hoping that these would be different. I wanted to like these, but there are no stories that stood out to me or I will remember in the future. I think the characters and stories were interesting, but I needed more time with them to feel truly connected. This pulled me out of the stories quite a bit and I failed to feel intrigued by the stories in the end. All of the reviews for this are great so far, so I think short stories just aren't for me.
Thank you to Knopf and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I didn't realize this was short stories when I picked it up, but I am so glad that it was! All eleven stories were interesting in different ways and describe new ways to think about the human experience.
This was an okay read. I don’t really read a whole lot of short stories and I felt like I wanted more from a lot of these stories. (Exhibit A as to why I don’t read many short stories.)
I did enjoy the writing style. I loved some of these stories and truly wish I could have learned more about their situationships. I did like that each one of these was so much like real life.
Overall, I liked it. Would I buy it? No. Am I mad I read it? Nope.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!
I couldn't wait to settle into this book with each story featuring a different cast of characters often in the midst of mundane, routine tasks like going to work or waiting for a delayed flight to board at the airport.
All the stories, even the most random ones, are full of elements that allow the reader to quickly identify with either the narrator or one of his characters. The author knows human nature perfectly and that is clearly reflected in the way these characters relate with each other so organically. The stories capture our connections, and disconnections, from each other individually and collectively.
Enthusiastically and highly recommend.
Thank you very much to Knopf and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.
Thank you to Knopf and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Short story collections are a category that I have been wanting to read more often. Games and Rituals did not disappoint. The most memorable thing about this collection is how real the characters and relationships were portrayed. It frequently felt like these characters reminded me of myself or someone I could possibly know in real life. Each of the stories included small details in the thoughts, actions, and settings that was so much fun to witness.
There is a nice balance of sincere emotional connection, relationship struggles, and humor. The inclusion of different types of relationships (not all of them were romantic) and characters of varying ages and circumstances was engaging. I also loved the exploration of connections between parents and children, two of my favorites were "Twist and Shout" and "Damascus".
Games and Rituals is also the first book I've ever read that had the COVID lockdown as the setting. The story "Pandemic Behavior" took me back to everything we experienced during that time. The pandemic was a time of much fear and uncertainty, but looking back at it through this lens made me laugh at all the different ways we tried to survive such as hoarding toilet paper and disinfecting groceries.
Games and Rituals was a wonderful short story collection that pulled at my heartstrings, with many sweet and funny moments. While some stories were less fulfilling than others, the majority of them were enjoyable. This book reminded me alot of the show Modern Love on Prime Video. If you are a fan of the show, you might enjoy Games and Rituals.
I loved this short story collection!
This is my first introduction to Katherine Heiny writing and it has lived up to the hype. These stories deal with aging parents, changing relationships, the DMV, the different and changing roles we live in our lives... it was everything. It's about being a human being and how we maneuver in our relationships. Most of these story were able to get in deep quickly and have me invested in the characters. They were funny, shattering, and reflective. It makes me want to read more short stories and definitely pick up her back list.
Thank you Knopf Publishing and #netgalley for this ARC and a great time
Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was a pretty good collection. There were a couple of standout stories, full of witty prose and impressively fleshed out characters.
However, a few of them were slightly long and redundant, which brought the rating down for me. Also, serious topics were introduced in several of the pieces, sometimes without the examination I would've expected.
I'm interested in examining the thru-line of these pieces and delving into more of the author's inspiration for this collection.
Topics: infidelity, relationship power imbalances (age gap, etc), complicated friendships