Elizabeth McCracken’s collection of twelve short stories, The Souvenir Museum, is beautifully written. Each story is deeply thought provoking; I read them slowly, and many stayed with me for days. McCracken has an impressive ability to develop her characters and plot convincingly and tastefully in a brief period of time. While each story was different, the theme of relationships appeared in most of the pieces.

This is the second work of hers that I have read. The collection begins with “The Irish Wedding,” where we meet two characters, Sadie and Jack. Their stories are then woven into the collection; they appear in several other stories, including the final one. This allows the reader to follow some common threads throughout the pieces. When reading these short stories, I enjoyed the balance of novelty and familiarity. By the end, returning to Sadie and Jack felt like revisiting old friends. Elizabeth McCracken did a highly remarkable job with this collection; I am ready to read it again! I would recommend The Souvenir Museum for all readers who are yearning for well-written, short pieces.

The stories in this collection are so original, and woven together in a genius way. The stories make you think, even long after you've finished reading, down to their titles! The characters were hardly relatable (for me, at least) and yet there were lines in every story that felt so resonant. This was an enjoyable read and a joy to read aloud! Definitely recommend.

This is an eclectic mix of short stories, and while some hooked me more than others, this was a delight to read. It made me laugh and tear up and just feel all the things. I recommend reading a story a night rather than binging.

Ah, Elizabeth McCracken. I have read a number of her books over the years. They often have a Massachusetts connection and they all have a quirky wit and everyday comfort to them. Her latest story collection The Souvenir Museum features interconnected stories about an extended family and others. We meet many of the same characters across multiple stories.

Jack and Sadie are a young couple. She's American and he is from Ireland. They travel to Ireland for a wedding. There, Sadie is introduced to Jack's family and we hear about "The Dutch". Jack, Sadie, and members of their family show up in later stories, as do "The Dutch". Overall, the stories were all about connection, family and love. The characters are often in bizarro situations and stumble way through them. As with her other books, McCracken's writing is masterful and she does an superb job creating characters and exhibiting the inner workings of their minds.

I found these stories boring. It was nearly impossible to get through this book.. A bunch of short stories that just had me asking why? So many of them just abruptly ended.

With many thanks for the ARC. Review posted at BookBrowse at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr272320

2.5 stars. I received this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It is a collection of short stories about different characters that display different scenarios.

I found the writing to be unique but unfortunately it failed to hold my interest completely. I couldn't connect with the characters however hard I tried.

This book was not for me but still I would love to recommend it.

The Souvenir Museum is a collection of literary fiction short stories, some related to each other and others not.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a short story collection quite like this one before. I liked the stories that were related to each other, allowing me to find out more about the two main characters Sadie and Jack through the snippets shared, jumping around in time. I think I would have enjoyed the whole collection better if it was all stories around these characters, giving glimpses into their lives and allowing a bigger picture to be created. Or, paradoxically, if all the stories were completely separate from each other. However, there were these completely unrelated stories mixed in, somewhat at random, and then we would jump back into following Sadie and Jack and I’d have to remind myself about them before reading on.

While I can admire the talent required to write good short stories, as a whole work this collection fell a little flat for me. If you are a die-hard short story fan, you might enjoy it; otherwise, I’d skip it.

The Souvenir Museum was just published on April 13. Thank you to Ecco Books, HarperCollins, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a free e-ARC of this book.

First, thank you to the publishers at Ecco and Netgalley for this advanced reader’s copy of The Souvenir Museum.

I received a free Kindle copy of this during one of Netgalley’s free weekends. It was on my Goodreads To Read list, so I was excited to get it! After reading through the book, I can’t say I loved it, unfortunately.

McCracken’s book features 12 short stories, all of which, I first assumed, were unrelated to one another. As the stories I went on though, I recognized Lenny (Jack) and Sadie, and saw a pattern begin to emerge. Every other story featured him or her or both of them together. The other six stories did not, in my opinion, have anything to do with one another or Jack and Sadie, though I could be wrong.

The writing is beautiful in a complex way. McCracken has a way of bringing you into the storyline and seeing the images materialize before your eyes. The stories themselves though, felt odd. I looked for closure at the end of each story but never felt like I received it, which was disappointing. The stories often felt like I was listening to an acquaintance tell me about themselves and those they knew, which mean I knew nothing myself. It was hard to really immerse myself in each plot.

Overall, my favorite story was Mistress Mickle All at Sea. I give this book 3 stars, and I’m not sure if I would read another of her books, but others have said they enjoyed her other works more.

She is the best and there is nothing much more any of us can say. She just waves a hand and an entire world, and psyche, emerges, with the trademark humor and wit that I have loved in every work of hers. Brava.

What a very interesting book for the title It's like these people had different issues in agendas in new reddit it was it was like they were going back in the past had gone the front of the past Everybody had a story to tell and Everything seemed to tie together and All took place in Massachusetts except for one story at the end It wasn't Amsterdam

The Souvenir Museum
By Elizabeth McCracken

This book is a collection of short stories by an author whose work I have not previously read. Let me start by saying that the short story is not a medium that I generally like. This is true for a variety of reasons in this case.

While the writing is good, the subjects are uniformly depressing. It seems that the author does not care for Americans, the English, the Dutch or anyone else in these pages. There are no happy endings in these stories.

I found it very hard to relate to the characters in these stories. I suspect that the author didn't really like them very much either! While not a short story fan, I have read several well done collections. Unfortunately, this is not one of them.

This was an interesting set of short stories. The characters were quirky and odd at times and sometimes I'm sure I didn't fully follow along with what they were talking about. The story were main character studies, putting them in everyday or odd situations and then letting it play out. I definitely connected and laughed at some stories more than others. But I'm not sure this collection will really stick with me. Cute but I didn't love it.

<i>A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.</i>

I was bouncing between 3-4 stars, and really, it's a solid 3.5. I liked it. It was a fairly quick read with appealing, quirky characters and a description of tiny details that I genuinely liked (in the Irish Wedding, "tugging at her tights, the waistband of which had fallen below the equator of her bottom.") I appreciated the interconnectedness of the stories, and, strangely appreciated how I didn't really notice they were interconnected until later in the book.

I received a free advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchanged for an unbiased review.

What a wonderful collection of short stories! The writing is excellent with great characters and interesting stories.

I read right at half of this book to give it the old college try, but I never felt connected with any of the short stories, so I ended up putting this one down. Each story was chock full of details and characters and action so I'm not sure I ever completely understood what was going on in any of the stories. I found myself having to go back a page or two and read it again to make sure I didn't miss something. The dialogue also felt a bit clunky and not very natural. However, I could definitely see the humor in the stories and enjoyed some of the pop culture references. I think perhaps these short stories moved a bit too quickly for me.

Truly great read.

I really loved each story, all beautifully written under one theme: family and the liens within. Heartbreaking, joyful, hopeful, funny: you're in for a treat.

How those links break us, make us, shape us and bond us, there is something for everyone.

Highly recommend!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this beauty.

Just wonderful. Not a dud in the bunch. Endlessly quotable, seamlessly leading me to laugh out loud one minute, then be heartbroken by a single sentence. Some characters feature in a number of stories, some stand alone, but every quirky character stole my heart a little. I’ve been meaning to read McCracken for a really long time, and thanks to Netgalley, now I can’t wait to get my hands on more. Loved it!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken.

These are short stories, and unfortunately, I just couldn't get through them.

You know how when someone is telling you a story, and their is wind up, and wind up, and it goes on for quite a while, and then it ends and you're like...that's IT??? That's kind of what these felt like to me. The whole time listening to them and I can't understand why this is a story even being told.

This was such a wonderful collection of stories. McCracken is such a talented writer and this collection does not disappoint. It is the kind of book that you want to finish just so you can read it again. Excellent, worth all of the hype.