I fell in love with short stories while reading Curtis Sittenfeld's first collection, You Think It, I'll Say It. She's a master at making them feel like a full story, instead of a slice taken out of a novel. Multiple times I would finish a story and put my kindle down, thinking "that was a great book!" before realizing...it wasn't a whole book. There was enough characterization and plot and ideas to keep thinking about after the story was over that it would fool me. If you prefer tightly edited books with no mushy middle, as I do, this collection is for you.

I love Sittenfeld, but I’m generally not a big short story reader. I gave it a shot but will stick to novels in this case.

Curtis Sittenfield's second collection of short stories fails to disappoint her most attentive readers. While I find short story collections difficult at times because you are constantly gaining footing and trying to figure out the characters, I did very much enjoy this collection. Each story waxes about the deep and complex nature of human relationships. I don't think this was have over arching broad appeal, but lovers of contemporary and literary fiction will enjoy this.

I very much enjoyed seeing Lee Fiora from Prep and how life had turned out for this character from one her most popular books. Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced copy of this one out February 25, 2025. I hope you enjoy it as much as me.

Curtis Sittenfeld's newest collection of short stories is delightfully readable but sneakily profound. Some readers may dismiss the characters and plots as just a bunch of ordinary middle-aged women. The protagonist of the collection's title story, a writer herself, acknowledges this tendency, and offers a corrective: "It took a long time, but eventually I stopped seeing women as inherently ridiculous."

This is the kind of quietly scathing observation that fills these stories. They are about marriage and divorce, parenthood and friendship, memory and aging. Mostly, they ask the same classic midlife question, sometimes out loud: what is this - this anecdote, this fiction, this life - a story about?

So many of these stories could be entire books, but the short versions were perfect!!! I felt like I really was able to see into the world of each character. That’s something I don’t always experience in full length novels. I loved that these stories were about middle aged women!! I’m 36 and finding more books that have much younger main characters. These stories did a great job at not making the age the important part of the story.

The marriage clock:
Incredible story with so many quotable parts!!! Such a fun plot!!!

White women lol:
Well written story about a needed topic!! Kept me reading and wishing it was longer!

The richest babysitter:
Turned out to be a really good story with an amazing ending that I didn’t see coming! What a fun story!!!

Creative differences:
That was a short but fun one and I loved that it mentioned a smallish town I know! Interesting vignette into the making of a documentary style commercial.

Follow-up:
Wow what a story! I loved the connection to St. Louis again! So cool! This one could be a full book that I would read! So many questions remain!!!!

The tomorrow box:
The first story with a male main character. It had a good message and was a great example of parents that care. Not everything is about money was the message with this one.

A for Alone:
I didn’t like the trope in this one. I saw it coming from a mile away. It was just okay. Probably my least favorite story so far.

The patron saint of middle age:
Another STL story lol, kinda memorable, but okay story about a lady and her friends.

Giraffe and flamingo:
Cute story! Not super memorable but I enjoyed reading it!

Lost but not forgotten:
I was so excited to get to this story!! I loved prep as a teenager and now I want to reread that story! Such an amazing follow up that I think other readers will truly love!

4.5 stars rounded up. This to me is about as solid as a short story collection can get. Since I first read Prep many years ago, I’ve been drawn to how Curtis Sittenfield allows characters to be complicated or human. In this collection of short stories, mostly focused on people in “middle-age”, the characters are no different. The characters feel real and relatable in an impressively short amount of time. I also like that she doesn’t force the reader to try and like characters or force a redemption arc, instead you just drop in alongside them.

“Show, Don’t Tell”, the title story, was actually one of my least favorite of the stories (which means keep reading if you’re meh on it) but the collection is aptly named because that’s what she does in this collection as you drop into moments in time/slices of life. The author masterfully makes the complicated feel uncomplicated and offers up perceptive questions about the realities of life in the society we live in. A few of my favorites included The Marriage Clock, White Women LOL, The Richest Babysitter in the World and The Patron Saints of Middle Age. Also thought COVID was used very effectively in The Hug. It was also fun to revisit Prep’s characters in Lost But Not Forgotten.

Shared on Goodreads and Fable.

This collection of short stories resonates with the middle aged woman. The stories are filled with wistful nostalgia and regret. Many stories deal with the realities of life and marriage, showing the disappointment her characters are saddled with when they begrudgingly follow the norms and expectations of society.

Sittenfeld creates a cohesive collection of stories that highlights the yearning for happiness that often alludes one as they reach middle age. Each of her characters come from a place of life experience, but flashbacks to the characters’ early twenties provide insight into missed opportunities or banished dreams. Her characters hide behind facades of expectations and, sometimes, decide that complacency is the easier course to take. While the short story genre is not my favorite, I loved the complexity Sittenfeld was able to create in a short story arc. I would read and be engrossed if any of these stories were developed into full-fledged novels.

I've enjoyed this author's novels in the past, but this was my first time reading her short fiction. I absolutely adored it. These stories are fun, funny, and serious. They're easily consumed but each one had me thinking for a while after I finished reading. Great for Sittenfeld fans, for those who enjoy short stories, and maybe those who are newer to reading the form.

Curtis Sittenfeld has been one of my favorite authors for years, so I was eager to dive into Show Don’t Tell. This collection of 11 essays touches on themes like marriage, friendship, ambition, and the shifting complexities of modern life. Sittenfeld’s ability to explore human nature with such precision and empathy makes each piece feel deeply personal, as though she’s confiding directly in the reader.

What made this collection even more special for me was the inclusion of one of my all-time favorite books, Prep, in one of the essays. It felt like a nod to longtime fans and a reminder of why Sittenfeld’s work continues to resonate so strongly.

While I connected more deeply with some essays than others, the collection as a whole showed Sittenfeld’s talent for capturing the quiet moments of change and introspection. Definitely recommend!

Thank you to Random House Publishing for my free review copy.

I’ve read Curtis Sittenfeld’s short stories before and enjoyed them so immediately had to grab this one. I enjoyed reading these, offering a good sense of a character’s thoughts and emotions in various scenarios. I was in quite the reading slump and this got me out of it due to the format and approachability. A couple phrases bothered me, as did the use of ‘master bedroom’ which I called out in the arc of her last book as well. Overall, not my favourite read but certainly entertaining!

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to review this book. All opinions are my own. I loved the thread of stand-alone stories. They were very relatable. I felt rooted for each main character. The author's library has so many different and riveting stories. I can’t believe this is only the author's second story collection.
The main characters were around my age, which was refreshing!
This reader has more of Curtis's back library to explore.

This is the second book I read by Curtis Sittenfeld and I guess they just aren’t for me. This was the whitest, blandest collection of short stories. I’m tapping out.

This collection of stories is all about flawed and realistically unlikable women navigating marriage, motherhood, careers, etc. One even follows the main character from her novel Prep, which I finally read last year and adored. Everything this author writes feels very similar, but god she does it so well! I’m continually impressed by her ability to fully develop characters in such a short amount of time.

This short story collection was DELIGHTFUl! Curtis Sittenfeld is one of my favorite authors, and this book did not disappoint. I usually do not enjoy short story collections, but each story felt well-developed, meaningful, and enjoyable. I've found myself recalling situations and characters months later. I particularly enjoyed how Sittenfeld feature middle-aged women as complex, interesting characters. I don't typically come across books that celebrate this demographic and I found it to be so refreshing!

Thank you netgalley for the arc of Show Dont Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld. I read the authors previous novel romantic comedy and found it to be an easy read so was really looking forward to this one. I never read a synopsis because I prefer to go in to a book blind. By the beginning of the third story I realized that it was not a regular novel but instead of collection of short stories. They are all well written and all about different relationships with some challenging issues arising and how people handle things under pressure. I particularly enjoyed the story about the woman who was filmed and posted on the internet and accused of being racist then trying to help someone find their dog. All the stories were well written and it was certainly an easy read. Four stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the digital ARC of ” Show Don’t Tell” in exchange for my honest opinion. I typically don’t read collections of short stories, but enjoyed Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy and decided to give it a try. I am glad that I did decide to read her latest work. All of the stories started in the thick of the plot, and there was great character development, considering how short they were. I feel like individual books could’ve been written about each story and is one of the reasons why I typically stay away from short stories, as I always want there to be more. In this case, I did want to know more about several of the stories. Overall, it was a good read, and I would recommend it to others. I might even read other collections of short stories in the future because of this book.

If Curtis Sittenfeld writes it, I will read it and likely love it. I’m not huge on short stories, but I really enjoyed these. Sittenfeld is just as good at short stories as she is at novels.

Like any collection of short stories, I connect more with certain stories than others, but overall, I feel like Curtis Sittenfeld is really good at taking mundane, everyday pieces of life and pulling meaning from them.

This was not for me. Ordinarily I love short story collections, but this one fell flat. I felt like every story just rambled on unnecessarily. The one I liked that most was the last one, which featured the main character from Prep, but even that was just meh. Disappointing, especially considering how much I loved the author's last novel Romantic Comedy.
I would not recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!

I'm not a short story reader. I want to be, but I just usually want a longer narrative. But it was interesting to see some familiar characters and places reappear in this collection (though Prep is admittedly not my fave).

Each story here felt smart and sharp and true and there are a few I'm still thinking about days later. Definitely rib-sticking despite the abbreviated length—like only great fiction can.

If Sittenfeld writes it, I’m reading it, always worth it.