I absolutely love whatever Curtis Sittenfeld writes, I think the way she creates characters is so compelling and they are often complex. You never know if you should be rooting for them or for their downfall. Sittenfeld navigates the world of politics, racial identity, sexism, and other "sensitive" subjects masterfully and in a way that always catches me by surprise. They are so seamlessly woven into the short stories in this collection. Each one feels carefully curated for the next.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not normally a short stories person but these were SO good. I felt for each character. The way Curtis makes you feel like you know the characters is wild.

I have loved all of Sittenfeld's books and i believe I have read all of them. This one was dificult to conect with for some reason - I couldn't get into it. I think the short story format is a certain type of reading I need to prepare for. I appreciated the connection to the Prep character L
ee Fiora who attends a reunion. The topic of divorce in "Patron Saints" is very believable - and all the characters have interesteing personalities and descriptions. Again - I think short stories are something I will have to get used to.

QUICK GLANCE-
My format- ARC ebook
Other formats- 📖Physical (320 pages) and Audio🎧 (10 hours and 33 minutes)
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️(vulgar comments and open-door scenes in almost every short story)
Language:🤐🤐moderate

MY THOUGHTS-
I was really looking forward to this ARC, especially after enjoying Curtis Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy. However, this book just didn't quite hit the mark for me. While I appreciated the idea of each story focusing on different characters and plots, by the time I was about 75% through, it felt like most of the stories had a similar message about politics and societal issues. This made the book feel repetitive and personally unrelatable.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced ebook in exchange for my honest opinions.

4 ⭐️

Came for the “Prep” sequel (and loved it) but stayed for the amazing other stories in this book. I think it’s so fun to see how an author can write so many different stories with complex and interesting characters in such a short setting. Curtis Sittenfeld has written many of my favorite reads in the past and this collection was just as good.

Thanks NetGalley and Random House for an ARC!!

I'll be honest, as soon as I saw that Curtis Sittenfeld had a new book coming out, I jumped to read it! I absolutely adored Romantic Comedy, and thought Eligible was a fun twist on Pride & Prejudice. Her latest publication, Show Don't Tell, is a collection of short stories that ruminate on life and love and the decisions that define our lives.
I have become a huge fan of short stories over the years, and Show Don't Tell reminded me why. These stories were fun and concise, but so effective. I felt like I knew the characters within paragraphs, especially best friends Janie and Pippa in "Follow Up" who text one another three straw hat emojis with the green ribbons with to say "I love you" even though neither can remember why. It's quirky and cute, and communicates so much about a relationship between old friends. I loved it. It was actually one of my favorite elements within several of the stories--they discussed romantic love, but also showed these real and relatable depictions of platonic love. I love romance, but I live for the love between good friends, so these scenes just touched my heart.
And I loved these stories. They jumped in time and setting, and the narrators were a variety of characters (male and female), but all were compelling, drawing in the reader with a hint of a scandal or the narrator getting big news, a message from someone in their past. And we were treated to an examination of love (platonic, romantic, familial) and life and the elements that draw it all together. Some of the stories made me cringe at the awkward bits, or laugh out loud at Sittenfeld's humor, and more than once I found myself underlining bits that felt so true, so perfectly real. I could have spent so much more time with the various characters, but felt that each story was just the right length. Though I think I'll soon be reading Prep for more time with Lee because I found her such an intriguing character!
If you're a fan of short stories, this is definitely a read for you.

🌶️ HOT TAKE:
Sharp, ironic, and effortlessly readable—this collection captures the quiet complexities of modern life with Sittenfeld’s signature wit. You’ll fly through it.

🧶 THE SUMMARY:
A collection of short stories that center around middle-aged women navigating marriage, friendship, fame, and the unspoken rules of social interaction. While the subjects vary, each story is distinctively matter-of-fact, often laced with irony, and driven by a deeply human main character confronting the small (but significant) tensions of everyday life.

💁🏻‍♀️ MY THOUGHTS:
🔸 After loving Romantic Comedy, I was thrilled to get an ARC of this one and see Sittenfeld working in a different format. Short story collections can be hit or miss in terms of pacing and engagement, but I breezed through this—always a good sign. The variety of narratives kept things moving, and despite the shifts in characters and themes, the collection as a whole was a complete experience.

🔸 A for Alone was a standout for me—ironically self-aware and painfully relatable in the way it explores the tension between feminist ideals and the realities of lived experience. On the flip side, the final story, which expands on Prep, didn’t land for me as much as it might for longtime Sittenfeld readers. But even with that, I walked away from this collection impressed and would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a compelling entry point into short fiction.

Thank you to @netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC, provided in exchange for an honest review.

I love Curtis Sittenfeld's writing and I really enjoyed this short story collection. It's rare to find a book of short stories where every single story hits in some way. While not every story was perfect, and of course I enjoyed some more than others, the collection as a whole is very good. I almost want to re-read Prep after finishing the last essay about Lee.

This book wasn’t bad, but I really wanted to like it more than I did. I’ve like Sittenfeld’s previous stories, but I think the main reason I’ve liked her work in the past was the reason this one didn’t quite hit for me. Sittenfeld does a great job of getting you to inhabit the lives of her characters, and the short story format of this book feels jarring, jolting you from one character’s perspective to another. Each concept could conceivably have been expanded to at least a novella, but the slice-of-life style of writing here instead felt a little more like she was following a series of writing prompts. I also suspect that this book was compiled for the sole purpose of finding a way to publish her excellent final short story in the collection, Lost But Not Forgotten. Of all of her stories, this is one that I feel can truly stand alone and would have been an excellent reading experience, had I not trawled through the remainder of this book. Nothing here was bad, but my recommendation would be to pick this up, skip to her final story, and move on with your reading journey. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC!

I enjoyed just about all of the short stories, but some of them seemed to drag to much for me. If you love reading short stories (about 30mins each), you'll probably love this book! Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

I'm usually not one for short stories, but I found myself thinking about these long after I read them. I think Sittenfield has shown us that her voice is something that doesn't need tons of words and pages to get a well-crafted story told to her audience. Sittenfield shows their readers the messiness and reality of the human experience and it's something I treasure about her writing, Show Don't Tell is no exception.

I’m a big fan of Curtis Sittenfeld’s distinct literary voice, and her style shines in this collection of short stories.

Centering characters in middle-age with themes of reunion, divorce, and adult friendship, Sittenfeld imbues these vignettes with a hearty dose of dry wit. Some of the stories in the collection have been previously published and are already strongly dated, like the piece about an artist exploring the “Mike Pence” rule or the story about a couple’s fight over their COVID safety protocols in the summer of 2020 when an ex-boyfriend comes to town. But even these stories feel poignantly of their time, fitting with the slice of life style of the collection, and offering some truth about the experiences of the last several years.

A personal favorite is “Follow Up,” in which a middle-aged corporate executive in Milwaukee recounts a brief affair in her 20s following an inconclusive mammogram. And fans of Sittenfeld’s iconic boarding school novel Prep (like myself!) will enjoy the final (and longest) story returning to Lee Fiora and Ault at her 30th reunion.

Overall, this collection is very strong and a very enjoyable read! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was such a joy to read. Curtis Sittenfeld’s realistic humor is my absolute favorite. She takes the everyday, the cringy memories, the poignant, annoying, and mundane and makes it all so interesting and relatable. She remains one of my go to authors.

This was unfortunately not my favorite of Sittenfeld’s books. The collection of stories failed to captivate me or feel relatable. The subject matter came across as a bit pretentious and I wasn’t a far of the pacing of the stories. I think Sittenfeld is a talented writer but this one wasn’t for me. Thank you and much appreciation to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

For my friends who enjoy exceptionally written short stories about relationships.

SHOW DON’T TELL by Curtis Sittenfeld @csittenfeld

Thanks, @randomhouse, for the review copy via #NetGalley. (Available now)

The challenge with a short story, in my opinion as a reader, is the length of the runway. I know the takeoff and landing will be tricky, but this is what I want: I want a good-sized plane. At least one flight attendant and two seats on each side of the aisle. I don’t need a trans-atlantic-sized, five seats in the middle type. But I sure need more than a puddle jumper - a plane so small the pilot yells out the window, “Hey, last one up the steps, kick the chocks out from behind the wheels, will ya?” I need a plane that allows a 21-inch carry-on.

So imagine my joy when I stepped onto Sittenfeld’s latest collection of stories and looked around. A complete component of flight attendants. A movie. Snack boxes for purchase. Three seats on either side of the aisle. And it was a nice plane, too. You know what I mean? No cracked vinyl on the seats. It’s clean, new, modern, with one of those screens in the back of the seat in front of you. There’s wifi. Can you see the plane I mean? Can you feel the satisfaction? The contentment?

Each of the 12 stories here is fully fleshed out. Each felt like a novel: I knew the characters, and thought about them after their story ended. While I could have easily read 250 more pages about them, each had endings that felt like endings (you know that feeling when the landing gear in the nose of the plane touches down?) and didn’t leave me hanging in mid-air.

I adored this collection and am excited to have another #autobuyauthor.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I always enjoy Sittenfeld's work and I was very excited to get the chance to read this collection of short stories. I am always a bit torn about short stories because if I like them, I am left wanting to read more of the story than what the author provided. Overall, I thought this was a well-written and thoughtful compilation about women who are facing both the challenges and triumphs of middle age.

I am not normally a fan of short stories but this was an exception!! There were so many stories that left me wanting more. So engaging and interesting.

This collection of short stories was a major letdown. While the concept of focusing on ordinary moments that stick with people had potential, the execution felt flat. The characters, mostly in their thirties to fifties, were unrelatable, and I struggled with the awkward portrayal of black characters. It felt like the author either didn't know how to write them authentically or was making a political statement, which didn’t work for me. The stories felt repetitive, and I found myself skipping a few.

As a fan of Sittenfeld’s previous works like Romantic Comedy, I was disappointed by this one. The stories lacked the sharp wit and engaging characters I expected, leaving me uninterested and frustrated. None of the characters stood out, and by the third story, I had already forgotten the first. Sadly, I don't think I'll be reading another Sittenfeld book after this. Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the eArc, but this one wasn’t for me.

Show Don't Tell is a collection of short stories from Curtis Sittenfeld. My only previous experience with this author was Prep. I wasn't familiar with her short stories. The first, Show Don't Tell, could have been the beginning and end of a longer tale I'd like to read. It bookends an author waiting to see if she will be getting the most prestigious funding for her writing program and how she distracts herself while waiting. This sets up a collection of stories about characters, both easy and hard to like, who are at pivotal points in their life. Points on which their future may balance and turn. For example, I find the second story both depressing and infuriating. Especially the ending. Many others were somewhere in between. Almost always a little bit sad. Always about a pivotal point in the lives of the people at the center. Aside from the weird focus of the author on private schools, I enjoyed all the stories in some ways.

A great collection of varied stories about adults, mainly women, in a variety of situations. Each was a compelling read, and I enjoyed the tastes of current affairs and politics in them.