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Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

Lakshmi’s Adventure
Short Story by Manoj Das. After dreaming that her deity spoke to her, a six-year-old Indian girl sneaks into the village temple and has a wide-ranging “discussion” with him. On leaving with two bananas from his shrine, she is chased into a pond by an angry mob and dies.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Novella by Leo Tolstoy. As a successful civil servant faces an early, agonizing death he asks himself the inevitable question: “How could that be, when I did everything [in life] properly?” As he comes to terms with his superficial, bourgeoisie lifestyle, he finds joy and redemption in death.
This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
Short Story by Sherman Alexie. A Native-American man enlists the help of a former friend to go on a road trip to bring back his father’s ashes. The focus of the story is the relationship between the two, and how it reflects growing individual and cultural disconnection among tribal Native-Americans.

King Thrushbeard
German Folktale. A spoiled, haughty princess judges potential suitors by looks alone and is so ill mannered that she says cruel things about them to their faces. Her father teaches her a lesson in humility by marrying her off to the first beggar that came to his doors.
The Adulterous Woman
Short Story by Albert Camus. For the married protagonist, the vast expanse of the Algerian desert puts into perspective something she already knew but had refused to face. Although she has a caring and possibly still loving husband, married life has become mundane and, through lack of communication, lonely.
A&P
Short Story by John Updike. A young supermarket employee resigns when his manager humiliates three girls he thinks aren't dressed appropriately and rudely asks them to leave the store. Is the boy as righteous as he makes out, or could there be another reason for his “heroism”?
There Will Come Soft Rains
Short Story by Ray Bradbury. A chronicle of the last day in the ‘life’ of an automated house that has survived a nuclear war. Although the family that inhabited it are dead, represented by shadows on the outside walls, the house has continued its daily cycle of programmed activity.

Big Black Good Man
Short Story by Richard Wright. An elderly man working the night desk at a seedy waterfront hotel is used to handling all kinds of rough customers. However, when the “biggest, strangest, and blackest” sailor he’d ever seen asks for a room, he is irrationally terrified.
The Prince Who Wasn’t Hungry
Grade 3-4 Story by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. There was once a Prince who had very little to do, and so thought a great deal about eating. As he grew up, he demanded increasingly rare dishes. Nothing satisfied him, until one day he discovered the best food in the world.
A Night in the Hills
Short Story by Paz Marquez Benitez. City-based Gerardo has always dreamed of living in the countryside. Recently widowed, he accompanies a friend to inspect some newly opened public land. After a single night in the jungle, he decides that life “in the hills” is not as appealing as he had imagined.