Once again I'm read few new authors and this one popped up, I dont normally read short stories but I thought I would try this and I really enjoyed.

This book was a collection of short stories, and I loved some of them. As usual for story books, there were ones that didn't engage me equally. But, overall I really enjoyed this book.
I guess Shriver is not for everyone, but I do like her style. The humour in the stories were charming.
I'd recommend to dip in and out to this book and read it over time.

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lionel Shriver is never an easy read - her characters are difficult to love, or even to like very much - but her sardonic humour and the ability to skewer so many of modern life's worst trends are shown to great effect in these short stories and novellas. I don’t normally enjoy short stories, but these I did. They touched on some of the same issues of Shriver’s novels I have read so far - The Mandibles and We Need to Talk About Kevin - and it was interesting to see the different spin she can put on similar themes. I am rapidly becoming a Shriver addict!

A bit of a mixed bag. I really engaged with some of the stories, notably the end-piece novellas, which make the book worthy of five stars in my opinion. I didn't connect so well with a couple of the shorter ones, which I found quite hard-going. Having said that 'Domestic Terrorism', about a mother's attempts to get her thirty something son to leave home and set up elsewhere is a masterpiece. Lionel Shriver does have a gift of creating fully-rounded all too-human characters, many of them unlikable but all of them understandable. She is a very shrewd observer of human nature in all its forms. I thought this would be a great choice for a book club - lots to discuss.

I struggled to engage with these stories and did not finish the book.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

I thought Property was very good indeed. I don’t always get on very well with short stories but I found this collection to be beautifully written, insightful and thought-provoking.

The supposed binding theme of property is pretty tenuous, to be honest; the stories are about far more than that, with an aspect of property and ownership being just one theme of each story, but that didn’t matter at all to me. These are primarily character studies and feature what Lionel Shriver does so well, which is to get right inside a character and illustrate brilliantly the sometimes contradictory elements which go to make up a person and how they can determine major aspects of our lives. The two novellas which begin and end the collection are especially good at this; just as a small example, I liked this little passage from The Standing Chandelier:
“He recognized something in her, too – a difficulty in figuring out just how to be with people. When he saw this awkwardness in someone else, he could see how attractive it was when you didn’t like artifice, and would rather be genuinely uncomfortable than insincerely at ease.”

Don’t look for fast-paced action and plot here, but I found The Standing Chandelier as involving as any thriller and the other stories were very good in their way. Property is a pleasure to read and a thoroughly rewarding book. Warmly recommended.

A nice gentle collection of short stories with a good mix of humour and observation (although I'd agree with some of the other reviewers that they seemed a little wordy in places.) The novellas took me slightly longer to get into but I enjoyed them both once I did and would happily have read more. I'd be hard put to pick a favourite - usually whichever one I'd just finished... so by that logic it's probably Sara's story right at the end of the book. (I've also found myself thinking a lot about the sycamore seedling story while picking them out of my front lawn this week!) A nice solid collection all told, bound together cleverly under the 'Property' theme. Reading them all through in a few sittings for reviewing purposes was a slightly false exercise - I think they'd be perfect for dipping in and out of, one story at a time.

An acutely observed series of short stories loosely based around property. Very well written, but by the nature of being short stories sometimes left me feeling I wanted more from them. Some are highly topical and amusing the subject matter very relevant to life today. For me the most entertaining was a love triangle of sorts. Even if short stories are not normally for you. these really hit the mark, give them ago, you probably won’t be disappointed.

Skillfully written book from Lionel Shiver. A compilation of short stories, with the theme of ownership running through all of them. My favourite is 'The Chandelier". All written with Shriver's wonderful use of the english language and her usual insightfulness.
I recommend this book.

Beautifully written and charming stories. I enjoyed all of them apart from one. Great characters and intriguing plots. Lionel Shriver never disappoints.

I struggled with this book - the writing and the plots didn't just not grip me, they irritated me. If I hadn't been reading it to review I would have given up. I didn't many of the short stories interesting and I found the last novella extremely tedious. The two novellas and the short stories often wove a plot that was beginning to grip but then they often ended with something whimsical or nonsense.

Much of the prose is filler words and description.In fact there were several points when it felt like the author had had a bet to put in as many unusual words, that the reader would not be familiar, with as possible. I'm well read, have lived in the States for a fair bit of my life but was still was constantly looking up words which distracted greatly from the stories. Words like orts, unguents, dubiety, recrudesce, cockamamie, fussbudgetry, picayune, atavistic, obeisance, foofaraw, argot and folderol. The latter was used a lot. A lot of these words are used in North America, according to my dictionary, but I've not heard them in all the time I lived there. Other words were used in odd ways such as 'you'll have to take my word for how vertiginously I was in love with...' or 'the woman had tang'. Many sentences just made no sense to me at all despite reading and rereading.

With thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review..

I do not usually read short stories and I found that I did enjoy these. The theme of 'property' runs through them all. Some of the stories are set in the UK and I found the authors use of language quite humourous. although on occasions quite 'wordy'. Overall an enjoyable read.

Having heard great things about Lionel Shrivers writing, and having already read we need to talk about Kevin I was keen to read this review copy. I usually struggle to get into short stories as they are not long enough for me to get absorbed in however due to the author I wanted to give this book a go. After one story I already felt convinced she was going to find her way onto my list of favorite authors.

The first story 'A Standing Chandelier: A Novella' was a great read. I respected each character and understood their responses to the situation they were in. Its unusual with short stories that I am as heavily invested in characters in the stories however Lionel made this easy.

Will definitely recommend to family and friends.

Sorry but this collection of depressing short stories really disappointed me. I loved and raved about We Need To Talk About Kevin so was very keen to read this new genre. I found it overly wordy and unnecessarily pretentious and frankly quite depressing. However I know Ms Shriver is a good writer so this hasn’t put me off reading her next book (as long as it isn’t a collection of short stories)

This is a whimsical book designed to make the readers recognise some of the circumstances of those property holders described in this series of short stories. Most of the examples will relate to the reader's own experiences or to those of friends. They are well written and humorous but designed for passing the time rather than for a compelling read.

This is a book that is made up of short stories.
Not a bad book.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Harper Collins uk for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

I am a huge fan of Lionel Shriver and am warming to the short story format the more I have delved into various collections over the past few months, so this one ticked both my boxes. I expected to enjoy them and certainly did. The two longer stories at the beginning and end are my favourites - ‘The Standing Chandelier’ and particularly ‘The Subletter’ - but there isn’t one I didn’t like.

I think the whole set hangs together really well - there are recurring themes of mental tracking of favours or picking up tabs, for example, and of the effect owning something has on a person. This extends not just to physical possessions, though these feature large, but also to a kind of intellectual property as in ‘The Subletter’ where Sara finds it hard to give up her hard-earned position as the self-styled ‘American with the most complete understanding of Belfast’. As Sara says at the end: ‘Sure any old bog could seem priceless so long as some other patsy was willing to fight you for it’.

Lionel Shriver’s sardonic wit shines through these tales of selfishness. I was amused and abashed in equal measure - some of her incisive insights hit a little too close to home for easy reading. Brilliant writing and I can’t recommend highly enough.

I can’t say that I enjoyed this book, though Lionel Shriver is undeniably an excellent writer.
I’m not normally keen on short stories, but I wanted to give these a try. Some of them were overly wordy, particularly the first one. I wondered if the author had a competition to see how many words he could cram in to one sentence without losing the sense of it. That left me cold, I’m sorry to say. I’m not impressed by writers who try to be too clever.
The topics for some of the stories were so dark, depressing and hard to read, that I’m afraid I did not read them all.
I read to be entertained, and to lose myself in another place. This book did not do that for me, sadly.
My thanks to Netgalley and the author for my advance copy of this book.

If you are a fan of Lionel Shriver’s previous work, you will most likely enjoy this one. My feeling is that some of the stories were more engaging and stronger than others. For me I think of some of the stories had been develed into more and dropped the weaker ones, this collection as a whole would be stronger. Would still recommend it though.

It was a real toss up as to whether or not I requested this one. I loved We Need to Talk About Kevin, but I’ve never got on with short stories. I gave it a go anyway.

The stories are as well written as I’d have expected. Two of them blew me away, but the others were a struggle. Characterisation was as strong as I would’ve expected.

Enjoyable, but doesn’t replace Kevin.