# Alice Munro, Nobel Prize for Literature: recommendation on where to start? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alice-munro-nobel-prize-for-literature-recommendation-on-where-to-start/671189 "2013-10-14T05:37:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alice-munro-nobel-prize-for-literature-recommendation-on-where-to-start/671189/1 "2013-10-14T05:37:27Z")
Alice Munro, specialist in short stories, recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I’ve never read anything by Munro. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to start? Follow-up question - just curious - does she have a wide readership, here on the Dope? She’s one of those authors whose name I sort of recognize, but I really don’t know anything about what her work is like. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alice-munro-nobel-prize-for-literature-recommendation-on-where-to-start/671189/2 "2013-10-14T05:47:21Z")
This is not going to be very helpful, but FWIW I’d never heard of her until she retired earlier this year and that resulted in a series of articles about her. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alice-munro-nobel-prize-for-literature-recommendation-on-where-to-start/671189/3 "2013-10-14T07:01:39Z")
Just pick up any collection of her stories, really. “Lives of Girls and Women” is the first one that comes to mind. Last year I picked up her “favourite” stories collection. It was a really nice moment to have Alice Munro here in Victoria where I live (and where Munro’s Bookstore is!) on the day the prize was announced. (But I wonder if this will set Margaret Atwood back a decade or so to win it!) ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alice-munro-nobel-prize-for-literature-recommendation-on-where-to-start/671189/4 "2013-10-14T07:16:29Z")
You can start for free at [Daily Lit](https://www.dailylit.com/), a service that delivers books in email sized chunks each day. They have _Fiction_ from her book _Too Much Happiness_. If you are reading one of the books on the service and want to read more you can have the next installment sent instantly instead of waiting for its scheduled arrival. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alice-munro-nobel-prize-for-literature-recommendation-on-where-to-start/671189/5 "2013-10-14T15:48:32Z")
I started with Selected Stories, since it gives a nice broad sampling of her work (obviously not including her last few collections…) Turns out I liked it so much I went out and got each of her books individually anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alice-munro-nobel-prize-for-literature-recommendation-on-where-to-start/671189/6 "2013-10-15T11:10:04Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > Just pick up any collection of her stories, really. “Lives of Girls and Women” is the first one that comes to mind. Seconded. It’s a good book. ---
**Author:** ![FallingLeaves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/54ee81/32.png) [@FallingLeaves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallingLeaves)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alice-munro-nobel-prize-for-literature-recommendation-on-where-to-start/671189/7 "2013-10-16T02:08:14Z")
One of her short story books was included in a 20th Century Women Short Story Writers lit class I took in college oh so many years ago. (early-mid 90s) The class (small school, small classes - about 15 of us) read about 3 stories of her’s, no one liked them and the professor, who admitted he never liked her work either, decided to move on to someone else and dropped the whole section of her works. I haven’t gone back and tried to read anything since.