Completists' Club discussion

What, no A.M? I'm going to have to make work of this tomorrow. Ironically, I'm not a Munro completist, but I think she deserves to be here.

Original short-story collections

Dance of the Happy Shades – 1968 (winner of the 1968 Governor General's Award for Fiction)
Lives of Girls and Women – 1971
Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You – 1974
Who Do You Think You Are? – 1978 (winner of the 1978 Governor General's Award for Fiction; also published as The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose)
The Moons of Jupiter – 1982 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
The Progress of Love – 1986 (winner of the 1986 Governor General's Award for Fiction)
Friend of My Youth – 1990 (winner of the Trillium Book Award)
Open Secrets – 1994 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
The Love of a Good Woman – 1998 (winner of the 1998 Giller Prize)
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage – 2001 (republished as Away From Her)
Runaway – 2004 (winner of the 2004 Giller Prize)
The View from Castle Rock – 2006
Too Much Happiness – 2009
Dear Life – 2012

Short-story compilations of selected stories

Selected Stories – 1996
No Love Lost – 2003
Vintage Munro – 2004
Carried Away: A Selection of Stories
Away from her
My Best Stories
New Selected Stories

Another collection/compilation is 'Carried Away', I have read everything she has published, such that in memory the stories kind of blur together, in a good way, and as I have read her for years sometimes do not remember which collection. All good, several great, suggest you buy a book then set it aside to read one every once and awhile, not all in one reading. Her work often has the full range of literary possibility that many readers imagine only found in novels. So much in most stories it is best to savour, to think about, even to read again before you go on. Her stories are the absolute opposite of the momentary 'vignette' style... but as they are short, they leave you hungry for more.

I see there are indeed a few collections that I've not added. Will add them soon, thanks thegift. :)

Which collection would you recommend as her best, btw? We're looking for one to start off a group reading of Munro, for Munro virgins.

My first Munro was The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose, which you have listed as Who Do You Think You Are? It was recommended to me as my first because the stories are so clearly connected with the same characters throughout. Munro often connects her stories with a theme, and I also enjoyed The Love of a Good Woman.

I don't think I will be a Munro Completist, but I certainly will be reading more of her.

Thanks, Elizabeth, let me note that down.