What we liked best: short stories and essays

Shakespeare's Kitchen,by Lore Segal (The New Press, 225pp., $22.95)

Lore Segal's genius for observation dazzles in this collection of 13 interlinked stories about a woman who leaves New York to take a job at a Connecticut think tank.(4/10/07)

Cheating at Canasta,by William Trevor (Viking, 232 pp., $24.95)

Subtlety and consolatory grace are once again the hallmarks in this, Trevor's 12th short story collection in 40 years. (10/23/07)

At Large,by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 220 pp., $22)

Head and heart combine delightfully in this collection of essays, almost all written by Fadiman for The American Scholar while she was editor there from 1997 to 2004. (7/3/07)