Lorrie Moore Books in Order

Neighbors Gerard and Benna move between friendship, desire, and estrangement as their lives take different imagined forms. Their shifting relationship becomes a study of love, loneliness, and the stories people invent to understand one another.

Left behind at a girl's house on Christmas Eve, grouchy elf Aben must wait a year for Santa's return. Ensuring he is collected means persuading the equally difficult Ivy to behave well enough to earn another visit.

Eight stories follow women and men struggling through the awkwardness of daily life and intimate relationships. With humor and sadness entwined, Lorrie Moore explores the gap between the lives people imagine and the unsettled realities they inhabit.

Lorrie Moore assembles stories in which children, or adults recalling childhood, confront the contradictions of the grown-up world. Writers including Margaret Atwood, Jamaica Kincaid, and Alice Munro explore the discoveries that reshape innocence, loyalty, and understanding.

Looking back on her youth, Berie recalls the summer she and Sils worked at a small-town amusement park. Their reckless friendship seems sheltered from serious consequences until Sils needs help that changes the meaning of their bond.

Twelve stories follow people struggling with loneliness, fragile relationships, family tensions, and unexpected loss. A displaced actress, a mother and daughter travelling in Ireland, and relatives playing Christmas charades reveal the vulnerabilities beneath ordinary American lives.

College student Tassie Keltjin takes a nannying job with a glamorous, enigmatic family in a Midwestern university town. Her growing involvement exposes her to questions of race, class, love, and loss in post-September 11 America.

People facing divorce, parenthood, illness, and uncertain romance search for connection as their lives shift around them. These stories explore the awkward negotiations, unexpected losses, and moments of humor that accompany attempts to begin again.

An aspiring writer's self-absorbed narration turns familiar advice about literary ambition into an ironic account of failure and persistence. Through brief vignettes, the story explores the distance between wanting to capture life and actually observing the world.

Hoping to renew their marriage, a couple moves into an apparently charming farmhouse near a zoo and nature preserve. Ruth instead finds herself battling intrusive wildlife and troublesome teenagers as the promised fresh start becomes a source of frustration.

Across sixty-six essays and reviews, Lorrie Moore considers literature, television, politics, and celebrity culture. Her observations follow several decades of American life, examining how artistic works and public figures shape the ways people think, feel, and understand one another.

This collection gathers stories from Self-Help, Like Life, Birds of America, and Bark, alongside three pieces drawn from novels. Across troubled families and uncertain relationships, Moore explores loneliness, grief, and the often comic failures of intimacy.