Alice Adams Reading Order

5 books (1973–2000)

Alice Adams edited five anthologies of short stories between 1973 and 2000, beginning with Prize Stories 1973: The O. Henry Awards and concluding with The Best American Short Stories of the Century. These collections should be read in publication order to follow the progression of her editorial work across nearly three decades. The series is complete and showcases award-winning and acclaimed short fiction from various authors and time periods.

Start with Prize Stories 1973: The O. Henry Awards, the first of 5 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	Prize Stories 1973: The O. Henry Awards 1973Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Prize Stories 1974: The O'Henry Awards 1974Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Best American Short Stories 1991 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Mirror, Mirror on the Wall 1998Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	The Best American Short Stories of the Century 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

1 book (1990–1990)

#	Title
1	Mexico 1990Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

7 books (1979–2007)

Alice Adams published seven short story collections between 1979 and 2007, beginning with Beautiful Girl and concluding with Poolside, a collaboration with Julie Orringer. This complete series should be read in publication order to follow the author's evolving voice and thematic interests across nearly three decades. The collections include To See You Again, Return Trips, After You've Gone, The Last Lovely City, and The Stories of Alice Adams, which serves as a comprehensive retrospective of her work.

Start with Beautiful Girl, the first of 7 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	Beautiful Girl 1979Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	To See You Again 1982Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Return Trips 1985Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	After You've Gone 1989Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	The Last Lovely City 1999Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	The Stories of Alice Adams 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Poolside(With: Julie Orringer) 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

12 books (1966–2011)

Alice Adams's collection of 12 independent novels spans from 1966 to 2011, with each book standing alone as a complete work. Though designed for standalone reading, these novels are best experienced in publication order, beginning with Careless Love and concluding with Listening to Billie. The series is now complete and offers readers a comprehensive look at Adams's evolving voice across nearly five decades of fiction writing.

Start with Careless Love, the first of 12 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	Careless Love 1966Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Families and Survivors 1974Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Rich Rewards 1980Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Superior Women 1984Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Roses, Rhododendron 1987Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Second Chances 1988Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Almost Perfect 1993Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	A Southern Exposure 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	Medicine Men 1997Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	After the War 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Caroline's Daughters 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	Listening to Billie 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible