I don't generally like short stories because once I get into the characters and plot I like to spend more time with them and sometimes short stories seem like plots that just didn't work out and couldn't be written longer. But these stories were all complete and they had unexpected elements that kept the writing fresh. I liked the first story, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, which provides the title of the collection, the best. It is very O'Henry like and a delight. I liked Family Furnishings because it seemed very personal and talked about the pitfalls of using people you know in your fiction. I liked Queenie because the main character was interesting.

There were a lot of stories about women feeling trapped in a marriage and yearning for someone else, transgressive lust. Munro was divorced so I imagine she knew something about that. There were stories about sudden unexpected deaths -- suicide or death of a child -- and one of Munro's daughter died shortly after birth. And there were, of course, stories about college professors or attending college.

So a nice collection with many unexpected elements and a few highlights.