I discovered Mary Robinette Kowal thanks to a short story masterclass that was hugely helpful to my writing. I hadn't read anything by her yet, so when my local library added this collectino to their shelves, I borrowed it in a heartbeat. The collection is set after Kowal's trilogy starting with The Calculating Stars, but it can be read on its own. The stories are efficient, clever, and some are surprisingly moving for such short pieces. They mostly take place on Mars in the 1970s, after humanity colonised the planet, so in a way they could be considered alternate histories. This collection could work well for people who are not familiar with sci-fi, since they're concerned with humans rather than technology