The Best American Essays 2004 (The Best American Series)

The Best American Essays 2004 (The Best American Series)
Average customer rating:

Great Essays, except for one or two.

Obscure Chetkovich

Good quality, poor customer service

22 tasty, nourishing servings of brain food

Writing That Makes You Think

The Best American Essays 2004 (The Best American Series)

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Best American Essays 2005 (The Best American Series)

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The Best American Essays 2001 (The Best American Series)

The Best American Essays 2000

ASIN: 0618357092

Book Description

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. Here you will find another "splendid array of unpredictable and delectable essays" (Booklist), chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Louis Menand, another collection with "delights on every page" (Dallas Morning News). The Best American Essays once again earns its place as the liveliest and leading annual of its kind.

Customer Reviews:

Great Essays, except for one or two........2006-06-22

After reading the book, the above comments are quite accurate. I would just like to point out, as it already has been, that the "my 80's" essay was included for purely personal reasons.

After reading excellent quality essays like "The last Americans" & "Passover in Baghdad" & to then get dragged through "On TV I saw Brideshead Revisited and the Patrice Chereau production of Wagner's Ring...and then "Sometime in the mid-'80s I stopped swallowing cum. I don't miss its taste".

Nothing inherently wrong with that, I guess, but I submit not one of the best American essays of 2004. Sorry, call me low brow.

"My Lost City" & "My Fathers a Book" make it worth buying.

Thank you.

Obscure Chetkovich.......2005-10-21

Thank goodness this text was edited(?) by someone who has reflected on the Bible. Everyone in this book writes like a Steinbeck want-to-be. Catching my eye most drastically was the search result blurb from Google: "In this autobiographical essay, Chetkovich, an obscure short story writer, ..." I hope that is the correct spelling of the word "obscure." Does the use of the term "obscure short story writer" not actually mean "this writer is so bad arse, she MUST be read. Immediately! She MUST have as much of your money as possible, she MUST occupy as much of your household thought as possible." Hmmm...sounds like a writer I want to read. Where'd she get the name "Kathryn"? Isn't that a name for someone who requires a lot of your attention? I used to respect the name Chetkovich. I know better now.

Good quality, poor customer service.......2005-09-26

The book is in excellent condition. It is of no use to me however. I did not recieve the book until almost a month after I ordered it. I had to use it for one of my classes,and I could not wait any longer for it to arrive, so had to go to the school bookstore and buy another copy of the book. When the copy i bought from the Amazon merchant arrived, I tried to return it, but I could not find a return address anywhere. I sent the merchant an e'mail asking for a return address four days ago, but I have still not recieved an address. I am very disappointed by this lack of customer service, and because I will probably not be able to get a refund now, since it has been more than thirty days since I ordered the book.

22 tasty, nourishing servings of brain food.......2005-01-01

"The Best American Short Stories" may be more popular, but "The Best American Essays" anthology is an even better choice for readers seeking the utmost in nourishment for the brain. The twenty-two selections chosen by Louis Menand, which cover a wide variety of topics, are all exceedingly well written, mind expanding, and, to a high degree, personal, in that they reveal something about the author as well as the subject matter. In spite of the two minor flaws of Menand's selections (discussed below), this collection will definitely reward the reader seeking substantive reading material.

The two most powerful essays in the book are two of the most personal. Kathryn Chetkovich's "Envy" pulls no punches in her analysis of how she reacted to the success experienced by her boyfriend and fellow writer, Jonathan Franzen, who rocketed to literary stardom in 2001 with "The Corrections". Interestingly, Chetkovich doesn't name Franzen, but Menand chose also to include an essay by him ("Caught"), which, although interesting, doesn't have the same emotional depth or power as Chetkovich's essay. The other extraordinary essay in the collection is Laura Hillenbrand's "A Sudden Illness", which describes her incredible struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Her personal story is every bit as poignant as the story of the racehorse Seabiscuit, which she chronicled in her best-selling book.

Other essays of note, I feel, include Luc Sante's "My Lost City", which actually celebrates the crime-ridden, graffiti-covered, anarchic, decaying, pre-Rudy Giuliani New York of the 1980s, and Oliver Sacks' "The Mind's Eye", which describes differences in the extent to which several blind people use visualization techniques, thereby illustrating the power of (and structural differences among) human brains.

As for the minor complaints: Menand openly admits, "I like to read stories about my own times." This bias shows up most obviously in the inclusion of an essay by a CUNY colleague of Menand's: Wayne Koestenbaum's "My `80s" will likely not at all resemble your `80s unless you are a NYC opera buff who kept up with the cutting edge of male homosexual intelligentsia literature. The other complaint is that a small number of essays exhibit the stereotypical upper West side salon superior-than-though attitude which sneers at red state values and culture (e.g. Fox News). Of course, if you are of a similar opinion, this won't bother you a bit. However, one essay takes this attitude to completely illogical extremes: Jared Diamond's "The Last Americans", which somehow claims a linkage between Enron's financial shenanigans and global warming (hey, it's all George Bush's fault, right?). Diamond's essay will leave some readers fuming and others shaking their heads, while still others applaud, but it will cause all readers to think, as do all the essays in this collection. Thus, Menand has created a collection well worth spending the time to read and ponder.

Writing That Makes You Think.......2004-12-28

As a longtime fan of the Best American Series, I have a few suggestions for the editors: 1) Change "American" to "English Language" so that you can include the outstanding essays that appear in Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and beyond; and 2) Don't forget to consider the great essays that appear in online publications such as Slate.com and Salon.com.

In spite of these omissions, the 2004 issue of Best American Essays is excellent. The range is broad - these essays are all over the place, from Susan Orleans's amusing visit to a taxidermy convention to Kathryn Chetkovich's confession of jealousy of her boyfriend's (the never-named Jonathan Franzen) success as a writer.

Two of the essays were written decades ago, one by Tennessee Williams and one by James Agee, but newly rediscovered in 2004. Jared Diamond and Oliver Sacks are informative yet readable as usual and well worth your time. One of my favorites was an off-the-wall essay about knitting from the Harvard Review by Kyoko Mori. I have never knitted and would not have thought that an essay about yarn could be so entertaining.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 (The Best American Series)

Average customer rating:

Good for the wide angle lens reader
The Best Science and Nature Writing 2004
Eclectic, informative and . . . fun??
Excellent science writing
Excellent writing and varied subjects make this a stand-out

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 (The Best American Series)

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2001 (The Best American Series)
The Best American Science Writing 2004 (Best American Science Writing)

ASIN: 0618246983

Book Description

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, edited by Steven Pinker, is another "provocative and thoroughly enjoyable [collection] from start to finish" (Publishers Weekly). Here is the best and newest on science and nature: the psychology of suicide terrorism, desperate measures in surgery, the weird world of octopuses, Sex Week at Yale, the linguistics of click languages, the worst news about cloning, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

Good for the wide angle lens reader.......2006-03-15

I was originally introduced to this book because I was told to read "caring for your introvert", which is a hiliariously bitter essay by a self-professed introvert. I then read the rest of the book, and was overall very impressed.
As is in all of science and nature study, there are some essays that are a bit controversial (the book starts out with "genesis of suicide terrorism", to give you an example). There are some essays that will appeal to a lot of people ("Sex Week at Yale", "Bugs in the Brain") while others will only appeal to a certain subset of the population ("Ask the Bird Folks" if you are really into birds, "through the eyes of a octopus" if you are into that sort of thing"). Perhaps the wide spectrum of essay selection is both its strength and weakness. Overall, a highly readable book and a contribution to scientific dialogue.

The Best Science and Nature Writing 2004.......2005-08-18

Save your money. These authors have better to offer, as does the science collective as a whole. Look elsewhere for insightful musings.

Eclectic, informative and . . . fun?? .......2005-07-24

It must have been a capricious sprite that convinced Series Editor Tim Folger to select Steven Pinker to choose the essays in this collection. In any collection of science and nature writings there will be some of wide, even intense interest, while others may appeal to a limited few with special interests. This anthology is no exception. While the majority of them are good [best!] articles over a range of topics, Pinker added a few "ringers". These latter certainly lighten the mood of the set even while imparting compelling information on their own. Perhaps surprisingly, some of these deal with the vague field of "demographics".

"Hard" science in this collection is covered by an article on diabetes, one on "the stuff of genes" and an introduction to octopus life. Another element of life is the role of parasites on behaviour. Carl Zimmer's "Parasite Rex", an excellent introduction to this topic, is furthered here by neurologist Robert Sapolsky. Cosmology isn't ignored, with Max Tegmark suggesting you glance over your shoulder to learn whether a duplicate of you isn't reading the same article in a parallel universe. Public health may not be a hard science, but it must firmly rest on top research to be effective. Atal Gawande's brief history of the career of Dr Francis Moore is enlightening and provocative - as was Moore.

How the public views research and its implications is a topic of increasing importance. Daniel C. Dennett's explanation of why the notion of "genetic determinism" must be shelved is essential reading. Gregg Easterbrook's "We're All Gonna Die!" deals with perceived threats to society and life. Unsuccessfully challenged by a recent book, Easterbrook's article lists scenarios that could lead to disastrous consequences if not approached wisely. Will an asteroid do for us as it did to the dinosaurs? What if a particle accelerator created a "strangelet" that might gobble the planet - or the entire universe? The Earth's magnetic field has reversed itself many times over the past many millions of years. What will be the result on human society when it flips again - beyond making all our compasses point the "wrong way"? And what can, or should, we do about it?

While you're worrying about these threats, take a moment to consider Peggy Orenstein's plight. Like any expectant mother, she's pondering a name for her new baby. Delving into the [USA's] Social Security Administration's database, she's spent hours tracking the history of names. "Melanies" have come and gone in popularity, as have "Aidans" and "Hannahs". "Michael" remains a standby for boys, but Peggy's expecting a girl and the subject lapses. If you would rather go outdoors than spend time searching names, take note of your avian neighbours. Mike O'Connor does. He has to, he runs a birdseed store and a Web site answering questions about human-bird relationships. Should you throw rice at weddings? Perhaps not, if the birds eat it and swell up. Is a hair-dryer the chosen method for freezing a heron caught in a pond's early-winter ice? How does the chickadee stand in popularity? O'Connor handles these questions with hilarious finesse.

It seems no North American science writing can reach the public without dealing with the Christian movement to invade the public schools. This book opens with that essential topic. Folger addresses the growing threat to both education and support for science in his Forward. Clearly this insidious movement impacts how science is viewed and Folger hopes volumes such as this one will help bastion education and interest in science among the young. Give this book to a child to read and treasure. After you've read it yourself. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Excellent science writing.......2005-05-29

This is an enjoyable as well as very informative collection of essays on science and nature. The book contains a couple of dozen articles on different topics, too many to go into here, so I will limit my comments to discussing just a few of them. But if you're considering purchasing the book, you could look at the table of contents and some of the articles themselves to get a better idea of what topics the articles cover before buying.

I hadn't read a book of nature writing like this in several years (I pride myself on reading the more technical literature usually), but time constraints impelled me to take a look, and I was glad I did, as you will find some excellent articles and science writing here. But be aware that this is not the same as reading, say, the articles in Scientific American, let alone the more technical literature. They aren't at the same level of rigor or scientific depth and detail. If you have the sort of fortitude necessary to stick with S.A. for year after year, you probably don't need books like this. But for the average reader, this collection of essays, and the overall series, is an enjoyable and readable way to keeps tabs on some of the important developments going on in science.

The essays vary a bit in level of difficulty and in the topics covered, and the subjects range from scientific ethics to modern cosmology. One is even a brief (and somewhat racy) bio of Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, who basically admits that getting laid is his top priority when he isn't thinking about science. :-) It also discusses his often strained relationships with his peers; for example, in his biography he once remarked that he had never seen Crick in a modest mood. His acerbic wit and tongue therefore didn't exactly endear him to his fellow scientists, and after he got passed over for promotion at Harvard, he left for Cold Spring Harbor, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Most of the essays, however, aren't such intimate portrayals of famous or controversial scientists, but they're still worth reading :-). For example, the amazing career of the driven and intrepid Dr. Francis Moore, who pioneered burn therapy and surgery and many other treatments, and often bucked the traditional medical establishment and medical wisdom to create his advances, should be an inspiration to any young physician. The essay on cosmology and parallel universe theory discusses some of the mind-boggling discoveries and speculations being made about our universe there. And the essay by Robert Sapolsky on Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan organism that for some reason infects the brains of more Europeans than Americans, but usually doesn't cause any problems, was interesting too, in its amazingly specific effects on its other hosts (it can live in rats and cats also, but can only reproduce in cats). For those of you who don't know Sapolski, he is one of the most entertaining science writers I've encountered recently, besides being a noted neuroscientist.

Overall, a fine collection of essays drawn from diverse magazines and sources by some of the top science and nature writers today.

Excellent writing and varied subjects make this a stand-out .......2005-01-25

There are a lot of fine essays in this wide ranging collection, but my favorite is a piece from "Scientific American" by neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, "Bugs in the Brain." In cogent, lively, humorous prose this short piece opens the reader's eyes to the marvelous and horrible ability of some microscopic parasites to infiltrate the host's brain and change its behavior.

The rabies virus, for instance. "There are lots of ways rabies could have evolved to move between hosts." Sneezing, for one. Instead it invades the brain, zeroes in on aggression, and stomps the pedal to the floor. Lots of scientists study aggression; there are whole conferences on various aspects of the phenomenon. But no one studies rabies to see how the trick works.

Even more beauteous is the diabolical specificity of the toxoplasma protozoan. The bug gets eaten by a rat where it creates cysts until the rat is eaten by a feline. The cat is the only animal taxoplasma can reproduce in; so it behooves the bug to make sure the right predator eats the rat. How does it do this? Simple. It deprives the rat of its congenital, hard-wired, instinctive fear of cats. Nothing else in the rat's behavior is affected.

As Sapolsky puts it: "This is akin to someone getting infected with a brain parasite that has no effect whatsoever on the person's thoughts, emotions, SAT scores, or television preferences but, to complete its life cycle, generates an irresistible urge to go to the zoo, scale a fence and try to French-kiss the pissiest-looking polar bear."

Expanding infinitely outward, Max Tegmark's "Parallel Universes" (also "Scientific American) argues quite reasonably for infinite versions of you on infinite earths. "If anything the Level I multiverse sounds trivially obvious. How could space not be infinite?" From Level I this elegant theory moves through physics, with some progressive changes in initial conditions, constants and particles (Level II), quantum mechanics (Level III) and different physical laws (Level IV). It's the kind of article that makes you aware of how limited our mental constructs and perceptions are.

Atul Gawande's profile of maverick doctor Francis Daniels Moore, ("Desperate Measures," "The New Yorker") inspired by the horror of Boston's Cocoanut Grove fire and an innovative treatment at his hospital, Mass General, to embark on a career of aggressive pioneering, is a dynamic, riveting view of a dedicated, driven, sometimes ruthless man.

Austin Bunn's "The Bittersweet Science," ("The New York Times Magazine") is an illuminating portrait of diabetes and early treatment, told through one patient's life story, and Ronald Bailey's "The Battle for Your Brain" ("The New York Times") discusses the pros and cons of neuropharmaceuticals. Other medical articles profile DNA's James Watson and discuss obesity in sympathetic terms of the biological imperative.

Genes crop up in Horace Freeland Judson's "The Stuff of Genes," ("Smithsonian), a celebration of its 50th anniversary and, more engagingly, in two "New York Times" articles from Nicholas Wade, "In Click Languages, an Echo of the Tongues of the Ancients," and "A Prolific Genghis Khan, It Seems, Helped People the World."

There are whimsical psychological musings, like Peggy Orenstein's "Where Have All the Lisas Gone," ("The New York Times Magazine") on changing fads in baby names, Virginia Postrell's "The Design of Your Life," on the personalization of design and Jonathan Rauch's "Caring for Your Introvert," ("Atlantic Monthly"), which is basically a justification for peace and quiet.

"We're All Gonna Die!" ("Wired") by Gregg Easterbrook reviews the latest doomsday theories and

Mike O'Connor's "Bird Watcher's General Store" (The Cape Codder") is a hilarious and informative selection of bird watcher columns, and other animal pieces include "Through the Eye of an Octopus" ("Discover"), a poignant portrait of a creature who doesn't live long enough to be as smart as it is, and anthropologist Meredith F. Small's contemplative "Captivated" ("Natural History") on visiting monkeys at the zoo.

Editor Steven Pinker's bias for clear, informative and entertaining writing serves us well. There's a bit of something for everyone in this balanced and eclectic collection and every piece is well written, many are witty, and a few are as funny as they are informative.

The Best American Travel Writing 2004 (The Best American Series)

Average customer rating:

Didn't Care for the Style, But Very Fun Reading
Ick.
Traveling the Un-American World
The Best? Hmm...
Experiencing other lands and other cultures

The Best American Travel Writing 2004 (The Best American Series)
Pico Iyer
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Best American Travel Writing 2005 (The Best American Series)
The Best American Travel Writing 2003 (The Best American Series)
The Best American Travel Writing 2002 (The Best American Series)
The Best American Travel Writing 2001
The Best American Travel Writing 2000

ASIN: 0618341269

Book Description

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. The Best American Travel Writing 2004 transports readers from Patagonia to Ivory Coast to small-town Vermont. Readers are treated to car and truck trips across America, can fall "in lust" in the South Pacific, and go into the heart of the Congo to rescue gorillas. This year's volume is edited by Pico Iyer, who writes in his fascinating introduction, "Restlessness is part of the American way. It's part of what brought many of the rest of us to America." The Best American Travel Writing 2004 displays American restlessness at its most tantalizing and entertaining.

Customer Reviews:

Didn't Care for the Style, But Very Fun Reading.......2006-08-18

The editor, Pico Iyer, approaches the 2004 edition with a clear purpose: to focus not on the travel destination but the travel experience. With the world becoming smaller and smaller, this edition shows how travel is becoming less and less about the destinations and more and more about how travel can transform the individual. This is a different and interesting way to look at travel. However, travel stories (in my opinion) should bring the reader into new geographical places with a solid dose of history and maybe a hint of personal, inward reflection. But these writings emphasize too heavily the feelings and experience of the traveler and thus ignores the wonder of geography, history and foreign culture. Despite my dislike for the philosophy employed in selection of this edition, I appreciated the introduction written by Iyer. It was well written, humorous and made a fitting introduction for the collection of 26 writings.

1. Romance. (4) An interesting look into American road travel of yesteryear (1930's). The whole romance angle of the story didn't really work though.

2. Test Day. (8) Very funny tale of a Western teacher attempting to teach English in Tanzania. I enjoyed the recollections of frustration in teaching English. On a side note- teaching English has become a huge business in the last decade with many nations gouging themselves on the promise of wealth through knowledge of English. This has transformed the world, often causing cultures to devalue their own culture in order to embrace English and the hope of Western wealth. In many cases teaching English does more damage than good.

3. Monuments to Our Better Nature. (7) This is a short, concise essay describing some of the monuments found in Washington DC.

4. The Accidental Explorer's Guide to Patagonia. (9) This was the best essay in the collection. The author tells of his trip to Patagonia, located in the geographically strange southern tip of South America. This is a truly strange place and this short account is a humorous tale of one travel group's experience in the Patagonia.

5. The Screenwriters Vacation. (7) In a few short pages a normal family vacation is retold through the eyes of a screenwriter. Very funny.

6. Canadian Gothic. (3) "I have made a career out of not enjoying Canada." This was a promising opening line, but this quickly lost my interest. I couldn't figure out what the point was, and the information covered in the essay was very random.

7. History Lesson. (3) Boring, but fortunately very short. This is a story of a French family who faced tragedy through WW2.

8. Under the Sheltering Sky. (2) This is mainly a look at the life of Paul Bowles and one travelers hope that through a "pilgrimage" to Tanzier, Morocco, the home of Bowles, an experience or inspiration would come through tracing the footsteps of the famous author. The traveler comes to the conclusion that such pilgrimages are not profitable.

9. Sandbags in the Archipelago. (1) This is the raunchy retelling of one woman's fling while traveling. Tacky and boring.

10. Kashmiri Extremism. (8) The most extreme skiing in the world is in Kashmir. Not because of the slopes but because it is a war zone. This was well written with just the right sprinkle of history to make a fun read about a faraway land.

11. Segways in Paris. (3) A group of Americans drive little scooters (Segways) around Paris in order to promote them in the French market. The only redeeming factor in this writing is the humor throughout.

12. The People on the Bus. (4) This had potential. Writing about the public buses in New York City, the author tries to wax philosophical. I have no problem with bus philosophy, but it didn't work for me.

13. Innocents Abroad? (1) This tried to show the strange relationship between America and Europe. I didn't care for it.

14. Facing Famine. (8) "Thirst is thirst, hunger is hunger." Famine is not a fun topic to write or read about, but it is a harsh truth. The author does well in conveying the bitter reality of drought and famine.

15. Chasing the Wall. (5) An adventure through China. I found it interesting that the Great Wall was given that name not by Chinese, but by foreigners. I enjoyed the copious amount of history, but it was hard to sort through and understand.

16. Ghost Road- (9) A man hunts for the Stilwell Road, a road made by Americans soldiers during World War II, a road from India to China going through Burma (currently named Myanmar). His journey is daring, illegal and involves lies and forgeries, now this makes for enjoyable reading. The road through Myanmar reveals what many activists claim: the Myanmarian government is suppressing native people groups in the northern region of the country. The author, Mark Jenkins, has an excellent website and this article prompted me to do some more study on Myanmar. Very interesting stuff.

17. The Wrong Side of the Cape- (5) "Cape Town had become, for me, a place where fools sat on sea-view terraces, sipping white wine and congratulating one another for finding a corner of Africa that was somehow immune to the chaos engulfing the rest of the continent." The writer is a native South African who tells of his home country, South Africa.

18. Small World- (6) The author describes some of the small businesses in Vermont that cater to the local society and the local economy. In contrast to the huge corporations taking over America, these small companies provide charm and personal service. More of an economic piece than a travel piece, the author does have some great points about the way the world is "getting smaller."

19. A Fleet of One- (9) "The sun never sets on the languages spoken by American truck drivers." Well-written and full of humor, a writer tells of his travels across America with a trucker.

20. Gangsta War- (8) "Africa- it's a continent of hell." This is a look into the country of Ivory Coast and the unrest that has recently terrorized the nation.

21. The Road to Herat- (2) It was hard for me to find the point here, and though it should have been exciting (Afghanistan during the war), it wasn't. Not written very well.

22. Places of Darkness- (5) About the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this journalist braves danger to learn about the dwindling population of gorillas. The mission is dangerous because of the war-torn jungles.

23. Shattered Sudan- (8) This gave an excellent history of Sudan, and shows how money and politics can cause human suffering. The author had a very original way of traveling Sudan and writing about it- he traced a pipeline through the country.

24. Faces in a Crowd- (7) An experience in San Paulo, Brazil. The author did an excellent job of showing how multi-cultural Brazil has become and this made for some interesting reading.

25. Don't Fence Me In- (6) About Patagonia, South America, I found this piece fun to read. The author writes about Butch and Sundance, the notorious criminals of the early 20th century and how they settled down in this region of the world, which is a fascinating geographical region.

26. The Kabul Express- (7) Great account of Afghanistan in 2003 and the way the country rebounds from the US led war on the Taliban.

Ick........2006-07-10

I love travel writing in all its incarnations. However, this anthology, while well written, is about as exciting as a roll of damp paper towels. I say pass unless you like being lectured to by limp old men (a strange dearth of female writers is noted) on their own sense of self accomplishment.

Traveling the Un-American World.......2005-07-15

As with any compilation of anything, whether or not this volume truly represents the "best" of its chosen subject is a matter of fruitless dispute. Pico Iyer's introduction, describing a supposed theme in this year's offerings of a certain melancholy or weariness to American travel writing as a genre, rings hollow; while the field of publications from which the submissions were gleaned is pretty limited. But once you get past those minor difficulties, this book presents an enjoyable variety of missives from American writers who have traveled to both welcoming tourist attractions and unwelcoming trouble spots where the increasingly bad reputation of America is highly obvious. There are a few self-indulgent clunkers about breathless "discovery" here (those by Heather Eliot and Joan Didion come to mind). But the collection does offer many surprises, such as Adam Kopnik's character sketches of New York City bus riders, or Richie Chevat's droll narrative of his completely typical and predictable family vacation. The great John McPhee travels cross-country with an independent trucker, while Mark Jenkins, Kira Salak, Paul Salopak, and Patrick Symmes report enthrallingly from the darker hellholes of third world war zones and disaster areas. If you're bored with typical travelogues of quaint tourist traps and scenery, you'll get a little of that here, but the best essays in this collection show that Americans traveling around the world these days are much more likely to find trouble and darkness. [~doomsdayer520~]

The Best? Hmm..........2005-06-28

Whether or not you like this collection of essays will depend on your definition of travel writing. D.Cooper's "Canadian Gothic", J.McPhee's "A Fleet of One" and B.Donahue's "Under the Sheltering Sky" are all excellent. However many of the pieces chosen are little more than self-indulgent fluff. Was 2004 such a mediocre year for travel writing? M.Byers "Monuments to Our Better Nature" and R.Chevat's incoherent "Screenwriters Vacation" and M.Gorra's "Innocents Abroad?" are hardly memorable.

As another review has pointed out the selections seem to come from a rather limited field: The New Yorker, National Geographic, Travel&Leisure. There are thousands of publication venues, yet Pico Iyer decided to treat us to an anthology that is top heavy with selections from the main stream "Big Media" press. The publisher of this series, Houghton-Mifflin hasn't strayed far from the ground that it feels most comfortable with-established main stream authors. Even the piece by Tim Cahill does not represent his best writing. Most of the selections in this book seem like warmed-up left-overs.

As another reviewer has mentioned, only 4 of the 24 selected authors are women writers. This just boggles the mind... were there no women writers of merit in 2004?

My main concern is that few of these selections are really "travel stories". Some are set in foreign locales, but deal with subjects like teaching English in Tanzania, riding the bus in NYC, famine in Ethiopia ,and political repression in Burma. There is also an irritating post-9/11 angst in several of the essays. While this maybe a reflection of the mood of American writers in 2004 coming to grips with their new found feeling of insecurity in their comfortable middle-class lives, it does not reflect the daily pre-occupations of the other 5 billion souls on the planet. There is a self-centered navel gazing in this collection of essays that reflects some of the worst, not the best of recent travel writing.

Nowhere in this collection will you find the brilliant writing of W. Thesinger, Freya Stark, Norman Lewis, Eric Hansen, or Jan Morris. You will find a lot of boring and recondite references to Henry James however.

This collection of essays is to travel writing what Starbucks is to a bistro . If you can't tell the difference from the real thing, you might enjoy it. Maybe.

I would give this book a big miss, and send a message to Houghton-Mifflin . Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to the "old Europe". This collection of essays isn't even "old-style travel writing". It is a mis-directed bore, brought to you from the same corporate folks that convinced you that chicken McNuggets is really food. This isn't travel literature. It isn't even literature. Most of the collection is dross.

Experiencing other lands and other cultures.......2005-05-01

What is the gold standard for a travel article? If it is to put you in the writer's shoes to experience what the writer experiences, then you can say that this book has picked articles that meet that criterion. The book contains articles from magazines, websites, newspapers, and online to present to the reader. The experiences will vary from riding a New York bus to being in mortal danger in SE Asia. You will feel what the writers feel. And your horizons will expand---geographically, culturally, and politically.

My only reservation is that the universe of publications, from which the articles were selected, seems to be limited. You will see a similarity between the 2003 and 2004 publications.

The Best American Magazine Writing 2004 (Best American Magazine Writing)

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And the Winner Is
Writers and Readers...read this book!

The Best American Magazine Writing 2004 (Best American Magazine Writing)
American Society Of Magazine Editors
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Best American Magazine Writing 2006 (Best American Magazine Writing)
The Best American Magazine Writing 2001 (Best American Magazine Writing)

ASIN: 0060749539
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Book Description

In the magazine world, no recognition is more highly coveted than an "Ellie," presentedby the American Society of Magazine Editors. Selected from thousands of submissions, the pieces in this anthology represent the very best of those -- outstanding works by some of the most eminent writers in America:

Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit) on living and creating with chronic fatigue syndrome

Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) on love and surfing

Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) on modern torture and the "landscape of persuasion"

Seymour M. Hersh (Chain of Command) on the "selective intelligence" used by the White House to justify the war in Iraq

Calvin Trillin (The Tummy Trilogy) on his favorite force of nature, the newsman R. W. Apple, Jr.

Tucker Carlson (CNN's Crossfire), the "whitest man in America," on a peace mission with Rev. Al Sharpton

And many more!

Customer Reviews:

And the Winner Is.......2005-09-27

The Best American Magzine Writing series is edited in 2004 by Susan Orlean, who wrote "The Orchid Thief," which became the movie, "Adaptation, " in which Orlean is played by Meryl Streep. This incredibly bright writer, who came to the New Yorker from an Oregon weekly, has a masterful eye for great writing. Much the way a top museum curator chooses what to add to a collection, editors choose not only what they love for "prize collections" like these, but they, at their best, try to cull a representative sample from an array of styles. Orlean has delivered, as she chooses works from, mostly, the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and Esquire. Dave Eggers ("Zoetrope: All Story") is a well-known star in the fiction-writing universe, but his work is getting even better, and while he plays with style, his experimentation always serves the story, and his wit is never inappropriate. In a stunning article about a photograph that stunned America and the world, Tom Junod uses the space and freedom-from-rules that magazine articles offer over newspaper journalism to craft an eloquent, unsettling portrait of the photojournalist who snapped the picture of a man jumping from the WTC Tower on Sept. 11. Though these are all cutting-edge, top-tier articles, the role of women in the book, as authors and subjects, is subjugated to well, writing about fluffier topics and topics of (supposed) interest to women. We should expect Esquire and GQ to be writing for men, but it is disturbing that so many of the Magazine Award winners from which she is choosing are men, and are from "men's magazines" (we thank the universe for the Utne Reader and Ms. and Mother Jones). But it's a small quibble, and the controversy will continue, while the writing, meanwhile, should be admired no matter what the author's gender. Read this book every year if you're getting behind on your New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly, to simply read the best in mainstream magazine publishing, culled by top editors. Kudos to whomever chose Orlean this year; she's done a superior job with what she was given.

Writers and Readers...read this book!.......2004-12-03

The introduction alone was reason enough for me to buy this book; it was written by Susan Orlean, one of my favorite writers. I also own the 2002 Best Magazine Writing, which I wholeheartedly recommend (be sure to read "Dr. Daedalus" by Lauren Slater).

This new edition did not disappoint me. I was especially moved by the essay, "The Falling Man" by Tom Junod, which attempts to unveil the mystery behind a man who jumped from the World Trade Center after it began to crumble.

Another one you shouldn't miss is the highly depressing yet mouth-dropping essay "A Sudden Illness" by Laura Hillenbrand. You will appreciate your health tremendously after reading the horror that she experienced.

I'm not particularly interested in reading about Iraq because it brings up too many strong emotions, but despite that "The Killer Elite" (part one) by Evan Wright, is an extremely powerful and important read. It is a very vivid insider look on what it's like to be in the war, and how it affects the soldiers who fight there. It's a glimpse into their behavior and how they are able to do what they do. (Think: Abu Gharib.)

Here's a list of all the 18 essays in the book:
"The Dark Art of Interrogation" by Mark Bowden (about prison torture)
"The Marriage Cure" by Katherine Boo (about Bush's plan to save marriage; it follows two women who take a marriage class)
"The Killer Elite" (Part One) by Evan Wright (about Iraq war and American soldiers; follows one American platoon in Iraq)
"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" by Tucker Carlson (comic piece; about black leaders, Al Sharpton included, trying to make peace in Africa)
"Housewife Confidential" by Caitlin Flanagan (funny piece; tribute to Erma Bombeck)
"The Stovepipe" by Seymour M. Hersh (about exposing the selective intelligence used by Bush administration to justify Iraq war)
"Columbia's Last Flight" by William Langewiesche (very vivid account of the investigation into the Columbia shuttle crash)
"The David Kelly Affair" by John Cassidy (about a British weapons scientist who commits suicide, after pressure about the Iraq war)
"The Vulgarian in the Choir Loft" by Andrew Corsello (hilarious yet moving piece about finding spiritual nourishment by singing in a church choir)
"The Red Bow" by George Saunders (fiction; about a town that dips into hysteria)
"Newshound" by Calvin Trillin (personality profile of journalist R.W. Apple, an entertaining journalist)
"A Sudden Illness" by Laura Hillenbrand (author of Seabiscuit; about her fight with chronic fatigue syndrome, trying to live with it while writing and maintaining a relationship)
"Wynton's Blues" by David Hajdu (personality profile about Wynton Marsalis, a jazz artist)
"The $20 Theory of the Universe" by Tom Chiarella (hilarious account about how $20 can be used to bribe anyone to do anything)
"My Big Fat Question" by Michael Wolff (about Iraq war, which resulted in a threat from the military)
"The Confessions of Bob Greene" by Bill Zehme (a personal account about being fired from the Chicago Tribune for alleged sexual misconduct)
"The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water" by Dave Eggers (author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"; original piece about love and surfing)
"The Falling Man" by Tom Junod (a "dectective' story about a writer who searches for answers about a particularly man who jumped to his death from World Trade Center tower).

While this book has several politically important pieces, it also contains fun, light-hearted reads as well.

In my opinion, this book perfectly exemplifies the times in which we are living--that which most defines our interests and in what we must be interested.

Read this!

The Best American Science Writing 2004 (Best American Science Writing)

Average customer rating:

Good, but . . .
Pretty good
Going down the rabbit hole
An Excellent Almanac of American Science Writing

The Best American Science Writing 2004 (Best American Science Writing)
Dava Sobel
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Best American Science Writing 2005 (Best American Science Writing)
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ASIN: 0060726407
Release Date: 2004-09-14

Book Description

Jennifer Kahn's "Stripped for Parts" was selected as the lead story of this year's Best American Science Writing because, as Dava Sobel, best-selling author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, reveals, "it begins with one of the most arresting openings I have ever read." In "Columbia's Last Flight," William Langewiesche recounts the February 1, 2003, space shuttle tragedy, along with the investigation into the nationwide complacency that brought the ship down. K. C. Cole's "Fun with Physics" is a profile of astrophysicist Janet Conrad that blends her personal life with professional activity. In "Desperate Measures," the doctor and writer Atul Gawande profiles the surgeon Francis Daniels Moore, whose experiments in the 1940s and '50s pushed medicine harder and farther than almost anyone had contemplated. Also included is a poem by the legendary John Updike, "Mars as Bright as Venus." The collection ends with Diane Ackerman's "ebullient" essay "We Are All a Part of Nature."

Together these twenty-three articles on a wide range of today's most current topics in science -- from biology, physics, biotechnology, and astronomy, to anthropology, genetics, evolutionary theory, and cognition, represent the full spectrum of scientific writing from America's most prominent science authors, proving once again that "good science writing is evidently plentiful" ( Scientific American).

Customer Reviews:

Good, but . . ........2006-03-02

I've read quite a few of these compilations. While there are some really great pieces included--my favorite is the one on TB--it doesn't have the same spark as some of the other books of this type. Nevertheless, it's well worth reading.

Pretty good.......2005-03-28

This is an excellent collection of scientific writings. It exposes you to fields that you might not think about exploring on your own. The dark secrets of organ donor science and the nightmare of being "locked in" by total paralysis come to mind. Note that not every writing in this collection will interest you. There will surely be a story or two that you end up just skipping over due to complete lack of interest. This book is a great alternative to watching T.V. on the nights when you are completely burned out from your primary research/occupation but feel like you need to keep on chugging.

Note: I gave this book a 4 out of 5. This is because most of the writings where excellent and very engaging but there were a few that were a little lackluster.

Going down the rabbit hole.......2004-12-07

An enjoyable collection of essays, read them on vacation curled up next to the fireplace, a highly enjoyable time! Here are some thoughts on the individual elements:

Jennifer Kahn - "Stripped for Parts" A somewhat creepy look at the brief afterlives of organ donors. Certainly a compelling start to the collection!

Atul Gawande - "Desperate Measures" Developing new medical procedures comes at a very high cost... a cost paid out in human life and suffering. A starting look at the origins of many of the procedures that we now take for granted

John Updike - "Mars Bright as Venus" A poem... *shrug* didn't do too much for me

K. C. Cole - "Fun with Physics" One of my favorite pieces of the collection! Yes I love physics, but even more than that I love the unexpected people that so often turn up in the field.

Oliver Morton - "Strange Nuggets" Our eyes only pick up so much, so it is fitting to include an essay about all the unseen dark matter out there.

Keay Davidson - "Mapping of Cosmos Backs Big" Everyone loves baby pictures... even baby pictures of out universe. Get ready to say `ahhhhhh'

Neil DeGrasse Tyson - "Gravity in Reverse" Short little piece also about dark matter, didn't really do anything for me.

Dennis Overbye - "One Cosmic Question, Too Many Answers" String theory! This stuff always blows my mind but after reading Brian Green's books this piece doesn't really satisfy, just comes off as a pale imitation.

Sherwin B. Nuland - "How to Grow Old". The best piece of the whole book! Revaluates our ideas of aging shifting the focus from quantity of years to quality of years.

Aaron E. Hirsh - "Signs of Life" Extends the field of mathematics to areas we traditionally exclude them, is evolution as easy as 1 + 1?

Ian Parker - "Reading Minds" Gave me something new to worry about, being `fully locked in' where you are fully paralyzed but yet your mind is active. Can these people still be reached?

Tom Siegfried - "The Science of Strategy" Blah, another snoozer for me... but maybe this is just because I didn't like the movie A Beautiful Mind

Kaja Perina - "Cracking the Harward X-Files" Ever had the pleasure of getting probed by aliens during a night time abduction?

Tom Bissell - "A Comet's Tale: On the Science of Apocalypse" Kind of like those Left Behind books... but not all made up. Is the world going to go out with a bang or a whimper? Read to find out...

Elizabeth Royte - "Transsexual Frogs" No, not the name of a late night cable program- the traumatic effects of pesticides on the environment.

Susan Milius - "Leashing the Rattlesnake" An endearing article on the practicalities of performing experiments.

Michael Benson - "What Galileo Saw" No, not the old guy, the space probe...

Barbara J. Becker - "Celestial Spectroscopy: Making Reality Fit the Myth" Had to look this one up again, as it seems to have been instantly forgettable... well, that about sums it up

Kevin Patterson - "The Patient Predator". It is crazy to think that organisms as complex as us can be brought down by simple one celled organisms such as tuberculosis... watch out!

Michael Pollan - "Cruising on the Ark of Taste" People actually seeing something wrong with the world and doing something about it. Proves the point that the best way to make positive change in the world is to come up with a creative way to make it be in there self interest to do so.

William Langewiesche - "Columbia's Last Flight" I feel bad, I really wanted to like this one since I can still remember hearing the Columbia's explosion but was never really engaged by this writing.

Diane Ackerman - "We Are All a Part of Nature" People are always trying to turn there backs on there fellow animals from which and with which they evolved- but as the title says we are all part of nature!

An Excellent Almanac of American Science Writing.......2004-11-14

The 2004 volume of "The Best of American Science Writing" edited by Dava Sobel is a first-rate, in my opinion, collection of pieces by well-selected spectra of contributing authors.

These are not dry scientific articles, but well written science short stories, and accounts. This book is a pleasure to read and a great source of information.

Without further ado, I would like to continue by giving short descriptions to each of the works in the book. If you prefer to find out for yourself what those are about, you may wish to stop reading this review now.

1. Jennifer Kahn - "Stripped for Parts". A dead man's body is the best place to store organs. Read about the current state of organ transplantation, challenges and advancement. A baboon heart in a human body? Find out how well it works.
2. Atul Gawande - "Desperate Measures". Experimental techniques in medicine. How a test tube of radioactive deuterium from a nuclear reactor helped to measure human body water content. Moral aspects of versus medical progress.
3. John Updike - "Mars Bright as Venus". A little poem.
4. K. C. Cole - "Fun with Physics". Neutrinos, and MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab.
5. Oliver Morton - "Strange Nuggets". Very heavy and strange dark matter. Read about an extraordinary probe into using seismic stations around the world to detect possible strange matter clusters passing through the Earth.
6. Keay Davidson - "Mapping of Cosmos Backs Big". How recent measurements of cosmic background radiation prove the Big Bang Theory.
7. Neil DeGrasse Tyson - "Gravity in Reverse". Find out what Einstein's "greatest blunder" was. Understand "Dark Energy" that causes the universe to expand at a different rate than previously thought.
8. Dennis Overbye - "One Cosmic Question, Too Many Answers". String theory and 10-dimetional universe.
9. Sherwin B. Nuland - "How to Grow Old". We need better quality of aging. What were some different and unsuccessful ways to prolong the youth in history, and why immortality is a bad idea.
10. Aaron E. Hirsh - "Signs of Life". Applying mathematics to protein evolution. Is Biology an exact science with strict rules?
11. Ian Parker - "Reading Minds". Harnessing brain waves to communicate with fully paralyzed persons.
12. Tom Siegfried - "The Science of Strategy". Discover the amazing Mathematical Game Theory and its applications.
13. Kaja Perina - "Cracking the Harward X-Files". Psychology of alien abductions and other traumatic memories.
14. John Noble Wilford - "A Tense Border's More Peaceful Past". Archeological study of Wadi Arabah by the Dead Sea. A bridge or a barrier?
15. Tom Bissell - "A Comet's Tale: On the Science of Apocalypse". Immerse yourself in the study of sociological and religious aspects of the "end of the world", and most likely scenarios of an asteroid or comet collision with our planet.
16. Elizabeth Royte - "Transsexual Frogs". Atrazine contamination in the environment, and its effects on frogs.
17. Susan Milius - "Leashing the Rattlesnake". Ingenious ways to solve experimental challenges in biological science.
18. Michael Benson - "What Galileo Saw". Staggering spacecraft journey to Jupiter.
19. Barbara J. Becker - "Celestial Spectroscopy: Making Reality Fit the Myth". Short story about an English astronomer William Huggins.
20. Kevin Patterson - "The Patient Predator". Increasing danger of tuberculosis, and new Multi-Drug-Resistant strains.
21. Michael Pollan - "Cruising on the Ark of Taste". Read about an innovative organization that helps preserving the biological and cultural diversity through selecting what to eat.
22. William Langewiesche - "Columbia's Last Flight". Get the insight on political and some of the technical details of the investigation that followed the loss of the space shuttle Columbia.
23. Diane Ackerman - "We Are All a Part of Nature". A perspective on life and nature.

The articles in this book are not merely technical chronicles; they evolve around real people, scientists. They are captivating and fresh.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely, and would recommend it to anyone.

The Best American Sports Writing 2004 (The Best American Series)

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A good and diverse selection of sports writing

The Best American Sports Writing 2004 (The Best American Series)

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Best American Sports Writing 2005 (The Best American Series)
The Best American Sports Writing 2003 (The Best American Series)
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ASIN: 0618251391

Book Description

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected and most popular of its kind. "Cracker-jack writing from some of the country's best-known sports journalists." Publishers Weekly With Richard Ben Cramer at the helm, this year's selections embrace the world of sports in all its drama, humanity, and excitement, from swimming the Arctic Ocean to high school football. Today's foremost journalists shed light on Mia Hamm, Amare Stoudemire, and on sports" underbelly as a professional baseball team scalps its own tickets and as women single-mindedly pursue million-dollar athletes. We witness the World Taxidermy Championships, the final days of the Michael Jordan Wizards, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

A good and diverse selection of sports writing.......2005-04-12

You don't have to be a sports fan to enjoy The Best American Sport Writing 2004. I don't have a lot of interest in, much less passion for, running. Bicycling and swimming, too, seem sensible and healthy activities, but not all that compelling. It stands against reason, then, that the stories I liked the most in this book had to do with running, bicycling, and swimming. Weird that.
Houghton-Mifflin has been issuing Best of American Sports Writing for years, rotating editors annually. This edition's editor is Richard Ben Cramer, who gives this insight into the selection process - "I tend to like stories that treat a whole life, or at least make a connection between sports and the rest of life." Most of the twenty-six examples here, culled from magazines, newspapers, and web sites, do just that. They run the gamut of sports related topics; baseball - 6 stories, basketball - 5, football -3, running -3, fishing -2, and one each on bicycling, swimming, soccer, horse racing, airplane racing, taxidermy, sports groupies, and other (A personal memoir of sorts by Sports Illustrated's Rick Telander.) A little surprisingly there are no stories on hockey, hunting, boxing, or golf.
Cramer also slights professional football. The football related entries include Charles Stowers' (Dallas Observer) story about 6-man football leagues in Texas high schools, Charles Pierce's (Sports Illustrated) look back at the NFL decision to play games the Sunday after the John Kennedy assassination, and Ira Berkow's (New York Times) short profile of St. John's University's coach John Galiardi. Included are long articles on basketball's Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire, and Michael Jordan's last season of professional basketball. Maybe the selections would have made more sense to me if I had more interest in basketball and less in football.
In any event, the strength of this book lies elsewhere. Steve Friedman's `The Race of Truth' (Bicycling) is an engrossing story of the troubled speed-racer Graeme Obree. Lynne Cox's `Swimming to Antartica (The New Yorker) is the only entry from a non-professional writer. Cox recounts, in fascinating detail, the preparations and sacrifices she underwent to attempt to swim in the near-freezing waters of Antartica. Stephen Rodricks's appropriately titled `A Long Strange Trip' (Runner's World) profiles Iranian Reza Baluchi, a man who, Forrest Gump-like, is running across the world in the name of peace. Rodrick catches him outside of Hicks Junction, Arkansas. The most harrowing story is Michael Hall's sensitive portrait of Burundi-born Gilbert Tuhabonye in `Running for His Life' (Texas Monthly), which details Tuhabonye's violent youth - beaten, burned, and left for dead in his Hutu versus Tutsi homeland - and his new life as a running coach in Texas.
Incidentally, the stories in Best... 2004 were all written in the calendar year of 2003. Series editor Glenn Stout includes a selection of Notable Sports Writing of 2003, a list of about 100 or so stories (author/title/publication) that apparently were in the running but didn't make the final cut.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 (The Best American Series (TM))

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The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 (The Best American Series)
What Exactly Is "Nonrequired" Anyway?
Review for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004
Where are the truly overlooked gems?
Where are the truly overlooked gems?

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 (The Best American Series (TM))

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ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005
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Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category

ASIN: 0618497439

Book Description

Dave Eggers, who edits "The Best American Nonrequired Reading" has one again chosen the best and least-expected contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and satire from publications large and small--Esquire, Iowa Review, Bomb, Threepenny Review, and Zyzzyva, to name just a few. Here is a sampling--seven original and surprising selections. HIDDEN LIVES OF LAKE by Gina Orchsner WHAT YOUR EAT by Ben Ehrenreich SECRET NAMES by David Mamet SIXTEEN JACKIES by Lance Olsen THE PROMISE OF SOMETHING by Cheryl Printup BIG BROTHER by Paula W. Peterson FULL HOUSE by David Sedaris Contains 3 Compact Discs Running time-approximately 3 hours Contains some adult themes and language

Customer Reviews:

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 (The Best American Series).......2007-07-17

A great read, with a heartfelt Introduction by Viggo Mortensen on the power and passion of the word! --Diana Divine, Los Angeles, CA

What Exactly Is "Nonrequired" Anyway?.......2005-08-26

Most of the copious volumes from the Best American series are formidable collections in categories that you can really sink your teeth into. You know what you're getting with the Best American writing about Travel, Science and Nature, Music, Mysteries, or even Recipes. But this "Nonrequired" series is either a vanity project for cooler-than-thou editor Dave Eggers, or a dead letter office for orphaned submissions and quirky leftovers. So what does "Nonrequired" really mean as a category? Is it supposed to mean writing from alternative publications or unorthodox sources? That's partially true here, but not entirely, because this volume has submissions from New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, GQ, and Esquire. Is "Nonrequired" supposed to mean cutting-edge styles or offbeat subject matter? With a few noteworthy exceptions, this is not really the case either, because the vast majority of submissions here are completely typical short stories that are often perfectly competent (though sometimes not), but are not out of the ordinary in any literary sense. This is especially curious because there is already a Best American Short Stories collection. Is "Nonrequired" supposed to feature writers from alternative lifestyles, immigrant cultures, or disadvantaged social conditions? That is the case for some of the submissions here, but this also is not consistently the case.

Most awkwardly, this mostly fictional collection has two observational essays and four journalistic articles. Ironically, the four non-fiction articles are the best items here because they deal with interesting subjects, but their placement seems arbitrary and inconsistent. And finally, this book gets off to a horrendous start, with Eggers' so-very-not-funny foreword, and the stultifying introduction by Viggo Mortensen, who acts far better than he writes. So what's the point of having all these writings in this one volume, with the poorly defined category trying to group them together? Maybe it's so Eggers and his group of teen interns with big thoughts can feel like they've served the world, by compiling material that's apparently cool enough for us because it's cool enough for them. But one person's cool is another person's cold. And that's when you can even figure out what the category is supposed to mean [~doomsdayer520~]

Review for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004.......2005-07-29

I liked the foreward and the introduction the best. I was disappointed in some of the stories. I believe there were students on the selection panel for the stories, so I was surprised at the language/content in some of the selections.

Where are the truly overlooked gems?.......2005-06-28

Not here...

But, what do you expect from the man who only publishes his friends/lovers? Here, again, you'll find Eggers friends whose work he's published elsewhere, people Eggers knows at the Onion web site, etc. etc. This is a great idea for a Best American book, but sooner or later, McSweeney's is going to have to stop pretending to publish overlooked, outsider, experimental, or even good, work. Where can one really find that, I wonder...

Where are the truly overlooked gems?.......2005-06-28

Not here...

But, what do you expect from the man who only publishes his friends/lovers? Here, again, you'll find Eggers' friends whose work he's published elsewhere, people Eggers knows at the Onion web site, etc. etc. This is a great idea for a Best American book, but sooner or later, McSweeney's is going to have to stop pretending to publish overlooked, outsider, experimental, or even good, work. Where can one really find that, I wonder...

Average customer rating:

Not what I had hoped.
Nice to know some still care
Something for everyone

Best American Political Writing 2004

Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1560256133

Book Description

The Best American Political Writing 2004 preserves the most incisive, controversial, and entertaining writing about the notable events and people of 2003 and the first half of 2004. The past twelve months have provided no shortage of topics for heated political conversation. From Saddam’s capture to Arnold’s victory in the California recall election; from the controversy over Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction to the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, 2004 provided an excess of political fodder for commentary from all sides. Selections from the country’s finest political writers, including Al Franken, Ron Suskind, Jonathan Chait, Jeffrey Toobin, George Will, Paul Krugman, George Packer, Charles Krauthammer, William Safire, Molly Ivins, Franklin Foer, Spencer Ackerman, Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol, and many others can be found in this volume. Gathering the best writings from the nation’s leading publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Nation, Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, Weekly Standard, Foreign Affairs, Vanity Fair and Salon.com, as well as from think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, Flippin culls the best writing on the year’s most talked-about topics.

Customer Reviews:

Not what I had hoped........2005-02-09

Be aware that this book is not from the same publisher as the well regarded "The Best American Series" by Houghton Mifflin. I had hoped for equal, in-depth and fair analysis of political issues that would increase my political IQ. Instead I felt that each essay was based more on opinion than facts, although selective facts can be used to support just about any opinion. And I don't think they were chosen with balance in mind. There is only one article which is negative about the Bush tax cuts but not a corresponding positive article. There are 6 articles on Gay Marriage however.

If possible, look closely at the sources of the articles (listed in the table of contents) and read the brief descriptions by the editor at the beginning of each article before buying this book.

Nice to know some still care.......2003-10-12

This book is filled with topics that should be at the forefront of the national conversation but are falling on the deaf ears of an apathetic populace. Doesn't anyone care anymore? This is the important stuff, folks. Hard facts and important ideas on the issues that are vital to our future are being drowned out by the legions of bickering, partisan loudmouths with an axe to grind. This book is one of the dying breed that is not for only conservatives or only liberals but for AMERICANS, lest we forget we're all in this together. Highlights for me included the essays, such as Paul Kruger's "For Richer," that reveal how the interests of the wealthy have hijacked our government to a degree never seen before and why our politicians play along, despite overwhelming public opinion against it and the damage it does to our country. Also recommended is Robert Kuttner's reminder of all the promises George W. Bush made to us during his campaign opposed to what he's actually delivered. There could hardly be more distance between the two. Since it helps to know something about your reviewer, I'll tell you that I'm a Democrat, but you'll find a mix of serious conservative, liberal and independent voices here, though not from the extreme fringes. There's no shortage of other books you can look to if that's your thing. Left, right or center, you will find that the writers whose essays make up this book care deeply about which they write and that's what we could all use a lot more of; more caring and less squawking. If you care about your country but are tired of the shrill war of words and conspiracy theories that pass for political writing these days, this book is a beacon in the dark night.

Something for everyone.......2002-12-24

I know what they say about yesterday's newspaper, but these pieces from 2001, beginning with that mind-bending election and with a special section on September 11, are a slice of history such as we hope not to see again. And besides, many are think pieces from magazines like "The New Yorker" and "The Nation," "Vanity Fair," "salon.com" and "The Atlantic Monthly."

The book is divided into six parts, each followed by a "National Conversation," with column-length opinion pieces. Election 2000 includes five pieces from the likes of Vincent Bugliosi (liberal) and Charles Krauthammer (conservative); Politics in the Bush Era features Margaret Carlson and Nicholas Lemann, with columns from Molly Ivins and Paul Krugman. Lani Guinier and Frank Rich sound off on (Not) Politics As Usual, then Barbara Ehrenreich and David Brooks give their View from Main Street. The second half of the book concentrates on September 11 and the War on Terror and we hear from Richard Perle, Fouad Ajami, Richard Rodriguez, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Henry Kissinger. Among others. The writing is lively and forceful, of course, and if the predictions are sometimes wrong, it's nice to know such opinionated people aren't right about everything. For political junkies of all persuasions.

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