The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002 (The Best American Series)

Some highlights of this collection are: Higher Education, the profile of Reese Perry, an African American high school basketball coach who shows up in an all-white midwest small town and, through his altruistic love, transforms them from prejudiced tribalists to open-minded cosmopolitans, a heart-breaking essay. Bomb Scare, a graphic or comic book style story of a high school where all the kids and their parents lack a moral compass and surrender to nihilism, the inability to transcend their self-centeredness. Why McDonald's French Fries Taste So Good, an excerpt from Fast Food Nation, which explains how the food industry uses sinister science to secretly make us addicted to the chemicals the food companies put in our food. Stop That Girl, a short story about a ten-year-old girl whose mother marries a rich man and ends up in a False Eden where playing house leaves her feeling abandoned and unloved. My Fake Job, an essay in which Rodney Rothman simply walks into a tech office and feigns being an employee, an act of charlatinism that isn't questioned by anyone at the office, casting light on how these fly-by-night business operations are so disjointed and full of isolated employees who suffer so much transience and alienation as the employers don't commit to them in the slightest. Toil and Temptation, an essay about a Mexican immigrant who slowly gets caught up in consumerism and becomes more of a slave in America than he ever was in Mexico.

Whenever I read a Best of Series book, only a few stories/essays grab me, and this is the eclectic nature of anthologies. In Best-of books all writing is high quality, but what interests the writer and me is hit and miss. Yet I found almost seventy percent of BNR 2006 excellent. The graphic entries all great, I've read Delisle's Pyongyang, it is up there with Spiegelman's Maus, but the other two I had never heard of and found both very provocative - Joe Sacco & Gipi. The Best American Excerpt from a Military Blog is a tearjerker, and the Chuck Norris Facts as well as the Onion headlines are funny. My prose favorites came from Tom Downey, The Lincoln Group, Julia Sweeney, and Vonnegut. On the questionable end, I'm glad to have the opportunity to read the 26 pages of the Iraqi Constitution, but..., it does not make very compelling reading. And perhaps too many of the essays or excerpts made a one-sided statement about our involvement in the Middle East. This is fascinating stuff, and though Tom Downey's 'The Insurgent's Tale' perhaps is the most provocative piece of the bunch, it also made me wonder why the story seemed unable to come down a little harder, or examine, both sides. I somehow felt the author gave the insurgent a pass at times. Four and a half stars.

This is an annual "must-buy" for our household, a tradition we started when my daughter was in high school. There are so many great writers represented here, in so many formats, from poetry and comics to essays and short stories. The allure of this series among many younger readers is that the content is selected by high school students in two cities. (I don't know if those cities are fixed, or if they move every year.) These students work for a number of months, reading stacks of literary journals, and obscure poetry and comics publications.The result is a beautiful mixture of great writing. You'll capture the heart of a young (but dedicated) reader if you introduce her/him to this annual. Enjoy!

I have read the the Best American Non-required reading series since the first one. I have them all. I taught for years and used the books with my students, too. I don't know why, but, in my mind, they have gotten steadily worse. The first couple years were amazing. Then, something changed. They're still good, don't get me wrong - 3 stars good instead of 'oh god I wish I could give more than 5 stars!' So, yes, there are great pieces in here. But for whatever reason, many don't appeal to me (in the more recent ones). I don't know whether it is because they have changed the focus (which they have, I think, which could make this all personal preference), but if you haven't read the first one, start there. I am a big fan of 826 Valencia. I want to say I loved this. I can't. There was about an equal break of wheat and chaff in this one, unfortunately. I feel. That said, the piece by Kiese Laymon was one of the most impressive pieces of writing I've seen in a while. And I read quite a bit. Read it, even if you don't buy the book. And finally, if you have the money, buy the book. Sure, it could have been better, but the money supports a wonderful cause and it's a pretty amazing project.

If you are interested in all kinds of seemingly unrelated items (from Chuck Norris jokes to the Iraqi Constitution) and if you take great pleasure in discovering information you didn't know you wanted to know, this book is for you (as are all the other Nonrequired Reading titles)! My husband and I have had the best time with this volume! We each independently read an article or story or poem or jokes (or whatever else may come up -- you really just never know) and then we discuss it. Sometimes the discussions are light-hearted, sometimes serious, and sometimes they even work us up into a good debate. That's the beauty of these books: everything is in there! Do yourself a favor. Order one. Be amazed by its weirdness. Laugh at its lack of seriousness. Savor its entirety. This book is like a grab bag: you just don't know what you're going to get until you open it. We haven't been disappointed yet!

Absolutely amazing stories.