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The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 (2010)

by Dave Eggers(Favorite Author)

3.91 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0547241631 (ISBN13: 9780547241630)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Mariner Books

review 1: I didn't actually finish this. It was a bit to eclectic to keep my interest. I picked it up because of both the involvement of David Sedaris, and because I was on a short story kick at the time. But, I didn't like bouncing between arbitrary lists of slogans, comics, and sound bites to figure out what the good stuff was. Unfair to review negatively since I didn't finish? Sure. Maybe I'll pick up a future volume and try again.
review 2: This book was full of stories and things I didn't think I was going to like, but that it turned out I loved when I actually made myself read them. I only skipped two stories in the entire thing, which is saying a lot because I'm not usually willing to read a short story longer than, say, a page and a half. Favourites:-"Bes... moret American Comedy Piece Written By a Woman" I thought this was sarcastic and hilarious. Ken did not. Maybe it's a lady-anger thing?-"Best American Gun Magazine Headlines" I continue to giggle about these in my head if someone is talking about guns.-"Best American Lawsuits" I tried reading the best one of these out loud to Ken but failed because I was laughing way too hard and couldn't breathe.-"Best American Poems Written in the Last Decade or So by People Living or Fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan" Poems: they are good sometimes!-"War Dances" (by Sherman Alexie) About halfway through I came to a bit I was sure I had read before and had to search all over the internet to find it. I still don't remember how I happened upon the one passage I had read, but the rest of the story was sad and funny.-"Gentlemen, Start Your Engines" (by Andrew Sean Greer) This one was my all-time-in-this-collection favourite. At first I was thinking "Oh no. A gay couple at a NASCAR. This cannot turn out well." But it ended up being nice and sweet and made me feel good about the world for a few hours. I recommend this story even if you don't read anything else in the entire book. less

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