The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
I kind of want to give this three stars, but I won't because the nonfiction was so good. Having reading 2009 and 2010 within the last year, I have to say that BANR definitely has better nonfiction than fiction. I like both genres, but prefer fiction a little more and I think their aesthetic/interest in fiction does not line up with mine which is a bummer. Despite that, I still feel like this collection is a bit more interesting to read than the standard Best American Fiction/Nonfiction books though. Here are the pieces that stood out to me:Sherman Alexie "War Dances"Rana Dasgupta "Capital Gains"Tamas Dobozy "The Encirclement""The Photographer" (I've read the entire thing, but it is seriously amazing so it deserves a shout out)Patricio Pron "Ideas"David Rohde "Seven Months, Ten Days in Captivity"George Saunders "Tent City" Splendid compilation overall. My favourites included the following:-'War Dances' - Sherman Alexie : a rambling tale of illness, family history and relationships, from an intellectual Native American's perspective-'Burying Jeremy Green' - Nora Bonner : a moving tale of youth versus adulthood; of how greatly we can change, how little separates guilt from innocence, and how quickly we are forgotten-'The Carnival' - Lili Carre : a poignant, yet adventurous graphic short story-'Capital Gains' - Rana Dasgupta : an excellent non-fiction look at life in Delhi, India, focusing on the varieties of rich people, established rich vs. nouveau riche vs. poor vs. the law, and the caste system in modern context-'Gentlemen, Start your Engines' - Andrew Sean Greer : Two gay men experience a NASCAR race weekend and extoll the hidden virtues of redneck racing-'Vanish' - Evan Ratlifff : the true story of a Wired magazine employee who vanished and initiated a contest with the goal being to find him somewhere in the US.-'Seven Months, Ten Days in Captivity' - David Rohde : the true story of an American journalist who was held hostage in Pakistan. Insights into the life of a hostage and his captors abound.-'Tent City USA' - George Saunders : an author goes undercover and lives in a tent city in Fresno, California. In a sort of anthropological study, George deals with crackheads and crazies and finds the definition of truth more subjective than meets the eye.-'The Nice Little People' - Kurt Vonnegut : a doormat husband, a strong wife, and a micro spaceship...-'Freedom' - Amy Waldman : a US agency establishes an island nation called 'Freedom;' for convicted terrorists. Plays on freedom and imprisonment, US culture vs islamic terrorism etc. ensue.
What do You think about The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 (2010)?
Not my favorite year for this series. i found myself skipping through a lot of the stories too.
—liar9351
I loved most of the including reading, and found new authors that I wanted to read more of.
—buddhika7777
To me, this edition did not click like previous ones.
—Chel
