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The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011 (The Best American Series) Kindle Edition

by Dave Eggers (Author, Editor), Guillermo del Toro (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
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The Best American Series®
First, Best, and Best-Selling

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, the very best pieces are selected by a leading writer in the field, making the Best American series the most respected—and most popular—of its kind.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011 includes

Daniel Alarcón, Clare Beams, Sloane Crosley, Anthony Doerr, Neil Gaiman, Mohammed

Hanif, Mac McClelland, Michael Paterniti, Olivier Schrauwen,
Gary Shteyngart, and others

Previous page
  1. Part of series
    The Best American: Nonrequired Reading
  2. Print length
    531 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Mariner Books
  6. Publication date
    October 4, 2011
  7. File size
    17182 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Required reading is the stuff that’s supposed to be on the test. Nonrequired reading often is more interesting. That’s the case with this quirky collection” (USA Today )

From the Back Cover

The Best American Series®
First, Best, and Best-Selling

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, the very best pieces are selected by a leading writer in the field, making the Best American series the most respected—and most popular—of its kind.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011 includes

Daniel Alarcón, Clare Beams, Sloane Crosley, Anthony Doerr, Neil Gaiman, Mohammed Hanif, Mac McClelland, Michael Paterniti, Olivier Schrauwen,
Gary Shteyngart, and others
[INSERT AUTHOR PHOTO] DAVE EGGERS, editor, is the editor of McSweeney’s and a cofounder of 826 National, a network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centers for youth, located in eight cities across the United States. He is the author of six books, including What Is the What, Zeitoun, and The Wild Things.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO, guest introducer, is an Academy Award–nominated writer, director, and producer. He is the creator of Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, Cronos, and The Devil’s Backbone, among other films. Pan’s Labyrinth earned prizes worldwide, including three Oscars.


Look for the other best-selling titles in the Best American series:

THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS
THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS
THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES
THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING
THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES
THE BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING
THE BEST AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITING



Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005LVR6RI
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Original edition (October 4, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 4, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 17182 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 531 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

About the author

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Anjali Sachdeva

Anjali Sachdeva

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Anjali Sachdeva’s fiction has appeared in The Iowa Review, Gulf Coast, Yale Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Literary Review, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has taught writing at the University of Iowa, Augustana College, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Pittsburgh. She also worked for six years at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation, where she was Director of Educational Programs. She has hiked through the backcountry of Canada, Iceland, Kenya, Mexico, and the United States, and spent much of her childhood reading fantasy novels and waiting to be whisked away to an alternate universe. Instead, she lives in Pittsburgh, which is pretty wonderful as far as places in this universe go.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
36 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

LAN Guy
5.0 out of 5 stars Love This Series
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2022
Verified Purchase
I love most everything in the "Best American" series, but the "Nonrequired Reading" volumes are a special favorite. And the forward to the 2011 edition by editor Dave Eggers and the Introduction by Guillermo Del Toro alone are worth the price of admission here.

I like savoring the selections, reading them individually and occasionally, between other books. Perhaps like a bit of sherbet to cleanse my palette between courses. And I enjoy discovering new authors previously unknown to me.

And I am grateful that I can load works like these on my Kindle and have them available on a plane, at the beach, or in a hotel when I travel.
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Artemis825
4.0 out of 5 stars Good poolside read
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2012
Verified Purchase
Reading this book is like going to eat at a buffet. Some of the items may not be to your liking, but enough will be to justify the price. There were a great many items on the buffet, and they were diverse and, for the most part, entertaining. As a Kindle reader, I never had a real sense of what was coming up next (since the Kindle would just pick up where I left off) and I found the selections varied and interesting. It makes an excellent beach or pool read because you can stop and start easily without worrying about continuity and if you don't care for one item, you'll probably like the next.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Distracting typos in Kindle version
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2011
Verified Purchase
I'm not sure if the typos are unique to the Kindle version, but they are frequent and distracting. They seem to be the sort of typos caused by OCR, which is weird, since the publisher presumably had the text itself.
39 people found this helpful
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Kelly L. Livesay
5.0 out of 5 stars It can't be published frequently enough
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2013
Verified Purchase
I LOVE THIS SERIES. "Its" brain works like mine-eclectic, explorative, non-judgmental. In my fantasy I am a part of the group of young folks (though I am not) who get to read and read and then select pieces for this collection. Sigh. Heaven.

I'll admit to liking 2012 more than 2011 (too much Wikileaks for me) but regardless. I find new authors (Anthony Doerr!), am amused, shed a tear, read in wonder (Neil Gaiman's piece is weirdly imaginative-not surprisingly).

God bless Amazon for putting this on sale in Kindle form for $1.99 (and my FB writer friend for posting about said sale) or I would have never heard about it. Savoring 2011 and waiting anxiously for 2013.

Worth it at any price.
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L. Jackson
5.0 out of 5 stars Something for Everyone
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2011
Verified Purchase
The BANR 2011, besides having the most interesting and fun short fiction, non-fiction and assorted other offerings, is unique in its creation, being the product of lots of time and effort by high school students. They have chosen a little something for everyone: a wonderful essay about Roger Ebert, two funky and interesting story length cartoons, many short stories that make you think, and, of course, the best "wikileaks revelations" of 2011!! Based on your personal taste, you may not like everything in this book, but I know you will like a lot of it. Let's hear it for non-required and fun reading!!
22 people found this helpful
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Deb Oestreicher
4.0 out of 5 stars Idiosyncratic selection
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2013
Verified Purchase
This collection is a hodgepodge of stories, lists, illustrated fiction, and other stuff. One is not really certain of the criteria for inclusion here, except that most items are consistently enjoyable and surprising. The diversity of genres adds to the sense of surprise and pleasure.
One person found this helpful
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Roy Berger
5.0 out of 5 stars BEST BOOK OF SHORT STORIES
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2012
Verified Purchase
There are only 2 or 3 stories that I didn't find engaging. This is 1000 percent better than all the other short story books I have read in the past several years.
I just read the true story by and of James R Spring and his avocation of finding lost children south of the border. ( You can google him and read about him and his past-time.) Just an example of the variety of well-written stories in this book.
13 people found this helpful
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J. Lamb
4.0 out of 5 stars Dave Eggers' annual "Nonrequired Reading" books are always great!
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2013
Verified Purchase
This one is no exception. We enjoy these books every year; they include wonderful whimsical lists as well as beautifully written short pieces.
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