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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
My favorites from the collection:
Roger Angell's "This Old Man"
Anthony Doerr's "Thing with Feathers that Perches in the Soul"
Margo Jefferson's "Scenes from a Life in Negroland"
Philip Kennicott's "Smuggler"
Ashraf H. A. Rushdy's "Reflections on Indexing my Lynching Book"
Zadie Smith's "Find Your Beach"
Cheryl Strayed's "My Uniform"
Kelly Sundberg's "It Will Look Like a Sunset"
Roger Angell's "This Old Man"
Anthony Doerr's "Thing with Feathers that Perches in the Soul"
Margo Jefferson's "Scenes from a Life in Negroland"
Philip Kennicott's "Smuggler"
Ashraf H. A. Rushdy's "Reflections on Indexing my Lynching Book"
Zadie Smith's "Find Your Beach"
Cheryl Strayed's "My Uniform"
Kelly Sundberg's "It Will Look Like a Sunset"
This is a great collection - no duds in here. There's extensive discussion of ageing, which this lady on the cusp of 30 appreciates (I feel better about the future now) and there's plenty of straight up interesting essays. Sundberg's essay, though; that is incredibly personal, moving, and brave.
I would really love to have dinner with each of these essayists, which I think maybe sums up my experience with this book - what a group of minds and perspectives.
I would really love to have dinner with each of these essayists, which I think maybe sums up my experience with this book - what a group of minds and perspectives.
This collection is so-so. One problem is choosing an editor with an affiliation to the New Yorker, but with no clause that she then must refrain from choosing other writers affiliated with that publication. (It is standard to prohibit submissions to literary contests and awards by those who have a tie to judges, so why shouldn't BEA assure a fair vetting by prohibiting cronyism?) So the four NYer pieces in this collection, IMHO, are among the weakest in the batch. Malcolm Gladwell's contribution is not even an essay; there is no use of "I" anywhere in this short article; it's a work of magazine journalism so doesn't belong in the collection since it's neither an "essay" nor is it "best." Hilton Als' piece is unreadable (self-indulgent experimental attempt at lyrical essay?) There are one or two standout pieces (Zadie Smith's essays are always rich and intriguing), Tiffany Briere's essay "Vision" is interesting, Megan Daum's piece is worth reading, but the rest are fairly forgettable, even by authors I admire (i.e., Anthony Doerr, Sven Birkerts). Rebecca Solnit's piece is unreadable (try as I might, I cannot get through anything Solnit writes), and Cheryl Strayed's very short piece, "My Uniform" has her characteristic voice-driven panache but lacks depth. I always hope that when the BEA comes out each year, there will be a few pieces that will be stunning and unforgettable, and usually there are one or two, or in some past years, even three or four. But this year's collection lacks a single essay that rises to that level. I know those fantastic essays are out in the world, but unfortunately they didn't end up in this collections.
Every year, I read both The Best American Essays and The Best American Short Stories cover to cover and always am impressed by many of the works included. The essays, as usual, range from the humorous to the heartfelt, the political to the social, the surprising to the mundane. Recommended yearly reading!
Side note: I didn't discover that I hadn't read the 2015 volumes until I purchased the 2016 volumes and added them to my to-read pile. I'm not sure if this says something about me or about the size and disarray of the pile.
Side note: I didn't discover that I hadn't read the 2015 volumes until I purchased the 2016 volumes and added them to my to-read pile. I'm not sure if this says something about me or about the size and disarray of the pile.
This is a collection of essays.
The essays are of mixed quality, I found most of them interesting.
The essays are of mixed quality, I found most of them interesting.
2015's Selection of Essays was good. Much better than 2014.
Many resonated with me including:
The Thing with Featers that Perches in The Soul by Anthony Doerr
A Man and His Cat by Tim Kreider
My Grandma the Poisoner by John Reed
It will look like a Sunset by Kelly Sundberg
Many resonated with me including:
The Thing with Featers that Perches in The Soul by Anthony Doerr
A Man and His Cat by Tim Kreider
My Grandma the Poisoner by John Reed
It will look like a Sunset by Kelly Sundberg
My reading challenge this year suggested a collection of essays. I appreciated the suggestion because this was something new for me. I would definitely seek out essays again. This edition has 22 essays.
My favorites included:
This Old Man by Roger Angell
Strange Days by Sven Birkerts
Thing with Feathers That Perches on the Soul by Anthony Doerr
The Crooked Ladder by Malcolm Gladwell
Scenes from a Life in Negroland by Margo Jefferson
The Loudproof Room by Kate Lebo
My Grandma the Poisoner by John Reed
Stepping Out by David Sedaris
Find Your Beach by Zadie Smith
It Will Look Like a Sunset by Kelly Sundberg
I also appreciated the notes at the end about each writer. The notes were helpful because I am now interested in locating other works by some of the writers.
My favorites included:
This Old Man by Roger Angell
Strange Days by Sven Birkerts
Thing with Feathers That Perches on the Soul by Anthony Doerr
The Crooked Ladder by Malcolm Gladwell
Scenes from a Life in Negroland by Margo Jefferson
The Loudproof Room by Kate Lebo
My Grandma the Poisoner by John Reed
Stepping Out by David Sedaris
Find Your Beach by Zadie Smith
It Will Look Like a Sunset by Kelly Sundberg
I also appreciated the notes at the end about each writer. The notes were helpful because I am now interested in locating other works by some of the writers.
A few good essays, a few blah, a few pretty bad, and one disgusting essay.
Let’s start off with the essay that I find disgusting and abhorrent and awful: Meghan Daum’s “Difference Maker.” Long story short: it’s an ego-centric, self-centered, whining, pat-herself-on-the-back essay that basically brags about how great she is because she “tries” to help foster kids and considers herself better than couples who have biological kids. She never once speaks about how the foster kids she supposedly “helps” feel or the troubles and pain they go through. No, instead she focuses purely on how “great” she is for volunteering to spend time with foster kids. I had a physical reaction to how absolutely godawful this essay was. I hope I never come across another piece by this author and that she gets relegated to the bottom rungs of the literary world some day. Horrible, horrible essay and message.
The next 25% are bad and the next 40% are blah.
The few good ones: Tiffany Briere’s “Vision,” Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Crooked Ladder,” and Katie Lebo’s “The Loudproof Room.”
Saying all this, there are two absolute gems in this collection, both of which are among my all-time favorite essays: Anthony Doerr’s “Thing With Feathers That Perches in the Soul,” a beautiful essay that tells the story about the first family to arrive in Boise, ID and their personal history while intersplicing personal details about the author’s life throughout the narrative, including how the author discovered the historical family and his feelings of apprehension when his wife first became pregnant, and the last essay in the collection, Kelly Sundberg’s “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” an essay consisting of short paragraphs that details her abusive relationship with her now ex-husband.
Not the greatest year for the Best American Essays series by far, but at least there were a few diamonds in the rough.
Let’s start off with the essay that I find disgusting and abhorrent and awful: Meghan Daum’s “Difference Maker.” Long story short: it’s an ego-centric, self-centered, whining, pat-herself-on-the-back essay that basically brags about how great she is because she “tries” to help foster kids and considers herself better than couples who have biological kids. She never once speaks about how the foster kids she supposedly “helps” feel or the troubles and pain they go through. No, instead she focuses purely on how “great” she is for volunteering to spend time with foster kids. I had a physical reaction to how absolutely godawful this essay was. I hope I never come across another piece by this author and that she gets relegated to the bottom rungs of the literary world some day. Horrible, horrible essay and message.
The next 25% are bad and the next 40% are blah.
The few good ones: Tiffany Briere’s “Vision,” Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Crooked Ladder,” and Katie Lebo’s “The Loudproof Room.”
Saying all this, there are two absolute gems in this collection, both of which are among my all-time favorite essays: Anthony Doerr’s “Thing With Feathers That Perches in the Soul,” a beautiful essay that tells the story about the first family to arrive in Boise, ID and their personal history while intersplicing personal details about the author’s life throughout the narrative, including how the author discovered the historical family and his feelings of apprehension when his wife first became pregnant, and the last essay in the collection, Kelly Sundberg’s “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” an essay consisting of short paragraphs that details her abusive relationship with her now ex-husband.
Not the greatest year for the Best American Essays series by far, but at least there were a few diamonds in the rough.
A collection of essays. Even if I didn’t like some of those essays, the reward of discovering new writers and new essays that I love is worth it. My favorite essays included Vision by Tiffany Briere, Stepping Out by David Sedaris, Charade by Kendra Atleework and The Crooked Ladder by Malcolm Gladwell
Notes:
Hilton Als Islands [Transition]
Roger Angell This Old Man [The New Yorker]
"Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life, but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing need for deep attachment and intimate love. We oldies yearn daily and hourly for conversation and a renewed domesticity, for company at the movies or while visiting a museum, for someone close by in the car when coming home at night."
Kendra Atleework Charade [Hayden’s Ferry Review]
A warm and touching essay portrayed the friendship of two girls in Wheeler Crest, California
Isaiah Berlin A Message to the Twenty-First Century [The New York Review of Books]
Sven Birkerts Strange Days [Lapham’s Quarterly]
An essay following the recovery days from a hip replacement surgery
Tiffany Briere Vision [Tin House]
Touching and sweet essay. Her mother, her roots and culture of relating to the dead. Her days as an undergraduate working in a lab harvesting organs from mice
Justin Cronin My Daughter and God [Narrative]
A sweet essay about
Meghan Daum Difference Maker [The New Yorker]
I’ve read this before in Meghan’s book
Anthony Doerr Thing with Feathers That Perches in the Soul [Granta]
The story of the first suburban family house in Boise, Idaho.
Malcolm Gladwell The Crooked Ladder [The New Yorker]
The Mafia back at the beginning of the 20th century and today. The American Dream and Organized crime.
Mark Jacobson 65 [New York]
A view of the aging process for Mark’s generation, the baby boomers.
Throughout my life, there has always been a number that sounded old. When I was sixteen, it was twenty-seven; at twenty-nine, it was forty-two; at thirty-eight, it was fifty-two. At sixty-five, however, it was sixty-five.
Margo Jefferson Scenes from a Life in Negroland [Guernica]
I liked this essay a lot
Philip Kennicott Smuggler [Virginia Quarterly Review]
Tim Kreider A Man and His Cat [The New York Times]
Cute essay about this man’s love for his cat. Although Tim never imagined that he’d be a cat guy, he now can’t imagine ever being without one.
Kate Lebo The Loudproof Room [New England Review]
An essay about using hearing loss aids.
John Reed My Grandma the Poisoner [Vice] X
Ashraf H. A. Rushdy Re ections on Indexing My Lynching Book [Michigan Quarterly Review] X
David Sedaris Stepping Out [The New Yorker]
This essay was about acquiring a Fitbit! I enjoy everything David Sederis writes!
Zadie Smith Find Your Beach [The New York Review of Books]
"Here the focus is narrow, almost obsessive. Everything that is not absolutely necessary to your happiness has been removed from the visual horizon. The dream is not only of happiness, but of happiness conceived in perfect isolation. Find your beach in the middle of the city. Find your beach no matter what else is happening. Do not be distracted from finding your beach. Find your beach even if—as in the case of this wall painting—it is not actually there. Create this beach inside yourself. Carry it with you wherever you go. The pursuit of happiness has always seemed to me a somewhat heavy American burden, but in Manhattan it is conceived as a peculiar form of duty."
Rebecca Solnit Arrival Gates [Granta]
Cheryl Strayed My Uniform [Tin House]
The 5 year old pants
Kelly Sundberg It Will Look Like a Sunset [Guernica]
Notes:
Hilton Als Islands [Transition]
Roger Angell This Old Man [The New Yorker]
"Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life, but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing need for deep attachment and intimate love. We oldies yearn daily and hourly for conversation and a renewed domesticity, for company at the movies or while visiting a museum, for someone close by in the car when coming home at night."
Kendra Atleework Charade [Hayden’s Ferry Review]
A warm and touching essay portrayed the friendship of two girls in Wheeler Crest, California
Isaiah Berlin A Message to the Twenty-First Century [The New York Review of Books]
Sven Birkerts Strange Days [Lapham’s Quarterly]
An essay following the recovery days from a hip replacement surgery
Tiffany Briere Vision [Tin House]
Touching and sweet essay. Her mother, her roots and culture of relating to the dead. Her days as an undergraduate working in a lab harvesting organs from mice
Justin Cronin My Daughter and God [Narrative]
A sweet essay about
Meghan Daum Difference Maker [The New Yorker]
I’ve read this before in Meghan’s book
Anthony Doerr Thing with Feathers That Perches in the Soul [Granta]
The story of the first suburban family house in Boise, Idaho.
Malcolm Gladwell The Crooked Ladder [The New Yorker]
The Mafia back at the beginning of the 20th century and today. The American Dream and Organized crime.
Mark Jacobson 65 [New York]
A view of the aging process for Mark’s generation, the baby boomers.
Throughout my life, there has always been a number that sounded old. When I was sixteen, it was twenty-seven; at twenty-nine, it was forty-two; at thirty-eight, it was fifty-two. At sixty-five, however, it was sixty-five.
Margo Jefferson Scenes from a Life in Negroland [Guernica]
I liked this essay a lot
Philip Kennicott Smuggler [Virginia Quarterly Review]
Tim Kreider A Man and His Cat [The New York Times]
Cute essay about this man’s love for his cat. Although Tim never imagined that he’d be a cat guy, he now can’t imagine ever being without one.
Kate Lebo The Loudproof Room [New England Review]
An essay about using hearing loss aids.
John Reed My Grandma the Poisoner [Vice] X
Ashraf H. A. Rushdy Re ections on Indexing My Lynching Book [Michigan Quarterly Review] X
David Sedaris Stepping Out [The New Yorker]
This essay was about acquiring a Fitbit! I enjoy everything David Sederis writes!
Zadie Smith Find Your Beach [The New York Review of Books]
"Here the focus is narrow, almost obsessive. Everything that is not absolutely necessary to your happiness has been removed from the visual horizon. The dream is not only of happiness, but of happiness conceived in perfect isolation. Find your beach in the middle of the city. Find your beach no matter what else is happening. Do not be distracted from finding your beach. Find your beach even if—as in the case of this wall painting—it is not actually there. Create this beach inside yourself. Carry it with you wherever you go. The pursuit of happiness has always seemed to me a somewhat heavy American burden, but in Manhattan it is conceived as a peculiar form of duty."
Rebecca Solnit Arrival Gates [Granta]
Cheryl Strayed My Uniform [Tin House]
The 5 year old pants
Kelly Sundberg It Will Look Like a Sunset [Guernica]
These essays are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name, and I’m impressed by how well that’s worked out here, with several meditations on aging in the first third or so, and a final essay on love and abuse that took my breath away.