The New Kings of Nonfiction

by Ira Glass

The New Kings of Nonfiction by Glass,Ira. [2007] Paperback

Genres: Nonfiction

464 pages, Paperback

Published October 2, 2007

About the author

Ira Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.

Reviews

[Amy Kannel]

A really mixed bag. This is exactly my favorite kind of thing--great writing on a wide variety of subjects. But in the end, the essays I liked best were by writers I already knew I loved (Michael Lewis, Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Pollan). I did enjoy several others, but I was irritated that only 2 of the 14 contributions were from women...and of those two, one was controversial/possibly plagiarized, and the other was "The American Man, Age 10." I mean...really, Ira? Really?

Some essays/writers were absolutely five stars. Some...not so much. A couple of the essays were insanely long and I gave up completely on two of them--the one on conservative talk radio was filled with so many "hyperlinks" as to be unreadable (the format did not work in print) and the one on poker was not interesting enough for me to persevere through all the technical terms and details as someone who does not know how to play poker.

[Mo]

I really loved the variety in this collection of literary nonfiction and got to read types of stories I usually wouldn't pick up.