The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013

by Dave Eggers (Editor)

Dave Eggers and his students at the 826 Valencia and 826 Michigan writing labs compile fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics, as well as category-defying gems that have become one of the hallmarks of this lively collection.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Essays, Anthologies, Poetry, Collections, Humor

615 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 8, 2013

About the author

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these stories are terrific ....
but there is a wide variety of styles....short stories, poetry, tattoo graphic series, essays, and articles
Depressing...tragic -a laughter. In other words 'a mixed bag'.

Given I paid a penny for this collection plus $3.99 for shipping....I've more than gotten my money's worth.

I still have not read them all....
"Finding Oscar, Massacre, Memory and Justice in Guatemala", from ProPublica is a page turning story.
Oscar is living in the United States illegally. He learns he has ties to the genocidal
attack in Guatemala.
It's a sad horrifying story...."what kind of man slaughters families yet decides to save and raise a boy?"

"Hannah and Andrew", from the Texas monthly, is a reminder to me ( once again), of how damaging the media can be. In this case - a child was murdered...and the media
may very well have been a contributing factor to injustice in the trial.

On a lighter note....
I loved the tattoo series. ....( funny - charming - 'show & tell )

Nick Hornby contributed "Everyone's Reading Bastard". It was a little odd - takes place in London. A guy writes for an electronic publication....but not a very optimistic
type of fellow - and basically people stink! If it was suppose to be funny - I missed the joke.

"Black Box", by Jennifer Egan...is a fiction 'black- box' style ( delivery).... Symbolic story showing we are not we we see. One needs to read this slowly and think about what we are stripping away - and what we are. This story might create headaches! lol
I read it a couple of times ... I'm not sure what the heck the point really is.
I wondered if this story was written while on drugs.

"Human Snowball", from the Paris Review, by Davy Rothbart...was perhaps my favorite story. It was a contemporary - inspiring story. Of course I'd love this story....it's sad with a happy ending....with 'gentle' love.

5 stars for price value
4 stars overall!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twitter, Facebook, iPads, iPhones, Droids, PS4, XBox, Movies, more TV shows than ever before, Siri, high-speed internet, more podcasts than there are human beings on this Earth, Spotify, satellite radio, Pandora, Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, and shitty 3D movies. We have sure made it quite easy for kids these days to have no desire to read. When I was young I had no real desire to read, and most of this stuff did not even exist back then. It was not until after dropping out of grad school that I read A Visit from the Goon Squad, discovered Dan Chaon and his great novel Await Your Reply, and then began reading David Foster Wallace, which eventually caused me to ask myself, “holy shit, were books always this good?”

I do not envy teachers and parents who have to convince young kids to read in today’s world. Remembering my allergic nature to literature in my youth makes me even happier to have discovered the Best American Nonrequired Reading series. It’s great to see so many young people interested in reading contemporary literature and longform journalism. And they put together a kickass collection each year too! I’ve been reading this series since 2011 and it is always one of my favorite reading experiences of the year. Kudos to 826 National and these impressive young people.

The young people that make up the BANR committee curate a mix of short stories and longform non-fiction each year. I thought they really outdid themselves this year and found this collection to be excellent. This year’s collection contains a mix of writers that are favorites of mine – Pam Colloff, Jennifer Egan, Karen Russell – and writers that are new to me. There is so much here that I ended up loving that’s it’s hard to pick favorites.

The ones that stick out are: 1) Hannah and Andrew by Pam Colloff - Pam writes for Texas Monthly and specializes in true crime stories in Texas and their fair share of wrongful convictions. Reading about Hannah’s imprisonment is heartbreaking but Pam is an amazing writer. Also be sure to read her landmark piece on Michael Morton, who was wrongfully imprisoned for his wife’s murder for 25 years. 2) Black Box by Jennifer Egan - A great story that Egan originally published through the New Yorker’s Twitter account ironically enough; 3) The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador by Karen Russell - Russell is great and you knew that, but just read the title of that one and tell me you don’t want to read it. 4) Human Snowball by Davy Rothbart - a hilarious essay of a very interesting road trip Rothbart took that starts with meeting a 110-year old on a Greyhound bus; 5) Finding Oscar by Ana Arana and Sebastian Rotella - an amazing piece of journalism that reveals a fascinating story involving Oscar’s upbringing and a certain massacre in Guatemala.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading series is literature’s version of a potpourri. Do you have a short attention span in this day and age of distraction? That’s ok. Pick this up and you have several stories and nonfiction to go through at your leisure instead of a big, chunky novel/doorstop. It will also help that this year’s BANR collection is as good as it gets.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Glad to be done with this wretched book. The writing is great, yes, but the content was too disturbing and/or depressing for my tastes. I kept reading, hoping for at least one uplifting, feel-good tale, but it never came (except for maybe The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador, and even that wasn't enough to redeem the book although it did lead me to some spectacularly gruesome YouTube videos of bullfighting). The high school kids that chose these selections as the best of the best need to turn off their emo music and spend more time outside in the fresh air. There's nothing wrong with an unsettling story here and there but Every. Single. One. Come on guys! I did enjoy a few selections, and now that I think about it, they were the only nonfiction ones - Hannah and Andrew, Finding Oscar, and the aforementioned The Blind Faith of a One-Eyed Matador. And the all-too-brief Best American Yada Yada Yada was by far my favorite, as are all things Seinfeld.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite 'America's Best...' yearly anthology, always surprising and interesting. David Eggers and SF writing students have anthologized this series since it began a few years ago. I am amazed at the quality and diversity in the selections every year. Poetry, graphic lit, lists, fiction, nonfiction, and anything else that can be 'read'. I was happy to preview this for the publisher through Netgalley this year, definitely my favorite annual read. Nonrequired reading, always required!

[Dawson Escott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great series to find interesting short stories and journalism from, and it's interesting to track zeitgesits through, and see what high school students of that year found captivating. There's a definite fixation in this on crime and poverty, across many different countries and cultures. This fixation is to the extent where I found myself wishing for more variety, in other years there is more variety in style and content IMO, but this still has some great bits to pick out.

[Peter Howell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly an incredible collection of works.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume contained works more international in theme than the previous 2011 volume I'd read - stories touched by social issues, political ones as well, many set in more exotic of locations, and each of them had something interesting to offer a reader, which makes this edition of Best American Nonrequired worthwhile again. My favorites:

"An Intrusion" by Tim Wirkus
"Foley's Pond" by Peter Orner
"Black Box" by Jennifer Egan
"Snake River Gorge" by Alexander Maksik
"Seven Stories About Kenel of Kouev-Ville" by Kyle Minor
"Casino" by Alix Ohlin
and "Bones" by Alexis Schaitkin

[Ava Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013. The anthology, edited by David Eggers and SF writing students, is excellent, and I found some new favorite authors. The selections are diverse and of high literary quality. I highly recommend this nonrequried reading as a required reading!

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most Best American compilations some stories/essays blew me away and some put me to sleep. With this series a bit more sleep than wake.

[dirt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little bundle of everything.

[Licia Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite story is Two Deaths by Kim Philley which is a moody thriller about an American journalist traversing the backroads of Cambodia. It focuses on her complex relationship with Jonathan, a Nigerian soccer player, and the bureaucratic challenges he faces while seeking to relocate to Australia.

The protagonist is a woman surrounded by tragedy in the underprivileged third world. As she undertakes her work, she encounters death and then is haunted by childhood memories where she often felt blamed for other peoples' transgressions.

Arguably, the protagonist's biggest fault lies in being too hard on herself. At one point, she recounts a childhood bee sting and how much she cried. Was she crying from the actual bee sting or the blame she placed on herself for disobeying her mother's warnings?

The story begins in Phnom Penh. The young journalist quietly recounts former flames left behind in Portland. Then she describes Jonathan in vivid detail like the 17th-century novelist Aphra Benh described Ooronoko.

It's apparent to the reader, that the protagonist's new love interest is the opposite of the men she abandoned probably because she didn't want to marry them. Instead, she is drawn to a risk-taker who is everything she is not. She is literary, detail-oriented, conscientious, and conscious of subtlety. In contrast, Jonathan is great with a ball, but less so with words. Insults don't affect him because he's blissfully unaware.

As the story progresses it appears that the only bond shared by Kim and Jonathan, besides talent and passion, is past trauma which may be an illusion. After all the protagonist thinks, I was vaguely annoyed; why did everything with Jonathan have to be a non sequitur? She was probably also thinking --- what was supposed to have been an escapist adventure has now turned into a draining nightmare.

Kim is an elegant writer who delicately crafts her prose. I look forward to reading Two Deaths again because this novelette is like poetry and must be read repeatedly in order to fully appreciate it. I hope Kim adds an epilogue because then this story would be a novella and would satisfy the curiosity of her readers who desire more.

[Jane Doee · Rating 3 out of 5]

it’s great i think haha and there’s parts i love but it’s a little obvious it’s edited by kids this time around. a lot of misery porn and self centered shit over applying the writers own self to the story that gets repetitive.

i like really didn’t like two deaths by kim philly not even to be a hater i doubt anyone reads this lol but that’s when i had to pause and just be like dude i bet this was written by a child and i think the internet said she was mad young like 25 sometimes that’s dope but sometimes you end up with mundane mediocre stories with great writing but no real point.

a few of the pieces just felt like if HST had added nothing worthwhile to the events he was experiencing. The work was typically sad, personal and autobiographical / included thinly vailed models of the authors’ idea of themselves. personal trauma is interesting and important to document but a lot of this stuff was like when you’re friends all get drunk and the one dude keeps telling you how much he misses his dog that died 4 years ago at the age of 19. I think you’d call it a burrowed; feigned; inappropriate or dramatized reaction to a difficult experience. Like they want to be deep and have emotional depth but they think it only comes from trauma or fucked perspectives. I think that’s a lot of us when we’re like 10-28 haha so again no hate and the quality of the writing was solid but i am on a anti misery porn crusade and i wanna call them when i see em. it’s ok to explore shitty things and talk about your life but if it’s just hammering me with awful energy i’m not reading it anymore.

[Britt Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book awhile ago and got stuck on some of the slower stories in the middle and stopped. I'm glad I came back to it because many of my favorites were tucked away in the end. I love the mix of stories and styles and voices and look forward to my next one.

Favorite stories:
Hannah and Andrew
Black Box
East of the West
Human Snowball
The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite pieces from this collection:

+Tim Wirkus - An Intrusion
+Pamela Colloff - Hannah and Andrew
+Jennifer Egan - Black Box
+Kiese Laymon - How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance
+Alexander Maksik - Snake River Gorge
+Alex Ohlin - Casino
+Kim Philley - Two Deaths
+Alexis Schaitkin - Bones
+Andrew Tonkovich - Falling

[Yesenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked each piece of this anthology--each and every piece (and some pieces I absolutely loved). That is uncommon for any anthology of such breadth and variety: I will try to read every one in this series, because they are truly awesome reads.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing in the world new to say about a Best American series book. As with any collection of stories or essays, some are better than others, But, as a collection, these books are always well put together.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed many of these short stories.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another entertaining edition of the Nonrequired Reading series.

[Preethi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good collection of reading material, more stuff in here that I am glad I read than not.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The term paper assignment from Kurt Vonnegut! Why haven’t I read all the Vonnegut?

[Brad Hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best American Nonrequired Reading series is edited by Dave Eggers, though this is his last one. The items are selected by literary-minded high school students, and boy have they done a terrific job here, as this collection was a joy from beginning to end, a mix of fiction and nonfiction, with an assortment of odds and ends.

The front section, titled The Best American Front Section, is kind of a catch-all appetizer, with poems, stories, and other short bits that defy categorization, such as comic strip by Lynda Barry, a term-paper assignment by Kurt Vonnegut when he taught writing at the University of Iowa (he ends it by writing, "Since there are eighty of you, and since I do not wish to go blind or kill somebody, about twenty pages from each of you should do neatly. Do not spin your wheels. Use words I know"), Yelp reviews of chain restaurants as if written by Cormac McCarthy (really written by EDW Lynch), and my favorite, Tweets from @seinfeldtoday--plots of Seinfeld episodes if the show were still around now, such as: "Elaine pretends to live in Brooklyn to date a cute, younger guy. Kramer becomes addicted to 5-Hour Energy. George's parents get Skype." Or, "George's boss fires him after misconstruing 'sympathy like' on a Facebook post about his divorce. 'I liked it but I didn't LIKE it.'"

The book's second part settles into short stories and essays, all of them excellent. Particularly intriguing was a story about espionage, "Black Box," by Jennifer Egan, that is written in a series of how-to paragraphs. Other fiction worth noting is Jim Gavin's wonderfully loopy "Bewildered Decisions in Times of Mercantile Terror," about two cousins, one successful and one not. Here is a sample: "Nora was tall and pale, and because of her stylish pixie haircut and listless expression men often asked her if she was a model. She had actually paid her way through college doing catalogue work, posing in cardigans next to duck ponds, but she liked to tell men that she was dying of consumption." I wish I had written that sentence.

Other fiction highlights are a tale of romance from Bulgaria, "East of the West," by Miroslav Penkov; Alexander Maksik's "Snake River Gorge," about a sinister sales group that recruits young kids into a cult; Madhuri Vijay's "Lorry Raja," about child labor at Indian iron mine; and my favorite, "Human Snowball," about one magic night in Buffalo.

On the nonfiction front, there's Karen Russell on "The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador," which is about exactly what the title suggests; "All Due Respect," by Peter Hessler, about an American journalist covering organized crime in Japan; Pamela Colloff's gripping "Hannah and Andrew," which concerns a woman convicted of murdering her foster son, and the fierce "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance," by Kiese Laymon, which should be read every time one eases into thinking that we are in a post-racial society: "We're fighting because she raised me to never ever forget I was on parole, which means no black hoodies in wrong neighborhoods, no jogging at night, hands in plain sight at all times in public, no intimate relationships with white women, never driving over the speed limit or doing those rolling stops at stop signs, always speaking the king's English in the presence of white folks, never being outperformed in school or in public by white students and most importantly, always remembering that no matter what, white folks will do anything to get you."

I highly recommend this collection to anyone who loves great writing, in whatever form.

[Ryan Schumacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading this series every year, and this year was no different. There always tends to be one or two stories or articles that I just didn't really enjoy, but for the most part, reading this collection is just great and it allows me to learn some things and read things that I normally wouldn't even know exist. The standouts this time around:
- Hannah and Andrew by Pamela Colloff. A pretty intense and scary true story of a woman in jail for murdering her adoptive son when much of the evidence points to her not being guilty.
- The Black Box by Jennifer Egan. A really originally written spy story.
- All Due Respect by Peter Hessler. An article about an American journalist living in Japan and covering Japan's underground organized crime ring the Yakuza.
- Everyone's Reading Bastard by Nick Hornby. A short story from one of my favorite authors, after a not so great marriage and an even less great divorce, a man's ex wife begins writing a popular weekly newspaper column about him, and his friends, family and much of the public knows it's about him.
- Human Snowball by Davy Rothbart. A young man travels to Buffalo on Valentine's Day to tell a girl that he met once at a party that he loves her, and meets a great cast of characters on this adventure. Plus, you know, takes place in Buffalo. Also has the most perfect ending for this story.
- The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador by Karen Russell. A real life story of a matador who was horribly gored by a bull during a fight, losing an eye and having to have his face reconstructed, but became a national hero when he trained and returned to bullfighting because it's the only thing he knew and loved.
- Falling by Andrew Tonkovich. A man disappears and a seemingly bottomless hole in the ground is found. What is this hole, does it end, and if so, where does it go?

That's a lot of standouts and I even considered adding another one or two to the list. But as always, a really fun read and I look forward to next year (which will be the first year without Dave Eggers at the helm, so we'll see if anything changes).

[Kristen Suagee-beauduy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best two paragraphs in the first 84% of this INCREDIBLE collection can be found in the essay "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance" from Cold Drank by Kiese Laymon. This essay is so much better than the go-to anti-racist essay "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisibal Backpack":

"I enroll at Jackson State University in the Spring semester, where my mother teaches Political Science. Even though I'm not really living at home, everyday Mama and I fight over my job at Cutco and her staying with her boyfriend and her not letting me use the car to get to my second job at an HIV hospice since my license is suspended. Really, we're fighting because she raised me to never ever forget I was on parole, which means no black hoodies in wrong neighborhoods, no jogging at night, hands in plain sight at all times in public, no intimate relationship with white women, never driving over the speed limit or doing those rolling stops at stop signs, always speaking the king's English in the presence of white folks, never being outperformed in school or in public by white students and most importantly, always remembering that no matter what, white folks will do anything to get you.

Mama's antidote to being born a black boy on parole in Central Mississippi is not for us to seek freedom; it's to insist on excellence at all times. Mama takes it personal when she realizes that I realize she is wrong. There ain't no antidote to life, I tell her. How free can you be if you really accept that white folks are the traffic cops of your life? Mama tells me that she is not talking about freedom. She says that she is talking about survival."

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy this collection, put together by high school students and containing a mix of fiction and non-fiction from the year. This one was no exception. The front section-- usually filled with amusing stuff from the year-- was a bit more serious, including the short story "An Intrusion" and a term paper assignment from Kurt Vonnegut. My favorites were (in order of their appearance) "Hannah and Andrew" by Pam Colloff, "Black Box" by Jennifer Egan, "Snake River Gorge" by Alexander Maksik, "Casino" by Alix Ohlin, and "Human Snowball" by Davy Rothbart.

My only complaint is, and I think I've said this before, they really need to separate into sections or somehow identify what is fiction and what is non-fiction. I know this sounds like it should be obvious-- and sometime it IS easy to tell what's non-fiction based on the way it's written. But other times it's not. Two pieces-- "Snowball" and "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others..." I originally thought were fiction, but then realized that the narrator's name was the author's name.

[David Bril · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of poems, short stories and comics but together and sold as the best american non required reading of 2013. I honestly wasn't really a fan of much of the stuff in the book, and stopped reading it about half way through cause I got bored. Dave Eggers is the editor in this set.

However my star rating is strictly for the short story that Nick Hornby includes in this set, called Everyone is Reading Bastard. Bastard is a hilarious tale about a couple who gets a divorce and than the wife starts writing a weekly column in the newspaper she works for called Bastard, which details everything the "Bastard" did while they were together in the relationship, much to his horror and shock. Hornby's witty writing style is in full effect here and there are some huge laughs to be had. I especially liked the way he poked fun at how once something becomes popular, the media big wigs, have got to find a way to copy it (in this case with a column called Bitch). This is one of Hornby's very best short stories to date.

[Ben Gierhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first time reading an entry in this series, and I was very impressed with it. The book was full of all kinds of things I ordinarily wouldn't have read, which is the entire point. Fantastic selections and fantastic editing make for a fantastic book. In no particular order, my favorite stories were "Black Box," "Human Snowball," "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Rememberance," "Casino," "The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador," and "An Intrusion." Those are just some personal favorites as they're all really quite excellent. I heartily recommend this book, and I will definitely start picking it up every year!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of diverse short stories from authors that have very little in common. It was a fun read because after 20 or so pages you can jump right into the world of a different story if you wish to do so. I did not give this book 5 stars because I did not enjoy every single story and at times I thought that the Editor chose some of the stories because they were "different" or ethnic. Surely, there were more enjoyable stories that were published during 2013. Overall, the story about the Yakuza and the one about the two friends in San Francisco were a blast to read. Definately worth buying or taking out from the library because of the variety of literature (mostly enjoyable).

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some gems among this collection like "Best Term Paper Assignment," "Best American Consumer Report," "Best Poem About a Particle Accelerator," and "Casino." I also liked that they include a "Notable" bibliography that has some excellent writers not featured in this edition. I also appreciated Eggers's farewell in his "Editor's Note" and of course reading the bios of the reading committee. As with most anthologies, I rarely find I liked all of the selections, but that is also the charm of the "Best of" series. Still, to know that this anthology donates funds to assist youth literacy is admirable in and of itself.

[Yasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. I preferred the non-fiction pieces to the fiction. Standout pieces included a National Geographic article on the changes underway in Cuba and Karen Russell's essay for GQ on a famous Spanish bullfighter who survives an extreme goring. I was also pleasantly surprised by Jennifer Egan's story Black Box and Nick Hornby's story Everyone's Reading Bastard, both of which at the start seemed like they had a super simplistic point to make but in the end turned out to be pretty multi-layered and thought-provoking. Other fiction pieces in the collection tended towards the absurd/surreal which I'm not a big fan of.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Best American Nonrequired Reading along with its crowd-sourced team of high school editors continues to be the best idea/publication to emerge from the mind of Dave Eggers. This year's installment contains wonderful short work from Sherman Alexie, Kiese Laymon, Davy Rothbart and more. Lots more. In short, it's a steal. You're actually losing money if you don't get a copy of this. More blah blah blah here.