false 3371 252 93 male Boston, Massachusetts 1970/03/12 4953 0375725784 9780375725784 4193 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4953.A_Heartbreaking_Work_of_Staggering_Genius 3.58 43246 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come. The Vintage edition includes a new appendix by the author.]]> 3371 3.75 89611 11547 2000 4952 1932416641 9781932416640 3208 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165516034m/4952.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165516034s/4952.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4952.What_Is_the_What 4.21 15059
</div>]]> 3371 3.75 89611 11547 2006 4954 1400033543 9781400033546 728 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165516036m/4954.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165516036s/4954.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4954.You_Shall_Know_Our_Velocity_ 3.56 8163 3371 3.75 89611 11547 2002 4955 1400095565 9781400095568 334 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165516037m/4955.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165516037s/4955.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4955.How_We_Are_Hungry 3.74 3352 "What It Means When a Crowd in a Faraway Nation Takes a Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him from His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him in the Dust"
"The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water"
"On Wanting to Have Three Walls Up Before She Gets Home"
"Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance"
"She Waits, Seething, Blooming"
"Quiet"
"Your Mother and I"
"Naveed"
"Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone"
"About the Man Who Began Flying After Meeting Her"
"Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"
"After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned"]]> 3371 3.75 89611 11547 2004 6512154 1934781630 9781934781630 537 http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/65/154/6512154-m-1255571504.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/65/154/6512154-s-1255571504.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6512154-zeitoun 4.27 1619 3371 3.75 89611 11547 2009 821708 0618902813 9780618902811 220 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178681770m/821708.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178681770s/821708.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/821708.The_Best_American_Nonrequired_Reading_2007 3.84 1134
Who are they, the Nonrequired committee’s members who decide on things in this collection?
They are high school students from all over the San Francisco Bay Area.

Are they touched by some kind of divine light?
The question is a good one. There is rampant speculation on the subject.

Are they all great-looking and charming and well dressed?
Yes. All of them, and especially Felicia Wong, who can even make her own clothes.

I have a question about the process by which the entries in this collection are chosen. Is it scientific?
The process by which The Best American Nonrequired Reading is put together is not scientific. It is whatever one would consider the opposite of scientific.

Creationist?
Well, no, it’s not creationist either. The point is that we are probably a bit less top-to-bottom thorough than, say, the Army Corps of Engineers. Well, actually, scratch that. We are probably about exactly as thorough as the Army Corps of Engineers, in that we are intermittently thorough.

What is your opinion and the committee’s opinion of the state of short stories and small magazines and other periodicals?
This is a good time. It really is.

More specifically?
Not all of us Americans appreciate the fact that we have about 150 very good quarterlies in this country. Every state seems to have a very good quarterly, and about a hundred colleges have very good quarterlies — from the Kenyon Review to the University of Illinois’s Ninth Letter. So by our estimate there are about 150 very good quarterlies in this country. Maybe more. Now, the thing we don’t always appreciate here in America is that elsewhere in the world there are few to no quarterlies.

How does it feel to select something for the collection that you found in an unlikely place?
It feels so good. This year, for example, at the last moment we found “Humpies” by Mattox Roesch. It was published by Agni Online, and we all loved it, and here it is, ideally able to reach a new audience. We all took pleasure in finding that one; the mandate of the committee is to find the offbeat and the lesser-known and bring these pieces to our readers, most of whom have great skin and bad eyes.</DIV>]]> 3371 3.75 89611 11547 428565 3.84 1134 220 428566 4.03 7097 2025 2007 22428 0618570519 9780618570515 116 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167349155m/22428.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167349155s/22428.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22428.The_Best_American_Nonrequired_Reading_2006 3.88 1065 3371 3.75 89611 11547 30808 4.10 4420 333 2006 34073 1932416080 9781932416084 48 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168481764m/34073.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168481764s/34073.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34073.McSweeney_s_Issue_13 4.18 701 3371 3.75 89611 11547 5112 4.27 6372 629 2004 41226 0618341234 9780618341238 50 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169585797m/41226.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169585797s/41226.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41226.The_Best_American_Nonrequired_Reading_2004 3.86 698 Dave Eggers, who edits The Best American Nonrequired Reading annually, has once again chosen the best and least-expected contemporary fiction, nonfiction, satire, investigative reporting, alternative comics, and more from publications large, small, and on-line -- Zoetrope, Tin House, the Atlantic Monthly, Bomb, SPX, the New York Times, Texas Monthly, GQ, Iowa Review, Esquire, and others. Read on for "some of the best literature you haven't been reading . . . and it's fantastic. All of it" (St. Petersburg Times).</DIV>]]> 3371 3.75 89611 11547 2004 43422 0618246959 9780618246953 37 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170106958m/43422.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170106958s/43422.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43422.The_Best_American_Nonrequired_Reading_2003 3.90 605 Now, your questions answered:

What is the purpose of this book? —Dominique, Santa Monica, CA
Thank you for your question, Dominique. (Such a lovely name!) The purpose of this book is to collect good work of any kind—fiction, humor, essays, comics, journalism—in one place, for the English-reading consumer. The other books in the Best American series are limited by their categories, most particularly the popular but constraining Best American Catholic Badger Mystery Writing. This collection is not so limited, which is why, we think, it dominates all similar collections, making them whimper and cower in a way that is shameful.

Why aren't there more pieces about badgers? —Reginald, Myrtle Beach, SC
We had plans to include at least seven pieces about badgers—their manufacture, appearance, and care—but were prevented from doing so by Zadie Smith. This was a condition of her inclusion in this volume.

In addition to the pieces included in the collection, and Ms. Smith"s introduction—or whatever it is—will there be a piece by the editor about a young man with a crush on a sixty-five-year-old woman whose lawn he cuts? —Peter and Nam Mee, Washington, DC
We might have such a piece. It might be immediately following this sentence.

(From the Foreword by Dave Eggers)

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, the very best pieces are selected by an editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field, making the Best American series the most respected--and most popular--of its kind.
Dave Eggers, who will be editing The Best American Nonrequired Reading annually, has once again chosen the best and least-expected fiction, nonfiction, satire, investigative reporting, alternative comics, and more from publications large, small, and on-line--The Onion, The New Yorker, Shout, Time, Zoetrope, Tin House, Nerve.com,and McSweeney's, to name just a few. Read on for "Some of the best literature you haven't been reading . . . And it's fantastic. All of it." (St. Petersburg Times).

Lynda Barry
Jonathan Safran Foer
Lisa Gabriele
Andrea Lee
J. T. Leroy
Nasdijj
ZZ Packer
David Sedaris]]> 3371 3.75 89611 11547 2003