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The Best American Travel Writing 2011
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. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites . A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish...more
First, Best, and Best-Selling
The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites . A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
October 4th 2011
by Mariner Books
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As it turns out, I only want to read travel writing that is about the world that I wish existed (wine and bread in Tuscany, beautiful and interesting places, meaningful moments of connection with new people and places)... not the world as it really is (insurgence, intolerance, discomfort). So I did not finish this collection as it had more of the latter. Not the book's fault, more my own personal tastes and failings.
Mar 25, 2012
Natalie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
international,
environmental,
humor,
adventure,
political,
kick-ass,
favorites,
middle-east,
native-american,
nature
Short thoughts:
My Monet Moment - awesome
Southern Culture on the Skids - oddly entertaining for being about NASCAR
Venance Lafrance Is Not Dead - completely hilarious and sarcastic, wanted to be Mischa's bestie...then became very sad. Awesome essay
A Girls Guide to Saudi Arabia - really interesting
The Last Stand of Freetown - I had no idea that such a cool social experiment/micro-nation was allowed to occur in Copenhagen. It's become its own study in humanity. (A "sovereign" town within the limits...more
My Monet Moment - awesome
Southern Culture on the Skids - oddly entertaining for being about NASCAR
Venance Lafrance Is Not Dead - completely hilarious and sarcastic, wanted to be Mischa's bestie...then became very sad. Awesome essay
A Girls Guide to Saudi Arabia - really interesting
The Last Stand of Freetown - I had no idea that such a cool social experiment/micro-nation was allowed to occur in Copenhagen. It's become its own study in humanity. (A "sovereign" town within the limits...more
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Like any anthology, there are some hits and misses in here but on the whole they were mostly winners. I think that my favorites were "Venance Lafrance is not Dead", which is about the Haitian earthquake, "Twilight of the Vampires", about myths in Serbia, and "Stuck", about traffic in Moscow. The last one was sort of a sleeper surprise, given that the subject seems so mundane but turns out to be amazingly interesting. "Aligning the Internal Compass", about both the sport of orienteering and the s...more
I really enjoyed this anthology. The editor's preference for style and voice is consistent throughout, which is great if you love it, not so great if you don't. I found the essays witty, insightful, educational, and very appealing on multiple levels. Particularly delightful is an essay titled, "Aligning the Internal Compass," about the author and her father taking an orienteering course, to try to understand direction, given that both of them are hopelessly lost the moment they turn one corner....more
In his introduction, series editor Jason Wilson notes that magazines are now publishing "less and less quality travel writing," and sadly in this year's volume (which spotlights work published in 2010) I did notice a difference for the first time. The pieces just weren't as consistently interesting as usual, though I did have some favorites: Andre Aciman on his search for the source of a Monet painting; Porter Fox on the troubles of a pacific commune in Copenhagen; Keith Gessen on traffic nightm...more
Wide ranging and fun, or gruesome, as case my be, and also pretty mainstream, no really edgy or alternative views here. Although david baez in Nicaragua and mscha berlinski in Haiti and vollmann and Kurdistan are looking at hard truths and sticky situations! Yeah Kurdistan, bet you didn’t even know it existed.
Fun stuff by tea obreht looking for vampires in Serbia, Justin nobel looking for authenticity in nunavik, annie proulx looking for cougars in Wyoming, gary shteyngart looking nightlife in...more
Fun stuff by tea obreht looking for vampires in Serbia, Justin nobel looking for authenticity in nunavik, annie proulx looking for cougars in Wyoming, gary shteyngart looking nightlife in...more
This may challenge your idea of travel writing. And it may be, as the "Best American" series editor notes, because there isn't that much good travel writing. Add to that the unfortunate absence of strong editorial direction as required in such a collection.
Some essays are what you expect from a sprawling journalistic narrative from the New Yorker, Harper's, or Atlantic Monthly and are more about politics, place, or economies of scale as related to place than about actual travel.
The first piece...more
Some essays are what you expect from a sprawling journalistic narrative from the New Yorker, Harper's, or Atlantic Monthly and are more about politics, place, or economies of scale as related to place than about actual travel.
The first piece...more
For me, good travel writing should either 1) make me want to go to that place you're writing about and experience what you're writing about, or 2) describe a place in such a way that I feel like I'm there and have an insider's look at the location and culture.
Few of these stories accomplished both, and some -- "A Head for the Emir" and "Stuck" -- made me never want to visit those places (roadside bombs and eternal traffic, anyone?) "A Girls' Guide to Saudi Arabia" was my least favorite, and seem...more
Few of these stories accomplished both, and some -- "A Head for the Emir" and "Stuck" -- made me never want to visit those places (roadside bombs and eternal traffic, anyone?) "A Girls' Guide to Saudi Arabia" was my least favorite, and seem...more
My favorite pieces from this volume:
Mischa Berlinski, "Venance Lafrance Is Not Dead" (Haiti)
Maureen Dowd, "A Girls' Guide to Saudi Arabia" (Saudi Arabia)
Porter Fox, "The Last Stand of Free Town" (Copenhagen)
Tom Ireland, "Famous" (India)
Jessica McCaughey, "Aligning the Internal Compass" (not really about travel, but more about navigating and orienting oneself)
Tea Obreht, "Twilight of the Vampires" (Serbia)
Mischa Berlinski, "Venance Lafrance Is Not Dead" (Haiti)
Maureen Dowd, "A Girls' Guide to Saudi Arabia" (Saudi Arabia)
Porter Fox, "The Last Stand of Free Town" (Copenhagen)
Tom Ireland, "Famous" (India)
Jessica McCaughey, "Aligning the Internal Compass" (not really about travel, but more about navigating and orienting oneself)
Tea Obreht, "Twilight of the Vampires" (Serbia)
The editors have a different idea about what travel writing is than I do. I wanted to read more stories about people going to places where they did not live, primarily for their own recreation and enjoyment and edification. Some of the articles included here are well written but read more like news stories. One essay involves no travel at all, unless you count the author's walks around her neighborhood, which I don't. I did quite enjoy several of the pieces, including ones about NASCAR, Saudi Ar...more
Read for my Travel Writing class. As the title so aptly states, this book contains the best American travel writing from 2010 (although the collection is released in 2011, if that makes sense). I really appreciate the format of this book and that they include the titles and authors of all the selections series editor Jason Wilson sent on to this year's editor, kind of like an honorable mention for those works. Every piece in this collection was excellent, but I don't think I'll ever give an anth...more
I ordinarily adore the volumes in this series, but this one seems to have too many polemical axes to grind to quite work for me. "Travel writing" is something perhaps different than "writing about the world"? Though Maureen Dowd on being an American woman tourist in Saudi Arabia has its moments.
The selections are of varying quality, but I love reading about other people's travel experiences while I'm traveling. (Read this one while in Thailand.) Several perceptive, creative authors are featured.
What can I say, I love this series. This one is not to miss. Two excellent passages include My Monet Moment and Miami Party Boom. You won't be disappointed.
To expand your travel experiences perhaps you’d enjoy the compilation of award-winning travel stories – The Best American Travel Writing 2011.
I really loved this book. So many different compelling stories with such a diverse and talented set of writers. Well worth the time.
Enjoyable collection. Favorite stories:
My Monet Moment
Venance Lafrance Is Not Dead
A Girls' Guide to Saudi Arabia
A Year of Birds
Miami Party Boom
My Monet Moment
Venance Lafrance Is Not Dead
A Girls' Guide to Saudi Arabia
A Year of Birds
Miami Party Boom
Ups and downs. Overall, a good mix, and definitely some top-notch hits, but I did feel the collection started off stronger than it ended. A lot of good voices, and a good selection of mixed cultures, geographies, and ideas. Best review I can give without detailing each story.
gotta quit reading these . . . the list of places I want to visit keeps getting longer!
I thoroughly enjoyed this engaging collection of off-beat articles. The first half of the book superb- which is funny as the book is organized alphabetically by author. From Andre Aciman's "My Monet Moment (Vanity Fair) to Ben Austin's "Southern Culture on the Skids"; Mischa Berlinski's "Venance Lafrance is not dead" (Men's Journal; Christopher Buckley's "My Year at Sea" (The Atlantic); Maureen Dowd's "A Girl's guide to Saudi Arabia"(Vanity Fair), and beyond, I was not disappointed.
It is quite interesting and "Aligning the Internal Compass" is really funny.
Real mixed bag here: loved loved loved some selections, didn't care for most others. Learned some wonderful things, but probably won't return to the collection as a whole.
Picked this up as a plane read to head to Hawaii (my first time!)
All of the stories I made it to were terrific.
Then it was a month late getting back to the library, and... well... I thought books about giving up addictions and finding a new job were more important than pretending I was still in Hawaii.
All of the stories I made it to were terrific.
Then it was a month late getting back to the library, and... well... I thought books about giving up addictions and finding a new job were more important than pretending I was still in Hawaii.
A bunch of the 'Best American' books were on sale for the Kindle for a few bucks each, and I feel like I got almost exactly my money's worth for this one. I really enjoyed a previous edition of this book, but of course, like any anthology, it's hit or miss. I'm getting better at giving up and just skimming the ones that don't hold my interest, but I felt like I did more of that with this one that I would have liked.
This particular collection felt like it was picked more for informative value than writing quality, but that might just be my preferences.
disappointing :(
I always love being introduced to new and relevant essays. This collection reminds me that the travel essay is alive and well. My favorite was Tea Obreht's "Twilight of the Vampires," so if you have time to read just one, I would recommend it before any of the others. (I promise, it has nothing to do with the Stephanie Meyer kind of vampires...)
This book was frustrating. I really liked several of the articles, particularly the ones by Andre Aciman, Maureen Dowd, and Emily Witt. However, it seems like the editor's primary criteria was not that the article was about travel but that it made a specific location a key element of the story. A good example is "A Year of Birds" by Annie Proulx, which covered a year of birdwatching at her ranch in Wyoming. How is that piece travel writing WHEN IT TAKES PLACE ENTIRELY AT HER HOUSE?
Some of the stories are very memorable. Some not so much. We do live in a world full of so much variety just like these writings represent. Was a good read.
I think I've read every book in this series, and this is definitely the best.
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Sloane Crosley (born August 3, 1978) is a writer living in New York. She graduated from Connecticut College in 2000 with a degree in creative writing. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, BlackBook magazine, The New York Observer, The Village Voice, Playboy Magazine, Maxim Magazine, Mirabella, and numerous other literary journals and websites. Her collection of essays, I W...more
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