Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The New Kings of Nonfiction

by Ira Glass (Editor), Mark Bowden, Bill Buford, Malcolm Gladwell, Jack Hitt, Chuck Klosterman, Michael Lewis, James McManus , more…

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 2,907 ratings · 477 reviews

A collection of stories-some well known, some more obscure- capturing some of the best storytelling of this golden age of nonfiction.

An anthology of the best new masters of nonfiction storytelling, personally chosen and introduced by Ira Glass, the producer and host of the award-winning public radio program This American Life.

These pieces-on teenage white collar criminal...more

Paperback, 464 pages

Published October 2nd 2007 by Riverhead Trade

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.

The New New Journalism by Robert Boynton

On Writing Nonfiction

6th out of 16 books — 10 voters

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Books I'll read till they fall apart

40th out of 67 books — 20 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 10, 2007 Ellen added it

Shelves: want-to-read

I once followed Ira Glass into a Starbucks and let me tell you, he talks like his radio voice all the time. Swoon.

25 likes · like · see review

Feb 03, 2008 Alicia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A collection of essays hand selected by Ira Glass. Anyone who knows me wishes I would just shut up about Ira Glass already.

----

Not surprisingly, this collection of non-fiction essays is amazing. In the introduction, Ira Glass explains his selection process in putting the collection together. It's basically all about journalists who don't shy away from putting themselves in the story. Ira says "I don't see anything wrong with a piece of reporting turning into a fable. In fact, when I'm researchin...more A collection of essays hand selected by Ira Glass. Anyone who knows me wishes I would just shut up about Ira Glass already.

----

Not surprisingly, this collection of non-fiction essays is amazing. In the introduction, Ira Glass explains his selection process in putting the collection together. It's basically all about journalists who don't shy away from putting themselves in the story. Ira says "I don't see anything wrong with a piece of reporting turning into a fable. In fact, when I'm researching a story and the real-life situation starts to turn into allegory...I feel incredibly lucky..." I would guess this method explains how so many This American Life stories, though about one person's narrow experience, actually speak to broad, universal themes. Anyway, I feel like I learned so much from these stories! They've provided me with a wealth of information with which I'm better able to annoy my friends and family. And, of course, my spouse.

My four favorites:

- David Foster Wallace's story about right-wing talk radio (and a particular host on KFI, an obnoxious LA station that boasts more "stimulating" talk radio). Of course, it's easy to hate this entire genre of radio, but (as Ira points out), DFW writes with some empathy toward the host guy, and that actually allows him to get away with saying unflattering things about him.

- In the story "Tales of the Tyrant," the author tackles the topic of what Saddam Hussein was really like. There aren't really any surprises, but I realized I'd always regarded him as a two-dimensional character. Wait, I take that back about the surprises. I was surprised to learn that Saddam Hussein commissioned a special volume of the Koran written in his own blood. It took three years for him to provide sufficient blood to the team of calligraphers who produced it. Also, I was surprised by the description of Saddam's son Uday's wardrobe.

- "Losing the War" is a story about WWII. It's really well done. And it provides knowledge.

- In the story "Power Steer," the author assesses the modern American beef industry by purchasing a calf (No. 534) and tracing its life from its birth through to its death 14 months later. If loving animals isn't enough to make you want to never eat beef again, this should do it: After explaining the variety of problems caused by making cows eat corn (instead of grass, the diet they're evolutionarily designed to eat), the author highlights another problem: "...you can go father still, and follow the fertilizer needed to grow that corn all the way to the oil fields of the Persian Gulf. No. 534 started life as part of a food chain that derived all its energy from the sun; now that corn constitutes such an important link in his food chain, he is the product of an industrial system powered by fossil fuel. (And, in turn, defended by the military--another uncounted cost of 'cheap' food.) I asked David Pimentel, a Cornell ecologist who specializes in agriculture and energy, if it might be possible to calculate precisely how much oil it will take to grow my steer to slaughter weight. Assuming No. 534 continues to eat 24 pounds of corn a day and reaches a weight of 1,250 pounds, he will have consumed in his lifetime roughly 284 gallons of oil. We have succeeded in industrializing the beef calf, transforming what was once a solar-powered ruminant into the very last thing we need: another fossil-fuel machine." Or that should at least make you want to eat only grass-fed beef, which is, according to the author, a viable option.

Now if only Ira would come to my apartment, sift through the mountains of neglected New Yorkers, Harpers, Believers, and whatever else (maybe there are some Us Weeklys), and select another collection of stories for me, I'd be set. One might encourage me to hide the Us Weeklys before he got here, but I would not. I believe he would understand.

(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Jul 29, 2008 Joshua Weichhand rated it 5 of 5 stars

I suppose its fair to say that Ira Glass is kind of my hero. Not necessarily because he's brought down empires with pacifism or because he lobbied auto manufacturers for seat belts, but because he really inspires me to read and write. This entire collection is something he had sitting in a pile on his desk, saved for an appropriate time as he considered them to be great works of nonfiction. I want to be like that, finding something brilliant and xeroxing it and stapling it together with other ar...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2008 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would actually like to give it a 3.5 but rounded up for Ira Glass.

Most of the stories are great, uncovering inconsistent laws related to day trading by a high schooler, an ordinary socialite in extraordinary circles, and a great artist who fell through the large cracks of the establishment of art appreciators. I loved reading about how Monica Lewinsky had to be ushered out of a trendy bar when Chelsea Clinton showed up with her boyfriend, and how Dan Savage fairly successfully infiltrated his...more

1 like · like · see review

May 13, 2008 Isaac rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: folks interested in the world around them

The worst thing that can be said about this collection is that a few of the pieces in it are merely good. Some of the articles - even those written years or decades ago - are downright revelatory. I guarantee that at least one of these stories will alter your ideas about the way the world is organized; for me, it was Malcolm Gladwell's and Lawrence Weschler's pieces about how the social universe is really put together, and Lee Sandlin's absolutely essential piece about the true character and pr...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 27, 2008 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthologies-and-collections, read-in-2007

It's deja lu all over again.

This is not the superb collection I would expect from Ira Glass. In fact, it's an odd collection all round - the puzzling question is why it exists at all.

Don't get me wrong. The quality of most of the contributions to this anthology is very high. But most of the pieces are not new. Glass describes his selection criterion: "most of the stories in this book come from a stack of favorite writing that I've kept behind my desk for years". What does this yield?

Michael Le...more It's deja lu all over again.

This is not the superb collection I would expect from Ira Glass. In fact, it's an odd collection all round - the puzzling question is why it exists at all.

Don't get me wrong. The quality of most of the contributions to this anthology is very high. But most of the pieces are not new. Glass describes his selection criterion: "most of the stories in this book come from a stack of favorite writing that I've kept behind my desk for years". What does this yield?

Michael Lewis on Jonathan Lebed (the 15-year old who was sued for white-collar crime by the SEC).
Malcolm Gladwell: Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg.
Chuck Klosterman interviewing Val Kilmer.
David Foster Wallace on right-wing talk radio.
Michael Pollan on buying a cow.
Susan Orlean: The American Man, Age Ten.
James McManus on playing in the World Series of Poker.
Mark Bowden on Saddam Hussein.

and stories by Jack Hitt, Dan Savage, Lawrence Weschler, Lee Sandler and Bill Buford.

The problem is that most of the pieces in the book have appeared in print before, not once, but twice. For instance, Gladwell's piece - which is indeed a delight to read - first appeared in The New Yorker, then again in his book "The Tipping Point". Similarly, the pieces by Orlean and Weschler first appeared in The New Yorker and were subsequently republished in books by their authors. David Foster Wallace's story was first published in The Atlantic, and subsequently appeared again in the collection "Consider the Lobster". Pollan's work first appeared in The New York Times, and then again in his book "The Omnivore's Dilemma". And so on. I haven't checked, but given the general proliferation of anthologies these days (each year there are the 'best essays', 'best business writing', 'best nonrequired reading', 'best science and nature writing', and The new Yorker has taken to publishing its own anthologies as well), it wouldn't surprise me if some of these pieces have been further anthologized.

Thus, operationally, Ira's selection criterion seems to amount to choosing pieces that have been published at least twice before. Which makes one wonder why Glass felt the need to pull this book together - was he stuck for funds?

my favorite pieces: the article on Jonathan Lebed, Gladwell's piece, and Klosterman's interview of Val Kilmer. At the other end of the spectrum, the article about poker was a tedious, self-indulgent bore and Foster Wallace's abuse of footnotes is unusually rampant. Finally, and this says more about me than about the quality of the essays, but I couldn't manage to make myself finish Lee Sandlin's article about World War II, nor could I bring myself to care about Bill Buford's exploits with British soccer hooligans.

Don't buy this book. If you must read it, check your local library. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 28, 2007 neeraja rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Starts off with wonderful pieces, then trails off to the end. While all of the pieces were insightful in their own ways (though I still think the one about poker was a boring waste of space), my favorites were:

- Host, David Foster Wallace's fantastic, hilarious look at conservative talk radio

- Among the Thugs, Bill Buford's disturbing, drunken, participatory account of British soccor hooligans

- Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg, Malcolm Gladwell's take on how we know the people that we know and why i...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 28, 2008 JJ rated it 5 of 5 stars

first of all, ira glass picked these all out so i am inclined to decide to like them whether i actually do or not. but the fact is that these are awesome nonfiction writers. so far they have delivered what mr. glass promises: journalism with a personality. these are highly skilled writers stating facts while managing to entertain wildly. my favorite so far is an extensive analysis of saddam hussein, based on impressions by his (previously) close advisors, friends, victims, and everyone in betwee...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 09, 2013 Zoeblack rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ira Glass did a great job of putting together pieces of nonfiction that cover a tremendous range of topics, yet seem to be comfortably at home with eachother within a single book.
This collection of articles is one not easily put down. Each piece of the collection offers exciting insight into a new world. From Michael Lewis' reflection of a teen stock whiz, to Malcom Gladwell's peek into the gregarious life and numerous cultural circles of a socialite extrordinaire, these articles offer intrigui...more Ira Glass did a great job of putting together pieces of nonfiction that cover a tremendous range of topics, yet seem to be comfortably at home with eachother within a single book.
This collection of articles is one not easily put down. Each piece of the collection offers exciting insight into a new world. From Michael Lewis' reflection of a teen stock whiz, to Malcom Gladwell's peek into the gregarious life and numerous cultural circles of a socialite extrordinaire, these articles offer intriguing investigations into topics that span the world. Laughing at pieces like "The American Man, Age Ten" and "My Republican Journey" then turning a full 180 degrees and following a reporter in his investigation of the cattle industry or an American man discovering the drunken rowdy ways of English soccer fans can be a big brain jolt, and time for mental cool-downs is definitely needed between some articles. But that is what kept me interested! You don't know what you're going to read about, next.
The variety of topics keep the book interesting, as well as the fact that the range of denseness of articles is quite broad and refreshing. For example, after reading a rather tough story about a crushing war, the succeeding reflection of a life as a hostess at an upscale New York club lounge lets your mind be at ease as you giggle alongside the narrator at the crazy people who step into the lime light at a fancy superficial New York bar.
It seems that what brings all of the narratives together is their sense of blind investigation- the authors begin their stories with the same curious sense that they are about to get into something way out of their depth, and resolve each article with a newfound feeling of knowledge and/ or accomplishment. Also, almost every article was written in such a way that the reader is practically in line, mentally, with the narrator. Every thought, feeling, and opinion given by the narrator is directly correlated with a new piece of information gained, and the chronology of the writing helps to give the feel of experiencing the events almost as if you were part of them. This is not a collection of pure straight-forward factual writing. This is a compilation of great works that almost seem like fictional stories of exciting journeys, as the narrators experience great escapades in the most unexpected ways.
The only weak part, I feel, in this collection, is the fact that some of the articles were definitely not as strong as the others. Though it was nice to have some light reading occasionally, a few of the pieces did not hold my attention very well, and didn't resolve quite as nicely as I'd hoped. But the preceding and succeeding articles made up for any slight bores I encountered.
Over all, "The New Kings of Nonfiction" was a captivating collection of nonfiction articles which Ira Glass pieced together wonderfully. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of the amusing adventures of unexpecting writers.(less)

like · see review

Feb 18, 2009 Flissy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

It took me a little while to get through The New Kings of Non-Fiction. Although the pieces are for the most part fairly short, some of them are also quite dense and I had to carve out time to actually concentrate!

My favorites were the portraits- An amusing one of Val Kilmer by Chuck Klosterman, an endearing one of "The American Man, Age Ten" by Susan Orlean, and a positively chilling on Sadam Hussein by Mark Bowden. Of course, I loved Malcom Gladwell's piece (an excerpt from The Tipping Point -...more It took me a little while to get through The New Kings of Non-Fiction. Although the pieces are for the most part fairly short, some of them are also quite dense and I had to carve out time to actually concentrate!

My favorites were the portraits- An amusing one of Val Kilmer by Chuck Klosterman, an endearing one of "The American Man, Age Ten" by Susan Orlean, and a positively chilling on Sadam Hussein by Mark Bowden. Of course, I loved Malcom Gladwell's piece (an excerpt from The Tipping Point - a must-read!)

The only one I really had to slog through was "The Host" by David Foster Wallace. I have read a few things by him and I'm not a fan. I do not find his excessive use of footnotes and other gimmicks clever or avante garde. Rather, they highlight his obvious inability to make a point in any sort of coherent fashion.

Also, I must admit that I didn't read Michael Pollan's "Power Steer." I know he is well respected for Omnivore's Dilemma. Still, as soon as I realized that his article was about what happens when a cow goes to be slaughtered for meat, I skipped over it. I'm sure it is eye-opening and all that jazz, but I am already a soft-hearted vegetarian and I know it would have disturbed me and I didn't need to read it.

It seems there are some critics take issue with the fact that while this book is titled The NEW Kings..., all the pieces have been previously published at least once before, and some of the works, like "Shapinksi's Karma", for example, are as much as twenty years old. However, Ira Glass makes it clear in his introduction that it is the voice in each of the pieces that he is drawn to. All the pieces originate from a reporter's point of view, but each story is as much about the transformation that happens for the reporter as it is about the topic he/she is exposing. All in all, it is an enjoyable collection, and fans of This American Life will appreciate that the collection does not stray far from what Ira Glas is already doing in the radio program.(less)

like · see review

Nov 29, 2008 Melody rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: creative-nonficton-memoir

To all of my friends who, in the course of busy, business-y lives, have forgotten how to read novels: If you want to remember the joy of story, start here. Go get this book and read it. NOW.

I widely broadcast my love of Ira Glass and go so far as to assign TAL in class; I love it that much. I always enjoy Ira's creative editorial prowess, and this collection does not disappoint. Every story has its narrative joy: gorgeous, poetic writing; clever character development; suspense; comedy. But becau...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 25, 2013 Julia Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great compilation of non-fiction work! Would rate this a 4.5 starts.

Let me lead by saying that I am not an avid reader of non-fiction work but I thought the selection of essays included in this book was thought-provoking and interesting. The stories were well written and time and again, I found myself bringing up issues covered in the various stories into current conversation with friends and family. Easy enough to pick up and put down as you can choose which essays to read and which to skip.

T...more

like · see review

Mar 18, 2011 Chinook rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A few of the articles I had come across before, but they were all really enjoyable, even the description of a poker competition that I didn't even really understand. The one on Saddam Hussein was interesting considering events since. My favourite might have been the portrayal of the ten year old.

"The old, Rooseveltian logic of the Doctrine had been that since the airwaves belonged to everyone, a license to profit from those airwaves conferred on the broadcast industry some special obligation to...more A few of the articles I had come across before, but they were all really enjoyable, even the description of a poker competition that I didn't even really understand. The one on Saddam Hussein was interesting considering events since. My favourite might have been the portrayal of the ten year old.

"The old, Rooseveltian logic of the Doctrine had been that since the airwaves belonged to everyone, a license to profit from those airwaves conferred on the broadcast industry some special obligation to serve the public interest. Commercial radio broadcasting was not, in other words, originally conceived as just another for-profit industry; it was supposed to meet a higher standard of social responsibility." Host, David Foster Wallace, The New Kings of Nonfiction

"It's almost impossible to look away [from OJ's murder-anniversary interview], or not to feel that special kind of guilty excitement in the worst, most greedy and indecent parts of yourself... But that doesn't mean the fascination is good, or even feels good. Aren't there parts of ourselves that are just better left unfed?" Host, David Foster Wallace, The New Kings of Nonfiction

"He orchestrated a Draconian nationwide literacy project. Reading programs were set up in every city and village, and failure to attend was punishable by three years in jail. Men, women, and children attended these compulsory classes, and hundreds of thousands of illiterate Iraqis learned to read. UNESCO gave Saddam an award." Tales of the Tyrant, Mark Bowden, The New Kings of Nonfiction

"In any orthodox history you can find the standard autopsy of the causes... All of this is true enough, yet there's something faintly bogus and overly rationalized about it. The approaching war didn't seem like a political or economic event; it was more like a collective anxiety attack. Throughout the '30s people around the world came to share an unshakable dead about the future, a conviction that countless grave international crises were escalating out of control, a panicked sen that everything was coming unhinged and that they could do nothing to stop it." Losing the War, Lee Sandlin, The New Kings of Nonfiction(less)

like · see review

Aug 30, 2010 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, non-fiction

In my review of Sloane Crosley's latest book, How Did You Get This Number, I confessed my love for essays, particularly personal essays with a humorous bent. But I like harder hitting essays too, and this collection of non-fiction writing chosen and introduced by This American Life's Ira Glass was a real treat for an essay fan like myself. In my mind, it is also a good introduction to non-fiction writing—a genre that so many readers shy away from (for reasons that elude me).

What makes this book...more

like · see review

Jul 02, 2009 Shelah rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have a crush on Ira Glass. For years, it was small crush, a radio crush. I just really liked listening to the This American Life podcasts each week and decided Ira was cool. Then Eddie bought me both the This American Life DVDs and New Kings of Nonfiction (which I'd tried unsuccessfully to reserve at the library in Texas) for Mother's Day (because there's nothing better than a husband who appreciates and even encourages his wife's harmless crushes). I watched the DVDs first and they are AMAZIN...more I have a crush on Ira Glass. For years, it was small crush, a radio crush. I just really liked listening to the This American Life podcasts each week and decided Ira was cool. Then Eddie bought me both the This American Life DVDs and New Kings of Nonfiction (which I'd tried unsuccessfully to reserve at the library in Texas) for Mother's Day (because there's nothing better than a husband who appreciates and even encourages his wife's harmless crushes). I watched the DVDs first and they are AMAZING! If you haven't seen them, they are worth a Showtime subscription. Barring that, they're definitely worth the $27 you'd pay for them at amazon (which is just enough to get free shipping! score!). Glass comes across as slightly nerdier than I'd pictured him from his radio voice, but after ten hours of watching him, my crush was reaching dangerous proportions. I was even considering email love notes to Chicago Public Radio (ok, not really, but I was still swooning).

Then I read The New Kings of Nonfiction. You see, for the last year I've been writing and editing for Segullah, so nonfiction is right up my alley. I was looking forward to some new and groundbreaking nonfiction. I'd already read a few of the essays. And the other essays were just so, well, male. I guess it's no coincidence that the book is called The New KINGS of Nonfiction, because 12 of the 14 essays were written by men. And they were about very male topics: poker, trading stocks, being a lunatic soccer fan, bulls, wars, etc... Even the articles written by women were about things guys would like: one was about what an American ten-year-old male looks like and the other was about working as a hostess at an ultracool NYC bar. So I'd built up in my mind over the last few years this image of Glass as a sensitive metrosexual kind of guy, and the macho themes of the book totally blew that image out of the water. And now I'm not sure what I think about him.

I'll say this though, Malcolm Gladwell's essay "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg" is golden. The book is worth picking up even if you only read that. (less)

like · see review

May 04, 2009 Joel Neff rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of This American Life

Recommended to Joel by: Boing Boing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In general, a great collection of articles, stories, and profiles from a wide range of sources and covering an even wider range of topics. There are several excellent pieces in here and if Ira Glass puts together another collection, I'll want to read it.

Jonathan Lebed's Extracurricular Activities - About a kid who was found guilty of securities and trading fraud; good 3/5.

Toxic Dreams - About a small town's fight against an environmental mess that turns out to not be very harmful but the town's...more

like · see review

Feb 08, 2009 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

Go ahead and try to read Ira Glass' intro and not become instantly entranced and intrigued in the essays that are to follow -- you won't be able to. If you like Ira Glass, you will want to know what kind of writing it takes for him to keep your piece in his desk for years, which is what he did to compile these stories. I really liked the intro because it made me want to become a better reader, a better writer, and it made me really relieved that I backed out of journalism school at the last minu...more

like · see review

Dec 08, 2008 Joseph rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

I'm about halfway through, but what seems to have gone unmentioned by Mr. Glass in his introduction is that all of these essays are connected by a central theme: the idea that the status quo, the rules that make the world work, the day-to-day way the world works, is all bullshit. Every one of these essays are about someone who has managed to work that out and take advantage of it in some way, by realizing that our everyday assumptions are valueless, existing only because we assume that they do e...more

like · see review

Jun 26, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Megan

While there are shorts in this book that don't grab my interest the majority of them do. After reading through some other reviews of this book it seems that everyone likes different stories and in creating a compilation that has something for everyone Ira Glass has done well. You can't make all of the people happy all of the time. But Mr. Glass makes most of the people happy most of the time.

1 like · like · see review

Feb 02, 2009 Jesse rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jesse by: Stephanie B

Shelves: while-living-in-japan

since I've started finally listening to This Americna Life, I've fallen in love with nonfiction and Ira Glass. Or maybe just Ira Glass and the stories he and people he finds present. I really enjoyed this book, and almost all of the essays in it.

It may be called The New Kings of Nonfiction. However, I'm not entirely sure that is entirely accurate because some of these essays are atleast 15 years old or older, and thats from the time this book was published, not just when I read it. But, non the...more

like · see review

Oct 09, 2009 Jon Cox rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, history-politics, non-fiction, philosophy-religion, travel

I've read some great non-fiction, and some of the articles in this book are pretty darn good. No doubt. But I wouldn't label them all kings (and queens) of non-fiction. In fact, some articles are barely readable. For example, Host is a slog, and that is without considering the terrible formatting of the article, which makes it worse. It took an extreme act of perseverance to finish reading it, especially when Katie, who suggested I read the book, revealed that she stoped reading that article aft...more

like · see review

Dec 04, 2008 Cassidy Cassidy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Skip Ira's intro and the one piece with wwwwaaaayyyy too many footnotes, and this diverse series of non-fiction pieces is a joy. I hate gambling -- relying on the (faulty) premise that math PhD's don't do it for a reason -- but I couldn't set the book down as I devoured the piece on the World Series of Poker.

The examination of the American male, age 10, is also a blast. The only female author in the collection (wtf?) succeeds at adapting her own style to the tone of her subject: a relatively ra...more

like · see review

Jun 22, 2010 AdultNonFiction Teton County Library rated it 3 of 5 stars

Teton Co Library Call No: 810 NEW
Marisa's rating: 3 stars

This was a great collection of short non-fiction pieces by authors who have been very popular/prolific recently. I enjoyed Bill Buford's piece on British football hooligans, and Susan Orleans' article on an average 10-year-old. I think the reason I didn't like the collection as much as I would have thought was many of the articles were hard to get into - or didn't keep my attention throughout the entire work. I think the writing was really...more

like · see review

May 03, 2013 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

For fans of Ira Glass, This American Life, nonfiction, journalism, etc. Published in 2007, with articles and essays ranging from 1985-2005, nothing is new however this book may introduce you to a new writer, or shed light on a subject. Two pieces really stood out to me, and inspired me to do more research on the subjects. The others were just merely interesting to downright dreadful. My rating wavers between 2 and 3 stars for the collection as a whole.

Loved:
• Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg - Malc ...more

like · see review

Nov 28, 2012 Kaitlyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Ira Glass has an eye for a good story. And most of the best stories are true. Thus is the same with "The New Kings of Nonfiction." Listeners of This American Life will enjoy this book, and it reads just like the podcast. The topics in this book are as diverse as radio hosts, gay Republicans, and Saddam Hussein. The book flows naturally, and all the stories within share some greater message. My only qualm is the inclusion of "Host" by David Foster Wallace. In the physical book, the story is scatt...more

like · see review

Jan 03, 2013 Corey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Overall, it was a good diversion; it's a long flight airplane book and really nothing more. The works are not fantastic enough to warrant the title. In fact, it seems very much like a collection of stories that piqued Glass's interest as inputs for This American Life stories, or authors for whom he has an affinity. In fact, it occurred to me that some authors were chosen not for their talent, but instead for their prominence or notoriety (such as David Foster Wallace's almost unreadable submissi...more

like · see review

Jan 10, 2010 George rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: a-few-of-my-favorites

i really liked this book. if you like to read nonfiction and tend to enjoy reading the longer stories in the New Yorker, then i would recommend this book. it is a collection of stories by writers you make recognize (malcolm gladwell, dan savage, chuck klosterman, michael lewis, michael bowden) and the stories were selected by ira glass (host of my favorite radio show - this american life). a few of the stories were just okay, but most were really fun to read, and i learned something in all of th...more

like · see review

Jul 01, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

This compilation was fun, and aptly introduced by Ira Glass (I'm not sure he could really do anything badly) as an anthology of the writing he keeps returning to, referring to, and recommending to friends. Though I'm rarely someone who gets caught up with such things, the lack of female contributions here was somewhat disquieting (especially considering the two the anthology did contain were some of my favorite pieces in the entire collection). It was also somewhat disappointing that Glass did n...more

like · see review

Aug 30, 2009 Meave rated it 3 of 5 stars

Some of the stories were new to me, and pretty fantastic. A few I'd read before, or heard on "This American Life," and also very much liked. But a couple of them dragged so much, it was a terrible slog to get through them. I really wanted to read DFW's "Host," but it was so DFW-y, all chopped up with a million notes in boxes, it was impossible to read. I appreciate that that is (ugh, WAS) his style, but I couldn't make myself push through it. Maybe it was a reflection of the disjointed feel of l...more Some of the stories were new to me, and pretty fantastic. A few I'd read before, or heard on "This American Life," and also very much liked. But a couple of them dragged so much, it was a terrible slog to get through them. I really wanted to read DFW's "Host," but it was so DFW-y, all chopped up with a million notes in boxes, it was impossible to read. I appreciate that that is (ugh, WAS) his style, but I couldn't make myself push through it. Maybe it was a reflection of the disjointed feel of listening to right-wing--or any-wing--talk radio, with the host saying whatever s/he says and your analyzing that narrative for facts/fictions; MAYBE. I thought of that just now, anyway. Still, it was too visually unappealing to me to be worth the effort. I do like his essays, though, so I can see returning to it one day.

"Tales of the Tyrant" should have been great, but it was not. It was tedious, and pointlessly repetitive, and I swear I learned the same facts about Saddam Hussein more vividly from that ridiculous BBC/HBO miniseries House of Saddam . And that should not be! Honestly I was really offended when I realized that that soap opera of a miniseries had done a better job of portraying these same stories than the author did, when it seemed that some of the original source material came from the author's interviews. I say "seemed that" because I swear there were verbatim quotes, like, I could hear Yigal Naor as Saddam saying some of the things the story quoted him as saying in dialogue with these tellers of the "Tales." What this story really did is give me new regard for that miniseries; it must've been much more historically accurate than I gave it credit for. Especially the constant tension, which I attributed to trashy Occidental melodrama. The story talked about the constant tension, but wasn't ever able to properly convey a sense of it, which I guess is what makes it unsuccessful.

"Power Steer" I skipped, as nothing Michael Pollan can say about how a cow is brought to slaughter is news to me, nor is it interesting: I am not into torture narratives or gore-fests, you know? Maybe it'd interest people who haven't read the damn Omnivore's Dilemma or wherever that essay ended up, but I am 25 percent of Vegansaurus, I don't need to hear Michael Pollan, omnivore, tell me The Truth About Factory Farms.

Finally, and this is nit-pickier than anything else, Susan Orlean's "The American Man, Age 10" bothered me because the little white boy who lived in the suburbs was supposed to be Every Boy, and, come on. Do the majority of children in the U.S. live in the suburbs? Are the majority of them white? I liked her story, but I think a more appropriate title might've been, "A Vision of My Son, Age 10" or, "The Suburban American Man," &c. Anyway, I HATE the Every Boy narrative, though this was a pretty great essay because it took me until the last couple of pages to realize what was going on and look at it again from a more critical perspective. Maybe if I had more things to occupy my brain I wouldn't expend so much thought on little, 17-year-old essays like this--best part is that this kid is my age--but I don't, so I can't just accept a surface reading.

The remaining essays make the collection most definitely worth reading, though. It's not like it costs anything but time to borrow it from the library.(less)

like · see review

Mar 06, 2010 Bryce rated it 3 of 5 stars

For the most part, a good collection of literary non-fiction essays. Michael Pollan's investigation into the beef industry was my personal favorite, although I remember reading it before in Omnivore's Dilemma. "Shapinsky's Karma" was also wonderful; engaging and almost a little unbelievable. There were several pieces I wish were even longer, Dan Savage's experiences in the Republican Convention and Chuck Klosterman's biography of Val Kilmer.

There were only two essays I couldn't finish and skipp...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (6)

More editions...

Genres

Non Fiction

143 users

Writing > Essays

68 users

Short Stories

24 users

Anthologies

17 users

Writing > Journalism

8 users

Humor

3 users

Literature

3 users

Culture > Pop Culture

3 users

Language > Communication

2 users

Literary Fiction

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Ira Glass

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

More about Ira Glass...

Books by Ira Glass

This American Life: Stories of Hope and Fear

From WBEZ Chicago, This American Life: Lies, Sissies & Fiascoes

Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The New Kings of ...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The New Kings of Nonfi...

“...these stories are a kind of beacon. By making stories full of empathy and amusement and the sheer pleasure of discovering the world, these writers reassert the fact that we live in a world where joy and empathy and pleasure are all around us, there for the noticing.” — 20 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The New Kings of Nonfiction
avg rating	preview: The New Kings of Nonfiction Goodreads rating: 4.03 (2907 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/473576.The_New_Kings_of_Nonfiction?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347767067l/473576.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/473576.The_New_Kings_of_Nonfiction?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The New Kings of Nonfiction by Ira Glass[/url]

The New Kings of Nonfiction

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website