The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017

by 826 National

“A gift . . . One wonders how the world might be different if works in The Best American Nonrequired Reading were indeed required.” — USA Today

Sarah Vowell, author of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States and other best-selling titles "gilded with snark, buoyant on charm" (NPR), worked with the students of  the 826 Valencia writing lab to edit this year's anthology. They compiled new fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and the category-defying gems that have become one of the hallmarks of this lively collection.

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

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually struggle with anthologies but I couldn't put this one down. A relevant and poignant ode to 2017, this book wasn't blatantly political but was gently so. What struck me the most was an excerpt from an interview with Ella Ferrante where she explains how she is a reader who forgets: "I forget especially the books I've loved very much. I have an impression of them, I have a feeling for them, but to discuss them I would have to reread them." I relate to this as a reader and as someone who is developing her sense of morality and self within the confines of the 2017 climate. I may forget the specifics of this book and this year, but I will remember the way that made me feel. Disheartened yet optimistic, eager to learn, and aware of my responsibilities.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did you guys know Trump got elected president?

[Hillary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic compilation of eclectic fiction and nonfiction & as the back cover touts, DEFINITELY NOT BORING!...I was concerned that the many pieces focusing on Obama's legacy & Trump's rise would prove depressing and enraging as I find so much news today; although, it is difficult NOT to be enraging by anything cataloguing Trump's actions and words, these pieces were NOT depressing...they were not only informative, but offered reflection that sometimes showed hope, or, if not, at least a perspective that I could relate to and which better informed my own.

[Bridgit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as strong of a collection as the 2018 BANR. I did enjoy Ta-Nehisi Coates' "My President was Black," Justice Sotomayor's dissent in the Utah v. Edward Strieff case, and George Saunders' "Who are All These Trump Supporters?"

[Jason Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another satisfying and timely read from "The Best American" series of anthologies.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievably great stories, every single time. I love this series.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

All in all, I’m glad I read this even though In its wide variety I could not connect with many of the stories. The effort was worthwhile because of a few few great ones, particularly a reprint of an article by George Saunders called “Who Are All These Trump Supporters” from The New Yorker and a quote from it, “DONALD J TRUMP A GUARDIAN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN,” reads a poster I retrieved from the floor of the Rothschild rally. “HIS SPIRIT AND HARD WORK AS PRESIDENT WILL MAKE THE PEOPLE AND AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Although, to me, Trump seems the very opposite of a guardian angel, I thank him for this: I’ve never before imagined America as fragile, as an experiment that could, within my very lifetime, fail. But I imagine it that way now.”

[Ted Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book sounded interesting simply because one of my favorite writers, Sarah Vowell, is the editor. And, not surprisingly, her introduction was very well written and very funny. Unfortunately, as is true of any anthology, the quality of the selections varied quite a bit. The premise of the book is intriguing- giving a bunch of high school students the opportunity to put together a collection of pieces of written work that reflects what their view of the world is, circa 2017. But the students seem to all be from the Bay Area and the editor is the left-leaning (or more accurately, left tumbling) Sarah Vowell, so the pieces tend to fall into a discernible ideological genre. There are some great pieces of work in this collection, but as it turns out I had already read a lot of the quality essays, as they were taken from sources like the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Review of Books. I am not really an aficionado of modern short fiction, so I was left scratching my head after reading some of the selections. I was also disappointed that some of the selections seemed, to me, to have been chosen simply for their esoteric appeal. The anthology included the music and lyrics of one of the songs from Lin Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton." But why? I am a history teacher who regularly uses songs from "Hamilton" in my history classes, but I would have much rather read an essay from Miranda about the immigrant experience or the art of creating a musical. There was the dissent opinion on a recent Supreme Court decision written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Again, why? I would have preferred an essay about her judicial philosophy. Why did I need to wade through a series of "tweets" from Werner Herzog? Or the 1930's diary of a Soviet Gulag guard? I just have the feeling that in fifteen years, some of the high school kids involved in this project will look back on it and ask themselves "why did I pick THAT?"

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has become a yearly tradition for me - although I usually try to round out my year in books with it, I was a little late in 2017. While not my favorite edition, this year's gave me a lot to think about from the start.
In Fable, there is a relatively harmless monster, who only grows larger and more powerful the more people talk about him. How's that for topical? I've lost count of how many of these monsters live among us.
I Used to be a Human Being pointed the spotlight at my own ever increasing dependency on technology and media to entertain me and fill up my days. I'm inspired to take a step back and take the time to look up every one in a while. "You are where your attention is."
Many other stories captured my attention or allowed me to look at the world from a new perspective. The BANR is an asset specifically for this reason. All the pieces fit seamlessly together, while also being unquestionably different from one another.
The juxtaposition of Ta-Nehisi Coates's My President Was Black and George Saunders's Who Are All These Trump Supporters? made my heart hurt. I read through the first with fondness in my soul and the latter with despair.
Who knows what the coming year will bring.

"We compose stories knowing very well that we are the last to arrive. And yet every time it seems to us that we are returning to the moment when the first human being, with nothing but the truth of his experience and the urge to reinvent it at every step, began to tell a story." - Sheila Heti

[Niko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection, as always. My favorite pieces this year:

-"Fable" by Teju Cole -- As the title says, a fable. One which is very relevant to America right now.
-"Peace Shall Destroy Many" by Miriam Toews -- An essay on the conflict-averse customs of North American Mennonites, and how avoiding public conflicts can lead to internal conflicts and barely suppressed unrest.
-"I am reminded via email to submit my preferences for the schedule" by Chen Chen -- A poem that reflects how I often feel when I'm asked to choose a preference for work.
-"My President Was Black" by Ta-Nehisi Coates -- A longform essay about Barack Obama's presidency. I also just finished a collection of Coates' essays. He's one of the most gifted writers of our time, and while I sometimes disagree with him, I always learn something while reading his work.
-"Tattoo" by Melissa Ragsly -- A short story about a young girl in (I think) a cult, and what happens when she gets close enough to truly see her god.
-"The Most Terrible Time of My Life" by Sonny Liew -- An excerpt from The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, a graphic novel about a comic book artist in Singapore. Looking into getting the whole book, as it looks interesting both as a fictionalized biography and a period piece about Singapore's political turmoil.

[Maggie Downs · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I’ve read most of these anthologies, and this was the strongest one yet.
Highlights included “One Person Means Alone” by Elizabeth Perkins, “I Used to Be a Human Being” by Andrew Sullivan, “Autocracy: Rules For Survival” by Marsha Gessen, “Tattoo” by Melissa Ragsly (which shook me so much, I had to google everything about her in the middle of the night), and the poem “Woman Fries and Eats Pet Goldfish After Fight With Husband” by Christine Rhein.
The book also features great pieces by Louise Erdrich, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and George Saunders that I had read before.
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Also I am now worried about my child, who picked up this book today, pointed at the cover and said, “We live there.”
I said, “That house is on fire.”
And he said, “Yes.”

[Akemi G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each year, a group of high school students get together weekly to read and discuss what they've read, to come up with this anthology of *nonrequired* reading--as opposed to the required reading they do for school, I guess. What a brilliant idea. And they read wide: books, magazines, websites, social media, song lyrics, and more. (Nothing YA here, to note.)

My favorites are:

* One Person Means Alone by Elizabeth Lindsey: Her experience of living in rural China, where there are no personal stalls in public restrooms and mice run at night in her duplex. (As a college teacher, she was given a rather nice living arrangement.) And how she eventually got used to the "fiercely social" culture.

* My President Was Black by Ta-Nehisi Coates

* Fable by Teju Cole

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This project, for me, provides an on-ramp to discover writers. I trust and have patience with the collection because I know some of the pieces or have opinions about some of the writers included in the anthology.

This collection includes a couple of essays I'll re-read (Ta-Nehisi Coates, "My President was Black;" George Saunders, "Who are All These Trump Supporters?"); a writer I first read in such a collection who I admire a ton (Sheila Heti, "A Correspondence with Elena Ferrante"); and writers I'll seek more from (Meagan Day, "Excerpt from 'Maximum Sunlight;'" Melissa Ragsly, "Tattoo").

Goodreads criticisms that resonate with me: this anthology suffers from a singular world view (which aligns to mine).

[Shawn Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked flippantly for my Readers' Advisory course, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017 offers a unique selection of stories in that they were selected with the help of a teen advisory board. The unique editorial process that went into the creation of the compilation has captured time completely. These teen editors, so upset at the election of Trump and the essential dissolution of many things they held true under Obama, have captured that moments perfectly in their angst and wide ranging choices for reading. This book serves best as an example for what other librarians, editors, and lovers of literature can replicate in their community, create your own readers' advisory board and capture time with a publication.

[Ashley Beane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Rockefeller Family Fund Takes on ExxonMobil (David Kaiser and Lee Wasserman) - DNF

Selected Tweets from @Wernertwertzog (William Pannapacker) - 3 stars

You’ll Be Back (Lin-Manuel Miranda) - 2 stars

Excerpt from Utah, Petitioner v. Edward Joseph Strieff, Jr. (Justice Sonia Sotomayor) - 4 stars

“Woman Fries and Eats Pet Goldfish After Fight with Husband” (Christine Rhein) - 4 stars

An Oral History of Gabriel Depiero (Casey Jarman) - 4.5 stars

I Am Reminded Via Email To Submit My Preferences for the Schedule (Chen Chen) - 2 stars

Who Are All These Trump Supporters? (George Saunders) - 3.5 stars

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good collection of mostly essays, written in 2016 (and so many dealing with the election). I would call out in particular two great essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates and George Saunders, which helped shed some light on the inexplicable darkness of Donald Trump becoming President. Unfortunately, however, understanding it more doesn't fill me with confidence for 2 years from now, when it could very well happen all over again as we don't seem to be coming any closer together. This, of course, is exactly what Trump wants as it makes it possible for him to continue to operate as he does now.

[Michele Kaplan-Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found most of the authors very interesting and I gained from reading their work. That said, I found the introduction disappointing as it spoke more of Vowell's thoughts on the presidential election and outcome rather than on the process and the goal for putting together the volume. Clearly, Vowell was chosen to edit for a reason. While I appreciate that, I wonder how much more the students;and then the readers; could have gained in the reading, discussion and selection process if they were guided by a teacher who allowed them to form their own ideas.

[Steenalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 375-page anthology contains a diverse selection of pieces originally published in 2016 in a wide array of magazines, newspapers, literary journals, and digital sources. The pieces were selected by a group of high school students participating in a program conducted by 826 National, an organization dedicated to fostering writing and storytelling skills in young students. The students worked under the guidance of editor Sarah Vowell. This anthology contains a wide range of formats, including short stories, articles, poems, novel excerpts, interviews, and even a few more unusual pieces, including a piece of sheet music, an excerpt from a United State supreme court dissent, and a selection of tweets from @wernertwertzog. Reading the 2017 edition felt almost like opening a mini time capsule, since several of the pieces included centered around the momentous 2016 election.

One of my personal favorite pieces from the book is called Lucky Dragon by Viet Dinh. This short story with elements of magical realism and historical fiction follows two Japanese sailors after they are exposed to massive amounts of radiation during an American nuclear missile test near their vessel. The story explores their friendship as the effects of the radiation take hold and they are haunted by choices from their past. I thought this story was beautifully, subtly written—the language was clean and precise and the imagery added color and dimension to the story. The author used vivid descriptions to illustrate the transformation undergone by the sailors after their exposure to radiation, which I thought was an excellent use of the “show don’t tell” strategy that defines a lot of my favorite writing. After reading this story, I looked up the author, Viet Dinh, and discovered that he has also published a novel called After Disasters, which I promptly added to my reading list. Some of my other favorite pieces from this edition include a longform journalism piece about Barack Obama’s presidency, an article about a Mennonite author who was ostracized for calling into question the central tenets of his faith, a piece about the seedy side of carp fishing in Britain, and a short story about a cult leader who has taken a group of down-on-their luck young women under their wing. I think reading anthologies like this is a great way to explore new topics and authors that I otherwise would not have been exposed to. I also really enjoy short stories, and this edition contained several great ones.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd say I enjoyed two out of five stories / essays in this collection of ephemera from 2017, hence my star rating. Didn't expect quite so much would be focused on The Dotard, but I guess that's 2017 for you. I have been working hard to filter out repetitive, speculative writing about the SCROTUS, and drifted away after I realized that was a lot of the focus. (That said, the short story "Fable" by Teju Cole is excellent.)

[L.C. Fiore · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in this collection is excellent. And Vowell did a good job collecting different kinds of writing, from fiction to essays to interviews to tweets.

For me, though, the collection was also just incredibly bleak, which I understand is how many Americans felt in late 2016 or early 2017. But it would have been nice to see more diversity in tone, outlook, and approach.

Here's hoping that, in twenty years, this collection of essays seeems overwrought and hysterical.

[Janet Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great idea! Teens reading a bunch of interesting readings, then choosing their favorites to make an anthology. As a YA novelist, retired high school teacher, and sometime facilitator of teen writers' workshops, I enjoy what teens come up with, and I always learn from them. I dipped into this as I wanted, not reading the whole thing. This year, 2017, is Trump-loaded, and I've read enough about him to make me sick. Other years of Nonrequired Reading may be more interesting.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I skipped quite a few pieces, but the two highlights for me were Tattoo about a cult and the Ta-Nehisi Coates piece about Obama. Unfortunately, I don't feel I can rate the anthology higher than two stars since those were the only two that stood out to me. There were other pieces that were fine, but overall, I found the anthology pretty meh.

[Stephen Dorneman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent edition of this eclectic series, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics, a Supreme Court dissent, and even the score and lyrics of one of the songs from Hamilton. The 2016 Presidential election hangs over much of the writing here, providing insight that goes far beyond sign-waving and name-calling (although some of that is captured here as well). Strongly recommended.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite pieces from this collection:

+Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers - One Person Means Alone
+Meagan Day - Excerpt from Maximum Sunlight
+Simon Parkin - So Subtle a Catch
+Tommy Pico - Excerpt from Nature Poem
+Benjamin Nugent - Hell
+Melissa Ragsly - Tattoo
+Miriam Toews - Peace Shall Destroy Many
+David Kaiser & Lee Wasserman - The Rockerfeller Family Fund Takes on ExxonMobil
+William Pannapacker - Selected Tweets from @WernerTwertzog
+Justice Sonia Sotomayor - Excerpt from Utah, Petitioner V. Edward Joseph Strieff, Jr.
+George Saunders - Who Are All These Trump Supporters?

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There's stuff out there that isn't there, if you know what I mean."

"This day is meaningless, like all measures on the human scale, to those of us who have gazed into the abyss of time."

"It is too late in the winter to die, and too early in the spring to be happy."

[Stuart Lutzenhiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great edition. My two favorites are “The gulag diaries” and the fictional tweets of Werner Herzog, which are a scream. 30 or so stories ranging from short fiction, to poetry, music from Hamilton, and some insightful non-fiction on the end of Obama and the dawn of Trump.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series. The editors cull the best of the best - poems, short stories, collections of tweets, articles, etc. etc. - from everywhere and put them into a collection that's hard to put down. This edition had a particularly good article by Ta-Nehisi Coates, My President Was Black.

[Tom Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's difficult to summarize this collection of wildly varying stories, essays, and commentary. All I can say is that at times it challenged me like only a variety of material could, firing insight lasers from every angle, making it impossible to resist. Read it.

[Debbie]

I like to read little snippets out of these Non-Required Reading collections, but they're a mixed bag. I started this one in 2017, but haven't read more than a story or two since summer 2018. It's time to call it done.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love these books, and I’ve read every one since 2005. This one was disappointing for some reason. Looking forward to a better 2018.