This Is My Best: Acclaimed Qpb Authors Share Their Favorite Work

by Retha / Kiernan Kathy Powers

This is a collection of short stories, novel excerpts, poetry, plays, essays, cartoons, humor, and science writing by 56 of today's most impressive literary names.

Genres: Fiction, Essays, Short Stories, Anthologies

Paperback

First published May 5, 2005

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume has been sitting next to my bed for the last few months. The idea was to read a selection each night before that bed. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Fortunately, I had my gallbladder out last Monday and had nothing to do but read and suffer through daytime TV for the last week. I loved the concept of this book when I first found it: sixty-some writers spanning all genres of literature were asked to choose their best piece of work. This task proved relatively easy for some of the authors, while others found it almost sacrilegious to elevate one work over their others. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of the writing styles of so many different authors, ones who I had heard a lot about but never read (Scott Turow, Gay Talese, John Updike and T. Coraghessan Boyle among a few). The works spanned the gamut from fiction, essays, poetry and comic strips (Scott Adams from Dilbert and Garry Trudeau from Doonesbury were included).

Strangely, the most affecting two pieces were ones that I originally skipped over. Faced with the last page and a desire to continue avoiding sleep, I flipped back. The first piece was a short play from Neil Labute, "A Gaggle of Saints," - a dual monologue between a young couple. I have never read plays easily, and did give this one a try on the first go-round. When I grasped the alternating monologue structure that Labute used, it became easier to fall into the story that Sue and John told. It was so incredibly powerful to read this and be able to strikingly visualize how it would appear on stage. A young couple's simple tale of a night on the town, buttressed by the story of their relationship and how they met, suddenly and shockingly devolves into a tale of violent homophobia hidden behind a young and charming facade. I don't want to give it away, you should read it for yourself. If you don't feel the same horror and fascination that I did, I will check for a pulse. After checking out Neil LaBute's biography on Wikipedia, I am even more interested in reading more of his work. Anyone who gets kicked out of the church of LDS is OK in my book.

The second piece was completely different - an academic essay by Martin Gardner called "Surprise." The essay covers much ground: the limits of physical science to explain everything in our world, religion, skepticism, and wonder. Gardner fills his work with literary passages and quotes from all manner of sources in order to convince the reader of the need for mankind to retain a sense of wonder and awe at the world around them. His argument gained footing with me because, while he explored many aspects of religion, he made sure to include atheism and agnosticism in the discussion and concluded that living a life of wonder could be done without adherence to a religion. I am doing no justice to this complicated and densely packed essay - it really captivated my imagination and put words to some of my difficulties with claiming full allegiance to atheism. Atheism often seems just as final and confident a belief as Judaism or Catholicism. It is important to be rational and skeptical about many things in life, it is also important to allow for the unexplainable and the unknowable qualities of life. My favorite passage was one he included from Albert Einstein:

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man."

This book, and in particular the Gardner essay, is something I will definitely come back to.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun exercise. My favorite part might have been reading the essays that precede each selection in which the author explains why he or she chose that piece, and what it means to them. I liked that they included a couple of comic strips, and I liked the opportunity to read poetry in small doses, which I don't do very often.
I ended up skipping a few pieces, mostly excerpts from books that I plan on reading. The ones I had read before (Lethem, Sedaris, Huffington, Donaghue, Trudeau, etc) were mostly worth a re-read.

Highlights among the stuff I had not read before: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's "Mrs. Dutta Writes A Letter", Witold Rybczynski's "Getting Away From It All", Laurie Garrett's "A Hidden Killer in Cajun Country", Ruth Reichl's "The Queen of Mold", A. M. Homes's "The Former First Lady and the Football Hero", Rita Dove's "Her Island".

One final note: I haven't read any Yann Martel, but his opening essay made me like him less, which I guess is the risk of not letting your work speak for itself. He wrote, with certainty, that children don't write, and that they find words boring, and that it is not until miserable, self-absorbed adolescence that they turn to writing. I have never found words boring, and have always loved to write, and I thought he should stick to less absolute statements.

[SusanA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good collection of all manner of things, some wonderful, some less so, but all of them chosen by the author as his or her best. Some of the pieces are breathtaking and make you want to search out more from that writer. Some serve as a warning: if you didn’t like this, don’t take on his novels!

I like that poetry, comics, short stories and essays are mixed with excerpts from longer works, making this a compelling omnibus of writing styles. All of the pieces are short enough to be read in between tasks; short breaks that are hard for longer books to fill. And the book can be picked up and read in any order.

This is the first time I have read it cover to cover, although I have read bits of it over the years. Worth owning a copy for just that reason.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most anthologies, some excellent content, some terrible. I think knowing what year these pieces were written would have been helpful.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

i loved the concept of this book. that part gets 5 stars, no doubt. and many of the author notes, preceding each story, were interesting, if only in what they said about the author. there were, i admit, times that the author's inflated sense of self + the excerpt's first paragraph prevented me from reading any further. at least i had plenty to pick from.

the majority of the stories were mediocre. perhaps this is because many of the authors claimed to be unable to choose a best piece. since i did not know the majority of the authors, this was no great loss to me. and the authors i already knew and liked, well, smashing.

there were, however, two stories in particular that really got to me. one was about the reagans, a story by A.M.Homes, was a funny and incredibly insightful look at a relationship where a loved one is in decay. the other was a story by Carolyn Ferrell, about a brave/tough/funny young girl -- so colorful, so rich, so so excellent. definitely checking both those authors out, and so i'm glad this book introduced me to them.

[Salem · Rating 3 out of 5]

For better or worse, reveals all of the flavors of authorial pretension. Some of the pieces were excellent new exposures, but I could've skipped most of this book, especially those passages by favorite authors.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book lets you view several writers and what they considered to be their best writing. The authors give a little sample from their favorite book, poem, cartoon, etc. It includes about 150 authors.

[Sga]

I thought that the theory of this book was super: writers pick their own favorite work, which is often not the most popular or well known, and explain why. A lot of it is really good, too. A lot of it is excerpted, which I admit makes sense in this case, but is frustrating.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most collections, a little uneven. I had expected a bit more because of all the big name authors, and the ones that I liked, I liked a lot. But in the end I guess there is a reason that I only read certain genres...namely, the others leave me feeling a little meah.

Good not great.

[Tracy]

Reread a few of my favorites - David Sedaris writing on visiting his sister and Ruth Reichl's story of her mother sending multiple people to the hospital with her bad cooking. Or, more accurately, cooking with food that has gone bad.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not usually a seeker of short stories, but this was a gift, and it's a treasure! I figured I would just read the stories written by some of my favorite authors, but was pulled into stories by others. I'll use this as a reference for these new (to me) authors, so I can read their novels.

[B.J. Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

great book for getting little snippets of writers you may not have read. I found several new favorite authors from reading this book as well as connecting to old favorites such as Tom Robbins.

[Nicole Harkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book to dip into and out of...but i read it straight through.

[VJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

author's own great writings..good insight on which author and what to read..

[Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

includes some excellent short stories, some clunkers. Authors all hate choosing "their best."