#18: Read a “Best _ Writing of the year” book for a topic and year of your choice.

[Linda]

I'm choosing to loosely interpret it as the the Best of whatever. I picked a book from my TBR pile, Life Among the Qallunaat, that won Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher, Manitoba Book Awards (2016).

[Judith]

Esther wrote: "If someone knows of any lists that aren't focused on American writing then please link them here"

I don't know if this helps, but here in the UK the Wainwright Prize is specifically given for Best UK Nature Writing of the Year, with an additional prize for Best Writing About Global Conservation.

I've gone with Dara McAnulty's Diary of a Young Naturalist which won the Wainwright in 2020. This would also count for anyone doing a neurodiverse author as their task to repeat from a previous year.

Their website is here https://wainwrightprize.com/

And it has some nice video of otters!

[Sue]

The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction (2021) is currently available for free in a MOBI file (just email it to your kindle). https://jembefola.com/the-years-best-...

[David]

@rae and anyone else that is trying to do this challenge without spending money, Tor has a free series of ebooks of their best short fiction of the year. Their most recent one is “Some of the Best of Tor.com 2021: A Tor.com Original” and it’s available on all major ebook platforms for free.


https://us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

A quick search on Amazon shows there’s also free volumes for 2020, 2019, and 2016 so there are some options. There’s also ebooks for 2011-2015 but beware those cost money (at least on Amazon).

[Tammy]

https://libro.fm/audiobooks/978035839... Libro.fm is having an audiobook sale this week, leading up to Independent Bookstore Day, including The Best American Short Stories 2020 for $3.50!

[Amelia]

Also suggest checking with your library, mine has some as ebook.

I'm going with The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011

[Sherri]

I’m going with The Best American Travel Writing.

[Mandie]

I went with The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015 for this prompt because the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, was the guest editor.

[Octavia]

I read The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction, edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. It's the first volume of hopefully many, gathering together stories from last year, and the range was incredible. I really enjoyed it.

[Sean]

Mandie wrote: "I went with The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015 for this prompt because the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, was the gues..."

Same! I really enjoyed this one.

[Emily]

I read The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror v.1 (2020) edited by Paula Guran. Most were very good!

[Kaia]

David wrote: "@rae and anyone else that is trying to do this challenge without spending money, Tor has a free series of ebooks of their best short fiction of the year. Their most recent one is “Some of the Best ..."

Thanks so much for this recommendation, David! I was down to Read a "Best ___ Writing of the Year," and "Read an Anthology Featuring Diverse Voices," and this book filled both slots. I also really enjoyed the anthology - I don't think there were any stories that I actively disliked (though there were a few that were just ok - that's to be expected in any anthology).