Review: Test Drive This Year's Anthologies
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 9, 2011
This sampler is a great idea.Every year, the series editors each select a hundred or so of the best essays or stories for possible inclusion in their anthologies. The guest editors then narrow the hundred down to around twenty for publication.So while the quality is consistently excellent, I'm always amazed at how the guest editor's influence can affect the tone of the collection. A couple that stand out in my memory are theThe Best American Essays 2006guest edited by Lauren Slater andThe Best American Travel Writing 2008guest edited by Anthony Bourdain. Slater's selections were heavily on the gloomy side, while Bourdain's choices were extra manly, no girls allowed.If, like most of us, you don't have the time or money to scoop up all the anthologies in the series, this sampler is a handy way to help you decide which ones to get and which to skip this year.The sampler contains eleven selections from six of the volumes:The Best American Short Stories 2011, guest editor Geraldine BrooksHousewifely Arts by Megan Mayhew BergmanPhantoms by Steven MillhauserThe Best American Essays 2011, guest ed. Edwidge DanticatChapels by Pico IyerThere Are Things Awry Here by Lia PurpuraThe Best American Mystery Stories 2011, guest ed. Harlan CobenA Crime of Opportunity by Ernest J. FinneyThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011, guest ed. Mary RoachThe Killer in the Pool by Tim ZimmermannThe Whole Fracking Enchilada by Sandra SteingraberThe Best American Sports Writing 2011, guest ed. Jane LeavyThe Surfing Savant by Paul SolotaroffNew Mike, Old Christine by Nancy HassThe Best American Travel Writing 2011, guest ed. Sloane CrosleyMy Year at Sea by Christopher BuckleyMiami Party Boom by Emily WittMy choices for this year:The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011&The Best American Sports Writing 2011.