hilarious.
Some great little stories here.
Jennifer S. (PaganAngel) reviewed The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002 on + 16 more book reviews
Great beginning of a great series! I generally love the stories/authors featured in this series.
Good, fun summer reading. Young, hip, often cynical stories. Edited by Dave Eggers. Even includes an illustrated story by Adrian Tomine of Optic Nerve fame.
Sarah B. (caffeinegirl) reviewed The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002 on + 114 more book reviews
Like most collections, this one is a bit uneven, but still excellent for when your attention is going to be broken frequently. I thought this one was leaning harder on humour than the other ones in this series. Some of the pieces don't age well (both pieces from The Onion should have been left in their own year), but "Journal of a New COBRA Recruit" was timeless and excellent.
Karen U. (editorgrrl) reviewed The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002 on + 255 more book reviews
From Booklist
Although the inaugural issue of this hip, eclectic anthology is marketed at 15- to 25-year-olds, the editors are leery of condescending to \"young adults\" (a term they dislike). Series editor Michael Cart goes so far as to deploy self-consciously casual language in his foreword; editor Dave Eggers (author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) mostly replaces the introduction with a memoir of pool-hopping and awkward desire. Earnest posturing aside, this is a strong collection that includes short bursts of reportage, feature writing, fiction, satire, and even a comic strip (Adrian Tomine\'s moving, dead-on teenage portrait \"Bomb Scare\"). Two pieces from The Onion seem a little thin in this context, since they\'re easily outweighed by works like \"The Lost Boys\" (Sara Corbett\'s elegantly direct article about young Sudanese refugees who relocate to Fargo, North Dakota); \"My Fake Job\" (Rodney Rothman\'s hilarious and mostly true report about showing up to work at a dot-com that never hired him); and \"Higher Education\" (Gary Smith\'s rousing, almost too-good-to-be-true account of a black coach in Amish country). Sharp under-25 readers may still flee if they feel they\'re being targeted, but they sure don\'t have to.
Although the inaugural issue of this hip, eclectic anthology is marketed at 15- to 25-year-olds, the editors are leery of condescending to \"young adults\" (a term they dislike). Series editor Michael Cart goes so far as to deploy self-consciously casual language in his foreword; editor Dave Eggers (author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) mostly replaces the introduction with a memoir of pool-hopping and awkward desire. Earnest posturing aside, this is a strong collection that includes short bursts of reportage, feature writing, fiction, satire, and even a comic strip (Adrian Tomine\'s moving, dead-on teenage portrait \"Bomb Scare\"). Two pieces from The Onion seem a little thin in this context, since they\'re easily outweighed by works like \"The Lost Boys\" (Sara Corbett\'s elegantly direct article about young Sudanese refugees who relocate to Fargo, North Dakota); \"My Fake Job\" (Rodney Rothman\'s hilarious and mostly true report about showing up to work at a dot-com that never hired him); and \"Higher Education\" (Gary Smith\'s rousing, almost too-good-to-be-true account of a black coach in Amish country). Sharp under-25 readers may still flee if they feel they\'re being targeted, but they sure don\'t have to.
