TODAY ONLY (12/29/14 till 11:59pm PST) you can get six volumes in The Best American Writing 2014 series for $1.99 each, plus this year’s volume of Best American Nonrequired Reading, a project overseen by Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler. The sale includes such titles as:
The Best American Short Stories 2014 (4/5 stars)
“The literary ‘Oscars’ features twenty outstanding examples of the best of the best in American short stories.” — Shelf Awareness for Readers
The Best American Short Stories 2014 will be selected by national best-selling author Jennifer Egan, who won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction for A Visit from the Goon Squad, heralded by Time magazine as “a new classic of American fiction.” Egan “possesses a satirist’s eye and a romance novelist’s heart” (New York Times Book Review).
One Amazon reviewer says:
“The 2014 edition focuses on strong stories with vivid characters. Compared to other years in recent memory, this edition had more stories that wowed me than any other year. A few highlights: the narrator of “After the Flood,” who tries to see the positive in everything and everyone, though she doesn’t find it much; the gallows humor of a former professor in “Indian Uprising”; Paul, the musician, who hangs onto his rock star image even into old age in “A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me”; John Fuller, the 14th century music teacher in “La Pulchra Nota,” who never stops trusting in divine providence through all his life catastrophes; the girl who wows all the boys of a fraternity and gets the nickname “God” (in “God”); the two sisters in “Next to Nothing” who appear to have no emotional attachment to anyone.”
“I could make a second list just as long. This is an impressive, well-chosen set of evocative stories, one of the best entries to the series.”
The Best American Essays 2014 (4/5 stars)
“A creature from an alternative universe . . . wanting to understand what is on the American mind should rush to the nearest bookstore and buy a copy of this distinguished anthology . . . Exhilarating.” — Publishers Weekly
The Best American Essays 2014 is selected and introduced by John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of the critically acclaimed essay collection Pulphead. The New York Times placed Sullivan “among the best young nonfiction writers in English” and the New York Times Book Review heralded Pulphead as “the best, and most important, collection of magazine writing since Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.”
One Amazon reviewer says:
“I have long been a fan of the “Best American” series of anthologies. Each year I buy Best American Mystery Stories and Best American Short Stories. This is the first time I have picked up Best American Essays, and I’m glad I did. I used to subscribe to many magazines and journals, but now that I spend so much time online, I don’t read the same variety of essays that I once did. My bad. Fortunately, this book helps fill in the gap of good writing that I have missed.
When I purchase an anthology, I keep it by my reading chair, and pick it up when so moved. Thus far, I’ve read about one-third of the essays, and have enjoyed each one.”
The Best American Mystery Stories 2014 (4/5 stars)
“With so many great authors contributing to this fiction collection . . . it doesn’t take detecting skills to discover the gem. And every story dazzles . . . These stories, in prose both elegant and compelling, get to the heart of why people do what they do.” — USA Today
The Best American Mystery Stories 2014 will be selected by “writing powerhouse” (USA Today) Laura Lippman. With her popular Tess Monaghan series and her New York Times best-selling standalone novels, Lippman has greatly expanded the boundaries of modern mystery fiction and psychological suspense.
One Amazon reviewer says:
“I am a longtime mystery short story fan. This issue met my expectations and exceeded them a little. I was enthralled!!!”
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014 (3.5/5 stars)
“Lively, eclectic and surprising.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, author of the enormously popular young adult series A Series of Unfortunate Events, takes over as editor for this volume. He will work with the students of 826 Valencia and 826 Michigan writing labs to compile new fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and other category-defying gems, ensuring that “if you need to fall in love with reading again — or just want a reminder that high school students deserve a lot more than their reading lists give them — then this is the book for you” (Bust).
One Amazon reviewer says:
“Yes this book is an eclectic collection of stories, poetry, and other genres. And yes it was edited by Daniel Handler (Lemony Snickett fame) but what I think that most people fail to realize is that the elements for this collection was chosen by high school students- this is what THEY want to be reading. It’s what they enjoy reading. And hey- they are READING and that is a good thing right? I think it is. My motto is whatever gets someone reading. And more over- this gives the students a sense of what goes into being an editor and helping create a book or an anthology! A good skill to have no matter what your dreams and goals are in life.”
“I identified with their selections because these are the types of things I would have been reading at this age. As I have aged my reading preferences have changed somewhat but I still remember what I loved reading and most of it wasn’t on the reading list either.”
Click here to browse all of the Best American Writing of 2014 volumes included in this sale.
Click here to browse all The Best American Nonrequired Reading volumes, past and present — but note that only the 2014 anthology is on sale today.