well worth it for David Morris - the big suck; Conan O'Brien - commencement speech; and Nam Le - love and honor ( )

The Best American Non-Required Reading is an anthology compiled by Dave Eggars and the high school students involved in 826 Valencia, his non-profit program to promote reading and writing. It is a good book to read if only because it benefits these kids and this great program. But there is plenty of good stuff in BANR 2007 to make it well worth the price of admission.

The anthology is made up of short stories, essays, and various types of short writing that were published in 2007. These pieces range from relatively frivolous ‘best of’ lists to serious essays and journalism from some of the most tragic situations in the world.

The fiction standout has got to be Miranda July’s “How to tell stories to children,” which is a really interesting representation of July’s work. July made a big splash in 2007 with her collection of short stories, of which this is one. Also well worth mentioning is Jennifer Egan’s “Selling the General,” a short piece about a washed-up public relations pioneer who scores a gig softening the image of a ruthless dictator.

On the nonfiction side of the collection, there are several very good pieces. David J. Morris’ article, “The Big Suck” is an incredible picture of action in the current Iraq war. Morris is a former Marine who presents a more literary view of the war that cuts to the harrowing nature of the experience without becoming a glorification of violence. Scott Carrier contributes an article called “Rock the Junta,” a stunning piece about a rock band in Myanmar, a country currently ruled by a dictatorship that exerts thought control of Orwellian proportions upon its citizens. The ironies and contradictions Carrier digs up are incredible.

The BANR collections are always well worth the read and perfect for commutes. The 2007 edition is no exception, and has introduced me to several new writers who I will be looking for in 2008. ( )

I'll be honest, the only reason I bought this was that Sufjan Stevens wrote the introduction. I figured he wouldn't lead me astray. Overall, it has a good variety of writing, and I enjoyed almost every piece. I did feel that it could have been stronger, though that could just be because of the extraordinarily wide variety of material included (so it would be hard for a single person to absolutely love every piece). I'll definitely be picking up older/newer editions, with hopes that the two or three pieces that I didn't like in this edition won't be replicated.

I got hooked on this great annual collection last year, and this year's installment was an excellent edition. Many, many authors were showcased, both known and unknown, and it certainly contains many of the best short stories and current event pieces around. ( )

I found this edition to be weaker than years past. There were only a handful of stories that I found enjoyable, although I could see the quality of the writing in some of the other pieces. ( )