I've noticed that many of the readers who gave this collection a low rating were disappointed that all of the essays were so-called personal essays. I love first-person personal essays but not most of these. Much of the writing was subpar (though I respect that each of us has his or her own taste). I don't believe these were the best of the year. I did like at least one of them quite a lot, particularly the one about the woman who once hitchhiked. So I gave the collection two stars. ( )

This is the second of this collection that I have read. It was an awesome reading experience like the other one. Quoting Cheryl Strayed, when reading a great essay, “the reader should feel the ground shift” and most of these did not fail. I cannot get enough of reading essays these days. ( )

"Best" is arbitrary, but I like the way theses collections introduce me to new voices and styles. Some really great writers in this one (and Cheryl Strayed is editor). ( )

Most of these essays are very good. Some failed to answer the "why should I care about this?" question for me, though. (I see nothing profound or inspiring about bathroom habits and other bodily functions—why do writers keep trying to prove otherwise?)

This book incorporates a wide variety of essays. I'd wager that everyone can find at least one essay that really resonates with them; I found several. "What Happens in Hell," "The Girls in My Town," and "Channel B" were some of my favorites. ( )

This is my first foray into "best of" collections, and I must say it was a pretty great one. I heard about this series via the Book Riot podcast (which is very great, I encourage everyone to give it a listen), and I was intrigued because it was edited by Cheryl Strayed (of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail fame), and I figured she would pick really good essays.

Luckily I really enjoyed 90% of the essays that made it into this collection; the ones I did not enjoy so much were still nicely written, but they just didn't hold my attention as well as the others. These essays talk about everything form birth to murder to cancer to family, love, religion, art...basically anything and everything human. I love that these essays were pulled from all kinds of publications (very well-known to indie zines), and that there was a nicely diverse group of writers represented.

Some of my favorites:

Sometimes a Romantic Notion by Richard Schmitt
Highway of Lost Girls by Vanessa Veselka
Keeper of the Flame by Matthew Vollmer
Confessions of an Ex-Mormon by Walter Kirn
Triage by Jon Kerstetter
The Exhibit Will Be So Marked by Ander Monson
The Girls in My Town by Angela Morales
Letter from Majorca by J.D. Daniels
Channel B by Megan Stielstra
A Little Bit of Fun Before He Died by Dagoberto Gilb
The Book of Knowledge by Steven Harvey

As Cheryl Strayed said in her intro, she chose these essays because they all ended as if the author had written "and nothing was ever the same again"; meaning that you feel the ground shift after finishing each one. While that may not have been true for me for every essay in this collection, I still felt like I had read some great, ground-shifting pieces. I'm going to check out last year's best essays (and short stories, and travel writing, and non-fiction writing, and...) ( )