areader09's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars, rounded down. I enjoyed this collection. As expected, some stories were more interesting (to me) than others.
I've found that these "Best American" anthologies really live and die with the guest editor. The best volumes, in my opinion, are those that include stories from a diverse set of authors. Otherwise you end up reading the same story, same perspective (usually from a white man). Other reviewers often complain about the subject matter (too similar, etc). Well, the best way to improve the diversity of subject matter is to have greater diversity in authors.
Cheryl Strayed did a much better job than other guest editors whose volumes I have read in selecting stories from both men and women. That said, there is room for improvement. Specifically, there could be more racial diversity in this volume, but at least it isn't all white (as was the case in some of the weakest volumes that I read).
I've found that these "Best American" anthologies really live and die with the guest editor. The best volumes, in my opinion, are those that include stories from a diverse set of authors. Otherwise you end up reading the same story, same perspective (usually from a white man). Other reviewers often complain about the subject matter (too similar, etc). Well, the best way to improve the diversity of subject matter is to have greater diversity in authors.
Cheryl Strayed did a much better job than other guest editors whose volumes I have read in selecting stories from both men and women. That said, there is room for improvement. Specifically, there could be more racial diversity in this volume, but at least it isn't all white (as was the case in some of the weakest volumes that I read).
rania1199's review against another edition
Enjoyed a select few of the travel stories, but was not interested in all.
selenajournal's review against another edition
3.0
And on that day, I realized my purpose in life: I love fighting more than anything else. - Goodbye, My Brother by Elliot Ackerman
While pawns are the most vulnerable piece on the chessboard, they are also the only piece capable of transforming into something entirely new, provided they make the perilous journey across the board. - The Ghost of Capablanca by Brin-Jonathan Butler
While none openly regret their decision, they lead lives much like double-exposed photographs, always wondering how they would have fared if they had left. - The Ghost of Capablanca by Brin-Jonathan Butler
North Dakota in pheasant season is ashy silver, yellow, rusty orange and white, cinnamon brown and gray, green and gold, with masses of crows - the word for a religous gathering of crows is not a mass but a murder crows lifting off from, or settling into, the corn stubble. - Signs and Wonders by J.D. Daniels
For long stretches, nothing is visible but the earth and the sky, and their unadorned hugeness is on a mythological scale: the sexual congress of Gaea and Uranus, the primal scene of creation.
In this simplicity, a man is revealed as what he is. - Signs and Wonders by J.D. Daniels
One rainy morning in Nebraska, you wake up and look out the hotel-room window at the red thread-leaf maple and you say: Remind me what we're doing here. - Signs and Wonders by J.D. Daniels
"You were stranded in Zion?" he said. "That's funny."
"It wasn't funny at the time."
"That's not what I mean. It's like saying you were held prisoner in heaven. You know what I mean? The castle of Zion is the city of David. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath sined. You know? Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
"Got it."
"Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. The LORD loveth the gates of Zion. The Redeemer shall come to Zion."
"Right on."
"Thus saith the LORD, I am returned unto Zion."
"Yes, man," I said. "I understand you." - Signs and Wonders by J.D. Daniels
Instead, I knelt to pray. But what to pray.
Despeneme en la sima y saque a luz lo escondido de su abismo, says the Knight of the Wood to Don Quixote: I threw myself into the chasm and brough tto light what lay hidden there in darkness.
I said: Our father, who art in heaven. - Signs and Wonders by J.D. Daniels
All I saw was sky, and the storm filled the sky. It began to hail whomping big rocks. I saw a double rainbow touching on both ends while lightning struck unceasingly all round it. - Signs and Wonders by J.D. Daniels
I didn't realize that I was living in the temporary stillness between "you're fine" and "you're not." - The Foxes of Prince Edward Island by Matthew Ferrence
I used to tell people that I loved Russia, because I do. I think everybody has a country not their own that they're powerfully drawn to; Russia is mine. I can't explain the attraction, only observe its symptoms going back to childhood, such as listening over and over to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, narrated by Peter Ustinov, when I was six, or standing in the front yard at night as my father pointed out Sputnik crossing the sky. Now I've traveled enough in Russia that my affections are more complicated. I know that almost no conclusion I ever draw about it is likely to be right. The way to think about Russia is without thinking about it. I just try to love it and yield to it and go with it, while also paying vigilant attention - if that makes sense. - What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution? by Ian Frazier
She smiled at us, her blueish-gray eyes vivid, but neither warm nor cold In them I got a glimpse of the character one needs in order to live through such a time, and for one hundred years. - What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution? by Ian Frazier
When I asked what the Russian for "speed bump" is, I was told it's lezhashchii politseiskii, which means "lying-down policeman." When a noise thumped in an apartment we were visitingm, our hosts explained to me that it was the domovoi, the resident spirit of the apartment. Every house of apartment has a domovoi. - What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution? by Ian Frazier
I'm lonely enough as it is, without feeling additional isolation. I keep it from myself, and I follow the blazes north. I tell the trees the truth of it: some days I feel like breathing. - We Go It Alone by Rahawa Haile
Little has changed since. Now the rocks gnaw at my shins. I thud against the ground, my tongue coated in dirty. I pick myself back up and start again. - We Go It Alone by Rahawa Haile
How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us. But we have to ask with an open heart, with no idea of what the answer will be. - Some Kind of Calling by Pam Houston
"She died too soon," Orpheus sang to Hades, strumming his lyre all those miles underground, his words echoing through the fleshless spirit world, the legions of the dead. "We had so little time together." - Let the Devil Sing by Allegra Hyde
meowpompom's review against another edition
3.0
“Bad weather always looks worse through the window.”
late_stranger's review against another edition
3.0
A Little Free Library read. I enjoyed having this - it's nice to read magazine articles in book form. Not every one was a hit, for sure, and the definition of travel writing was massively broad, but overall, it was great before-bed reading, and I would pick up others in the series if I saw them hanging around, but probably wouldn't seek them out (at least, not very often).
pearseanderson's review
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
A wonderful anthology as always, though after I bought this used I heard some awful things about series editor Jason Wilson that will alter how I view this series for a long time. Great stories here from shitting yourself in Poland to discussing historic racism in Flint to watching your childhood friend pass down coconuts from Filipino trees. I read this in under a week, mostly on the train from Syracuse to Chicago that was frustratingly delayed. Glad I could experience travel through this book!
rbkegley's review
4.0
Excellent, entertaining collection of travel essays, including topics like a lottery-restricted visit to an Alaskan bear preserve, a not-so-idyllic vacation in France, and an expat's return to a remote farm in the Philippines. The writing is always top-notch, representing a wide collection of voices and experiences. If you enjoy travel writing at all, you'll like this book.
sumdigi's review
2.0
Usually I love these collections. Way too many inner landscapes and not enough actual 'travel' writing.
Nathan Heller's piece on Estonia was super interesting & Rabih Allmendine just knows how to write!
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