A review by princess_starr
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014 by Daniel Handler
3.0
I actually do enjoy reading the Best American selections whenever we get the sets in at work every year, and especially from the Nonrequired anthology. (I am so excited that there’s going to be a Best American Horror anthology next year, fronted by Joe freaking Hill.)
The thing is though, I haven’t really sat down and read one of these all the way through. I usually just end up flipping through the books at work and reading the selections that I like. And to be fair, I really only bought this because of the Welcome to Night Vale selection. (I’m very easy to please. That and it was two bucks on Amazon for the ebook.) And I do like some of the selections that appeared in the book, but there’s also lot in here that I felt like I was slogging to get through to read. And the thing is there’s not many stories in here that stick with me afterwards. They’re not bad, but I came away from a lot of them thinking, “Oh. Okay.” (Or every three or four stories, “Yes, we get it. White person talking about the POC experience. Moving on.” Seriously, there’s like four stories about this, including one about refugees trying to get to Australia that I was just frowning at the whole time. More egregious seeing as this ends with a piece by Zadie Smith, which is one of the better ones in here.)
I’m thinking I’m just going to keep with my typical “Browse through at work” and see what I like from there. Again, I don’t think this was a bad purchase, but I’m also not thinking I’m going to go out and get a physical copy anytime soon.
The thing is though, I haven’t really sat down and read one of these all the way through. I usually just end up flipping through the books at work and reading the selections that I like. And to be fair, I really only bought this because of the Welcome to Night Vale selection. (I’m very easy to please. That and it was two bucks on Amazon for the ebook.) And I do like some of the selections that appeared in the book, but there’s also lot in here that I felt like I was slogging to get through to read. And the thing is there’s not many stories in here that stick with me afterwards. They’re not bad, but I came away from a lot of them thinking, “Oh. Okay.” (Or every three or four stories, “Yes, we get it. White person talking about the POC experience. Moving on.” Seriously, there’s like four stories about this, including one about refugees trying to get to Australia that I was just frowning at the whole time. More egregious seeing as this ends with a piece by Zadie Smith, which is one of the better ones in here.)
I’m thinking I’m just going to keep with my typical “Browse through at work” and see what I like from there. Again, I don’t think this was a bad purchase, but I’m also not thinking I’m going to go out and get a physical copy anytime soon.