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Pug
The Movie Geek
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Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Posts: 8924
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 Posted: 12/18/03 - 13:02 Post subject: Book Review: The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003
This is the second collection of the Best American Nonrequired Reading series. Like the first volume, this is a collection of a wide variety of writing, both fiction and nonfiction alike. Also, like the first volume, there are a few excellent pieces in this collection with the rest being good, but not quite as good. A couple of the standout pieces are Mark Bowden’s “Tales of the Tyrant”, Daniel Voll’s “Riot Baby”, and Ryan Boidinot’s “The Littlest Hitler”. The Tyrant in question in Bowden’s piece is Saddam Hussein, and this is a very interesting look at the dictator. Daniel Voll’s article is about a boy who was born during the L.A. Riots a decade ago. “The Littlest Hitler” is an excellent short story.
Other pieces that I would highlight are: “Things We Knew When the House Caught Fire”, “The Guide to Being a Groupie”, “Love, and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape”, “I’ll Try Anything With a Detached Air of Superiority”, “Rooster at the Hitchin’ Post”, and “Lost Boys”. These are not the only pieces that I enjoyed, and as a whole, I would say that this collection was better than the first. There were fewer weaker pieces, and the Nonrequired Reading collection is one to look for every year.
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