In Area Code 602 » american

The Best American Essays 2010 (The Best American Series (R))

JimmyB — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 05:45:02 +0000


The provocative and best-sellingÂ author Christopher HitchensÂ takes the helm of the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this perennial favorite that is Â�reliable and yet still surprisingÂ�the best of the bestâ�� (Kirkus Reviews).

The Best American Essays of the Century (The Best American Series)

JimmyB — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:18:49 +0000

The title The Best American Essays of the Century seems transparent enough, but don't be deceived. What Joyce Carol Oates has assembled is not so much a diverse collection as a sonorous march through what keeps getting called the American century. Read this not as a collection to dip into but as a history--a history of race in America. Oates says it best herself in her introduction: "It can't be an accident that essays in this volume by men and women of ethnic minority backgrounds are outstanding; to paraphrase Melville, to write a 'mighty' work of prose you must have a 'mighty' theme." The mighty pens at work here belong to, among others, Zora Neale Hurston ("How It Feels to Be Colored Me"), Langston Hughes ("Bop"), and James Baldwin ("Notes of a Native Son"). Oates has opted not for the most unexpected but for the most important and stirring essays of our time. Other chords sound repeatedly as well: the problem of our relationship with nature (Annie Dillard, John Muir, and Gretel Ehrlich); the difficulty of identity in disrupted times (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joan Didion, and Michael Herr). In her essay "The White Album," Didion famously declares: "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." The stories Oates has collected are not easy. Here is the hard-won truth, from writers unwilling to forgive even themselves. Even Martin Luther King Jr. doesn't let himself off the hook, as he writes in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail": "If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me." --Claire Dederer

The Best American Short Stories 2010 (The Best American Series (R))

JimmyB — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:48:45 +0000

Edited by theÂ award-winning, best-selling author Richard Russo, this yearâ��s collection boasts a satisfying Â�chorus ofÂ twenty stories that are by turns playful, ironic, somber, and meditativeâ�� (Wall Street Journal).Â With the masterful Russo picking the best of the best,Â Americaâ��s oldest and best-selling story anthology is sure toÂ be of Â�enduring qualityâ�� (Chicago Tribune) this year.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 (The Best American Series (R))

JimmyB — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:34:06 +0000


AnÂ eclectic volume introduced by David Sedaris and compiled by Dave Eggers and students of his San Francisco writing center, who donâ��t leave a stone unturned in their search for nonrequired gems.Â Cover art by art by Maurice Sendak.

The Best American Short Stories 2011 (Best American R)

JimmyB — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:22:25 +0000


Edited by the award-winning, best-selling author Geraldine Brooks, this yearâ��s collection will be another â��sure bet for gripping, emotional, challenging readingâ�� (San Diego Union-Tribune). With Brooks picking the best of the best, Americaâ��s oldest and bestselling story anthology is sure to satisfy this year.

The Best American Essays 2011 (Best American Series)

JimmyB — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:19:47 +0000


Edited by the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Edwidge Danticat, author of Brother, I Am Dying, this classic collection of essays showcases the year's best.

The Best American Poetry 2011: Series Editor David Lehman

JimmyB — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:13:45 +0000


Â The latest installment of the yearly anthology of contemporary American poetry that has achieved brand-name status in the literary world.

We The People Stimulus Package

MrAuthor — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:48:29 +0000

Bob Basso author of “Common Sense” plays the role of Thomas Paine to ignite the fire of change in America. Patriotism and Pride for America lead Thomas Paine to help take back America!

HBO Documentary Films: By The People: The Election of Barack Obama “Fired Up” Clip

MrAuthor — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:32:31 +0000

Check out the deleted scene from HBO’s new documentary “By The People: The Election of Barack Obama.” For more information, log onto HBO.com.