The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010(2010)

David SedarisDave Eggers

An eclectic volume introduced by David Sedaris and compiled by Dave Eggers and students of his San Francisco writing center, who don’t leave a stone unturned in their search for nonrequired gems. 

Cover art by art by Maurice Sendak.

Introduction / David Sedaris --
War dances / Sherman Alexie --
Like I was Jesus / Rachel Aviv --
Burying Jeremy Green / Nora Bonner --
The carnival / Lilli Carré --
Capital gains / Rana Dasgupta --
The encirclement / Tamas Dobozy --
Man of steel / Bryan Furuness --
Half beat / Elizabeth Gonzalez --
Gentlemen, start your engines / Andrew Sean Greer --
The photographer / Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemercier --
What, of this goldfish, would you wish? / Etgar Keret --
Fed to the streets / Courtney Moreno --
The tiger's wife / Téa Obreht --
Breakdown / T. Ott --
Ideas / Patricio Pron --
Vanish / Evan Ratliff --
Seven months, ten days in captivity / David Rohde --
Tent City, U.S.A. / George Saunders --
The nice little people / Kurt Vonnegut --
Freedom / Amy Waldman