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Rating: 
Summary: NOT ONLY FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES
Review: Editor Dave Eggers explains that this inaugural edition of THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING 2002 is targeted for 15 to 25-year-olds. However, I can testify that individuals outside this predetermined age bracket can also gain enjoyment from this book. The wide variety of stories ranging from fiction to nonfiction satisfied me and kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed a great majority of the stories and only disliked two (which is rather remarkable considering that short story compilations seem to contain an equal share of winners and losers, in my own opinion.)The journalistic entries were phenomenal and shed light on current events such as methamphetamine addiction in Asia, undocumented Mexican laborers in NYC, and Afghanistan soldiers fighting their civil war. Some of the comical pieces made me laugh out laugh such as "The Fourth Angry Mouse" and "My Fake Job" and The Onion entries were also notable (I'm already a fan of that publication.) Sure, there were some stories intended for a 15 to 25-year-old audience but I could still relate even though it's been a decade since graduating high school. Who can forget what it's like during those delicate years? Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and will be looking forward to the 2003 edition.
Rating:
Summary: He got it on
Review: I enjoyed most of the work in this compilation. I sort of wonder what the heck it was compiled for, but I I'm glad it was, since I would never have come across any of this stuff otherwise. Favorites include Rodney Rotham's hilarious "My Fake Job" and "The Nice New Radicals" by Seth Mnookin, a piece which I might argue SHOULD be required for some people. Eric Schlosser's "Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good" was fascinating, but I seem to be the only person on the planet who hasn't already read his work. Many pieces discuss certain cultural struggles: good pieces, but why so many? One piece is "graphic" in both meanings of the word. I am glad it is included, if only to act as a precedent for other compilations. The only notably awful work is "Hubcap Diamondstar Halo" which is as difficult as its title. And even though most of the pieces were engaging, few of them have remained with me. Maybe you should get this book if you like magazines, but not enough to actually subscribe to them. Maybe you should get it if you have a short attention span, like me. Or maybe you shouldn't get it. Don't worry, it's not required.
Rating:
Summary: This book had me with the COBRA recruit's journal.
Review: I tend to shy away from compilations, but this one, with its quirky cover art and selections from several of my favorite authors, got my attention, kept me interested and kept me laughing all the way through it. "Bomb Scare," the comic book included inside alongside essays on McDonald's fries, the Onion article on Marilyn Manson, showed me that this was worthy of purchase. It's up there with the work of Daniel Clowes. But the true gem, to me, was the COBRA-centered journal. Immediately, the book brought me back to the days of playing with my GI Joes and reminded me that, even then when I was 11, I wondered how on earth you could fund your own private army to do battle with a United States elite force. In addition, the journal explains why members of COBRA Command never knew how to shoot a gun and why they all wore masks. It was excellent. Thanks, Dave Eggers. And go Joe!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but much worse than the '03 edition
Review: If you're trying to decide between this book and the '03 edition, get the '03. This one's good, but contains far too many magazine articles and not enough fiction. The stories it does feature are mostly very short and pack nowhere near the punch of the '03 selections.
Rating:
Summary: Eclectic and Powerful Collection
Review: Some highlights of this collection are: Higher Education, the profile of Reese Perry, an African American high school basketball coach who shows up in an all-white midwest small town and, through his altruistic love, transforms them from prejudiced tribalists to open-minded cosmopolitans, a heart-breaking essay. Bomb Scare, a graphic or comic book style story of a high school where all the kids and their parents lack a moral compass and surrender to nihilism, the inability to transcend their self-centeredness. Why McDonald's French Fries Taste So Good, an excerpt from Fast Food Nation, which explains how the food industry uses sinister science to secretly make us addicted to the chemicals the food companies put in our food. Stop That Girl, a short story about a ten-year-old girl whose mother marries a rich man and ends up in a False Eden where playing house leaves her feeling abandoned and unloved. My Fake Job, an essay in which Rodney Rothman simply walks into a tech office and feigns being an employee, an act of charlatinism that isn't questioned by anyone at the office, casting light on how these fly-by-night business operations are so disjointed and full of isolated employees who suffer so much transience and alienation as the employers don't commit to them in the slightest. Toil and Temptation, an essay about a Mexican immigrant who slowly gets caught up in consumerism and becomes more of a slave in America than he ever was in Mexico.
Rating:
Summary: A great compilation
Review: The Best American NonRequired reading is a compilation of short stories drawn from a variety of magazines and small presses such as The Onion, Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker. The topics range from humor (such as Rodney Rothman's "My fake Job" where he pretends to be an employee of an internet company and manages to blend in by using an empty desk and having his friends make fake business calls to his phone) to serious journalism (such as Michael Finkel's "Naji's Taliban Phase" the story of a Taliban soldier's defect to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan after 9/11). It even includes a graphic piece ("Bomb Scare" by Adrian Tomine). Over all it is a great book, all the stories are well written and interesting. It will have you cracking up at one moment and then gasping in disbelief in another.
Rating: 
Summary: Memories
Review: The problem with some of these collections is that many of us who read magazines have already read those articles that appear in these end of year collections. The piece about Marilyn Manson was also in the Jonathan Lethem music collection too. It's good that Eggers has included some stuff for McSweeneys.net, comic books, and other non-mainstream sources. Those are usually the better ones anyway. I like Marc Bolan too.
Rating:
Summary: some really good stories
Review: There are a few really good stories in this book. The COBRA journal is awesome.
Rating:
Summary: a great collection, check it out!
Review: This was a fascinating collection. Most of the "Best American" collections are straight forward. You have a good idea of what you're going to get, and if you are widely read in those subjects (sports writing, science writing, short stories, etc), you may have come across most of those essays/stories. In this first collection of Non-required reading, you get the best stories and essays that would never be assigned in school and are from alternative magazines (rather than the large respected newspapers like the New York Times). The pieces collected very from short fiction, to political essays, to a graphic story (as in a story told in comic panels), to humor. It is a varied collection and most of the work is top-notch (I was less impressed with "Hubcap Diamondstar Halo"). Some highlights are "Speed Demons", "Journal of a new COBRA recruit" (yes, COBRA as in from G.I. Joe....this may be my favorite of the collection), "My Fake Job", "Fourth Angry Mouse", "Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good", the two short pieces from the Onion, "Higher Education", and "Bomb Scare" (Bomb Scare is the graphic story). Just browsing through the table of contents, I was able to list 9 pieces that I would highlight and recommend. If there was nothing else in the collection, that would be enough to recommend it. But, there are other quality pieces in this collection. If you want to read short pieces (both fiction and nonfiction) that you might not ordinarily run across every day, this is the collection for you.
Rating:
Summary: a great collection, check it out!
Review: This was a fascinating collection. Most of the "Best American" collections are straight forward. You have a good idea of what you're going to get, and if you are widely read in those subjects (sports writing, science writing, short stories, etc), you may have come across most of those essays/stories. In this first collection of Non-required reading, you get the best stories and essays that would never be assigned in school and are from alternative magazines (rather than the large respected newspapers like the New York Times). The pieces collected very from short fiction, to political essays, to a graphic story (as in a story told in comic panels), to humor. It is a varied collection and most of the work is top-notch (I was less impressed with "Hubcap Diamondstar Halo"). Some highlights are "Speed Demons", "Journal of a new COBRA recruit" (yes, COBRA as in from G.I. Joe....this may be my favorite of the collection), "My Fake Job", "Fourth Angry Mouse", "Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good", the two short pieces from the Onion, "Higher Education", and "Bomb Scare" (Bomb Scare is the graphic story). Just browsing through the table of contents, I was able to list 9 pieces that I would highlight and recommend. If there was nothing else in the collection, that would be enough to recommend it. But, there are other quality pieces in this collection. If you want to read short pieces (both fiction and nonfiction) that you might not ordinarily run across every day, this is the collection for you.
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