Best American Essays 2008
I found the selection in The Best American Essays 2008, Adam Gopnik, ed., to be quite different from recent volumes that I've read. The 2006 and 2007 editions were almost half about death/dying/grief, and it did get to be a bit much. This edition seems to favor informational essays about all kinds of things, and avoided the death and dying, though it does have an Atul Gawande essay on the current demographics of aging.
My slight disappointment with this edition is that the essays seem to have been favored for what they were about, rather than how well they were written. Don't get me wrong, the standard is still quite high. But the writing didn't pop off the page very often; the content and subject matter ruled.
"Cricket Fighting" by Hugh Raffles had to be my favorite entry. It detailed the world of Shanghai cricket fighting, with its rituals, secrets, and traditions. I intend to use this essay as a model for my "Worldbuilding" classes.
Anthony Lane's "Candid Camera" discussed the uniqueness of the Leica camera, which is another thing I knew nothing at all about. I don't move in the circles of photographers who can afford them, so the many debates over the pros and cons of the main camera makes had never touched on this make. Quite interesting, especially the detail that the shutter sounded like a kiss - the quietest shutter in the business.
Sam Shaw has a nice piece on the craze for long-distance pedestrianism, racing style, of the 1800s; and Louis Menand discussed the origins of well-known, but not well sourced, quotations.
CBsIP: 2666, Roberto Bolano
Literary Values, John Burroughs
Murder Duet, A Musical Case, Batya Gur