The Best American Short Stories 2008

Number of Pages : 384 Publisher : Mariner Books List Price : $14.00 Amazon Price : $8.45 Used Price : $8.46

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Customer reviews

Not so good by .. Fuzzy Lizard (Georgia, USA)
There were only 2 or 3 stories in this whole book that I felt were really well done and not boring. The A.M. Homes story was one of them.
Not a very good "best" collection.

And Miroslav Penkov is not even American by .. B. Wood (Nova Scotia, Canada)
Last night I read the first paragraph of every short story in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2008 to determine if any first paragraph made me want to read the second paragraph. Only one did: "Buying Lenin" by Miroslav Penkov.

Mr. Penkov is from Bulgaria. I found the story exceptionally well written. It's a given that I'll be buying any publication that Mr. Penkov writes in the future. I am not a professional reviewer, but I know a great author when I read one. Entertaining as well was the biography in the back of the book on this new author.

Of course I'll probably read the others stories that were written by the likes of Jonathan Lethem and Alice Munro.

good variety of short stories by .. John E. Vidale (Seattle, WA USA)
Bought at the airport for a Denver-Seattle trip, I found these stories ranged from fair to excellent, with plenty of very good ones. These tend toward moderately serious, with definite purpose and action, and minimal preaching, and are 20-30 pages apiece.

What else should a short-story review report to avoid any more "not useful" feedback? I like short stories, and have not come across such a good collection in my lackadaisical eclectic sampling for quite a few years. Several, including the ones about the guy on the motorcycle, the swimming girls, and the puppy adoption, remain on my mind still.

The brief biographies and authors' comments about their stories was a welcome addendum.

Recommended by .. Bryan Byrd ()
I look forward to this series every year, so it was with high hopes that I opened up this year's editon and began to read. The format is the same as it has been for years, with Ms. Pitlor cherry picking stories and handing over a hundred or so vetted stories to the guest editor. I don't get too caught up in who the guest editor is in any given year - I think Ms. Pitlor does a good job in gathering a pool of quality stories, but this year I thought the overall effort was slightly below the average.

Four of the stories in the collection come from Harper's Magazine, and while I was glad to see the series move away from being so New Yorker oriented, I subscribe to Harper's, so those stories weren't new to me. To of them deserved rereading anyway - the masterful Alice Munro with "Child's Play", and Nicole Krauss, "From the Desk of Daniel Varsky."

Two of the three stories from the New Yorker were also quite well done - "Puppy", by George Saunders, and "Nawabdin Electrician" by Daniyal Mueenuddin. Others that I felt really rose above were "Buying Lenin" by Miroslav Penkov, "Man and Wife," by Katie Chase, and "Straightaway," by Mark Wisniewski.

Four of the stories in this collection would fall under what I would loosely consider 'Fabulist' stories, and those are not really my thing, although I still enjoyed "Man and Wife." Perhaps that is a trend, because I don't remember as much of that in years past.

One of the things I've always enjoyed about this series is that it collects stories I'm sure I'd never get to see otherwise, and that always makes it worth it to me. This year, I would just have to say that not all of it was as interesting to me as other years. I would still definetly recommend it to anyone who enjoys short stories.

Good Read, Not as Amazing as Previous Years by .. Cool Cat (Northern California)
I love this series, have been reading it for years. Definitely more stylistically trendy stories chosen for 2008, many by popular young writers.

The New York Times: The Complete Front Pages: 1851-2008

Author : CC The New York Times Edition : Har/Dvdr Number of Pages : 456 Publisher : Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers List Price : $60.00 Amazon Price : $37.80 Used Price : $90.00

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Customer reviews

The New York times book by .. quilter " B" (Roseburg, oregon)
I ordered this book for my husband for Christmas and was pleased it arrived in a timely manner.

I'm disappointed that the 1st part of the book can only be read by a magnifying glass, (though I understand that's the type the papers were using at the time )

My husband loves the book so mission accomplished.

Bonnie Hulska

wonderful book by .. Julia Jones ()
Hi, julia here
It was breath takeing got the book for christmas. from my husband.
love the size and info. and i love big books anyway. full of info.
it,s a must have!!!!!! love it love it love it... 1/6/2009.N.J. upperdeerfield.

Print to fine to read by .. Kathy Williams ()
The video that came with this book was ok. However, the book is in such fine print you are unable to make any words out. Not worth the $$$$.

Excellent collection by .. Joanne W. Ciccone (Charlottesville, VA United States)
We bought this awesome book for our son who immediately upon receiving it looked for the most important headlines in the last 50 years. A great book!

a good premise, but doesn't live up to expectations by .. William Wade Foster (Raleigh, N.C. USA)
I wanted to review day by day the great depression, and other historical events. Looking page by page was interesting, but not great. The pages are a little hard to read with ease both on the C/D's and in the book........and only being allowed to look at the first page printed per day was just a little incomplete as to details....yet, I did spend a pleasant afternoon with this product

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008

Edition : 1 Number of Pages : 400 Publisher : Houghton Mifflin List Price : $14.00 Amazon Price : $7.76 Used Price : $8.06

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Customer reviews

Sheer pleasure by .. David M. Giltinan (San Francisco)
Once again this series, always the star of the "Best American" anthologies, delivers the goods. Here is just a selection of the delights it offers this year:

A hilarious introduction by Judy Blume
Best American police blotter items from Kensington, California
Best American facebook groups
Best American NY Times headlines from 1907 ("Man pours molten lead into own ear - believed to have been reading Hamlet"; "President's quiet Sunday: He goes to church, Greets neighbors, Has shot only rabbits"; "Have you a fetich? Most of us have")
Best American: last sentences of books, Ron Paul facts, champion showdog names, Kurt Vonnegut writings, diary of a young girl, diary of the living dead.

Pieces by Marjorie Celona, J. Malcolm Garcia, Andrew Sean Greer, Helon Habila, Raffi Khatchadourian, Stephen King, Emily Raboteau, George Saunders, Jake Swearingen, Patrick Tobin, Laura van den Berg, Gene Weingarten, Laurie Weeks, and Malerie Willens

an excerpt from Paul Hornschemeier's graphic novel, "The Three Paradoxes"
an illustrated story by Rutu Modan: "Queen of the Scottish Fairies"

When I say that this anthology "delivers the goods", what I mean is - of the seven pieces I've read thus far, each has been fascinating, well-written, and not something I would otherwise have come across. (Other than one piece from each of The New Yorker, The new York Times, and The Washington Post, the selection is deliberately weighted to represent non-mainstream publications, such as The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Zoetrope).

J. Malcolm Garcia's "The White Train", about the cartoneros of Buenos Aires (people who, following the economic collapse of 2001, have been forced to make a living from recycling cardboard and paper) and George Saunder's portrait, "Bill Clinton, Public Citizen" (a fascinating account of the Clinton Foundation's work throughout the developing world) -- these two pieces alone are so good, they make it worth the price of admission.

What this series manages to do, reliably, is to track down material that may be a little off the beaten path, but that is compulsively readable, and that expands the reader's horizons in the most enjoyable way possible. Starting each piece is like biting into an exotically flavored Dove bar - unfamiliar at first, but totally delicious.

This anthology rocks!

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008 (The Best American Series)

Edition : 1 Number of Pages : 352 Publisher : Houghton Mifflin List Price : $14.00 Amazon Price : $7.86 Used Price : $7.66

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Customer reviews

A stellar collection by .. David M. Giltinan (San Francisco)
This anthology, edited by Jerome Groopman, is exactly what one would hope for - a wide-ranging collection of well-written, fascinating articles which will expand the reader's horizons and are fun to read. Groopman's anthology benefits from his having cast a very broad net, as well as from the depth of his intellectual curiosity. In his introduction, he outlines his criteria for inclusion:

"the articles ... have novel and surprising arguments, protagonists who articulate their themes in clear, cogent voices, and vivid cinema. They are not verbose or tangential. They are filled with simple declarative sentences. ... I suspect none of the articles was easy to write. Each shows a depth of thought and reporting that takes time and considerable effort."

These target criteria show that we are in good hands - the only remaining question is whether they are actually achieved for the pieces included in the anthology. The answer is a resounding yes - with very few exceptions (only Freeman Dyson's piece on biotechnology and Michael Specter's article on retroviruses seemed fuzzy to me) the writing is crisp and clear, and the subject material is interesting and thought-provoking. That is, in my estimation, Dr Groopman's batting average is 22 excellent pieces of 24 (and your view on the Dyson and Specter pieces may differ). Which far exceeds the norm for this kind of anthology.

Here is a partial list of the articles included:
Jon Cohen: "Zonkeys are pretty much my favorite animal"
John Colapinto: "The Interpreter" (the linguistic anomaly represented by the Piraha language)
Robin Marantz Henig: "Our silver-coated future" (safety assessment of nanotechnology)
Michael Finkel: "Malaria: Stopping a Global Killer"
Olivia Judson: "The Selfless Gene"
Todd Pitock: "Science and Islam in Conflict"
Ron Rosenbaum: "How to Trick an Online Scammer into Carving a Computer out of Wood"
Ian Parker: "Swingers" (mating habits of bonobos)
Jeffrey Toobin: "The CSI effect" (forensics: TV versus reality)

Other articles cover topics as diverse as dark matter, "spooky action at a distance", khipu knots of the Incas, the coming robot army, the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko by polonium-210, the Hendra virus, difficulties in the interpretation of epidemiological studies, wind energy, and the requisite Oliver Sacks case study (musicophilia).

This is an excellent, thought-provoking collection. I highly recommend it.

Great Fun! by .. Emily M. Terry (Brookline, MA)
I love this series and it gets better every year! Wonderful articles--all well-worth reading and very unique!

Fantastic Collection of Scientific Articles by .. The Spinozanator (Waco, Texas)
Not much hard science, but every essay is compelling reading - a good way to bring your scientific side up to date yearly. I have not missed one in the entire series and every year I end up thinking the new edition is the best ever. This year's editor, Jerome Groopman, made the final selections.

John Cohen - You won't find hybrids in American zoos where purebreds are the rule but in alternate sites it's a different story. Whether by the natural method, artificial insemination, or by techniques that allow scientists to manipulate DNA, more are turning up more every year - zorses, wholphins, tigons, beefaloes, lepjags, zonkeys, camas, bonanzees, and pizzly bears. Some of them breed and appear more fit than either parent. I won't even mention the humanzees.

John Colapinto - *among my favorites - The Piraha tribe of Brazil has a tonal and melodic language unrelated to any other. According to linguist Dan Everett, who has lived with them on and off for 25 years, the language also doesn't exhibit "recursion," a requirement of modern linguistic theory. Recursion is an "idea within an idea" - example: John's hat, which was red, one of several possible colors...and so on. Chomsky's dominant theory of linguistics says Everett just isn't looking hard enough but Chomsky's fellow linguists can't find the recursion either. The Piraha have no religion, live in the here and now, and are not the least bit interested in anything outside their culture.

Christopher Conselice - A thorough discussion of dark energy, the substance that makes up the bulk of the universe. Get ready for some major tweaking in your understanding of cosmology. This is one of the hard science articles.

Gareth Cook - Yes, the Incas did too know how to write. They just did it with bundles of knotted strings called khipu, but deciphering the language confounds computer and language specialists. We may need another Rosetta Stone.

C. Josh Donlan - Why not restore the Pleistocene with current wild animals from around the world - large animals similar to many that went extinct in the not-too-distant past. Let's bring the excitement of the African safari to the US in vast and securely fenced ecological history parks.

Freeman Dyson - *another of my favorites - As the 20th century was dominated by physics, the 21st will be dominated by biology. Future generations reared on biotech games and toys will not face resistance to the use of genetic manipulation. If followed down its most utopian path, biotechnology could make rural poverty disappear.

Steve Featherston - The military battleground of the future will be loaded with unmanned weapons of all shapes, sizes, and capabilities. "Within our lifetime, robots will give us the ability to wage war without committing ourselves to the human cost."

Michael Finkel - *another of my favorites, about malaria. It is written in prose reminiscent of great literature: "It begins with a bite, a painless bite. The mosquito comes in the night, alights on an exposed patch of flesh, and assumes the hunched, head-lowered posture of a sprinter in the starting blocks. Then she plunges her stiletto mouthparts into the skin..."

James Geary - The assassination of Alexander Litvenenko, apparently by the successor agency to the Russian KGB, with a tiny lethal dose of polonium. "The former Soviet Union has always been one of the world's premier think tanks for exotic assassination methods."

Robin Marantz Henig - Nanotechnology is coming with wild promises for the future. For example, "a new power grid based on carbon nanotubes, which can carry up to a thousand times as much electricity as copper wiring without throwing off heat, and solar energy farms that use thin, cheap, flexible nano-engineered solar panels." A nanometer is defined as a billionth of a meter. At those sizes, things act differently. Federal agencies wrangle with whose responsibility it is to deal with an essentially unregulated industry. None have obvious jurisdiction over nanomaterials.

Edward Hoagland - Hands down, this essay about the human nightmare in Africa is the saddest one in the book. Much of the continent is endemic in poverty, genocide, and disease; despite the quietly heroic efforts of the author and others like him.

Olivia Judson - A fascinating and fairly comprehensive study of how altruism evolved. Almost as an afterthought, the author mentions Williams syndrome. These individuals are born missing a small segment of chromosome #7, a segment that makes about 20 proteins the brain uses. People with this syndrome "are typically terrible with numbers but good with words...and they are incautiously friendly and nice - and unafraid of strangers."

Walter Kirn - Why multitasking can't be a good thing. This article strikes at the heart of stimulus overload.

Andrew Lawler - There is a growing view among scholars that the early Christian community was very diverse during the first two centuries, before the consolidation brought about by Constantine. Biblical archeology buffs will like this essay.

Jon Mooallem - Gravity is a more mysterious force than you can imagine. Newton called it "so great an absurdity." Einstein coined the phrase "spookey action at a distance" for quantum entanglement, but it could just as easily have applied to gravity. This is a jewel for theoretical physics fans and is another hard science offering.

Ian Parker - *another favorite - When conflict threatens a hippy-like commune of bonobos, the females go into seduction mode. Soon the orgy begins and the range of sexual behaviors mirrors anything you can imagine humans doing - or is that just what happens when bonobos are studied in captivity? This author shows that bonobos are extremely difficult to study in the wild. They move on immediately when their space is breached and their home-turf is so dense with vegetation, you can't observe them with binoculars. He has evidence they can behave just as ferociously as chimps.

Todd Pittock - "A common device of Islamic science is to cite certain examples of how the Koran anticipated modern science intuiting hard facts without modern equipment or technology." Legitimate scientists in many Islamic countries have to keep a low profile when their science contradicts the Koran.

David Quammen - Many sporadic epidemics kill a few hundred people and then just disappear but the viruses are not really gone. They are hiding in a reservoir host that frequently turns out to be a bat.

Ron Rosenbaum - *another favorite - How a whole industry of volunteers are conning the con artists - tricking Nigerian internet scammers to, for example, buy expensive plane tickets to show up at a non-existent bank to collect their money. The more elaborate the counter-scam, the more prestige is earned on an "anti-scammer trophy-room" website.

Oliver Sacks - *another favorite - Tony Cicoria was struck by lightning. He changed into a more spiritual person - and with an unexplained new obsession for classical music. At the age of 42 he became an accomplished pianist. Salimah M. had a benign brain tumor removed. Afterwards, her demeanor changed from reserved and self-absorbed to warm and popular - keenly sympathetic and interested in the lives and feelings of her co-workers. Sacks feels that "even the most exalted states of mind - the most extraordinary transformations - must have some physical basis or at least some physiological correlate in neural activity." This reminds me of Williams syndrome, mentioned in the article by Olivia Judson.

Michael Specter - Humans have descended not only from earlier primates, but also from viruses. Our genome is littered with fragments of retroviruses. Careful DNA study provides thousands of examples of genetic fossils that leave undeniable evidence of evolution.

Jeffrey Toobin - "Fictional criminalists speak with a certainty that their real-life counterparts do not." The forensic job in real life is a lot messier with the only gold standard being DNA.

Andreas Von Bubnoff - Statisticians and epidemiologists don't like each other. The former say the latter play too fast and loose with the data. The latter say their methods are valid. What we end up seeing in the news is contradictory information about, for example, whether coffee causes or prevents colon cancer.

Florence Williams - *another favorite of mine - The Danish island of Samso, population 4200, entered a contest proposing how they would achieve energy independence. After they won, they took the grant money and created a remarkable display of solar, wind, and biotechnology. They are energy independent and sell their excess back to the energy grid in Denmark. Samso is the most carbon-negative settlement of its size on earth.

Curl up a chair and treat yourself to this fantastic collection. I picked and chose what I wanted to read first. My only disappointment is that the book wasn't longer.

The Best American Comics 2008 (The Best American Series)

Edition : 1 Number of Pages : 416 Publisher : Houghton Mifflin List Price : $22.00 Amazon Price : $12.97 Used Price : $9.08

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Customer reviews

As Lovely As Its Editor by .. Quinton K. Peeples ()
This collection, edited by Lynda Barry, is a must have this year, (or any year). It provides an overview of recent work by known and unknown artists in the sequential art (cartooning for the rest of us) field. On display is a rare level of heart-felt emotion. This is an outgrowth of Ms. Barry's own strengths; she can see and translate real life in the form of little drawings in boxes. A rare art indeed. All of this years work has an immediacy often lost in more esoteric indy collections. A must-have.

More than two dozen different creators' works, but they've all been selected so well by .. Bookreporter.com (New York, New York)
Perhaps it takes a little hubris to call a collection THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2008, but it's hard to argue with a grouping this good. Sure, you can quibble here and there, but as a whole, this is about as good as the art form gets, showing the remarkable highs comics can --- and regularly do --- reach. And as a bonus, it's a wonderful entry for someone who is unfamiliar with comics but who wants to know more or read something in the format.

The stories are brief and varied and run the spectrum of themes and moods. Series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden (creators of the excellent DRAWING WORDS AND WRITING PICTURES) teamed up this year with editor Lynda Barry (the artist behind the wildly inventive WHAT IT IS), and their combined viewpoint yields a unique collection of some truly thought-provoking work here. Both DRAWING WORDS AND WRITING PICTURES and WHAT IT IS mined a similar territory --- the forces of creativity, what makes the visionary mind bring forth clearly defined work, and how to turn thoughts into comic art --- that informs the choices they've made in THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2008. It's not surprising, then, that most of the choices here are from single writers/artists rather than writer-artist teams, which shows how powerful the creative combination can be.

They've also passed over standard superhero fare (although a note at the beginning explains they would have liked to include an excerpt from BATMAN: YEAR 100 but couldn't, due to licensing issues). Instead, they offer up work from a varying swath of comics luminaries, some well known and long-established in the industry (Matt Groening, Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware) and others less known but equally provocative (Gene Luen Yang's stunning AMERICAN BORN CHINESE is excerpted here; if you haven't fallen in love with this work yet, now's your chance).

Some comics benefit more than others from this presentation. Alison Bechdel's long-running comic series Dykes to Watch Out For is one of the best examples of how brilliant, funny and poignant comics can be, and while it's wonderful to see it getting recognition here, the five one-page strips collected seem out of place and out of context. As a whole, though, most of the samples in the book come as sweet surprises, something new coming out of the blue (Kevin Pyle's THE FORBIDDEN ZONE is a wonderfully pleasant surprise that pops out toward the end).

Barry and series editors Abel and Madden deserve credit for the fine pacing they've given THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2008. The mood flows naturally and smoothly from one work to the next, which is not an easy feat given the variety of works they've chosen to work with. It's a major pitfall of most anthology collections --- the juxtaposition of voices can be a jarring reminder of how non-cohesive the books can be --- but the editors here sagely avoid it. When you finish, you're aware that you've read more than two dozen different creators' works, but they've all been selected so well that the lingering effect is the seamlessness of the artful quality contained within.

--- Reviewed by John Hogan

Third Time's a Charm by .. Ryan Bonneville (Arlington, VA)
This was definitely the best in the series so far. Lynda Barry turns out to have been a really inspired choice for guest editor, because she picks a set of entries that are virtually all outstanding. She even illustrates her introduction, which is both a nice touch and a clever way of pulling together a lot of the ideas about anxieties and self-reflection that pervade the pieces she's cosen to include. All in all, this volume is a tour-de-force. I only hope BAC 2009 is half as good.

My favorite pieces:

"Burden" by Graham Annable. A young man trying nobly to tie up his brother's loose ends turns into something completely different at the end. The reveal reverberates through the entire story and really does pose a difficult - and interesting - moral question.

"Seven Sacks" by Eleanor Davis. This story about a boatman ferrying some unsavory characters also poses a good, tough moral question and forces some self-reflection. But, more importantly, it's absolutely gorgeous. Davis calls up an increasingly wicked-looking set of creatures that just absolutely pour atmosphere into her little fable. And, is it just me, or does she pay homage to both Jeff Smith and Neil Gaiman in the process?

"Mammalogy" by Eric Haven has terrific art and makes for a hilarious romp through time, space, imagination, television, the superhero genre, and gastronomy. The best part may be the blurb in the back of the book detailing Haven's inspiration for the story.

"Turtle, Keep it Steady!" by Joseph Lambert. A very clever retelling of the Tortoise and the Hare with absolutely outstanding art. The grooving animals send the music right off the page, and the hilarious metaphor about the speed at which the Hare lives his life is very well-chosen. As is the whale in the last panel. I have no idea why that whale cracks me up so much, but it really does.

"Cupid's Day Off" by Evan Larson is really pretty trifling, but his art and his imagination had me laughing uproariously throughout the whole thing. Who knew that an alien fornicating with a football could be so funny? I guess probably everyone, but still...

"George Sprott" by Seth. A really fascinating and postmodern journey through the life of a washed-up Arctic explorer cum TV man. The art is lovely, the layouts are very well done, and the emotional impact hits all the right notes.

Now, there are lots more things I liked too. Alison Bechdel is here, and so is Chris Ware. And Gene Luen Yang's "American Born Chinese". And lots more. They're all good (although I don't understand Jaime Hernandez and probably never will) and they're well worth your money. This is just a great anthology.

Antholgies are a great way to get more bang for your comix buck... by .. Elizabeth Simone Gallatin-Eberly (California City, CA USA)
...This comic anthology certainly gives up more entertainment than the meagre cover price would indicate. I've always liked Lynda Barry, so I was doubly grateful to see what exceptional pieces she included for my perusal, as well as being completely blown away by her incredible intro. My gosh that lady can...er...comictate...comiculate(?)...I dunno, whatever it is, she can do it and I enjoy the heck outa' it!

Anyhoo', I really enjoyed the works included in this quite hefty tome, and the balance between tried and true, familiar (at least to me!) and brand new, and unknown was really quite refreshing and welcome. Kudos should be given to layout as well, since the stories flowed smoothly, and at the end of the book I felt well satisfied with the read, and hopeful for the next edition.

The "Best American" series has always been a good "go-to" resource, especially if one is looking to expand "favorite authors/artists" list, and this edition is no exception. Once you've gotten from the front cover to the back, then I would recommend you check out The Best American Comics 2007 (The Best American Series (TM)), as well asThe Best American Comics 2006 (Best American), and if you enjoyed Ms. Barry's intro as much as I did, you really should also take a look at What It Is, which is an absolutely incredible "book" (I think the term "work of art" is more correct here) about...about what, really...? Writing? Illustrating? Creating? I guess I'd say all that and more, but you'll have to decide for youreself, and either way, you get a brief look in this edition's intro. All in all, this is a wonderful collection of works, and a great introduction to the world of sequential art, for those among us who are yet uninitiated. Come on in, the water's fine!

Second Year of Improvement for Best American Comics by .. E. David Swan (South Euclid, Ohio USA)
The competition between Best American Comics and the Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories now moves into its second year. I can't compare the two for 2008 just yet because so far I've only read the Best American version but I'm pleased to announce so far it's a good year. For the second straight year since its debut in 2006 the quality of BAC has improved, hopefully the portent of a bright future for alternative comics.

This volume features the triumphant return of `Kaz' whom I haven't seen in a compellation since the legendary McSweeney's Issue 13. Kaz is one of the very few alternative cartoonists who made enough of an impact on me that I went out and bought more of his works. Only Kaz can make me laugh out loud and then feel I need to take a hot shower for laughing. His disturbing, generally disgusting humor is definitely not for everyone but I'm personally thrilled to see him included again.

Arguably the biggest name in alternative comics, Matt Groening, makes a surprising appearance showing he's still on top of his game. We also get the inevitable appearances by Seth and Chris Ware who always put in great performances. Seth's story is a near carbon copy of his book `Wimbledon Green' which I gave a generous four out of five stars to while Mr. Ware's entry is very typical of his work with a bleak, depressing tone contrasting against his bright, technically precise visuals.

This is when I like to give a shout out to stories I particularly enjoyed. Graham Annable illustrates the dark tale of a man who literally carries the burden of his brother on his back while he tries to right his brother's wrongs. In `The Thing About Madeline', Lillie Carre tells a tale of a woman who finds herself on the outside of her life looking in. Jamie Hernandez writes a nice retro story in `Gold Diggers of 1969' emulating the look of a 1960's comic albeit with a modern theme. One of my favorites was the surreal `Percy Gloom' by Cathy Malkasian. This is one that was interesting enough that I might consider looking into picking up more of Ms. Malkasians works. The Forbidden Zone by Kevin Pyle was a short but interesting retro comic.

There was nothing in this compilation that really leaped out at me. The quality remains steady throughout but never knocks it out of the park. If I was to describe this collection in one word it would be `Solid'. Last year I felt that the Anthology of Graphic Fiction put together a better collection although it may be an unfair comparison since Best American Comics limits itself to a single year. I'll have to see how they stack up this year.