This is a fun, eclectic collection of writings -- from transcripts to comics to tweets to typical (in form, moreso than content)essays and short stories. The pieces were often timely -- referencing events in the news or national consciousness (Occupy Wall Street, for example), so a an interesting exercise in perspective. Under Eggers tutelage, these pieces are chosen by high school/a few college students with the only guideline being to read with a vengeance, to share indiscriminently and to vote truthfully. Elegiac introduction written by Ray Bradbury only months before his death on the importance of books. Transcendent and touching. ( )

Ray Bradbury's introduction, "The Book and the Butterfly," is what makes this collection. It's a delight. The front section is weirdly varied and fun as usual, and Jon Ronson's "The Amazing Adventures of Phoenix Jones" is suitably bonkers. ( )

A compilation of fiction and non-fiction pieces from 2011, selected by Dave Eggers and a team of high school students.

This is the second of these collections I've read; the previous one was the 2011 edition. As with that one, I think the miscellaneous section at the front is by far the weakest part of the book. It did give me a bit of an interesting jolt, though, as several of the pieces there were about the Occupy Wall Street movement, and, reading them, I realized with surprise and more than a little guilt that I had somehow forgotten all about those events in the last couple of years.

Anyway, once into the main section of the book, the quality skyrockets. I haven't done a direct comparison, so I may be wrong, but I think this volume has a much higher fiction-to-non-fiction ratio than the previous year. And some utterly fantastic fiction it is, too. There were maybe one or two pieces that, while well-written, were not really to my taste, but the overall quality was extremely high, and the best of it -- which is to say, at least half of it -- knocked the socks off me. What non-fiction there was was also very good. Even Jon Ronson's piece on real-life superheroes, which I'd already read elsewhere, was well worth revisiting.

If you're looking for the best of what's been published over the course of a given year, these anthologies seem just about perfect. I'll definitely make a point of going back and reading at least some of the ones I've missed. ( )

Good collection. Interesting stories on real life superheroes, immigrant stories, and funniest tweets. ( )

A mix of short stories, essays, magazine articles, and online resources, the 2012 edition also includes meeting minutes from various Occupy movements across the country. All of the material is chosen by a committee of high school students in San Francisco and Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am so very impressed by the depth and breadth of their selections, and the maturity of their reading choices in general. Amazing!!!! My only gripe, and it is a small one, is that there is no differentiation between the fiction and nonfiction, and one is left to determine for oneself what is made up or memoir... ( )