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The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007
Edited by Dave Eggers, with an introduction by Sufjan Stevens
Houghton Mifflin, 353 pages, $14 paper
Stew, bouillabaisse, patchwork quilt. Although those trite descriptions may fit this volume, there is nothing worn or weary about this collection. It’s a dizzying array of short pieces from blogs, small magazines and books, with amusing lists of new dictionary words (“riffage”) and six-word autobiographies: “My ancestors were accented cow herders.” High school students made up editor Dave Eggers’ editorial committee, and there’s a freshness and originality to this collection — start with Conan O’Brien’s Stuyvesant High School commencement speech.
