Books like The Best American Essays 2009

Addendum to original review, explaining why I have downgraded this to two stars - (italicized material below): My second criticism is probably more a reflection of my personal taste, and may not be shared by other readers. But I felt that Mary Oliver's background as a poet shone through, with the result that many of the pieces had a kind of "writerly" quality that might appeal to other writers, but was a bit precious for a general reader like me. This was particularly true of pieces like Chris Arthur's "(En)trance", Patricia Hampl's "The Dark Art of Description", Brian Doyle's "The Greatest nature Essay Ever", Cynthia Ozick's "Ghost writers", John Updike's "The Writer in Winter", any of which might be of interest to someone attending a writer's workshop, but none of which seemed to me to hold much interest for a general reader. And, of course, it didn't help my evaluation that one of the longest pieces in the collection is by Richard Rodriguez, a writer whose self-indulgent posturing and whining gets on my last nerve. In a slim collection that doesn't even exceed 200 pages, the 21 pages devoted to his contribution "the God of the Desert" could surely have been put to better use. Not to end on too sour a note, honorable mention is surely due to; Sue Allison's "Taking a Reading" Jill Mc Corkle's "Cuss Time" David James Duncan's soaring "Cherish this Ecstasy" and Kathryn Miles's wonderful "Dog is our Copilot" But these amount to no more than 25 pages of 190, or - if you prefer - 4 essays out of 22. a disappointing batting average. original review starts below:Definitely an improvement over last year's woeful selection (courtesy of pretentious assmarmot Adam Gopnik), this year's pretty slim collection still doesn't manage to rise above 3 stars. truth be told, it's a solid 2.5 star effort, but I'm willing to round up solely on the basis of Jill McCorkle's delightful "Cuss Time".What to say? Well, this year's editor is a poet, so that shines through in many of the essays. A lot of writerly writing, if that floats your boat (personally I found many of the pieces more than a little precious). My other criticism, which seems to be a recurring one for this particular collection, is that you, the reader, may not find the navel-gazing of many of the contributors nearly as interesting as they evidently find it. But if *the travails of Michael Lewis living in a mansion beyond his means, *a ten-page account of Garret Lewis's ongoing fight with deer in his backyard, *10 pages about the personal health and fainting history of someone called James Marcus, (each of the above delivered in prose that is at best adequate, and with no apparent irony)is the kind of thing that fascinates you, you may well enjoy this particular selection. Personally, I am beginning to think that this particular volume in the "Best American" series is about ready to be put on the chopping block.Back down to two stars - the dross really outweighs the few decent contributions yet again.