THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING

Not many pieces here are heartbreaking or staggering, but Eggers and series editor Michael Cart do a decent job compiling magazine and newspaper pieces ”for or of interest to readers fifteen to twenty-five.” While the ”nonrequired” label seems warranted for much of the fiction in this collection, humor pieces like The New Yorker’s ”My Fake Job,” which chronicles author Rodney Rothman’s stint posing as an employee at a dotcom, and The Onion’s hilarious ”Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-to-Door Trying to Shock People,” ought to be mandatory for all ages.