11. The Best American Short Stories 2011

By Geraldine Brooks(Editor), Heidi Pitlor (Series Editor)(386 pp, ebook)

I love these collections and almost always have one started in my ereader and drop into it every once in awhile. This is another great collection and I should have taken notes so I could highlight the stories I liked especially. I do remember I loved Elizabeth McCracken's story "Property" about a man who recently lost his wife. It hit that mixture of funny and sad that I love. George Saunders's "Escape from Spiderhead" is in this collection as well as Claire Keegan's "Foster" which are both terrific and worth tracking down and also completely different from each other. There's also a story, "A Bridge Under Water" by Tom Bissell who is a writer I discovered via a Best collection and really admire.