Best American Essays, 2012, ed. David Brooks, 2012

The latest volume is one of the best with Brooks’ intelligence, wide-ranging interests and openness to new ways of looking at things evident.  Favorites include Marcia Angell’s essay on modern psychiatry and drugs, an ALS memoir by Dudley Clendenen, Jonathan Franzen’s piece on Robinson Crusoe’s Island and DFW’s suicide, Peter Hessler’s essay on a pharmacist in rural Colorado, Garrett Keizer’s essay on teaching in rural Vermont, Alan Lightman’s piece on cosmology, and Ken Murray’s essay on How Doctors Die.  Wonderful collection.