The Best Spiritual Writing 2010 [Paperback]

Philip Zaleski (Editor), Pico Iyer (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 2010 | Series: Best Spiritual Writing

The renowned nonfiction annual makes its Penguin debut

For more than a decade, Philip Zaleski has collected into a single volume the best spiritual essays and poetry of the year. The Best Spiritual Writing 2010, featuring essays by John Updike and Diane Ackerman, poems from Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney and Pulitzer Prize-winner Louise Glück, and personal reflections by Richard Rodriguez and Leon Wieseltier, is sure to expand on the series' already wide recognition and reach the growing audience of readers searching for unsurpassed spiritual writing.

Contributors include:

Mary Jo Bang, Jane Hirshfield, Melissa Range, Rick Bass, Paula Huston, Pattiann Rogers, David Berlinski, Pico Iyer, Amanda Shaw, Joseph Bottum, Charles Johnson, Master Sheng Yen, Nicholas Carr, Jon D. Levenson, Floyd Skloot, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Philip Levine, Meir Soloveichik, Billy Collins, Wilfred M. McClay, Richard Wilbur, Chrisi Cox, Richard John Neuhaus, Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. It can be easy to dismiss the word best on the cover of anything these days. The term has been devalued, slapped on too many CD covers and kitchen appliances, erasing its former profound linguistic value. Zaleski's compilation of spiritual writings, however, restores best to its rightful exceptional place. The book's selections range from poetry and short fiction to memoir and essay, hailing from a variety of authorial and cultural sources. Just as literary form varies, Zaleski wisely recognizes, too, that spirituality can be defined almost infinitely, encompassing a vast range of belief and even nonbelief. Poems from the Atlantic or the New Yorker command attention in addition to longer treatises on The God of the Gaps and Buddhist enlightenment. John Updike sits next to Orthodox Judaism while the Dalai Lama spends the night in suburban New York. A Kazakh healer chats with Seamus Heaney, and secularization theory is next in line. It is a curious literary party at first glance, but the diverse forms, voices, topics gradually coalesce into something bigger and more elegant, something spiritual and extraordinary: the Best. (Jan. 26)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Among the highlights of the latest, reliably bracing volume in editor Zaleski’s not exactly annual series are Diane Ackerman’s comments about two Jews, a pediatrician and a Hasidic rabbi, who chose to stay in the Warsaw ghetto and, despite the horror surrounding them, maintain Judaic meditation and mysticism; Seamus Heaney’s brief but lovely paean to the birch tree; Jon D. Levenson on the idea of the chosen people; the late Richard John Neuhaus on secularization theory; and Leon Wieseltier on the ineffable beauty of church bells. Some essays are spiritual in the broadest sense of the word. Nicholas Carr wonders whether Google is making us stupid (“The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle”). Google’s founders, he reminds us, say their goal is to turn the search engine into an artificial intelligence surpassing the HAL computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey and, presumably, take a big chunk of our humanity from us in the process. Finally, the late John Updike is represented by a poignant essay on the writer in winter. In addition, quite a few poets’ work appears, including Mary Jo Bang’s translation of the first canto of Dante’s Inferno and poems by Billy Collins, Louise Glück, Jane Hirshfield, Philip Levine, Robert Pinsky, Melissa Range, Floyd Skloot, and Richard Wilbur. --June Sawyers

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143116762
• ISBN-13: 978-0143116769
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #946,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flex Our Spiritual Muscles in 2010 with Writers Who'll Strengthen Our Awareness, January 11, 2010

By 

David Crumm "Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine" (Canton, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best Spiritual Writing 2010 (Paperback)

Let's flex our spiritual muscles in 2010, expanding our awareness of the many religious perspectives around us. Even if our own path runs deep in a particular tradition, glimpsing different vantage points can help refine our own vision. And who can argue with a collection that includes pieces by Diane Ackerman, Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky and John Updyke--and comes with glowing recommendations from Thomas Lynch and Phyllis Tickle!?!

Remember that exercising our muscles involves some aches and pains and I can't imagine a single reader who won't want to pick a bone with at least a few of the writers in this collection. I know that, from my perspective, there are a couple of writers in this book who drive me crazy. Yet, here they are in this rich pot of stew simmering nicely for us as the new year dawns. And that's precisely what makes this such a hearty and, as Thomas Lynch puts it, "soul-bracing" collection.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthwhile read, January 16, 2011

By 

K. Polzin (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Best Spiritual Writing 2010 (Paperback)

I bought this book after reading The Best American Spiritual Writing 2007. While all the pieces in these collections are well written and interesting, the 2007 edition had seven essays that left a strong impression on me, and this collection had two. A worthwhile read overall. If you only have time for one collection, though, I'd recommend the 2007.