McSweeney’s Quarterly, Issue Number 39 (San Francisco: McSweeney’s, 2011)

This blog is for the books I read and I don’t normally use the space to write about periodicals, but McSweeneys has produced some monumental issues recently. This hard-bound book has 15 significant essays and articles. There are works of fiction and non-fiction, including “Politics and Conscience” by Vaclav Havel and a concluding fiction piece on bullfighting by J.T.K. Belle. All in all there are 279 pages of excellent reading in the volume.

Even the letters in McSweeney’s Quarterly are masterful pieces of fiction and delightful to read. Following the writings of Dave Eggers led me to McSweeney’s and they are rapidly becoming one of my favorite publishing houses. I think I read six or eight books published by them pin the past year and anticipate reading even more in the year to come.