By Mark Robinson

Cougar News Editor-in-Chief

A perk about working for the public relations department for a college with progressive-thinking students and faculty, is that I get to tell the world about their ideas, goals, accomplishments and everything in between.

It’s satisfying because I must, for self-preservation, assume that I am enlightening others to certain work that wouldn’t be known otherwise.

Over the past five years, I have been a fervent subscriber to The Best Nonrequired Reading, an annual publication collecting some of the best, innovative journalism and short fiction created within that calendar year. Around November or so, it is released along with a host of other collections (Best Sports Writing, Best Travel Writing, Best Short Stories, etc.) and I snatch it up at first opportunity.

I don’t know if the 2007 edition is the best since Dave Eggers, author and editor of McSweeneys, took on the burden to rife through the millions of pieces published in the country and determine what is best, or, oftentimes, most important. But it’s up there.

Here are the top five pieces included in the 2007 edition:

“The Big Suck: Notes from the Jarhead Underground” by David J. Morris

Arguably, the greatest thing I’ve read this year. A former Marine and current journalist goes to Iraq in spring 2004 to witness the fire fights, IED explosions and heartbreak at the center of the war.

“Selling the General” by Jennifer Egan

Short fiction about a former, shamed Hollywood publicist, who, burdened with money problems, takes on a gigantic PR assignment: reworking the image of a genocidal dictator.

“How to Tell Stories to Children” by Miranda July

July, a woman with many talents, pens a piece of fiction about a woman who is almost involuntarily, yet unintentionally, tossed into motherhood, raising the daughter of a friend due to a serious rift in the child’s parents’ marriage.

“What Is Your Dangerous Idea?” sponsored by the Edge Foundation

The Foundation presented a question to dozens of scholars from around the nation. They respond. A nice litmus test as to what our country’s academicians are thinking about. FYI, features psychologist David Buss and Helen Fisher, and author Michael Shermer, all three have or will speak at Collin College during the 2007-08 academic year.

“Rock the Junta” by Scott Carrier

Fiction, telling about the scene in Burma and the fight for democracy and the freedom of speech … through rock music.