The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005

It's not often I delve into a short story collection. Why is it so many of them are depressing or just plain sad or pathetic? Woo-hoo! Fun! (Not.) So I might've skimmed about half of these. If there's too much of a main character being pathetic... or characters doing drugs... or the main character is named Pranab or Sanjeet... I'm going to skim. But if some of the stories are little wacky or exciting or funny then I'll give it a shot. This collection had about half in that scenario. Two were by George Saunders who I've always enjoyed. (I've read two collections of his short stories before. And without skimming.) One of these stories was really a recollection from Al Franken about entertaining troops in Iraq. That was both funny and interesting. Love him or hate him, his piece is good. And the story about people in a joke waiting around for the joke to actually be told was fun. Mm-hm. I guess I enjoy a short story if it's off the beaten path of sad people and their pathetic lives. Cheer up!