Notable: 2011's best

Notable

Besties

Can't get enough of those "year's best" compilations? Here are three collections, all published by Mariner Books, well worth reading any year.

The Best American Essays 2011, edited by Edwidge Danticat and Robert Atwan, includes essays by Zadie Smith on the Facebook generation, Charlie LeDuff on the decline of Detroit and Christopher Hitchens on being diagnosed with cancer.

The Best American Short Stories 2011, edited by Geraldine Brooks and Heidi Pitlor, features fiction by Jennifer Egan, Nathan Englander, Sam Lipsyte, Joyce Carol Oates, George Saunders and more.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011, edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger, includes Sandra Steingraber on fracking, Ian Frazier on Asian carp, Jonathan Franzen on eating songbirds and Atul Gawande on end-of-life decisions.

Colette Bancroft, Times book editor