Read this now

This is one anthology that is really worth its name. Each year, the American Society of Magazine Editors gives out awards and The 2016 Best American Magazine Writing, edited by Sid Holt (Columbia University Press, $18.95), has the winners in one convenient place, a real gift for readers who don’t have time to sort through hundreds of magazines and longform websites. This year’s winners include Shane Smith’s great interview with President Barack Obama for Vice, in which they discussed reforms needed in the American prison system, and Kathryn Schulz’s amazing piece on the West Coast and the really big earthquake that’s bound to come, written for The New Yorker. The publications include Cosmopolitan and Buzzfeed, with Esquire and ESPN Magazine thrown in for good measure. If you can’t read ’em all—and you can’t—read this instead.