Country: 173.231.1.81, Europe, GB

City: -3 Liverpool, United Kingdom

This game has some really drastic pros and cons, but I gave it 4 stars because, in the end, I do enjoy it! Figuring it out is not easy, and in a lot of cases, I had to go online and look up 'how to' videos. For me, it was almost as if I had been left a farm and showed up on the property to start taking care of my new farm and equipment that I knew nothing or very little about. AND I've owned farming land in real life with an 8N tractor and other equipment!

This is our favorite salsa, thick and chunky with just enough spice to liven everything up. We use it on most MExican fare and even on steaks, chops, etc. Great as a dip too.

I have been reading this collection since Heidi Pitlor took over as series editor (this is her fifth edition). When I heard that Geraldine Brooks was editing this year's collection, I was a bit nervous and uncomfortable, considering how I had never even heard of her before until that moment, even though she had won the Pulitzer Prize. I also felt that, coming off Richard Russo's superb collection last year, this would be a disappointing one. And while this collection has some flaws, it is still and excellent read and a worthy addition to the Best American canon. The biggest problem I have with this collection is its inability or lack of desire to publish more innovative fiction, such as flash fiction or more unconventional fiction. Almost all stories are at least 10 pages long and come from major magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Granta, or Tin House, and while those are superb magazines, why can there never be any stories from magazines such as Barrelhouse, Bomb, Electric Literature, or Ninth Letter, all in their own right tremendous magazines but may not publish "mainstream" literary fiction, preferring something edgy and unusual. The most unconventional story here would probably be Saunders' "Escape from Spiderhead", and that's really only because it's sci-fi where the others are all realist. While I enjoy any good story, I get tired of reading about characters living in NYC or Paris or Chicago, working at a museum or as a musician or a poet, falling out of love with their intensely written partner with some oblique deeper meaning. I also grew tired of reading stories from The New Yorker, which I think the editors publish because of their big name rather than their content sometimes. I understand The New Yorker publishes weekly rather than monthly or quarterly, and therefore has more stories than others, but can we at least get some variety? No Missouri Review, Kenyon Review, Southern Review, Ploughshares, Paris Review, Ecotone, Zoetrope, Hudson Review, American Short Fiction, and New England Review? All of those magazines publish stunning works, and none of them are included in this year's edition.