Business writing evokes images of stock reports and other dry-as-dust fare, but this best-of compilation proves the business desk is no longer the newsroom's backwater. Series editor Leckey and guest editor Sloan have focused this third edition in the series around the fiscal year's big scandals. Highlights include Nicholas Stein's chronicle of the rise and fall of Chiquita Banana in Fortune, James B. Stewart's well-rendered tale of Sotheby's antitrust woes for the New Yorker
and three selections covering various angles of the Enron scandal. As Sloan notes in his introduction, "Main Street has increasingly tied its fate to Wall Street—if our retirement portfolios don't do well, many of us who had counted on a caviar retirement are going to get cat food instead." The savvy editors leaven the bad news with some humor, though. "My Pro Forma Life" by Rob Walker for Slate
pokes fun at the slippery language companies use to slide bad numbers past investors. There are some intriguing general interest stories with business tangents, too: Malcolm Gladwell on the shrinking disposable diaper, Wayne Curtis on Newfoundland iceberg harvesters and Neil Irwin on the effects of technology on the economics of the Slinky. For perspective, the editors have included a piece about currency trading in Pakistan by the late Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl, to whom this edition is dedicated. Taken together, the stories make for an ample snapshot of the face of the nation this past fiscal year. Better, most of these writers transcend the business-writing genre, offering just plain good writing. (Jan. 14)
