The 20th edition of this annual collection showcases significant issues that the compilers deem to have been overlooked by the mainstream media. Jensen castigates news agencies for cranking out the ``sensationalized, personalized, and homogenized inconsequential trivia which is served up to the public on a daily basis.'' In the rush to cover O.J. Simpson, Hugh Grant, Windows 95 and Shannon Faulkner, electronic and print media largely ignored the efforts of congressional Republicans to gut both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Election Commission, the rebirth of slavery in Sudan, how the deregulation of the telecommunications industry is producing near-monopolies and the danger posed by underground stores of radioactive waste in the former Soviet Union.

In this warmly personal history, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Edith Wharton writes about how the popular image of Florence was created, developed and preserved over the centuries. Lewis juxtaposes personal anecdotes with literary descriptions and does a neat job of tracing the turbulent history of Renaissance Florence. Lewis brings the historic palazzi and piazze alive with centuries-old gossip about famous and infamous inhabitants. It's a delightful introduction to one of the centers of Western civilization.

A mischievous humor enlivens these tales of mismatched lovers and disillusioned children in Manhattan. In The Dark Piano, a mother calls her disgruntled son using ``two inflections, like opposite halves of a broken cookie.'' Life Under Optimum Conditions and Nondestructive Testing depict young professional men and women whose attempts to be sexy inadvertently alienate their partners; the hero of Tearing at Grapes catalogs the catastrophes in his life, from catching his girlfriend with another man on his birthday to breaking his nose for the third time in less than a year.

Charles Solomon reviewed these books for The Los Angeles Times.