Buying this book could pose a dilemma for people who love reading short fiction. On one hand, it's the first anthology in 30 years from a magazine that's famous for publishing short stories. On the other hand, the book is burdened with a potentially crippling theme, and its ultra-WASPy parent magazine is also famous for books of maddeningly droll and unfunny single-panel cartoons about lawyers, doctors, socialites and cats. As it turns out, the fiction-lovers win. There are 38 stories here, chosen from New Yorker pieces since 1964, and each one is a beautifully crafted example of short-story writing. Of course, the book is heavy on New York staples like private schools, upper-middle-class characters, baby boomers, John O'Hara, Laurie Colwin and John Updike, but not overwhelmingly so. And, of course, there are standard love-story cliches, like first kisses and slow dances, but not everyone here is happy, straight, white and rich. The full spectrum of love and lovers is covered—joyful, miserable, unrequited, May/September, adulterous, married, gay, in romantic Paris and in nearby Plovis, so it can't be criticized as excluding anyone or anything. The only thing left to criticize, if you can, is the subject matter. After 30 years, why love stories? The answer is unknowable, of course, and ultimately unimportant. Considering how many bad love stories are published each year, one truly excellent example seems only fair.