A compilation of some of the best of the Los Angeles Review of Books' first six months. Authors includeBarbara Ehrenreich, Michael Tolkin, Mark McGurl, and Jane Smiley.Matthew Specktor — Mr. SublimationA review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom.Sven Birkerts — The Room and the ElephantOn the culture of intellectual debate online.Michael Tolkin — One Inch Above the GroundA review of Louis Auchincloss' A Voice from Old New York.Barbara Ehrenreich — Man Is Not Cat FoodOn the morality — and lack thereof — of humans and animals.Mark McGurl — The MFA Octopus: Four Questions About Creative WritingA response to Elif Batuman's review of The Program Era in the London Review of Books.Jane Smiley — The Other Nancy MitfordOn a great neglected modern novelist.Chris Kraus — PosthumousOn a new biography of Simone Weil.Ben Lerner — Where The Action WasOn Abstract Expressionist New York, as seen from Kansas and California.