The National Book Critics Circle released the findings of its poll ranking the best books of the year. Here’s what the nation’s book critics think.
Fiction
1) Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead)
2) Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
3) Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (HarperCollins)
4) Philip Roth, Exit Ghost (Houghton Mifflin)
5) Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses (Graywolf)
Nonfiction
1) Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying (Knopf)
2) Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (St. Martin’s)
3) Noami Klein, The Shock Doctrine (Metropolitan)
4) David Michaelis, Schulz and the Peanuts (HarperCollins)
5) Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes (Doubleday)
Poetry
1) Robert Hass, Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005*
2) Zbigniew Herbert, Collected Poems: 1956-1998 (Ecco)*
3) Robert Pinsky, Gulf Music (Farrar Straus & Giroux)*
4) Rae Armantrout, Next Life (Wesleyan)
5) Mary Jo Bang, Elegy (Graywolf)
*there was a three-way tie for first in poetry.
Thanks to Scott McLemee at Quick Study …
2 Comments
Michael Chabon’s bad ass. The guy writes some of the best individual sentences. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union is clever, and like I said, the writing is really stellar, but it does drag a bit. The noir gets a tad boring.
I picked up a copy of The World Without Us but put it down only to not be able to find a copy later. Great premise: how the world would change if humans suddenly disappeared. I’ll see if I can find a copy.
Good titles.