Today the NBCC announced their finalists.
Fiction:
- Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Someone, by Alice McDermott
- The Infatuations, by Javier Marías (my review here)
- A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki
- The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
Nonfiction:
- Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt that Brought Him to Justice, by Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy
- Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, by Sherri Fink
- Thank You for Your Service, by David Finkel
- The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, by George Packer
- Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, by Lawrence Wright
Poetry:
- Metaphysical Dog, by Frank Bidart
- Stay, Illusion, by Lucie Brock-Broido
- Blowout, by Denise Duhamel
- Elegy Owed, by Bob Hicok
- Milk and Filth, by Carmen Gimenez Smith
Autobiography:
- Wave, by Sonali Deraniyagala
- The Book of My Lives, by Aleksandar Hemon
- The Faraway Nearby, by Rebecca Solnit
- Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward
- Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti, by Amy Wilentz
Biography:
- Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East, by Scott Anderson
- Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World, by Leo Damrosch
- Bach: Music in the Castles of Heaven, by John Eliot Gardiner
- Holding on Upside Down: The Life and Works of Marianne Moore, by Linda Leavell
- Birth Certificate: The Story of Danilo Kis, by Mark Thompson
Criticism:
- White Girls, by Hilton Als
- Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations, by Mary Beard
- The Kraus Project: Essays by Karl Kraus, translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen with Paul Reiter and Daniel Kehlmann
- Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers, by Janet Malcolm
- Distant Reading, by Franco Moretti
-The Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award went to 84-year-old Rolando Hinojosa-Smith.
-The John Leonard Prize went to A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra. This prize was set up this year to “recognize outstanding first books in any genre.”
-The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing went to Katherine A. Powers. Finalists were Ruth Franklin, James Marcus, Roxana Robinson, and Alexandra Schwartz.
A few random thoughts:
- I began Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch last week. I’m not far, but she is proving to be an exceptional writer. I’m excited to keep going here, but don’t expect a review too soon — the book is over 700 pages long!
- I have also read most of Aleksandar Hemon’s The Book of My Lives, and I can confidently recommend it.
- I think the John Leonard Prize is interesting and it’s always nice to recognize debut works, but I also think it’s a bit weird the book was awarded there and is not a finalist in the fiction category. Do we really need a new award that recognizes debuts that didn’t become finalists in their own right?
- I love to read Katherine A. Powers’ frequent reviews at the B&N Review. You can find an index of them here.
- I cannot wait to get my hands on Mary Beard’s Confronting the Classics. I know nothing about this book, but Mary Beard is Mary Beard and it’s just going to be worth reading.
Anthony Marra (note spelling).
Thanks Andrea. I’m sure my posts, especially these with a large list of authors and titles, are replete with spelling errors, so I appreciate the chance to correct them.
The only one I’ve read so far is ‘The Infatuations’ and I’m delighted to see it on the list. He seems to go deep into some of the big themes of life – love, truth, mortality, grief.
I have The Goldfinch and hope to get to it at some point soon. It’s great to hear that you’re enjoying it and I look forward to reading your review.