nbcc good reads winter list
The National Book Critics Circle (an organization I recently joined) has just posted the Winter Edition of their Good Reads recommended reading list (voted on by the membership) to Critical Mass, the org's blog.
LAST FALL, the NBCC introduced a Best Recommended List. Sure, there are plenty of lists out there, but it seemed few took advantage of the enormous (sometimes overwhelming) connectivity provided by the internet. We wanted to know: what are smart readers not just buying, but reading and recommending to their friends, roommates, coworkers and anyone they can collar?
So the list was born. We polled our 800 members, and all the former finalists and winners of our book prize, asking: What 2007 books have you read that you have truly loved? Nearly 500 voters -- from John Updike to Cynthia Ozick -- answered the call with recommendations. Over 300 of our member critics voted as well. Tallying all of their votes, we got the first Best Recommended List.
Here it is a few months later, and many degrees cooler, and our winter list is upon us. Even more voters responded this time around -- from Annie Proulx to Jonathan Franzen -- and even more NBCC member critics than before: almost 600 voters in all this time. (For the rules go here.)
We were never crazy about that original title, so we've retitled the list -- and it's now called the NBCC's Good Reads. We are also sponsoring events in 15 cities over the next month to discuss the list, from Sacramento to Cleveland. Want more titles? You can check out the long lists in each category -- fiction, nonfiction, and poetry -- to see what else got multiple votes.
The results:
Fiction
I didn't get the chance to vote, but I definitely recommend The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; I'm about two-thirds through it at the moment, and it's amazingly awesome. Full of heartbreaking prose and footnotes about Trujillo and geeky sf references, all narrated with the confident Dominican voice of a natural storyteller. I'm learning a lot about Dominican culture and gender roles, I can tell you that.
I've also heard good things about Diary of a Bad Year, Zeroville, Brother, I’m Dying, In Defense of Food, and The Shock Doctrine, so I'd say this list is an excellent place to start.
LAST FALL, the NBCC introduced a Best Recommended List. Sure, there are plenty of lists out there, but it seemed few took advantage of the enormous (sometimes overwhelming) connectivity provided by the internet. We wanted to know: what are smart readers not just buying, but reading and recommending to their friends, roommates, coworkers and anyone they can collar?
So the list was born. We polled our 800 members, and all the former finalists and winners of our book prize, asking: What 2007 books have you read that you have truly loved? Nearly 500 voters -- from John Updike to Cynthia Ozick -- answered the call with recommendations. Over 300 of our member critics voted as well. Tallying all of their votes, we got the first Best Recommended List.
Here it is a few months later, and many degrees cooler, and our winter list is upon us. Even more voters responded this time around -- from Annie Proulx to Jonathan Franzen -- and even more NBCC member critics than before: almost 600 voters in all this time. (For the rules go here.)
We were never crazy about that original title, so we've retitled the list -- and it's now called the NBCC's Good Reads. We are also sponsoring events in 15 cities over the next month to discuss the list, from Sacramento to Cleveland. Want more titles? You can check out the long lists in each category -- fiction, nonfiction, and poetry -- to see what else got multiple votes.
The results:
Fiction
- Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke (Farrar Straus & Giroux)
- Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead)
- J.M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year (Viking)
- Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book (Viking)
- Steve Erickson, Zeroville (Europa)
- Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise (FSG)
- Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying (Knopf)
- Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food (Penguin Press)
- Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia (Knopf)*
- Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine (Metropolitan)*
- Mary Jo Bang, Elegy (Graywolf)
- Robert Hass, Time and Materials (Ecco)*
- Robert Pinsky, Gulf Music (FSG)*
- Zbigniew Herbert, The Collected Poems, 1956-1998 (Ecco)
- Toby Barlow, Sharp Teeth (Harper)
I didn't get the chance to vote, but I definitely recommend The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; I'm about two-thirds through it at the moment, and it's amazingly awesome. Full of heartbreaking prose and footnotes about Trujillo and geeky sf references, all narrated with the confident Dominican voice of a natural storyteller. I'm learning a lot about Dominican culture and gender roles, I can tell you that.
I've also heard good things about Diary of a Bad Year, Zeroville, Brother, I’m Dying, In Defense of Food, and The Shock Doctrine, so I'd say this list is an excellent place to start.