The nonprofit National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) decided to break from the pack this year and create its own list of recommended reads -- based not on what the cash registers are saying or what this or that blogger is saying, but on a critical mass of reviewers, critics and award-winning novelists, historians and poets.
A studied list of 2007 favorites
December 7, 2007 at 6:05PM
The NBCC recently polled its 800 members and the former finalists and winners of its annual book prize, asking them which of the 2007 books they had read and loved most. Nearly 500 voters responded -- everyone from John Updike to Robert Hass, Carolyn Forche, Anne Tyler and Cynthia Ozick. Starting in 2008, the NBCC plans to post a monthly list on its website at www.bookcritics.org. For now, here are the current favorites:
FICTION 1. JUNOT DIAZ, "THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO" (RIVERHEAD). 2. DENIS JOHNSON, "TREE OF SMOKE" (FSG). 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 Weis- man, "The World Without Us" (St. Martin's). 3. Noami Klein, "The Shock Doctrine" (Metro-politan). 4. David Michaelis, "Schulz and Peanuts" (HarperCollins). 5. Tim Weiner, "Legacy of Ashes" (Doubleday).
POETRY 1. (three-way tie) Robert Hass, "Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005" (Ecco); Zbigniew Herbert, "Collected Poems: 1956-1998" (Ecco); Robert Pinsky, "Gulf Music" (Farrar Straus & Giroux). 4. Rae Armantrout, "Next Life" (Wesleyan). 5. Mary Jo Bang, "Elegy" (Graywolf).
SARAHT T. WILLIAMS
