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National Book Critics Circle

30 Books

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March 11, 2020

The Buried by Peter Hessler: 2019 Nonfiction finalist

By Kerri Arsenault

The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution by Peter Hessler (Penguin Press) Peter Hessler excavates political and cultural landscapes in Egypt in the mid- to waning days of the

No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder (Bloomsbury)

March 11, 2020

Year 2019: No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder: 2019 Nonfiction finalist

By Hope Wabuke

It starts with a woman who has been killed—along with her children—by her husband. There is the inability of some of her surviving family to speak of it; the need,

Doomstead Days by Brian Teare (Nighboat Books)

March 10, 2020

Year 2019: Doomstead Days by Brian Teare: 2019 Poetry finalist

By Tess Taylor

“To praise this, blame that, / Leads one subtly away from the beginning, where / We must stay, in motion.” This quote from John Ashbery’s “Houseboat Days” anchors Teare’s latest

The Topeka School

March 9, 2020

Year 2019: The Topeka School by Ben Lerner: 2019 Fiction finalist

By David Varno

A number of novels have come out in recent years with a promise of having something to say about the American interior, whether through stories of opioid addiction, combat veterans,

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

March 9, 2020

Year 2019: A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell: 2019 Biography finalist

By Mary Ann Gwinn

Sonia Purnell’s A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II elevates the jacket copy phrase “gripping narrative” to a whole

Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light by Peter Schjeldahl (Abrams Press)

March 8, 2020

Year 2019: Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light by Peter Schjeldahl: 2019 Criticism finalist

By Kerri Arsenault

Peter Schjeldahl is not just a critic: he is a sensitive receptor and reporter, an art appreciator and viewer, an educator, and an artist himself who possesses the linguistic skills,

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman (W.W. Norton)

March 7, 2020

Year 2019: Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman: 2019 Autobiography finalist

By Mark Athitakis

In 2002, Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman landed a job with a successful composer who needed a violinist for his touring ensemble. It seemed like a dream gig: simple melodies, simple tempos,

Essays One by Lydia Davis (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

March 6, 2020

Year 2019: Essays One by Lydia Davis: 2019 Criticism finalist

By David Varno

Davis’s exciting debut collection of nonfiction, ranging from craft lectures to essays about writers and artists to notes on the translation process, is a great gift to readers, particularly those

Know My Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller (Viking)

March 5, 2020

Year 2019: Know My Name by Chanel Miller: 2019 Autobiography finalist

By Marion Winik

Back when Chanel Miller was known to the world only as Emily Doe, she wrote a stunning victim statement for the sentencing hearing of her rapist. “You don’t know me,”

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (Doubleday)

March 4, 2020

Year 2019: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe: 2019 Nonfiction finalist

By Walton Muyumba

Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland is a murder mystery political history. Keefe opens with a scene of two Northern Irish

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