November 27, 2007
By John Freeman
The rules for voting in the Best Recommend List were pretty simple, but important nonetheless. (1) It felt important to limit the recommendations to 2007 and early 2008 titles (with
November 16, 2007
By David Ebershoff
Two years ago, on a clear autumn morning, I caught the Cape Air from Boston to Provincetown, soaring a thousand feet above the Atlantic in a cold wind. I
November 16, 2007
By John Freeman
WYATT MASON has been absorbing all the discussion about reviews and reviewing from the sidelines for some time now, and he steps up with some questions about the self-flagellation of
November 14, 2007
By Harold Augenbraum
We asked National Book Foundation executive director Harold Augenbraum (pictured left) to describe the home stretch for the National Book Awards, which culimate in a gala award ceremony at New
November 9, 2007
By NBCC
IN HIS 1997 MEMOIR, “Boyhood,”South African-born Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee recalled the desperate passion with which he devoured books as a child. “He knows that if he wants to be a great
October 26, 2007
By NBCC
AMERICAN ARTS AND LETTERS have been blessed with few great generalist critics over the years, and fewer still have written novels. The most obvious example — Edmund Wilson — wasn't
October 25, 2007
By NBCC
Twenty-four years ago John Updike won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism for “Hugging the Shore.” This week as “Due Considerations,” his sixth volume of assorted criticism, landed in stores, I caught
October 19, 2007
By Jay McInerney
The following review kicks off an NBCC partnership with Baristanet, a place blog run in New Jersey by former New York Times columnist Debbie Galant, the idea being to bring reviews
October 18, 2007
By NBCC
Eliot Fremont-Smith, book critic and co-founder of the National Book Critics Circle (pictured here in 1972, two years before the NBCC was founded), book critic for the New York Times
October 17, 2007
By NBCC
I think the only reason I've been reading Anne Enright these past fews years is the fact that I stopped to read a review James Wood wrote of her book, “What